As many people may know, adding realism into art maps is hard and plays a key role in making a bigger impression!

So here's some tips and tricks explaining the plots behind the best approach to realism! (Note: all art is opinion, what you may think is the best approach may not be for others, and what you may think is realistic may also not be for others.)

Outlines vs Shading
Outlines are very important in the P5 catagory, however when it comes to realism you should be more focused on shades over outlines, there is no outlines in real life; along with the fact that doing this will save you grounds.

Compromisation
If you plan to make your make look realistic, things will be a bit hard, you will likely run out of grounds or a mech won't work. This is where compromisation comes in and it is a MUST in any map making.

Say you are now out of grounds but would still like to add a falling stair case, use a shaman plank, or anything you can think up. Same for the art itself, if you are out of grounds, use a Mice Item. An added bonus to this is mice items already have shadings, plus a lot can be color costumized to your liking!
Note: You should compromisation during map making; not after.

Z Formating
This is a bit of a secret tip, but you should go backwards when creating realistic art. So make the small things first and add bigger things to it with lowering Z values. This is because you can have more of a focus of where you need things; say you make the eyes first, then add a face area, body and background. Specifically you should go in this order.

Middle Z Values > Foreground Z Values > Background Z values
In other words
Structure then Details then Base Structure.

It should give you the best idea of what to do next, and what would give you the best compromisation while you run into problems.
Note: again what you may see as the best way may be different from this; so if you are not comfortable working in this format, try another.

Shading; Foregrounds and Backgrounds
First please look at this, this will be your guide.


(The Mouse is the box)
There are four shades you should be looking for here, however take note you should only do up to three shades at a time, and should try to use only two.
Notice how shades three and four go infrount of the box? These are your foreground shades. With one and two, they are you background shades.

Shade one: should be used as a dark background that should always be behind the mouse.
Shade two: should be used as a depth groundrarely infrount of the mouse.
Shade three: should be used as a base ground to decorate, depending on shade depth is when it should be foreground or background.
Shade four should be used as a depth ground and should always be foreground.

Shading added onto shade three might not be considered shade four, but more of a shade three and a half.

These shading rules/guidelines may be a bit confusing at first but if you can get the hang of it your maps will look a lot better.

Movement
No don't worry about movement; in no way does a real looking map need to be all meched out. However adding even a gravitational movement to some grounds or even just dynamic objects can spice up the map. Most things in life move a tiny bit at the least, so you should add some movement to your smaller details, maybe an arm, an eyeball, or a mouth. Some examples of these can be found in these maps.
@3762262
@2996913
@3731172

Final product; and Other Tips
Before finishing you should feel comfortable with your work, if you're not you may have more to do. Just as long as you don't give up on your work you should be fine. Continue making edits after you're done as Transformice updates with more goodies.

Remember to use Mice Items, and place everything somewhere practical. Please remember that because this is Transformice, realism is limmited, so don't expect to make something that will look exactly like a human; try shooting for anime, video games or cartoons. Just make sure you shade it well and it will be very enjoyable. You should also remember to view all realism from the view of the mouse vs the sun/moon(light).

I hopes this helped you; and please if there are any mistakes in the thread please let me know and I will fix them.

Great tutorial chris.

This is amazing and I use these techniques. A+