You may have noticed a common look in many images, not only in graphics and animations online, but also in magazines, and in television motion graphics, featuring low-detailed, faceted models, highly rendered, often with soft lighting effects. This is the low-poly look. In this article I'll explore what the low-poly look is, some examples, and how you can create low-poly images. We'll also look at some applications for this look in web designs, and also how this aesthetic may evolve online. The low-poly look is a conscious decision to use fewer polygons in the modelling stage, to create a simpler, more abstract model. Sophisticated rendering techniques, lighting effects and shadowing are used to create a highly realistic appearance of the simplified object. This is why the low-poly look recalls paper-craft or origami, which has also had a renaissance in recent years. Some of the best examples of the low-poly look are the works of Timothy J. Getting started Here is a quick tutorial to achieve the low-poly look, using the 3D software Cinema4D. Using Global Illumination render settings to create soft lighting. The low-poly look illustration style Even if you don't have access to a 3D modelling program, you can still create low-poly images using 2D illustration software such as Illustrator or Photoshop. Decide where your light-source is, and apply shading to add depth and to create a faceted look. His illustrations combine strong compositions with a great mid-century design sense to create a retro-futuristic look — capturing the way the future looked in the past. The recent experimental film by Chris Milk, Rome — 3 dreams of black, uses WebGL to create an interactive music video experience with animated morphing creatures rendered in a low-poly faceted style. The retro-futuristic aesthetic The low-poly look is part of what I call the retro-futuristic aesthetic (itself part of what might be called The New Aesthetic), in that it manages to hark back to the past and the future at the same time.