iDof 2 Discontinued
As of today, iDof is temporarily unavailable commercially.
I say, "temporarily", but that is only partially true. iDof in it's current incarnation is being removed indefinitely. This is primarily because I recently tested it in LW 8.5, and it had errors. I re-ran it in 7.5, with none. While there's probably a simple parameter change in 8.5 that caused this, I don't have the time to find out what that change is.
This brings me to my other reason for pulling iDof's current version. I originally wrote iDof because I needed iDof. That was around 3 years ago, I think. Since then, I've stopped freelancing and begun working in studio jobs, including feature films. Every project that comes and goes shows me that Depth of Field should not happen in the 3D package; it should happen in the Compositing stage. Short of Fprime, it's just too slow. And even when it's fast enough rendering [with Fprime], it doesn't provide the control that the Comp does. When the director wants a change in the next 30 minutes, you don't always have time to re-render your 3D scene with changed Depth of Field, or add a rack-focus at the last minute.
That said, I'm re-writing iDof from scratch yet again. I'm sticking to Lscript, because that's what I know and have come to be proficient in. I will be focusing primarily on making a better Depth of Field output than LW's current depth buffer. I almost always find myself doing some kind of custom depth output with fog or surface gradients, and that has to go. So once again, I'm writing a plugin that I need, and assuming that I'm not alone in that.
For those die-hard folks that just don't want to composite and want to render it all in-camera, you can always use iDof Lite with Fprime and easily out-shine Lightwave's Depth of Field. Also, a cohort and myself are laying out potential options for using iDof 3.0 to blur in LW, without ever going to the Compositing stage. So don't give up on iDof altogether; it may still be a better option for you than Lightwave's Depth of Field, even if you don't get into the Compositing side of things.
Before I wrap up, I want to let you all know three important things.
I say, "temporarily", but that is only partially true. iDof in it's current incarnation is being removed indefinitely. This is primarily because I recently tested it in LW 8.5, and it had errors. I re-ran it in 7.5, with none. While there's probably a simple parameter change in 8.5 that caused this, I don't have the time to find out what that change is.
This brings me to my other reason for pulling iDof's current version. I originally wrote iDof because I needed iDof. That was around 3 years ago, I think. Since then, I've stopped freelancing and begun working in studio jobs, including feature films. Every project that comes and goes shows me that Depth of Field should not happen in the 3D package; it should happen in the Compositing stage. Short of Fprime, it's just too slow. And even when it's fast enough rendering [with Fprime], it doesn't provide the control that the Comp does. When the director wants a change in the next 30 minutes, you don't always have time to re-render your 3D scene with changed Depth of Field, or add a rack-focus at the last minute.
That said, I'm re-writing iDof from scratch yet again. I'm sticking to Lscript, because that's what I know and have come to be proficient in. I will be focusing primarily on making a better Depth of Field output than LW's current depth buffer. I almost always find myself doing some kind of custom depth output with fog or surface gradients, and that has to go. So once again, I'm writing a plugin that I need, and assuming that I'm not alone in that.
For those die-hard folks that just don't want to composite and want to render it all in-camera, you can always use iDof Lite with Fprime and easily out-shine Lightwave's Depth of Field. Also, a cohort and myself are laying out potential options for using iDof 3.0 to blur in LW, without ever going to the Compositing stage. So don't give up on iDof altogether; it may still be a better option for you than Lightwave's Depth of Field, even if you don't get into the Compositing side of things.
Before I wrap up, I want to let you all know three important things.
• A total re-write could take a while.
• iDof Lite is still available, and doesn't have the same errors of iDof 2.0 in LW8.5.
• When it's finished, iDof 3.0 will be a free update to existing users. Why, you ask? Because I'm just that nice of a guy.
Thanks to all the many supporters of iDof (financial and otherwise). I wouldn't be nearly so excited about iDof 3.0 if it weren't for you guys.
Cheers,
Jeremy Hardin
Friday, March 10, 2006