Introducing Relief Stack!

Turn Your Photos Into Things You Can Hold

Relief Stack is an app that estimates the depth in your photos and turns
them into 3D reliefs you can print, carve, or engrave.

There's a moment, when you're looking at a good photo, where you can almost feel
the shape of what you're seeing — the curve of a face, the ridge of a mountain,
the lettering on an old sign. Relief Stack is built to bring that feeling into
the physical world. Point it at a photo, and it works out the depth for you, then
hands you everything you need to turn that depth into a real, fabricated object.

No tracing. No guesswork. No cloud.

From a Flat Photo to Real Depth

Most of the hard part of relief work is figuring out what's near and what's far.
Relief Stack does that automatically. Bring in a photo — or capture one live from
your camera, a webcam, or your iPhone over Continuity Camera — and within seconds
you have an editable depth map and a live 3D preview.

From there, it's yours to shape. Paint depth in by hand, smooth it, sharpen the
details, adjust the overall form, and combine images and shapes into a single
relief. The 3D preview updates as you work, so you're always looking at what
you'll actually make.

Bring Your Wwn 3D Models — and Make Them Buildable

You don't have to start from a photo. Import your STL or 3MF models and compress them into a relief.
A complete model is often a pain to manufacture: it wants print supports, multi-axis machining, or
simply can't be engraved at all. Flattened into a relief, the same form becomes
far more buildable — it prints flat without supports, carves on a 3-axis CNC in a
single setup, and engraves cleanly. You keep the shape you care about and shed the
fabrication headaches. Preview it all in 3D before you commit.

Alternatively, blend your model with a relief into a single solid.

Made for the Machine in Your Workshop

A relief is only finished when you can make it. Relief Stack takes you all the
way there:

  • 3D printing — generate a clean, printable model.
  • CNC — preview the detail loss caused by large endmills.
  • Laser and engraving — estimate how your engraving will look.

When you're ready, export an STL or 3MF model, or a depth map as PNG or TIFF.
Save your work as a project and pick it up later, right where you left off.

People are using reliefs for signage, jewelry, lithophanes, décor, keepsakes,
and one-of-a-kind gifts — and Relief Stack is built to take any of them from
photo to finished piece.

Private by Design, Limitless Usage

Depth estimation, shaping, mesh generation, slicing, editing — all of it runs
locally, on your device! Your photos, your depth maps, your artwork, and your
projects are never collected, never transmitted, and never sold. There's no
account to create and no upload to wait for. If you turn on iCloud, your projects
sync through your own Apple account, which we have no access to.

In an era where so many creative tools quietly send your work to a server,
Relief Stack keeps it where it belongs: with you.

After buying or subscribing, create as many reliefs as you want with no credit
limits to get in your way or hold you back.

How it works

  1. Capture — import a photo, model, or use live capture to pull depth straight from your camera.
  2. Compose Relief Stack estimates depth on-device and lets you shape, paint, and adjust it.
  3. Outline draw paths to trim your relief into a square, circle, or any arbitrary shape.
  4. Blend your relief- add thickness to your relief surface or blend it with 3D models.
  5. Develop your output — export your model in many file formats and simulate how it will look when 3D printed, machined, or laser engraved.

That's the whole arc, and you can get from start to finish in a single sitting.

Reach out!

We're a small studio, and we'd genuinely love to hear what you make. Questions,
ideas, or just want to show us a relief you're proud of? Email us at
support_team@mechatronics.studio.

Relief Stack is made by Mechatronics.Studio LLC.