Tutorial: An Orbital Parallax Effect With Hexels

Generating an illusion of depth using layered 2D elements.

Marmoset has recently shared a tutorial by Mark Knight on using Hexels to create a dynamic, comic book style sequence with an orbital parallax effect.

Here is small piece to get you interested:

A parallax effect is an illusion of depth using layered 2D elements. Foreground layers move at a different speed to background layers depending on their perceived distance from the camera.

This animation is an example of Asymmetrical Scrolling. It’s created by looping multiple tiling planes at varying speeds.

An Orbital Parallax effect, on the other hand, simulates a camera orbiting a pivot point.

Elements beyond the pivot point move in the opposite direction to those ahead of the pivot point. The closer an object is to the pivot point, the less it appears to move.

I started with the Pixels Trixels 1080p template and doubled the canvas size from 1920×1080 to 3840×2160.

I drew a cityscape on a Pixel layer using the Line tool (L) with my pencil size set to 5.

Marmoset 

Here is the final result:

Make sure to check out the full guide to find out how it was created. 

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