Small Robot Studio shows an easy way to link distance to the camera DOF in Maya.

In Maya, the camera is more of a “manual” one. For example, the depth of field values is just an attribute you can change. There is no way of knowing where your objects are in relationship to the camera by default. That is why it could be tricky to get the correct number in the focus distance.

This new tutorial from Small Robot Studio (Michael Rew) shows how you can connect where the camera is looking and the focus distance using Maya’s measure tool. It’s an easy way to pass the distance value from the measure tool to the camera and automate DOF in Maya.