Question 1

What does Depth actually do?

Accepted Answer

It turns a single photo into a 3D scene, a Gaussian splat, using Apple's SHARP model on your Mac. You can then look around in it, animate a camera with keyframes, and export a still image or the 3D scene itself.

Question 2

What's a Gaussian splat?

Accepted Answer

A 3D scene made of about 1.2 million soft, coloured blobs, each with its own position, size, rotation and opacity. Seen from the front they add up to your photo; move the camera and the foreground slides past the background.

Question 3

What is SHARP?

Accepted Answer

A machine-learning model from Apple's research team that predicts a 3D Gaussian scene from one image, published as “Sharp Monocular View Synthesis in Less Than a Second”. Depth runs it with Core ML on your Mac's Neural Engine, GPU and CPU.

Question 4

Can I use Depth for commercial work?

Accepted Answer

No. Depth runs Apple's SHARP model, which Apple released for non-commercial research only, so Depth is for research and experiments, not for commercial projects or products.

Question 5

Which photos work best?

Accepted Answer

Pictures with a clear foreground and background show the most depth: an alley, a person on a street, a window with a view. Night shots and paintings work too. The model only knows what the picture shows, so the further you move off to the side, the more you see the scene's frayed edges.

Question 6

Can I process several photos at once?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Drop as many as you like. Each becomes a page in the sidebar, and Depth works through them one after the other while you look at the finished ones.

Question 7

What does Create 360 do?

Accepted Answer

It turns the scene in ten steps of 36°, renders each view, runs it through SHARP again and merges the results into one splat, so more of the scene is filled in around you.

Question 8

Can I use the 3D scene in other apps?

Accepted Answer

Export PLY saves the splat in the standard 3D Gaussian splatting PLY format, which splat viewers and editors open. Export PNG saves the current view as an image, and Save Project keeps every page and its timeline in a .depth file.

Question 9

Does Depth upload my photos?

Accepted Answer

No. The model is inside the app and everything runs on your Mac. Depth doesn't go online at all.

Step into any photo.

Neon, rain, oil paint. Any picture.

One photo in. A scene out.

Set keyframes. Press play.

From photo to file.

Many photos at once

Create 360

Export PNG

Export PLY

Save the project

Fly with the keyboard

Stays on your Mac.

On your Mac

Offline

Your files

No account

Good questions.

Every photo has a depth.