Flash 3D

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Depth Cues:

Creating the Illusion of Depth

The illusion of depth can be illustrated within a two-dimensional space. The key words here are illusion and illustrated. Whether you are drawing on a piece of paper or painting pixels on a computer screen, you are working with two physical dimensions: height and width. Depth is the third dimension. However, you can’t reach into the computer screen or extend objects in front of it. You can look only at the flat picture being projected.

So if there is no actual depth in the image, how do we simulate three-dimensional space? The answer is right in front of us. We start with our perception of depth and the visual cues found in the real world. Artists throughout the centuries have relied on their depth ...