Two-dimensional realism?

[ffutures]

I'm trying to make my Flatlanders look more "realistic"; the trouble is that so far they seem to come out looking three-dimensional!

Here's an example:



I'm trying to make it look like a rigid structure around some gooey stuff but it just comes out looking like a keyring tag or something.

Any suggestions?

Comments

[jackwalker.livejournal.com]

It's the shading on the Flatlander's edges - it makes it look like he has a raised edge and there's a light source above and to the left. Make the edge a solid dark line, say.

Of course, that will make him look more cartoonish again.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Trouble is that they're described as having a light appearance at the edges. I agree that a solid line would look more 2D. It's difficult because I want to include quite a few small pictures as well as several large 2D "Action figures"

[mr-wombat.livejournal.com]

Actually, 3D software might be of help to you here - in theory a shape could be rendered without using orthographic projection (to ensure it remained entirely 2D but if you gave the object a semi translucent surface or applied a technique called subsurface scattering it would allow light to penetrate a fraction of a distance into the object and give it a lightened appearance at the edges.
However, I'm dubious about how well this would translate into a small image, greyscale or the lower resolutions that typically end up in a PDF.

Now, I'm not *entirely* certain this is what you're on about but take a peek at
http://www.daz3d.com/shop.php?op=itemdetails&item=4184&cat=174
and look at the jade frog or odd purple thing for some notion of what I'm blathering on about. I'd try and do an example except, well it's 1am and I should be in bed

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

That looks like a possibility; a completely flat surface doesn't do that terrible well - just tried something similar in Truspace 3D - but it ought to at least get the interiors looking better.

What I think I'm going to do in the first instance is make placeholder images in the style I'm already using, then see about improving the graphics once I've finished writing it.

[robertprior.livejournal.com]

Maybe aim for something like a micrograph of a cell?

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Something like that could work. I'll need to give it some thought.

[pauldrye.livejournal.com]

You're kind of going against the entire history of art techniques, no? 35,000 years of trying to make 2D art look three-dimensional, ever since ochre bisons on cave walls.

What I mean is, we're conditioned to see three-dimensionality in drawings by everything we've seen since we were babies. You might need to aim for the radically different, just to get the neurons shaken up out of interpreting in their usual ways. Perhaps poorly contrasting colours, so as to get the opposite of this effect?

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I don't want to go for anything too abstract, I really doubt it would work.

When I've run convention games I've used flat coloured triangles etc., but it just doesn't feel right for the book.