An illustration style trend has been gaining traction for a few years now and has really developed this year. Hand drawn illustrations laid over 3D models or a combination of 2D and 3D within the same scene have been seen in well received titles such as Arcane and Klaus, previous titles such as Coraline look to be the pioneers of this style. The idea of leaving textures and brush strokes within the style show a hand drawn quality that mimics stop motion animation and creates a nostalgic feeling to anyone who enjoys older animations. Harry Hausen’s Claymation through to Tim Burton’s movies have a certain charm to them and this has been taken through to updated technology and 3D models whilst leaving that initial charm. A coined term is 2 ½ D style, a mixture between 3D and 2D, and it has been a huge inspiration to my practice for some time now. This week I will be focusing mainly on research and how this style is made, mainly to invite the style into my practice and reflect upon it.
Lost in Random
Released in 2021 by Zoink games, Lost in Random is a video game that follows a poor protagonist through a kingdom to find her sister. Dice are used as weapons where it solidifies the ‘random’ aspect of the story and the whole game is played through like a narrative led board game. By using dice, cards, story book pages and board games the entire structure reeks of nostalgia, but then we look at the art style on top and it shows a very clear clay work and hand illustrated style. The team behind the game used just a few textures to create the entire game, wood, metal, clay and paint. They sculpted characters in clay to understand the movements and textures and made sure that their backgrounds remained like impressionist paintings. Background stories are displayed in the game via a gothic fairy-tale type children’s book which reiterates the hand drawn feel, and the colours are kept to an almost monochrome pallet. (EA, 2022)
A deeper look into the making of the game shows some interesting use of the 2 ½ D style, particularly when it comes to atmospherics. Fog is added in a 3D program but on a 2D plane, the depth of the level is considered with the plane and feathers as you approach which makes it look 3D. (Osborn, 2021) Dynamic lighting was another important issue for the team to work with. They implemented their own lighting design system to control the lighting within the game without having to bake everything into the textures of objects.
Lost in Random has numerous inspirations including Tim Burton, Alfredo Cáceres and Laika studios. The movie Coraline was produced by Laika studios using puppets and a 2 ½ D style that has carried on throughout the studio’s other movies and projects. Chris Turnham, an illustrator on Coraline, added, ‘Everything was still designed as a 2D piece of concept art without too much thought for the 3D aspect of it … The only time we had to think about 3D was when we created matte paintings … It’s not unlike a 2D animated production in that regard.’ (Mihailova, 2021) This suggests that even though the outcome was a 3D medium, it was produced as a 2D artifact first and foremost. You can clearly see the relation between Coraline and Lost in Random as the characters in the game look like puppets themselves.
Arcane
A Netflix series released in 2021, Arcane is based on the popular multiplayer online battle arena game ‘League of Legends’ and follows two sisters through their life in the undercity, essentially slums. Magic exists in this world although sparingly but weapons technology and chemical sciences further the exploration of the world. The complete series is animated and uses a unique style which once again blends 2D and 3D visuals. The style is so incredibly popular that it floods tutorial pages and has even become a Tik Tok filter so that you can turn yourself into an Arcane character. Fortiche animation studios bought the series together with their signature style of 2D blends and they have been developing this for a decade with the Arcane team on various projects before the release. “The characters are all animated using 3D models and rigs, with 2D animation used to add texture and effects like smoke, water, fire, dust, etc. The backgrounds are painted in 2D, he says, and he cites the efforts of the show’s compositing team for bringing it all together seamlessly.” (Mclean, 2022) It is also said by Fortiche that they play with their animations and sometimes hit more realism and sometimes opt for more 2D animations depending on the scenes.
Notably the characters within the Arcane world are not fully rendered meaning that there is not a smooth blend in their skin tone for example. This leaves the characters looking ‘painted’ with brush strokes visible. Usually this would be considered a flaw in digital drawings and animation but, by using it very obviously and coupling it with 2D backgrounds and effects, it shows a unique style. The way in which the style is produced is very similar to Lost in Random, with painted backgrounds and un rendered characters the only real difference in style is that one takes inspiration from clay and the other from digital painting.
Here I decided to do a quick study into the style of Arcane to understand what makes it look the way it does. I used a photo of myself to create this piece and the desired effect was to make each plane change within my face an obvious tonal change. The study was interesting because I found that even without blending the tones, the piece still appears over blended. The colour changes stay within the realm of soft changes and harsher shadows and highlights are needed. In terms of accuracy of style, I am way off with this drawing but as a foothold into the style to be explored further I think it was a success. I can immediately recognise my barriers and understand that my brush and colour selection need to be amended. The characters in Arcane appear to be much smoother than my attempt even though they are angular. It is also interesting to note that the characters within the show are in fact mostly angular in shape themselves even before harsh tones are added. My face is certainly fuller and perhaps my first issue was following the shapes exactly rather than stylising my face to being with.
