Add depth to a sprite?

Hi,
I am prototyping an idea without an artist, and I need some tricks to get something that works fine visually. I want to be able to move the camera in a 3D environment but there will also be 2D characters there (as my friend and I only know how to animate using Anima2D). We think it would be ok if our character is like a carton print (see image https://ibb.co/gUFWfF) as long as when we look at it from the side it doesn't disappear completely.

I have been trying to add a mesh to the Sprite, but it gets into conflict with the Sprite Renderer. Another option would be to create a 3D object from the sprite, but then we cannot animate it.

Any idea on what could I try?

I think this could lead to a cool style, it would be interesting to try.

Thanks!

 

A sprite is not meant to have a 3D style view really so I don't believe to my knowledge there is a way to do it and keep it as a sprite. The only thing I could recommend is making the sprite always face the camera. Otherwise to get the effect you want you would have to make an actual 3D object with very little depth to get the effect from the picture you posted.

-Alexander

 

Typically you'd have the Sprite always face the camera. If your camera has a lot of free movement then you can have the Sprite face the camera and point World Up so it still appears planted on the ground

 

I want to be able to rotate around the character, so keeping the script facing the camera does not work with the aesthetic purpose of the game. But thanks for your reply!

 

Yeah, that s what I thought, so if that s the only way we will have to forget about using Anima2D... Thanks!

 

I'd suggest rendering your Sprites with a special shader to add some fake depth and extrude the sprite alongside it's Z-axis.