Anime Cel
- anime style
- anime shading
- japanese animation cel
Flat colour with the shadow cut into one hard graphic shape, under a thin even line.
Opens an image model with the prompt in it. The price is on the page before you sign in.
What it is for
Cutting light into flat shapes is what made hand painted animation affordable, and it turned out to read as graphic and modern rather than as cheap. The eye takes a shadow shape faster than a gradient, which is why a face built this way is legible at any size.
How it works
Colour is laid flat with no blending. The shadow is a single shape with a hard edge, placed where a form turns away from the light, and a second darker shape appears only where two forms meet. The line is thin and does not vary much. The hair carries a solid white highlight that is drawn rather than lit.
When to use it
Use it for a character that has to read clearly and feel current. Avoid it when the subject needs weight and texture, because flat colour with a hard shadow removes both on purpose.
Told apart from its neighbours
Cel Animation is its older Western relative, with a softer shadow shape and a heavier line. Cel Shading is the same idea done by a renderer rather than by hand. Shojo Ink is drawn for print, in black and white, with tone sheets instead of paint.
- Cel Animation
- Cel Shading
- Shojo Ink
Where it is used
It carries an avatar, a game asset, a sticker, a thumbnail and a music video frame, and it is the most requested character style there is.
- Japanese television and feature animation
- Modern games and music videos
The prompt
Replace the blanks with your own character, keep the rest. Then run it on an image model.
<character>, anime cel style, flat opaque colour with the shadow cut as one hard edged graphic shape rather than blended, a second darker shape only where two forms meet, a thin dark line of even weight around the figure, a small blown white highlight in the hair as a solid shape, large clear eyes drawn with a hard iris edge, a painted background behind with no outline on it
What goes wrong
A soft airbrushed face with a blurred shadow comes back. Two clauses fix it: the shadow cut as a hard edged shape, and a thin line of even weight.
Leave out
gradients, airbrush shading, a soft shadow edge, a thick tapered outline, a photoreal face, an outlined background
Watch for
The hard shadow edge is the whole look. Say cut and hard edged in the same clause as shadow, or a model returns a smooth gradient and the picture reads as generic digital illustration.
Questions
Draw it
Pay for the one run. No subscription, and the price is on the model page before you sign in.
