Depth of Field in post - Front Blur issue

This may be more of an After Effects question but I know many of you most likely follow the same workflow as myself. We render out in passes in C4D, then composite and add effects in After Effects. I have been banging my head against the wall trying to remedy this and just need a straight answer.

So many people talk about doing DOF in post but they NEVER mention a frontal blur issue that I can't get around. Check out the attached graphic. The top shows an unblurred image with no DOF for reference. The bottom shows using the depth pass as my depth matte. I can never use this reliably with frontal blur effects because the object tries to blur within the actual border of the death pass, causing a sharp edge (refer to yellow arrows). Am I missing something or is this just not possible in post? I was never even able to get a decent true blur in Frischluft. (sp?)

Thanks guys!
Brian

Actually, looking closer at the top image, I can see aliasing on all the balls. It doesn't seem to have a problem if they are not near the border, but when they are it looks like it's an issue. I'd set my Anti-Aliasing to Best and at least 2x2 min and 4x4 max and see if that works.




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yep, that's the bane of post DOF...Try rendering your depth with double your resolution and no AA. let AE scale it to 50%...

It helped me before.