MotionShine01 / Drop
Choose a picture
A photo, a render or a painting. Scenes with clear near and far parts work best.
Free tool
Depth map generator, from one photo.
Turn a photo into a depth map, near things white and far things black, for 3D photo effects, parallax, focus blur, displacement in After Effects or Blender, or a 3D print. An open AI model, Depth Anything V2, runs in this tab, so your photo is never uploaded. Full size PNG, no sign-up.
Settings
This runs in your browser. Your pictures are never uploaded.
How it works
Three steps, nothing to install.
02 / Estimate
Let the AI judge distance
A few seconds. Drag across the picture to compare it with the map.
03 / Save
Pick a look and save
Grey or colour, inverted if your app wants near as dark, as a PNG.
Questions
Good to know.
Which AI model makes the depth map?
Depth Anything V2 Small, by researchers at the University of Hong Kong and TikTok, released under the Apache 2.0 licence, in the browser version made by the onnx-community project. Its larger versions are for non-commercial use only, so this page uses the small one.
Is my picture uploaded?
No. The model is downloaded to your browser from Hugging Face, the open model library, and runs there: about 50 MB with a graphics card (WebGPU), 99 MB without. The browser keeps it for next time.
Is it real distance in metres?
No. It is relative depth: brighter is nearer than darker within the same picture, but the numbers are not metres, and two pictures cannot be compared.
How do I use it in After Effects, Blender or Photoshop?
Load the PNG as a displacement or depth map next to the original picture: a Displacement Map effect for parallax in After Effects, a displacement modifier in Blender, or Lens Blur with the map as the depth source in Photoshop. If your tool expects near to be dark, tick Invert.
Why are fine details soft?
The model works on a smaller copy of the picture and the map is enlarged back to full size, so hair, leaves and thin edges come out softer than in the photo.