I was curious to see if it would be possible to create a sense of depth with 2D animation, a medium in which the third dimension seemingly lacks. Something like a virtual diorama where flat elements are positioned deliberately to give an illusion of depth.

To start of I grabbed a character I had drawn earlier:

{{< gallery >}} {{< figure src="/img/anims/bosgeest_chardesign_web.jpg" caption="Character design" >}} {{< /gallery >}}

Animation: from rough to inked and painted.

Compositing in Blender

The colored animation was exported from Krita and imported as an animated 'Images as Planes'. This makes it possible to move a flat plane containing the animation with an alpha channel. I layed out a grid and added some volumetric lighting, which causes a fog like effect in the distance.

To accentuate the third dimension a light source is positioned diagonally behind the character, which causes skewed shadows. I also animated a spotlight following the movement of the glowing eyes and demonstrates a movement towards- and away from the camera.

The hard part was positioning the different elements within the scene to achieve a correct perspective. I didn't use any reference or vanishing points when animating the character, so I got there through trial and error. I also couldn't get the shadow cast by the light source to align properly with the character; if you look closely you can see the shadow not reaching all the way to the base of the feet.

I am aware of Blender's Grease pencil functionalities, but find those to be still too limited artistically. Therefore I opted to explore this workflow which allows for the best of both worlds.