Depth Scanner for Mac

Compatibility: Intel and Apple Silicon Macs

Depth Scanner installs as a standard After Effects plugin and works across both processor architectures. The interface is presented in English and keeps to a single, focused task: analysing a frame to determine which elements sit closest to the camera.

Matte-building from depth: staying inside After Effects

• Quick depth-of-field treatments applied via a generated map
• Isolating foreground subjects for colour grading or atmospheric haze
• Building mattes from depth without leaving After Effects

Motion blur: where the map needs manual help

• The map is derived from image analysis, so complex motion blur may require manual refinement
• Results on still photographs are often cleaner than on heavily compressed video

Predictable edges: the quiet shift across mixed material

Version 1.15.6 arrives after a quiet period of refinement rather than a single dramatic rewrite. In everyday use, the most visible shift has been in how predictable the analysis feels across mixed material. A clip that previously produced brittle edges around hair or foliage now tends to resolve those boundaries with fewer stray holes in the depth map. The improvement is incremental, but for compositors it means less time painting fixes frame by frame.

The plugin's handling of still photographs has also settled into a more consistent rhythm. Photographs with a clear foreground object — a person near a wall, a vase on a table — now generate maps that separate planes with fewer mid-tones bleeding into one another. Video remains the more demanding case, particularly when the subject moves quickly or the footage carries strong compression artefacts. Blace Plugins has not changed the core interaction model: you still open the effect, let the analysis run, and read the result as a grayscale layer.

First-project tweaks: the order I reach for

Depth Scanner does not bury its options behind layers of panels, but a few adjustments repay attention before the first full render. The order below reflects what I tend to reach for when setting up a new project.

1. Check the output range. The generated map is only useful if the values sit where your downstream effects expect them. Confirm whether the map is normalised across the full 0–255 range or clipped to a narrower band; depth-of-field filters in particular respond differently to a compressed map.
2. Preview on a still frame first. Run the analysis on a representative frame before committing to the full clip. If the frame contains motion blur or a defocused background, the map will reveal the problem quickly and you can adjust the source rather than fight the result later.
3. Set the working colour space explicitly. Depth maps are grayscale data, not display imagery. Keeping them in a linear or unmanaged space during compositing avoids the double-gamma look that turns soft falloff into hard bands.
4. Blur after, not before. If the map shows fine grain from sensor noise, apply a small blur or median filter to the resulting layer rather than pre-blurring the source. The analysis reads edge contrast; smoothing the input can flatten exactly the detail it needs.

Once these are in place, the plugin becomes a fairly quiet collaborator: run it, check the edges, move on to the creative work.

Scenario: a title sequence under deadline

Consider a motion designer finishing a title sequence for a documentary series. The footage is a slow push-in on an old workshop interior: tools hanging from a pegboard, a lathe in the middle distance, dust drifting through a window light. The edit is locked, the grade is approved, and the director wants a subtle rack-focus feel that pulls the viewer's eye from the pegboard to the lathe.

Doing this with a camera would have required an extra shoot day. With Depth Scanner, the designer drops the plugin onto the clip, lets it analyse a few key frames, and receives a grayscale map where the pegboard sits bright and the far wall falls away to dark. A depth-of-field effect driven by that map creates the focus shift without rotoscoping a single tool. The dust remains a soft texture rather than a matte problem, because the analysis reads it as part of the atmosphere rather than a foreground object. The shot is delivered that afternoon, and the director asks whether the sequence was reshot.

Timeline-first depth: a single effect, a grayscale result

Depth Scanner earns its place most clearly for users who work inside After Effects and need depth information without leaving the timeline. The plugin's shape — a single effect, an automated analysis pass, a grayscale result — suits a particular temperament: people who want the tool to propose a solution, then refine it manually where the image resists.

Compositors gain the most direct value. A depth map becomes a matte, a fog source, a defocus driver. Having that map generated from the working clip inside the host application removes the round-trip through an external utility, which matters when a shot comes back with notes at the end of a day.

Motion designers working on stylised pieces find it useful for quick parallax effects and depth-based transitions. The map can push a foreground element forward while the background recedes, all within the familiar layer-based workflow.

Documentary and corporate editors who occasionally need to soften a busy background or isolate a speaker benefit from the plugin's low ceremony: it asks little, returns a usable layer, and does not demand a deep understanding of AI training models or depth estimation theory.

Users less likely to notice the difference are those who already work with dedicated depth pipelines or who composite in node-based systems where After Effects is only a small part of the chain. For them, Depth Scanner is a useful convenience rather than a structural change.

In short: the plugin suits After Effects users who want a depth pass quickly, accept that some frames will need a soft touch, and prefer to stay inside one application while the work takes shape.

• Adobe After Effects
• Intel or Apple Silicon Mac