Guides Guide: Easy AutoFocus/Depth of Field for scenes

A couple awesome plugins exist for depth of field effects, but making them autofocus is another matter. This guide steps you through the simple process of adding that extra bit of realism.

Things You'll Need
1. PostMagic plugin by @MacGruber (or Post Processing by @moyashi)
2. Focus plugin by @PrettyFrank
3. (optional) Sensor plugin by @PrettyFrank

Steps (simplest method)
1. On an empty atom (or anywhere), add the PostMagic plugin.
2. Enable Depth of Field (one of the PostMagic subcomponents)
3. Add another empty atom.
4. Name this AutoFocusPoint.
5. Add the Focus plugin to this atom.
6. That's it!

Steps (most control)
1. On an empty atom (or anywhere), add the PostMagic plugin.
2. Enable Depth of Field (one of the PostMagic subcomponents)
3. Name this anything except AutoFocusPoint.
5. Add the Focus plugin to this atom (tweak if needed, but default settings are typically good).
6. Add the Sensor plugin to this atom.
7. Configure the Scale Max (in Sensor) to the max viewing range. Leave Scale Min at 0.1.
8. Add on OnChange trigger (in Sensor) to adjust the Focal Distance of PostMagic (or other DOF plugin). Set this from 0.1 (min) to the Scale Max value in step 7.
9. Add any other settings, like Aperture or Focal Length. Unlike Focal Distance, these don't need to match anything. Just set to taste at each close/far extreme.

VR Suggestion
Typically, you'll want a much more subtle DOF effect in VR. We'll still want to add some, but we'll want the equivalent of a shorter focal length in VR than in desktop. This allows desktop to have that cinematic, shallow depth of focus effect, while not giving us an unnaturally-blurred experience in VR (where our eyes themselves do most of the work).

Walkthrough Video


Special Thanks
The scene in the demo video is a lighting-modified version of @VamTimbo's excellent mocap scene found here: