History Main / CelShading

Be careful when tossing terms around; Cel Shading applies first and foremost to the way the ''lighting'' is rendered. Conventional rendering can still utilize flat colors, simplistic textures, and cartoonish figure proportions. Likewise, Cel Shading can as realistically-proportioned and textured as any hand-drawing. And ''actual'' hand-drawn animation or media is never an example, for obvious reasons.

Cel Shading is a type of computer animation primarily seen in video games that imitates the visual style of hand-drawn comics and cartoons (generally inked sketches painted with flat color tones). In layman's terms, it replaces the shading gradient of 3D rendering with flat colors, as seen in the picture. The style was pioneered with the SegaDreamcast game ''JetSetRadio'', the first game to use 3D polygons to produce a cartoony look. Any drawing style can be imitated, ranging from video game adaptations of {{Anime}} and Western cartoons, to classical paintings such as the game ''{{Okami}}''.

Cel Shading can also be useful to render specific items in an otherwise traditionally-drawn production, if a given scene would be too complicated and work-intensive to animate by hand, such as a rotating object or an EpicTrackingShot traveling down the length of a massive vehicle. In these cases, it's important to calibrate the renderer's style and framerate to match the rest of the production, to minimize the effect of ConspicuousCG (i.e, an item that is ''too'' detailed or ''too'' smoothly animated visually clashing with the rest).

Cel Shading is a type of automated rendering that imitates the visual style of hand-drawn comics and cartoons (generally inked sketches painted with flat color tones); cel-shading generally reduces the calculations of light and shadow effects to one or two solid color tones at a time, and often combines this with visible black rendered outlines around objects and characters to visually distinguish them from a scene's background.

Of course, as there are many different styles of traditional drawing and animation, there is an equally wide variety of styles to Cel Shading, depending on the desired effect: cel-shading can emulate anything from simple SaturdayMorningCartoon to detailed, feature-film quality animation; it can also be combined with PaintingTheFourthWall when emulating comics or manga, and can emulate other visual techniques (such as oil or watercolor painting) as well.

What is usually ''not'' emulated in the cel-shading rendering is the comparatively low framerate of hand-drawn animation: While people will generally accept cartoons that run on only 12 to 14 frames per second (with traditionally-animated films bumped to the 18-24 range), videogames that incorporate cel-shading must generally render at least 30 frames per second (if not a full 60) to be considered effective.

Cel Shading can also be useful to render specific items in an otherwise traditionally-drawn production, if a given scene would be too complicated and work-intensive to animate by hand -- like an EpicTrackingShot traveling down the length of a massive vehicle. In these cases, it's important to calibrate the renderer's style and framerate to match the rest of the production, to minimize the effect of ConspicuousCG (i.e, an item that is ''too'' detailed or ''too'' smoothly animated visually clashing with the rest).

Be careful when tossing terms around: Cel-shading applies first and foremost to the way the ''lighting'' is rendered; the accompanying black outlines (while closely associated) are technically a separate step in the rendering, and these are both entirely separate from a model's actual level of detail (i.e. polygon count and texture complexity) and artistic style (figure proportions and/or caricatures). Works can utilize solid-color model textures and exaggerated character styles without incorporating cel-shaded rendering (thus, not cel-shaded), and by the same token, works can utilize cel-shaded rendering even with realistically proportioned and textured character models. And ''actual'' hand-drawn animation or media is never an example of cel-shading, even though older animation was painted on actual cels (from which the term "cel-shading" derives).

Often uses {{Chiaroscuro}}.

* ''Game/{{Ultimate Spider-Man}}'' used a version that looked a bit more like a comic-book rather than a cartoon.

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cel-shaded-animation.jpg

* The {{MTV}} ''Comicbook/{{Spider-Man}}'' series produced by MainframeEntertainment was computer animated, but done using cel shading.

* ''{{ReBoot}}'' had an episode in a game based on ''[=~Pokémon~=]'' and ''DragonBall Z'' and the entire world was cel shaded, even the main characters when they rebooted into game characters.

* ''Ultimate Spider-Man'' used a version that looked a bit more like a comic-book rather than a cartoon.

* ''PunchOut!!'' for the Wii features this look.

* Envy's true form in ''{{FullmetalAlchemist}}: Brotherhood'' is cel shaded CGI.

* ''StreetFighterIV'' has adopted a sort of inkbrush look.

* ''{{Robotech}}: Battlecry''.

* ''Fear Effect'' is an odd example: It used special textures to fake the look of cel-shading, but the characters weren't actually lit by anything. While it uses a completely different technique from cel-shading, in execution it looks identical.

* ''TransformersEnergon'' used cel shading for the CGI transformers.

