I'm currently trying to explain the use of the Multiplane Camera to a student and I was asked a question about something that I confess I've never fully understood , so I'm hoping someone from TVPaint (or someone else who understands it) can provide an answer. I know how I use the multiplane camera tool in my own peculiar way of working, but it's difficult to explain it to someone who hasn't used it before and wonders: "what exactly do these settings mean ?" (and how can they find out ? )
What do the increments represent in the Z-space ? How would you describe it to someone just starting to learn to use the Multiplane Camera tool ? By default the Multiplane "Wizard" will assign each selected plane a position separated by increments of 100. The question someone may ask is: 100 what ? Do the numbers represent any equivalent distance in the real world like meters or feet ? If I place objects on planes that are separated by a distance of 100 between them (so , let's say one plane is at -100 and the other is at -200 , what does that distance mean ? )
use this tool can better understand how to position the distance of the planes relative to one another ?)
Usually I just arrange my planes by "eyeballing" what looks right to me in terms of the perceived distance between each plane. But if there was a more precise way of calculating how far apart I should place each plane that would be useful. I have developed as sort of intuition about how far apart I should place the planes , but I find that I can't really explain how I do it with any sort of logic when I'm describing it to someone who is trying to learn how to use the Multiplane Camera tool. In this example , I have five planes. The first one is positioned at -50 (from 0) , the next is at -195, the next is at -220 , then -500, finally -1000. Do these numbers have any "real world" equivalents that would convert to meters or feet ?
Also, in the Multiplane Camera, the setting for "Field of View' -- does that represent the same value that you would use in traditional photography when determining a camera lens' "field of view" ?
In the future I would love to see TVPaint's multiplane camera have settings that can be adjusted by seting the Lens length (in mm) and the f-stop/aperture setting, to get more predictable results with simulating Depth of Field, like the camera settings in After Effects. It makes a difference to the depth of field if I'm setting up a shot with a camera that has a 25mm lens vs. a 100 mm lens and the f-stop is f 2.8. vs. f 11 . I don't really understand the logic of TVPaint's "Depth of Field" setting because it has no reference to real world lens settings used for photography/cinematography, at least not as I understand it (which is not a lot).
AE camera has depth-of-field settings that are equivalent to lens length and aperture (f-stop) settings on real cameras. For anyone who even a small amount of knowledge about photography these numbers are useful for knowing how the perceived depth-of-field will be affected.