When you paint with brushes that have the Depth setting turned on (see Depth) or the Paint Effects Globals Force Depth (a depth override) turned on (see Force Depth), Paint Effects records the distance of the paint from the camera in the depth channel (or Zdepth or Zbuffer channel). You can save the depth values as grayscales for later use (for example, as a bumpmap).

To save depth as grayscale values

1. Select Paint > Save Depth as Grayscale.