zdepthDOF for mental ray

from the author:

"zDepthDOF is a material shader for Mental Ray which renders zDepth images 'ready-to-use' for depth of field simulation. It provides full keyframable focus control inside the animation package.

While zDepthDOF is intended to be used in conjunction with a compositing package, like for example Apple Computer's Shake, Discreet's Combustion or even Adobe's Photoshop CS, the rendered zDepth images can be used 'as is'. There is no longer a need to re-map grayscale values to distances inside the compositing package (which is often difficult guesswork) or let alone keyframe them, as all this can now be done within the 3D environment of the animation package."

it works with mental ray on xsi, maya and 3dsmax

zdepthDOF for mental ray