A method for converting a 2D images and videos to 3D includes applying a set of pre-defined heuristic rules to assign a depth value for each pixel of a two-dimensional (2D) image source based on pixel attributes to generate an initial default depth map, refining the pre-defined heuristic rules to produce customized heuristic rules, applying the customized heuristic rules to the initial default depth map to produce a refined depth map, and rendering a three-dimensional (3D) image in a predefined format using the refined depth map.