5 o’clock shadow

I’m gearing up for a new animation project (SURPRISE! It’s Star Wars related) and I wanted to add some more depth to my characters. So, I draw and create the characters in Flash and then export a PNG sequence to be compiled in Premiere. Before I bring in the sequence I’m experimenting with performing a batch render on the images to add an Inner Bevel to them. This will give the flat characters a shadow and a highlight. It’s not perfect for a 3D shaded character, but it can be a fairly automated process. The image below is the before and after of this process.  I’ll have an animation test posted a bit later.

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