An advanced realtime cel shader project. Questions and suggestions welcome.
Download
Standalone shader project and presents can be found at GitHub: https://github.com/antidamage/CelShader
Quick start
* Migrate the CelShader folder from the sample to your target content folder.
* In your project create a global (unbound) post-processing object.
* Go to the Misc tab and add the CelShader instance as a blendable.
It's that easy.
Documentation
Right here: http://skull.co.nz/cel-shader-introduction/
Overview
Colour
Debug your shader here. You can enable/disable the shader entirely, or force it to only draw lines. This in itself is a neat effect.
Cel Detail Shading
This manages the lines drawn when detail in the scene and in textures are outlined. These lines default to light. Cel detail always shades near to the camera and you can control the falloff as distance increases.
Cel Outline Shading
These are the lines drawn around objects based on differences in screen-space depth. These lines default to heavy and can have a mask texture applied to roughen the edges. Cel outlines have a band in the scene depth that can be targeted for shading. Offset is the distance from the camera. Ramp is the linear fade-in and fade-out distance.
Distance overbright
This controls a blend_overlay fog that is useful for colour-grading the scene. In the screenshot above it's used to give distant objects a warm desert-feeling glow.
Shadow Shading
This controls the cross-hatching on your scene. The cross-hatching will target areas with AO shadows. You can also posterize your AO to give it a more cartoony feel. The values in this section have a quite narrow window where they look good, I'd recommend only adjusting them by a tiny bit at a time.
Print dots
Passes the colour channel through a filter that simulates web offset printing, allowing you to set the paper colour and the ink density.
Saturation
Self-explanatory.
Posterize
Posterizes the colour channel to a specified number of colours.
Final tip
If you're getting too many lines drawn, try either lowering the resolution of your textures or go into photoshop and apply a smart blur. The cel shader will pick up even tiny amounts of detail with the right settings, so go nuts and blur it a lot. If you're after a kind of water-colour fill effect, then smart blur is the way to go.
Presets
Anime shader
Anime shader
Newsprint shader
Sumi shader
Coloured pencil shader
Oil painting shader
Download
Standalone shader project and presents can be found at GitHub: https://github.com/antidamage/CelShader
Quick start
* Migrate the CelShader folder from the sample to your target content folder.
* In your project create a global (unbound) post-processing object.
* Go to the Misc tab and add the CelShader instance as a blendable.
It's that easy.
Documentation
Right here: http://skull.co.nz/cel-shader-introduction/
Overview
Colour
Debug your shader here. You can enable/disable the shader entirely, or force it to only draw lines. This in itself is a neat effect.
Cel Detail Shading
This manages the lines drawn when detail in the scene and in textures are outlined. These lines default to light. Cel detail always shades near to the camera and you can control the falloff as distance increases.
Cel Outline Shading
These are the lines drawn around objects based on differences in screen-space depth. These lines default to heavy and can have a mask texture applied to roughen the edges. Cel outlines have a band in the scene depth that can be targeted for shading. Offset is the distance from the camera. Ramp is the linear fade-in and fade-out distance.
Distance overbright
This controls a blend_overlay fog that is useful for colour-grading the scene. In the screenshot above it's used to give distant objects a warm desert-feeling glow.
Shadow Shading
This controls the cross-hatching on your scene. The cross-hatching will target areas with AO shadows. You can also posterize your AO to give it a more cartoony feel. The values in this section have a quite narrow window where they look good, I'd recommend only adjusting them by a tiny bit at a time.
Print dots
Passes the colour channel through a filter that simulates web offset printing, allowing you to set the paper colour and the ink density.
Saturation
Self-explanatory.
Posterize
Posterizes the colour channel to a specified number of colours.
Final tip
If you're getting too many lines drawn, try either lowering the resolution of your textures or go into photoshop and apply a smart blur. The cel shader will pick up even tiny amounts of detail with the right settings, so go nuts and blur it a lot. If you're after a kind of water-colour fill effect, then smart blur is the way to go.
Presets
Anime shader
Anime shader
Newsprint shader
Sumi shader
Coloured pencil shader
Oil painting shader
Thanks for the feedback!
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