History Main / ForTheCelOfIt

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

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.)

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 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.

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 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.

Often uses {{Chiaroscuro}}.

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.
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!!Examples:

[[AC:Anime and Manga]]
* ''{{Appleseed}}'' -- The 2004 movie and its sequel, ''Ex Machina''.
* ''TransformersEnergon'' used cel shading for the CGI transformers.
* ''GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex'' used excellent cel shading on the CG Tachikomas. Other CG vehicles tended to be rather more [[ConspicuousCG conspicuous]].
* ''Freedom'', which had character designs by KatsuhiroOtomo.
* ''InitialD'' Fourth Stage uses cel shading to great effect, compared to the ConspicuousCG of earlier stages.
* Envy's true form in ''{{FullmetalAlchemist}}: Brotherhood'' is cel shaded CGI.
** Also the various animated suits of armour.

[[AC:VideoGames]]
* ''{{Goosebumps}}: Attack of the Mutant'' was, apparently, one of the first games to use cel-shaded graphics.
* ''TheSimpsonsGame''
* ''RedSteel 2'' does this, which actually makes the game look better on the Wii than if they were to go for a realistic style.
* ''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.
** ''TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' also has a cel-shading style (made to look like an impressionist painting rather than a cartoon), but set on characters with proportions more in line with ''TwilightPrincess''. [[HistoryRepeats It got the same initial reaction]].
* ''JetSetRadio'' and its follow-up ''Jet Set Radio Future''
** In fact, the Dreamcast version of ''Jet Set Radio'' [[TropeCodifier developed the basic technique for cel shading in videogames for the first time.]] It was the earliest true 3D game to deliberately incorporate manga-esque cel shading into its graphics engine.
* ''CelDamage''
* ''[[MusashiSamuraiLegend Musashi: Samurai Legend]]'', loose sequel to ''BraveFencerMusashi''
* ''DarkCloud 2''
* ''RogueGalaxy''
* ''{{Killer7}}''
* ''LemmingballZ''
* ''FutureBoyConan''
* ''SlyCooper'
* ''SteambotChronicles''
* ''ViewtifulJoe''
* ''Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People'' adopts the style of its parent web animated series HomestarRunner.
* ''{{XIII}}''
* ''{{Okami}}'' and ''{{Okamiden}}'' - In this case it's more like "classical Japanese painting shaded"
* ''ShinMegamiTenseiNocturne'' and both ''DigitalDevilSaga'' games.
* ''TalesOfSymphonia'', ''TalesOfVesperia'' and ''TalesOfGraces''. Playing one after the other shows how Namco's cel-shading abilities [[ArtEvolution got better and better.]]
* ''DragonQuest [[DragonQuestVIII VIII]]'' and ''[[DragonQuestIX IX]]''.
* ''NoMoreHeroes'' [[NoMoreHeroes2DesperateStruggle and its sequel.]]
* ''{{Wild ARMs 3}}'', done to hide the fact that the models are almost PS1-quality. All subsequent ''WildArms'' games utilize it much better, however.
* The 2008 ''PrinceOfPersia'' game, another painted-style approach.
* ''BreathOfFire: Dragon Quarter''.
* ''Ultimate Spider-Man'' used a version that looked a bit more like a comic-book rather than a cartoon.
* ''ZoneOfTheEnders: The Second Runner'' used a subtler version to give the visuals a unique style.
* The ''{{Naruto}}: Ultimate Ninja'' series
* The ''{{Dragonball}} Z Budokai'' and ''Budokai Tenkaichi'' series, starting with the second one. (The Gamecube version of the first ''Budokai'' had something ''like'' cel-shading, though.)
* ''{{Bomberman}} Jetters.'' Interestingly, the Japanese version of the game ''wasn't'' cel-shaded.
* ''{{Bleach}}: Shattered Blade''
* ''ValkyriaChronicles'': Looks like a chiaroscuro drawing painted with watercolors.
* ''StreetFighterIV'' has adopted a sort of inkbrush look.
* ''PunchOut!!'' for the Wii features this look.
* ''ChromeHounds'' uses cel-shading in a subtle manner, similar to ''ZoneOfTheEnders 2''.
* A good deal of [[http://xenoaisam.wordpress.com/ XenoAisam]]'s custom ''UnrealTournament2004'' skins are celshaded; this makes them stick out, as not only are they not affected by lighting, but ''[=UT2004=]'' itself is not celshaded.
** 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.)
* ''UnderTheSkin''
* ''{{Futurama}}''
* ''{{Robotech}}: Battlecry''.
* ''{{Digimon Savers}}: Another Mission'', [[MarketBasedTitle released in English as]] ''DigimonWorld Data Squad''.
* ''MegaManX: Command Mission''
* ''AutoModellista'' is notable as the only auto racing game to use cel shading.
* The second ''FullMetalAlchemist'' video game uses cel shaded graphics and looks a lot better for it.
* ''AtelierRorona''
* ''[=~Action Doom 2: Urban Brawl~=]'' is an interesting example - cel shading in the ''{{Doom}}'' engine! It's done by having all the sprites drawn with thick black outlines, and all the level geometry surrounded with black wafer-thin rectangles visible only from the inner side, thus making the map geometry look like it's got a black outline too no matter what angle it's viewed from.
* ''NarutoClashOfNinja''