Cel Shading is a type of rendering style. The way light interacts with a rounded surface is usually very continuous; however, drawing such continuous gradients on an animated cell is very time consuming. So most lighting on characters tends to be very discontinuous; a round surface is implied via having half of it be fully lit and the other half being dark. Characters also tend to have outlines, which help them stand out more from the background.

Cel shading as a rendering technique is an approximation of this designed to imitate a cartoon. As there are many cartoon drawing styles, there are also many cel shading rendering techniques. These range from a totally flat Warner Bros. style cartoon to highly detailed but stylized high-end animation quality. There are even techniques that emulate comic book, manga, or older visual arts styles like painting.

What is usually not emulated in the rendering technique is the comparatively choppy framerate that most hand-animated cartoons are drawn to. While a live action film usually does around 24 frames per second (the digital age has seen it rise significantly), an animated film does well at 18 and TV shows are closer to 12-14, modern videogames use 30 as a bare minimum. People tend to expect cartoons to be choppy, so cel shading tends to look a little unusual until you get used to it.

Sometimes this technique is used for a specific item when the product is traditionally drawn anyway, usually something that would be overly complicated to animate normally, like an EpicTrackingShot traveling down the length of a massive vehicle. Usually to avoid ConspicuousCG this requires an adjustment of both framerate and the level of detail on the item. Too much detail or too smooth of a framerate and it will clash with the main animation.

It's also possible using various techniques to simulate the black outline many cartoon characters have (see the page image). While it's an entirely different technique from cel-shading, the two are usually used alongside each other.

Be careful when tossing terms around. Cel shading is about light rendering, not modeling or textures. If a work has flat-color textures and cartoonish body proportions, but has a realistic light-and-shadow rendering engine, it's not cel shaded; nor is it if it uses actual hand-drawn animation. If there's no real-time lighting at all, it's definitely not cel shading. On the same note, characters with realistic looks or proportions can be cel shaded just as easily.

Cel Shading is a type of rendering style used by video games to make them look like a hand-drawn cartoon, rather than a more photorealistic (or something [[RealIsBrown approximating]] [[UncannyValley it]]) look. The way light interacts with a rounded surface is usually very continuous; however, drawing such continuous gradients on an animated cell is very time consuming. So most lighting on characters tends to be very discontinuous; a round surface is implied via having half of it be fully lit and the other half being dark. Characters also tend to have outlines, which help them stand out more from the background.

Cel shading as a rendering technique is an approximation of this designed to imitate a cartoon. As there are many cartoon drawing styles, there are also many cel shading rendering techniques. These range from a totally flat Warner Bros. style cartoon to highly detailed but stylized high-end animation quality. There are even techniques that emulate comic book, manga, or older visual arts styles like painting. It is often used in licensed games based on cartoon or (more rarely) comic book licenses to give the game a bit of authenticity.

Some WesternAnimation shows take on this style as well, but even though ''SouthPark'' is done on computers and uses a flat animation appearance, it is not considered cel shaded (though there were several 3D games licensed from it which were.)

Sometimes this technique is used for a specific item when the product is traditionally drawn anyway, usually something that would be overly complicated to animate normally, like an EpicTrackingShot travelling down the length of a massive vehicle. Usually to avoid ConspicuousCG this requires an adjustment of both framerate and the level of detail on the item. Too much detail or too smooth of a framerate and it will clash with the main animation.

Be careful when tossing terms around. Cel shading is about light rendering, not modeling or textures. If a game has flat-color textures and cartoonish body proportions, but has a realistic light-and-shadow rendering engine, like modern Mario and Sonic titles, it's not cel shaded; nor is it if it uses actual hand-drawn animation. If there's no real-time lighting at all, it's definitely not cel shading. On the same note, characters with realistic looks or proportions can be cel shaded just as easily.

The name (if you weren't redirected), For The Cel Of It, is JustForPun. Not to be confused with anything to do with {{Cell Phone}}s.

* ''SlyCooper'

** There are even ''UnrealTournament 1999'' custom skins that go for a cel-shaded look...which looks unusually convincing given that [[GameEngine UnrealEngine1]] doesn't even support programmable shaders at all, or even hardware transform & lighting. (It was originally designed with 3dfx cards in mind, after all.)

* ''TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'' famously used this, causing fans to declare it RuinedFOREVER before it was released. While there were still complaints about the game when it came out, none of them ended up being about the art style. (At least the ones [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks anybody listened to.]])
** To be fair with the fans, early pictures were not nearly as well-made as the released game. Anyone who remembers the infamous early "link winking" picture (which seems to have vanished off the Internet) may thank the ArtEvolution gods.
*** [[http://www.zeldawiki.org/File:Overview2.jpg Here it is.]]

* ''KatamariDamacy'' games usually have no shading, period.

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