A flat photo is one thing. A depth map is a cheat code: it tells the shader what’s “near” and “far,” so the same image can bend, break, and breathe in 3D-ish ways without a full 3D scene. I’ve been playing with a scanning + depth setup in the browser: React Three Fiber, Three.js WebGPU, and TSL so the effects live in node materials — readable, tweakable, and ready to animate. Three moods from the same idea: Ocean Depths — sine waves distort the UVs, weighted by depth; a scan line rolls through with a cool screen-blended highlight. It reads like light moving through water. Digital Fragments — the image sorts into cells; deeper regions shift more, so the picture feels like it’s being re-sorted in place. Pointer movement nudges the distortion — “reality rearranged.” System Malfunction — noise and RGB split kick in only in a band around the scan; the glitch breathes with GSAP. The vibe is broken signal, not random noise. Add bloom on top and you get something that feels cinematic, not like a tech demo — even though under the hood it’s mostly math on textures.