PNG to OBJ Converter
Turn a PNG into a 3D mesh you can drop into Blender, a game engine or a rendering scene. Gray values become heights for terrain tiles and embossed panels; a logo on a transparent background becomes a solid extruded badge.
3D Model Converter
or drop STL, OBJ, MTL … files here ·
Max 95 MB per file· Up to 20 files· Deleted after 30 minutes
Files are processed on our servers and deleted after 30 minutes.
STL and OBJ store no units. If a part shows up 10× or 25.4× too small or too big in the slicer, the units were read wrong — set them here.
Blender, CAD programs and slicers use Z-up; glTF, Unity and most game engines use Y-up. Switch it if the model lies on its side after import.
Used when converting STEP or IGES solids to a mesh. Fine gives smooth curves but larger files; coarse is enough for quick previews.
Only used for PNG, JPG or SVG input. Relief raises dark areas; a lithophane is a thin panel that shows the photo when lit from behind; extrude turns a logo or SVG outline into a flat solid shape.
Width of the printed model; the height follows the image's aspect ratio.
Maximum raised height for a relief or lithophane, or the thickness of an extruded shape. Lithophanes usually use 2–3 mm.
Solid plate under the relief so the print holds together. 0 means no base.
How to use this tool
- 1
Upload the PNG
A grayscale height map, a photo or a logo with a transparent background, up to 20 files. JPG, WebP and BMP work the same way.
- 2
Choose relief or shape
Image becomes starts at Relief, with a 5 mm Height / depth over a 1 mm base. Pick Extruded shape for logos, and tick Invert heights if light should be high.
- 3
Convert to OBJ
Press Convert to OBJ and import the file into your 3D app. Scale it there if your scene uses meters.
Converting a PNG height map into a mesh
Height maps are the oldest trick in 3D graphics: a grayscale image where brightness means elevation. Terrain editors, sculpting brushes and displacement shaders all read them, and Unreal Engine's Landscape tool imports 16-bit grayscale PNG files for exactly that purpose. The difference here is that you get a fixed mesh, not a shader effect, so the shape exists in the OBJ and survives any export.
The converter samples the image as a grid, lifts each point by its brightness up to Height / depth, closes the edges and adds a base plate. With Extruded shape, the transparent or light background is dropped and the remaining shape is pushed up evenly, which is how a PNG logo becomes a badge or a sign for a scene.
Mind the polygon count. Every pixel adds geometry, so a 4,000 × 4,000 height map gives a mesh far heavier than a game scene needs. A 512 or 1,024-pixel image is plenty for most props; decimate in Blender if you need it lighter. To print the same relief, see Image to STL.
- Model width
- 5–1,000 mm
- Height / depth range
- 0.2–100 mm
- Base thickness
- 0–50 mm
- Images per batch
- 20
PNG
Portable Network Graphics
PNG is a lossless raster format published in 1996 by the PNG Development Group and later standardised by the W3C and ISO. It keeps every pixel exactly, supports full alpha transparency and handles text, sharp edges and flat colours without artefacts. That precision makes it ideal for screenshots, logos, icons and interface graphics. The trade-off is size: photographs saved as PNG are often several times larger than the same photo as JPEG or WebP. All browsers, operating systems and editors open PNG files.
- Compression
- Lossless
- Transparency
- Yes
- Animation
- No
- Introduced
- 1996 · PNG Development Group
OBJ
Wavefront OBJ
OBJ is a 3D geometry format developed by Wavefront Technologies. It is a plain-text file listing vertices, texture coordinates, normals and faces, with materials and textures referenced in a separate .mtl file. Almost every 3D modelling program, game engine and 3D printing tool can import it. OBJ does not support animation, rigging or scene hierarchies, and textures go missing if the MTL and image files are not kept together.
- Compression
- –
- Transparency
- –
- Animation
- No
- Introduced
- Wavefront Technologies
People convert PNG to OBJ to bring a height map, logo or embossed picture into Blender, a game engine or a renderer as real geometry instead of a flat texture.
Importing the converted OBJ into Blender, Unity or Godot
Blender
- 01File > Import > Wavefront (.obj).
- 02Coordinates are written in millimeters, so scale by 0.001 if your scene uses real-world meters.
- 03Add the PNG as a texture with a top view projection if you want the picture on it.
Unity
- 01Drag the .obj into the Assets folder.
- 02Set Scale Factor in the import settings, since Unity treats one unit as one meter.
- 03Drag the model into the scene and assign a material.
Godot
- 01Copy the .obj into the project folder.
- 02Godot imports it as a mesh resource in the FileSystem dock.
- 03Assign the mesh to a MeshInstance3D node and add a material.
PNG to OBJ questions
Can a PNG become a full 3D model with a back and sides?
Not from one image. A PNG holds one view and no depth, so the converter builds a relief or an extruded outline, which is flat on the back. Full objects need photogrammetry from many photos, or modeling by hand.
Is white high or low in a PNG height map?
In game-engine and GIS height maps, white is high and black is low. This converter's relief raises dark areas by default, the way an embossed photo reads, so tick Invert heights when you feed it a terrain height map.
Why does my terrain look stepped like stairs?
An 8-bit grayscale PNG has only 256 brightness levels, so a tall relief rises in visible steps. Lower Height / depth, blur the height map slightly before uploading, or smooth the mesh in Blender after import.
Will the OBJ carry the PNG's colors?
The relief is built from brightness only, so treat the output as geometry. To show the original picture on it, apply the PNG as a texture in Blender with a top-down projection, which lines up because the mesh has the same proportions as the image.
Should I choose OBJ or STL for an image model?
Pick OBJ for 3D software and game engines, which read it everywhere, and STL when the model is going to a 3D printer. For printing, PNG to STL sets the same options with STL as the output.