Silhouette and mirrored rendering

Rendered frames of a 3D animation can be thought of as individual drawings of traditional 2D animation. Similar to animating with pencil and paper, we must check our digital 3D drawings to see if everything looks proper on the screen.

Two often used techniques to check the quality of a pose for animation are viewing it as a silhouette and with a mirror. When we stare at our work for great amounts of time—and that is particularly true for animators—it becomes difficult to spot imperfections.

When you have a silhouette version of your drawing, all fine details such as textures and shading are removed, and you can focus only on the main shape of your pose. If your pose can be "read" by the audience in silhouette form and communicates what your character feels, you can be sure it will work in the full, shaded version.

Traditional animators also often use mirrors to check their drawings. After being so long in front of a picture, our eyes get used to that shape...