Fiddling about with SculptOK 3D Depth Map Generator

45rpm · May 6, 2025, 6:28pm

First the test result:

Which came from this:

What I used: I have been wanting to do more with 3D recently and I came across a mention of SculptOK, an online tool for generating depth maps from images.

https://www.sculptok.com/

It’s a pretty simple process, upload an image, select a couple of options and click draw. You get four versions of the depth map and you can download them to use in Carbide Create Pro.

Mine looked like this:

For this first test I didn’t adjust anything. I just loaded it in as an image in the Model section of Pro and mapped it to my stock. I am pretty pleased with the result for a quick test.

Overall, it’s a pretty easy process to use and you can also convert the height map to STL in SculptOK. It might be nice to A/B test between the Carbide import of an image and the STL from SculptOK.

There is a limited trial available and there is an option for a $16 per month subscription. They use a credits system where the main cost is downloading the file. This way tweaking drawings is not prohibitive. If you want to do a lot of 3D it seems like a pretty good bet.

cheu · May 6, 2025, 6:40pm

SculptOK is the best site I have found. I use it pretty often. I will photoshop an image before it goes to SculptOK so I can get a full 3d model in an OBJ file, then reduce it for depth relief in other software. I have Relief Maker Pro which works pretty well if you have a well defined 3d object. Sometimes Aspire works better. I also use Meshroom for photogrammetry and Stable Diffusion for quick and dirty depth maps that run locally on my PC. Great tools.

Here is another site that also works well. I just uploaded a random image to show here.

I know it has pricing but they haven’t asked for any money yet…

One work of caution…these 3d sites and especially downloaded software requires a serious GPU…unless you have all day to watch it.