The invention relates to a visual saliency-based bas-relief generating method and belongs to the technical field of computer graphics. According to the visual saliency-based bas-relief generating method of the invention, visual information and geometric operation are combined with each other so as to realize the generation of a digital bas-relief. The visual saliency-based bas-relief generating method comprises the following steps that: firstly, significance information of the surface of a three-dimensional model is extracted; secondly, a nonlinear compression mode is adopted to realize the generation of the bas relief; and finally, visual information is fused into nonlinear compression such that a final bas-relief effect can be realized. According to the visual saliency-based bas-relief generating method of the invention, different kinds of information such as height and angle direction are adopted to extract the significance information, so that the detail information of the generated digital bas-relief can be better saved; the significance information is mapped to the generation of the bas-relief; and the extracted significance information of the surface of the three-dimensional model is combined with the geometric operation, such that the detail information can be enhanced; and the significance information is attached to the geometric operation, such that the detail information of the surface of a compressed three-dimensional object can be effectively maintained.