Photograph an object. Get a 3D model that moves.

Light softly and evenly. The generator interprets shading as surface. A hard flash creates a bright hotspot and a deep shadow that become a bump and a dent in the mesh, and specular highlights on glossy toys turn into flat white patches in the texture. Window light on an overcast day, or two lamps bounced off a wall, gives the flattest, most honest lighting.

Use a plain background with contrast. Background removal is automatic, but it works best when the object’s edge is unambiguous. Put a dark object on a light sheet of paper and a light object on a dark one. Avoid backgrounds that share colours with the subject, patterned fabric and other objects in frame, all of which can leave fragments attached to the reconstruction.

Choose the angle for the silhouette. A three-quarter view from slightly above shows the front, one side and the top at once, which is the most information a single photo can carry. Keep limbs, wheels, handles and tails separated from the body in the outline. Fill the frame but leave a margin; a cropped foot cannot be reconstructed.

Shoot more than one angle if you can. Bake3D accepts up to four photographs of the same object in one job. Keep the object, the lighting and the distance fixed and walk around it: front three-quarter first, then the back, a side, and the top if the top matters. The first photo is the primary reference used for the source review; the others are given to the geometry engine when it reads several views, which is the case for the primary engine but not for the fallback engine, and the finished job reports how many were used. Do not move the object between shots and do not include a different pose.

Photograph the object, not the scene. Shadows on the table become geometry, so raise the object slightly or shoot from an angle where the shadow falls behind it. Remove packaging, stands and hands. If the object is symmetrical, a straight three-quarter view helps the generator infer the far side; if it is not, the far side will be guessed and you should inspect it closely.

“Photo to 3D” covers two different jobs, and choosing the right one saves credits and disappointment. A full 3D model has a back, sides and a base you would recognise from any angle: a toy, a figurine, a pet, a tool, a car. That is what the credit-based generator makes, and what this page is about.

A photo relief or lithophane is a flat plate whose thickness follows the picture’s brightness. It is the right answer when you want the photograph itself as a printable object: a portrait that appears when backlit, a logo standing proud of a plaque. The free JPG to STL and image to STL tools do this in your browser, without an account or upload, and the image to STL guide compares the three routes in detail.

The test is simple. If the thing in the photo lives on one flat face, use a relief. If it has a silhouette from the side, generate a model. Trying to get a figure out of a heightmap gives you a raised silhouette, and trying to get a portrait out of the full generator gives you a head with an invented back.

Costs are the same as any image: 25 credits for the mesh, 10 for the rig, 5 per described motion, with 60 credits free on sign-up and packs from $10 for 500. The free relief and lithophane tools cost nothing and never upload the photo. Credits are charged when a job is accepted and refunded if it fails; see the pricing page.

You must hold the rights to the photograph you upload and to what it shows where that matters. Bake3D does not check ownership and its license covers the transformation, not the underlying picture. Uploads are used only to produce your assets and are not used to train models; the privacy notice describes processing and retention.