Toon Shaded
- cel shaded 3d
- toon shading
- NPR shading
- cel shader
A rendered model lit in two or three flat bands instead of a smooth gradient.
Opens an image model with the prompt in it. The price is on the page before you sign in.
What it is for
Quantising light into bands is what lets a three dimensional model read as a two dimensional drawing. The eye takes a flat shape faster than a gradient, so a toon shaded character stays legible at a size where a photoreal one turns to mush.
How it works
The shading is stepped into a fixed number of flat bands with hard edges. An outline is drawn around the silhouette and the interior folds, usually by rendering the back faces slightly larger. Textures are dropped in favour of flat base colours. The specular highlight becomes one hard shape rather than a soft bloom.
When to use it
Use it for games, avatars and anything that has to hold up small. Avoid it when material matters, because flat bands remove every difference between metal, skin and cloth.
Told apart from its neighbours
Anime Cel is painted by hand and has no model under it. Toon Outline is the line rule alone, and can sit on any shading. Hand-Painted Texture keeps the smooth light and paints the detail instead.
- Anime Cel
- Toon Outline
- Hand-Painted Texture
Where it is used
It carries a game asset, an avatar, an explainer and any character that has to survive being shrunk to an icon.
- Cel shaded games and mobile titles
- Music videos and idents
The prompt
Replace the blanks with your own character, keep the rest. Then run it on an image model.
<character>, toon shaded 3D render, the lighting quantised into exactly three flat bands with a hard edge between each one and no gradient anywhere, a lit band, a mid band and a shadow band, a thin dark outline drawn around the silhouette and around the folds, flat base colours with no texture map, one small hard specular shape rather than a soft highlight, a plain background so the bands read clearly
What goes wrong
A smooth render with a slight posterise comes back. Ask for exactly three bands with a hard edge between them, and ban gradients by name.
Leave out
smooth gradients, soft shadow edges, photographic texture, ambient occlusion grime, a glossy falloff
Watch for
Give the number of bands. Two reads as graphic, three as animation, five as a smooth render with steps in it, and a model picks its own unless told.
Questions
Draw it
Pay for the one run. No subscription, and the price is on the model page before you sign in.
