Using the New "Depth of Field" Setting in Autodesk Showcase 2014

“There is only you and your camera. The limitations in your photography are in yourself, for what we see is what we are.”
Ernst Haas

One of the challenges in using Autodesk Showcase is getting the rendering, and particular, the focus of the rendering stand out.

Its one of the reasons that many times, I don't like putting the subject of a rendering "in it's natural environment".  It looks like it belongs there, and it just disappears.

But on the other hands, there are definitely times that there's a benefit to putting a subject where it belongs, in a shop, in a lab, or on a street, for example, instead of in an "empty photo room".

One of the new tools added to Autodesk Showcase 2014 is the "Depth of Field" setting, which, like the F-Stop on a camera, controls how the scene is focus, and how objects "blur away" as they get further from the "lens" in the scene.

In the scene I'm using here, I've taken a picture of the Planes of Fame B-25 Mitchell, created a backdrop, and inserted two engines, which are models I downloaded from GrabCAD at the link here. 

I'm not using any depth of field settings.  I'm just using the backdrop "as is".

The two engines place in the scene with the B-25

Everything is in focus.  And while it might be easy to look at the engines in the foreground, it's also possible that the person viewing the image might not be immediately drawn to the engines

With the Depth of Field setting, the background can be blurred and the focus of the scene can quickly be places on the engine.  So how does depth of field work?

I start by going to View>Camera Properties.

Choosing Camera properties.

Once the Camera Properties come up, click "Show More Controls" under lens effects.  "Depth of Field" will appear there, check the box to enable it.

Choosing depth of field.

Now, I can select "Click on Object", and choose the engine closest to the foreground on my screen.  This tells  Showcase where I'm "aiming the camera".

Choosing the object of focus

Once this is done the sliders for Focal Distance and F-Stop can be used to change the focus of the scene, and bring one object into focus, and blurring the others to bring out the desired effect.

Changing the Depth of Field settings

Once the desired effect is achieved, select OK to accept the new result!

The completed result

So go ahead and give these settings a try.  Like so many settings in Showcase, there's not a right or wrong way, just what you like!

And for the steps in a video form, look below!