The perfect solution for visualising and rendering depth passes in Maya


Problem:


Maya's luminance depth shader has never been too user-friendly

You couldn't preview it in realtime

You often had to measure the scene and do several test -renders to get the clipping values correct for good range or falloff

Results would look different depending on the render engine- e.g. maya software vs mental ray

If you changed the camera's focal length the depth shader would change too



Solution:


A very simple spherical projection node using a plain white 3d texture

Simply select the spherical 3d texture, parent it to your camera, adjust the scale to set its range, and away you go

If your camera move is varied you can key the scale to ensure you always have the range you want

You can control the falloff through the attribute on the 3d texture

Check out the scene and it should answer all your questions

We use this with Frischluft's depth of field plugins in comp for great results