The allure of depth maps

Well, this is as fun as my life gets right now. ;)
I decided to do a quick depth map render of my skeletal hand model for fun (I don't think I'll even need it during compositing, though I am a sucker for extremely shallow DoF)!

I have a strange fascination with depth maps. I think they generate such a mysterious and alluring mood. So I let myself have a bit of fun with this. I plan on rendering out an animation fully done in depth maps, but I'll have to make the objects very distinguishable as it's hard to discern objects in depth maps.

I think my love for depth maps stems from one of my favourite artists, Kazuki Takamatsu, who does these beautifully haunting oil paintings. I believe he works in 3D first (?). Here is an example of his work from his website:

Anyway, back to work!