Getting Started: Turn a Photo Into a 3D Relief Carving

This is the complete first project in JACR CNC Studio, the free browser-based 3D relief creator. In about ten minutes you'll go from an ordinary image to a carvable relief with an STL file or CNC-ready G-code — no CAD experience, nothing installed.

Finished 3D relief carving of a rearing horse produced from a photo in the browser

1. Open the Relief Maker

Launch the studio and choose 3D Relief Generator on the start screen (or the Relief Maker button in the top bar). Upload your image — or click one of the ✨ Try It examples to load a proven input with one click.

💡 What makes a great input? Porcelain-style artwork on a black background produces the cleanest reliefs — smooth surfaces, strong shapes, no distracting lighting. Read the Porcelain Method for the full recipe; the app's 🏺 button can convert your photo automatically.

2. Generate and style the relief

Press Generate Relief. The engine maps your image to real height data and shows a live clay preview plus a full 3D view on the workspace bed. Now shape it with the live sliders — every change re-renders instantly:

Smooth — polishes surfaces for clean tool finishes while keeping muscle lines and creases.
Depth / Pop & Fine Detail — how strongly forms rise, and how much surface texture carries through.
Height Curve — a draggable curve that remaps tones, deepening shadows or lifting highlights.
Background toggle — tell the app whether your background is black or white and it lays that flat to the back.
Edge Slope — run the relief down to the base with a convex, cove, feathered, ogee, bevel or stepped border.
Touch-up pens — blur, sharpen, raise, lower, crease and pop tools painted directly on the 3D preview.

3. Export

The 📦 Export Center holds every format. Every export is a membership feature — designing is free, the digital goods are not. G-code exports as a single-bit file: your carve pass plus the fine finishing re-trace with the same bit, no tool-change pauses — files with embedded bit swaps are what make other senders reject a job. ⚠ Because nothing pre-clears the depth (roughing needs a bit swap), reduce your feed to ~50-60% of your usual finishing feed and prove it on scrap. Membership also unlocks the high-detail STL, bit-modeled STL, 16-bit depth TIFF and PNG exports, and the in-app roughing stage below.

4. Carve it

Click Carving Wizard and the app walks you through stock size, bit choice (it recommends the best bit for the job — typically a 1/16" tapered ball-nose for reliefs), feeds and speeds from the built-in bible, toolpath generation and the final G-code. The in-app runner streams the pro job with the roughing stage — bulk-clear with a bigger bit, then a SAFE guided bit swap: the machine pauses, parks the spindle out of the cut, re-homes automatically and re-verifies position before carving resumes. That sequence cannot ride safely in an exported file. Prefer another sender? Export the single-bit .nc (carve + finishing pass) and run it at a reduced feed.

🪵 First carve suggestion: a 6–8" relief in soft maple or MDF, 0.25" carve depth, 1/16" tapered ball-nose finishing pass at a 13% stepover. Always verify feeds on scrap first.

Next: The Porcelain Relief Method · Toolpaths & G-Code · Connect Your CNC