BLENDER ADD-ON · 2.5D PARALLAX

Parallax Layers

Key art in. Motion out.

Your key art is already layered. Parallax Layers turns the layers you export from Photoshop into a full 2.5D scene in one click, with a camera ready to move. At rest, the render is your PSD.

One-click import  ·  Photoshop-accurate blending  ·  No empty edges

A layered key art, rendered in EEVEE: push-in, truck and float, with depth of field.

01 · IMPORT

One folder in, your PSD framed in Blender.

Export your layers from Photoshop, pick the folder. Every layer lands on its own full-frame plane, the camera and the resolution are taken from your canvas, and the render is set up for EEVEE.

02 · DEPTH

Real depth, layer by layer.

Push each layer back in space, or let the add-on spread them for you. Move, rotate and scale any layer in Photoshop pixels, right in the camera view.

GRS

03 · FRAMING

Change the depth. The framing holds.

Each plane is scaled so it fills the frame exactly, from the foreground to the sky. Move a layer deeper and it keeps its place on screen. No rescaling by hand, ever.

04 · CAMERA MOVES

Four moves. One click each.

Pick a move, press Apply. Moves stack, and they stay plain keyframes you can tweak in the Graph Editor like any other animation.

PUSH-IN

The camera moves in, the foreground grows faster than the background.

PULL-OUT

Start close, end on your composition.

TRUCK

Slide left, right, up or down across the depth.

FLOAT

A slow drift that loops seamlessly. Made for animated store backgrounds and wallpapers.

The Camera Move panel, with the live edge status.

05 · FAITHFUL TO THE PSD

It looks like your PSD. Really.

Blender blends in linear light, so semi-transparent mist, glows and soft shadows come out lighter than what you painted. Parallax Layers blends the Photoshop way, with Normal, Add, Screen and Multiply.

First and last frame of the same shot: at frame 1 the render is your PSD.

06 · EDGES

No more empty borders.

When the camera moves, layers that touch the frame can reveal their edge. Check Edges scans the whole animation, frame by frame, and extends those layers just enough with a mirror or stretch fill. Your composition at rest does not change.

CHECK EDGESFILL WITH MIRROR

07 · DEPTH OF FIELD

Focus on any layer. Pull focus to another.

Blender's usual depth of field does not work on transparent planes. Parallax Layers sets up a real lens blur in EEVEE, shows the blur of every layer in pixels before you render, and animates a rack focus between two layers.

Focus on the characters

Same frame, focus on the foreground

08 · WHY NOT BY HAND

The client changed the PSD? Press Sync.

You can build a parallax scene with image planes. You just have to rebuild it every time.

Sync even survives Photoshop renumbering your files: each layer is found by name.

09 · TRAILER

From a layer folder to a moving key art.

BLENDER 5.0+  ·  TESTED ON 5.2 LTS  ·  EEVEE AND CYCLES  ·  GPL

Make your key art move.

Parallax Layers for Blender, $12.
Free updates for version 1.x.