@randy I think this is the video we were just looking for on the Patreon Zoom:
Alfie Vaughn showcase
and follow up https://youtu.be/iBj_k7KcjD8?si=-j0tmQgZe-UpnULX
About the 3rd party lens kernels for realistic bokeh
I like that video because it demystifies what often feels like a blanket “nuke does it better” statement around defocus and PG Bokeh.
We almost have that in flame…
Another DoF plugion is comming to NUKE soon.
https://docs.magicdefocus.com/latest/
Looks amazing, NUKE’s DoF reproduction methods is really jealous.
1 Like
pgbokeh is the goat, its slow af but once you deal with DEEP data and stuff… its just so much better
However I am always a fan of just rendering with DOF … if you cant afford deep
5 Likes
This is the Dope
6 Likes
oh damn.
I need this in houdini 
damn
1 Like
Love that… giving me Lentil vibes
2 Likes
When you say “almost”, do you mean because physical defocus almost works but doesn’t actually work? Or is there something new that works and is almost ready for release?
“Almost” because we have the same tools but there may be specific use cases where Nuke does indeed do it better.
All of those nodes, barring on some level PG Bokeh, are in flame. Blur does both regular and lens blurs, so that’s covered, there’s a convolve filter in the sapphire set and in the default matchbox set, and 3d Blur behaves in a similar way to both PG Bokeh and the Nuke DoF node, with a kernel input and depth slicing system. Heck, the flame DoF node has a built in edge extend/pixel spread (but no kernel input.)
I probably said “almost” because we don’t have PG Bokeh specifically, but it was nice to see that it too eats shit on “uncertain edges” in a depth map. Haha.
2 Likes
Thought this might fit here, something I’m working on…
But that “swirly bokeh”, I’m gonna have to try to implement that too!
5 Likes
What’s that “swirly bokeh”? I missed it.
1 Like
It kinda looks like the bokeh kernel becomes more elliptical, the further from the center you get, in a radial way, and the kernel shape kinda changes further from the optical center. It seems that older low quality lenses have this effect. You can see it in the blender demo in a few places, try 5:15.
Here’s a (real) lens that shows the effect prominently:
3 Likes
Similar to the Deakinizer, no?
Edit: actually only superficially it would appear. The deakinizer seems to be more of a radial direction blur outside the plane of focus in the center, as opposed to that intense swirling! The swirling’s neat for sure!
1 Like
Never heard of a deakinizer lens before, thanks for posting that!
And I think you’re right, it looks like some settings of those lenses make that specific "swirly bokeh"effect, bit they clearly do more.
Interesting!
3 Likes
If you render in Octane (from any host app) the latest beta actually has basically the same thing! I took a look at it here: https://twitter.com/dearlensform/status/1863301330741145974
I’m still sporadically working on a comp plugin that does something similar, accurately simulating real lens designs, but haven’t had time to do much lately… I’ll post about it on that account or I guess also on lcrs.bsky.social when I get my shit together 
BTW the technical name for the swirly thing people love about the Helios 44 is “entrance pupil occlusion” or just “pupil occlusion”… if you take a lens off a camera and hold it up to the light then move your head off to one side you can see the area that light can pass through changes from round to an ellipse/oval/catseye shape, so out of focus points at the side of the image take on that same shape… like you can see here: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Swirly-bokeh-Top-Cat-eye-aperture-shape-on-a-large-aperture-lens-Bottom-Cat-eye_fig6_303502015
9 Likes
Lewis! The legend! Here’s a matchbox I’ve been working on… Not quite what you’ve described, but I’m working on that approach as well (but I’m doing it “subjectively”, not based on pesky reality).
3 Likes
I think this is the effect you were describing, I was calling it “snoot”, 'cause I thought it was caused by the lens housing extending too far.
edit - a couple more. This is fun!
7 Likes
After looking at a clip of deakinizer lenses that @BrittCiampa pointed out, here’s an experiment in that direction:
and some other progress on various 2d post processing bokeh styles:
animated kernel (waving blade of grass in the bokeh circles):
“tiny footballs”:
textured and animated kernel:
“Swirly” bokeh:
9 Likes
Man, this is gorgeous stuff. Kudos.
1 Like
These are SO cool @Maurypb!!! Gorgeous!
1 Like