Klaus
Klaus, 2020, is an origin story of Santa Clause and turned heads with its 2D animations that look 3D. None of Klaus is produced with CGI and is only made to look 3D with lighting. The process starts with the animators taking reference videos of themselves and then drawing the scenes in a rough sketchy way, they then tidy up the linework to create clean lines. After these stages everything is coloured in basic block colours before adding the ‘magic’ of 3D lighting. The lighting software designed for the movie tracked the movements of the characters and applies the lighting and shadows to it, allowing for dynamic movement of the lighting. Essentially the computers use AI to guess where the movements might place the lighting and then the artists can fine tune everything from there. The backgrounds follow the same formula even though they are less detailed, it is the lighting which makes them appear 3D and therefore fit within the worldbuilding. (Insider, 2020)
Reflection
The ‘2D hand drawn onto 3D models style’ that I have been talking about appears to be a relatively new way to stylize images. Peer reviewed articles have been hard to come by and therefore my research this week has been conducted mainly on a behind the scenes basis. Although the academic literature does not yet seem available, it was important to dissect this style and understand the basis of how it is done. For each example here, the style has developed using technology and software created specifically for each project. It is therefore not yet available to use on a commercial level. This is exciting for my practice. This style lends itself to darker and more gothic styles of drawing and with that in mind I can now use these styles to be at the forefront of it. I draw predominantly fantasy art and have a wish to bring a darker style into children’s books, by studying 2D illustrations with a combination of lighting, 3D models and reduced colour palettes I believe that I can create a style to build upon my already existing style. Critically, it is important to understand that I have not yet achieved this for my practice, but the potential is colossal and by studying these examples I have managed to find the formula of the style, which I can build on for my own personal projects. Below is an example of an original character that I have been working on in a simple line and colour version next to a 3D version. By using heavy shadow and lighting layers I was able to create depth and ensure the image begins to look 3D but remains a 2D drawing. I then played with the colour saturation to mute the tones slightly which made the goblin slightly more realistic in colour.
Major failures occur here regarding technology. Though I have managed to enhance a drawing with lighting to give a 3D effect it is still important to understand that 3D illustration may need to use 3D models themselves. I have limited knowlegde of some softwares and these limitations hugely effect the experimentation that I am able to conduct. I also tried to sculpt this character in Blender with an extremely poor outcome. To develop this style further I can work on what I have already built with the drawings but, I must take the time to develop my digital skills and learn new softwares to ensure that I can use any means neccessary to discover my style and preferred way of working.
Bibliography
Arcane. (2021). Arcane episodes 1-9 [Online video] Available from Netflix. [Accessed 10/11/2022]
EA. (2022). Lost in Random: The art of Random. [Online] Available at < https://www.ea.com/en-gb/games/lost-in-random/news/art-of-random > [Accessed 10/11/2022]
Failes, I. (2019). Here’s what made the 2D animation in ‘Klaus’ look ‘3D’. [Online] Available at < https://beforesandafters.com/2019/11/14/heres-what-made-the-2d-animation-in-klaus-look-3d/ > [Accessed 10/11/2022]
Insider. (2020). How Netflix’s ‘Klaus’ made animation look 3D. [Online video] January 30th. Available at < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlU49dJhfcw > [Accessed 10/11/2022]
Klaus. (2019). Klaus. [Online video] Available from Netflix. [Accessed 10/11/2022]
Mclean, T. (2022). Legendary artistry: how ‘Arcane’ became a popular and critical hit of the moment. [Online] Available at < https://www.animationmagazine.net/2022/01/legendary-artistry-how-arcane-became-a-runaway-hit/ > [Accessed 10/22/2022]
Mihaillova, M. (2021). ‘Coraline A closer look at studio LAIKA’s stop-motion witchcraft’. New York: Bloomsbury publishing inc. [online] Available at < https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/58856 > [Accessed 10/11/2022]
Osborn, S. (2021). When art meets magic: forging the fantasy realm of Lost in Random. [Online] Available at < https://blog.unity.com/games/when-art-meets-magic-forging-the-fantasy-realm-of-lost-in-random > [Accessed 10/11/2022]
Stream Wars. (2021). Making of Arcane-best of behind the scenes. [Online video] November 20th. Available at < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rAbZUZCnL8 > [Accessed 10/11/2022]
Zoink Games. (2021). Lost in Random. [Digital download] Nintendo Switch. California: Electronic Arts.
Chloe Cooper | MA Illustration 
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