ddankhazi

Well not entirely. After you used the Lenscare plug-in once you have to restart Affinity Photo to avoid crash.

By the way, the frischluft Lenscare Photoshop Plug-in works (8 bit/channel only) with Affinity Photo. :) Cheers, D

Although the workflow is not working with 32 bit images and it is a very important feature (for CG artists) to create a cool looking DOF effects (with the option to set the focus point dynamically) I bought Affinity Photo today. I want to support the company. Good luck for the further developments. Denes Dankhazi https://ddankhaziportfolio.wordpress.com/

Yes, that's almost the same thing (the only different he load the z-depth map form the layer's mask - which is an alpha channel - and not from a layer independent channel.) That's not the question. Do you realize, you did not not answered my question? How you do this in Affinity? Please consider me as a total starter in Affinity (which I am). Cheers, D

I never said that. I said "If you simply mask the lens blur filter". That's equivalent (as result) with: duplicating the image, blurring it, and put a mask on it. That is not how the DOF works. As you see in your image as well: there is the unblurred version and the blurred version in the same time, at the same area. It' looks like as I described it above. You also recognized it with this: "It seems that the transition between gray values is not being interpolated properly, in fact, I get a sort of diffuse result right where the transition from white to black takes place" I think that's not an interpolation problem. If you can load the z-depth map as data source (form Channels as an Alpha or from Layers as an image, it doesn't matter if you implementing correctly.) that's totally fine for me. Here is a proper multi-channel 32 bit/channel EXR render (Maya, Arnold): https://www.dropbox.com/s/5c07khi2lldwcx4/shader_ball_02_no_DOF.exr?dl=0 What you need is the RGB and the Z.RGB layer. You can delete the others. The Z.RGB is not white (you can verify that: put an exposure adjustment on it, exposure: -8.5). The goal is: use the Z.RGB layer as data in the Lens Blur Filter. The Photoshop way (list only from the horrible and necessary steps): - Out of the box Photoshop doesn't understand multi-channel EXR files. - You have to correct the z-deth map with an exposure filter, because PS usually don't recognize the true 32 bit data in the z-depth image. - You have to convert your 32 bit/channel image to 16 bit/channel if you want to use the Lens Blur Filter at all. - You have to copy the z-depth image into an alpha channel. After that: - Select your image layer - Choose the Lens Blur Filter - Select the alpha channel which contains the z-depth data (after you do all that steps - above) - Adjust the settings, apply. So it is super slow and dumb. I really want to have a better solution. Affinity Photo almost there: Multi-channel EXR: check All effect works in 32 bit: check Lens Blur Filter with z-depth map: When I first open (ever) Affinity Photo I create my compositing less time than in PS. Here is the result (in this case the DOF is rendered): https://www.dropbox.com/s/htnu89o5k2qcuez/shader_ball_01_affinity.jpg?dl=0 So the path is right. Keep up the good work. Cheers, D

Thanks. That's what I think. And that is the same result what verysame get. It's not "not as good" It's totally wrong. Cheers, D

So (deep breath...), the question remains: How do you use z-depth maps for lens blur (aka DOF effect) in Affinity Designer? Please, write down the steps! If you think you know, but you are wrong, that's also help - for you at least. Cheers, D

If you simply mask the lens blur filter that is not correct. You created a blurred layer (via the filter) and masked it. It is not the right way. In After Effects or Photoshop the built-in lens blur effect or the Firchluft version of it or any other DOF generator (NUKE, Fusion, etc.) effect works differently. Please, don't do that. Cheers, D

Hi There, I'm a CG Generalist. I am really happy how Affinity Photo handle HDR images (32 bit/channel, linear). Way better than how PS does. But the z-depth map is the most crucial part of the compositing workflow. For simple compositing tasks Affinity Photo looks almost perfect. Is there any way to use a z-depth map (grayscale 32 bit/channel) inside the Lens Blur filter? Cheers, D