Tim Harris takes a look at how you can add some extra functionality to the standard After Effects Camera Lens Blur when using it in conjunction with a depth map.

You are able to set a blur map in the Camera Lens Blur that can control what areas are in focus, and here Tim shows how to add some custom controls that will allow you to simply sample the parts of the image that you want to be in focus, rather than relying on several Camera Lens Blur controls.

How to add some extra control to the standard After Effects camera lens blur to help you when working with depth mattes

Tim adds some expression controllers in After Effects, using the layer controller, color controller, and the point controller. Using these three new After Effects Expression controllers, Tim sets two variables and adds some expressions to make them functional.

When complete, you can simply use the crosshairs to change the focus based on the parts of the image that you clicked, using the layer controller to sample the depth map itself.

After seeing this I am wondering if there was a wy to pass the color values between the focus and sample controllers automatically rather than changing them manually.