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A wireframe pyramid by JavE
4.0 Textures and materials
Textures and materials aren't commonly seen in ASCII art, if you don't count
brick walls and hair. Plastic, metal, wood and skin all look alike in ASCII.
Hairy and spiky textures can be done and often artists use different kinds of
characters for different areas, like dots for clouds and lines for more solid
objects. Experimenting with textures can lead to interesting results.
4.1 Lighting and shadow
Light isn't usually present in ASCII pictures, with the exception of grayscale.
Reflections sometimes work, but normal shadows often end up looking clumsy.
Some artists use slight shading in their line art, usually with periods and
colons. It might a good idea to forget about highlights when drawing eyes (and
perhaps hair too). Just pretend that the ASCII world lives in ambient lighting
without separate light sources.
4.2 Uses for different characters
! used sometimes in lineart and solid style, but the character is very thin
in some fonts and fat in some others
> sometimes useful for lineart, but the angle varies
# used sometimes as the filler character in solid style, not often used in
lineart except for tiny images
$ a common filler character (especially in demoscene art) and common in
grayscale as well, but the brightness of this characters varies in different
fonts
% I've seen it used as a filler too, but the looks it vary a lot as well,
especially between DOS and Windows
& not commonly used due to its problematic shape
' used for all styles, the only problem is that sometimes it is a tiny
straight line, sometimes more like a little slash
( used for lineart, sometimes solid style too, the plumpiness varies a bit
) -"-
* used in line art and solid, but be wary as the size and placement of this
character varies a lot, so it's usually not a good filler
+ not so common in line art, but I love using it in solid art because it's
the only mid-sized character that doesn't reach to the bottom of the line
, used in all styles, sometimes located higher than the period, sometimes
not
- used in most styles, has no problems associated with it
. used in all styles
/ used mostly in lineart, the slantedness varies (especially between DOS and
Windows)
0 not commonly used, the problem is that sometimes it's struck through,
sometimes not, O is better
1 not commonly used
2 not commonly used
3 not commonly used
4 not commonly used
5 not commonly used
6 used in solid style, sometimes grayscale and lineart, useful for little
eyes
7 useful for some shapes of lineart, sometimes solid style too
8 a great filler for solid style, not much used in lineart
9 used in solid style, sometimes grayscale and lineart, useful for little
eyes
: useful for lineart and the edges of solid style
; useful for lineart and the edges of solid style
< sometimes useful for lineart, but the angle varies
= sometimes used for lines
> sometimes useful for lineart, but the angle varies
? mostly used in lineart
@ useful as a solid filler and often for lineart too, especially the eyes.
Shape varies, but usually that doesn't cause problems
A useful for angular shapes, sometimes has serif though
B not commonly used, sometimes seen as a solid filler
C useful for lineart in eyes, noses and stuff like that, sometimes seen as a
solid filler
D sometimes used in lineart
E not commonly used
F used in vertical lines in some line art styles
G not commonly used
H sometimes seen as a solid filler
I sometimes used for vertical lines, but remember that it may be serif and
thus look awkward
J used in slanted vertical lines in some line art styles
K used in slanted vertical lines in some line art styles
L used for angles and sometimes in vertical lines
M common solid style filler together with its lighter version N
N common solid style filler together with M
O usually the best choice for small round shapes, sometimes used in solid
style
P good for antialiasing solid style
Q sometimes used for eyes
R not commonly used
S sometimes used as a solid style filler
T sometimes used in lineart
U sometimes used in lineart
V used in connecting two diagonal lines, something that doesn't look too
good in all fonts
W common solid style filler