Your 2D games don't necessarily have to look flat. While environments and objects can use shadows and perspective to trick the brain into perceiving depth, characters are slightly more complicated to pull off - that is, unless you get 3D characters into your 2D project.
Here's how
First off, head over to Mixamo, pick a character (or upload your own), pick an animation & download the result.
Then open Blender, clear the stage and import your newly downloaded animation.
Camera Properties setup
Render Properties setup
Output Properties setup
Rendering
The results
Of course there's a lot more to cover but this article should get you through some of the basics with ease.
One of the cool things you could do is go beyond games and use it in your web projects or apps, combine with a few filters & keyframe animations and make some magic happen.
I needed a place that wasn't a portfolio site, wasn't a blog, wasn't a mad scientist's lab but had a little bit of each. Here you'll find a nice balance of game & web development resources, ideas and experiments with a personal touch.
The road so far
There have been a few iterations across the years.
2009
2014
2020
Endnote
I hope you enjoy the journey and thanks for coming along!