New Plastic shows more uses for a Z-Depth pass from Octane than the classic Depth-of-Field blur.

Z-Depth or Z passes are great for tweaking a render in post or composite. Usually, a Z-Depth pass is more flexible than people give it credit. If you’re using a Z pass solely to create a depth of field blur in composite, you are not using the render pass to its full potential.

This tutorial from New Plastic covers other techniques for working with a Z-Depth pass from Octane render within After Effects. “I’ve been using a lot of these techniques in different projects throughout the years and I felt like sharing them,” Guy says.

These techniques can work with a z-depth pass from any rendering engine and on any post-compositing software.

New Plastic’s Concrete and Plaster Materials Pack.

New Plastic’s materials pack has 50 realistic-looking concrete and plaster materials created procedurally for Octane and Cinema 4d. Check out the Procedural Concrete and Plaster Pack here.