I highly doubt that this animation was done in any 3D program it is simply cleaver drawing. I think what you are really asking about turning a drawing into a 3d mesh would be better achieved in Zbrush rather than Maya. Google Zsketch that might give you some good ideas. You're correct, it was a drawn animation in the video. However, I want to achieve the same visual with 3D software because I need to replicate the concept for many 2D images. I don't understand how Zbrush would help so either I don't understand your suggestion or you have misinterpreted my goal. I'm trying to simply add thickness to a 2D image. For example, a 2D image only has x and y, and z = 0. I want to make z = 2. Like turning a piece of paper into a plank of wood. Depending on what you are going to use it for I suppose you could use a few simple cubes or planes with some fancy transparency effects to give the appearance of 3d that could probably recreate your little video there easily enough. You mean do this in Maya? How?