Parameters in this section allow you to analyze your footage to estimate relative distance from the camera, and apply the effect only to a specific range of pixels.
Original vs increasing levels of depth-based blurring
On its default settings, the Depth parameters don’t affect the output at all. Click the Analyze button to being anaylsis:
A progress window will give you a preview of the estimate being made by the AI model for each frame:
When complete, the output isn’t immediately affected by the analysis. Let’s take the Edge Work filter as an example:
The Edge Work effect, initially applied to the entire frame
This is because the initial Range covers all possible values:
If you adjust the far end of the range, you will notice the effect being applied only to pixels that are nearer to the camera:
The output will reflect your choice with a clear demarcation between pixels that are within the range, and those outside:
Edge Work, with distant pixels excluded
Adjust the Softness parameter to soften this boundary, which has two side effects: blurring the contour as well as including pixels that are close to the selected depth range:
In our example, increasing Softness allows pixels that were previously excluded for being too distant from the camera, to be included again:
Edge Work, with distant pixels dialed back by adjusting the Softness parameter
The Invert parameter allows you to quickly toggle the side effects of depth-based masking. If the Range initially controls what pixels are included in the effect, selecting Invert causes the range to exclude those same pixels instead.
Note that Depth parameters are applied last, after both Source and Mask parameters have already been use to compute the current mask. This allows you to combine all three features together to create a better mask for your effect.
