Toon (Cel-Shaded) Material

Toon is the cel-shading material. Instead of a smooth gradient from light to dark, the surface breaks into a few flat bands of color with hard edges between them, the look of animated series, anime and comic panels. Rotate the object or move a light and the bands slide across the form.

How it works

The material works out how much light each point gets, then snaps that amount to a step. With no gradient map set, there are two tones: a lit tone and a darker shadow tone, split cleanly. Add a Gradient Map in the Textures tab and its strip of shades decides how many steps there are and where they fall, from a bold two-tone poster look to a softer four- or five-band shading.

Settings

• Color: the base color of every band.
• Gradient Map: the number and spacing of the shading steps.
• Emissive and Emissive Intensity: a flat glow, useful for eyes, lamps and signs.
• Normal and bump maps: add drawn-in detail that still breaks into hard bands.
• Opacity and Wireframe, as on every basic material.

Use it for

Cartoon characters and objects, children's and playful scenes, stylized product explainers, comic-book 3D text and any non-photographic illustration. Pair it with flat Basic shapes for outlines and backgrounds. For softer matte shading without hard steps, use Lambert.