Mecha Line
- mecha style
- hard surface anime
- panel line style
Hard surfaces divided into panels, with every edge, seam and vent drawn as a line.
Opens an image model with the prompt in it. The price is on the page before you sign in.
What it is for
Dividing a surface into panels tells the viewer the thing was assembled, and a seam is the cheapest way to say manufactured. The lines also give a large flat shape something to be, which is why a plain hull looks unfinished without them.
How it works
Every surface is broken into plates with a seam between them. Vents, rivets and markings sit on the plates. The panel lines are thin and even; the outline of the whole figure is heavier. Each panel takes one flat shadow shape. Wear appears on the edges of the plates, where a real machine would rub.
When to use it
Use it for anything built rather than born: machines, armour, vehicles, hard props. Avoid it on cloth and skin, where panel lines read as scars.
Told apart from its neighbours
Anime Cel is the shading treatment this uses, applied to a figure rather than to plating. Stylised PBR reaches the same subject through a renderer. Toon Outline is the outline rule alone, without the panels.
- Anime Cel
- Stylised PBR
- Toon Outline
Where it is used
It suits box art, a game asset, a poster and any picture of a machine that should look like it could be taken apart.
- Mecha anime and model kit art
- Game concept art and box art
The prompt
Replace the blanks with your own character, keep the rest. Then run it on an image model.
<character>, mecha line style, every surface hard and manufactured and divided into separate panels with a visible seam line between each one, small vents and rivets and warning markings drawn on the plating, a thin precise line of even weight for the panels and a heavier line around the silhouette, flat colour with one hard shadow shape per panel, a low three quarter view, weathering and scuffing only along the edges of the plates
What goes wrong
A smooth toy like robot with no seams comes back. Ask for the panels and the seam lines first, before any detail, and put the wear on the plate edges only.
Leave out
organic curves, soft edges, a single unbroken surface, gradients, an even coat of grime, cloth
Watch for
Two line weights, not one. The panel seams are thin and the silhouette is heavy, and without that difference the figure reads as a flat diagram rather than as a built object.
Questions
Draw it
Pay for the one run. No subscription, and the price is on the model page before you sign in.