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* 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.
* ''TheDrinkyCrowShow''.
* ''{{Skyland}}'': A weird middle ground between [[{{anime}} cartoon]] style and {{realism}}, leading down into the UncannyValley.
* The CGI parts of ''{{Futurama}}'', such as the Planet Express ship and the New New York backdrop, are cel-shaded so well that in some scenes, the ''animation staff'' (in the DVDCommentary) can't tell what's CG and what's hand-drawn.
* Because of their bigger budgets, post-revival epsiodes of ''FamilyGuy'' use cel-shaded CG for things like cars and moving backgrounds.
* ''IronManArmoredAdventures''
* ''TheIronGiant'': The Giant is CG, and fits perfect with the traditionally-animated human characters and landscapes. This is largely because the animation team added subtle imperfections to the Giant's outline and framerate to make it more closely resemble traditional animation.
* ''StarWarsCloneWars'': The CGI vehicles.
* The wildebeest stampede from ''TheLionKing'' was created this way.
* {{Disney}}'s ''{{Tangled}}'' was originally supposed to look like an oil painting on canvas, but the technology was never perfected, so it ended up being done with conventional computer animation. However, the look is much softer and more fluid than any movie that's come beforehand, and the character designs are a very good translation of Disney 2D.
* ''TransformersPrime'' is animated in CG, but the overall look of the show emulates elements of both regular CG and Cel Shaded graphics. What is done is in addition to the "hard line" shadow they also added a third level, a reflective highlight to the metal forms, and so achieving a "cel shaded but not quite cel shaded" look to it. The regular humans have a bit more of a traditional CG appearance, but the hard shadow is still apparent and they have slightly exaggerated proportions to better blend with the hyper-stylized robots.

[[AC:Other]]
* A software called [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=as1RIDef6fs Dance×Mixer]].
* Character-poser software such Poser and Daz Studio, and full animation suites such as Carerra and [=3DSMax=], have a cel-shader packaged or available as an optional extra. 3D Custom Girl features cel-shading by default. The last one is used more for producing hentai images, but [[{{Rule34}} so are all the others]].


[[AC:Not cel-shading, but often mistaken for it]]
* ''{{Borderlands}}'' used black outlines and textures with penciled-in lines to give the game a stylized ComicBook-esque look, but the lighting and shading was done realistically.
* ''KatamariDamacy'' games usually have no shading, period.
* ''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.
* At the time Disney made ''TheGreatMouseDetective'', a method for placing [=CGI=] directly into an animated film didn't exist. The clock innards were created as wire-frame graphics, printed out and rotoscoped onto the animation cels. Retroactively, this achieves exactly the same look as modern-day cel-shaded animation.
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* ''TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'' famously used this(even [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtW6G7Znx64 this user]] sites it as MostTriumphantExample), 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.]])

[[AC:Not cel-shading, but often mistaken for it.]]

* ''{{Borderlands}}'' used black outlines and textures to give the game a stylized ComicBook-esque look, but the lighting and shading was done realistically.

* ''{{Borderlands}}'', an FPS with an entire freeroam world Cel-Shaded, including [[GunPorn all 87 Billion guns (they stopped counting at 17 million)]].
** Done because the game initially looked like another bog-standard RealIsBrown Xbawks shooter, and the cel-shading helped it to stand out among the crowd.
** It managed to stand out so much, that now every single goddamn new game that uses cel shading or just colorful graphics always gets compared to it. Always. It's worse than "Halo invented fps" and "Wow was the first mmo".

* An odd case: At the time Disney made ''TheGreatMouseDetective'', a method for placing [=CGI=] directly into an animated film didn't exist. The clock innards were created as wire-frame graphics, printed out and rotoscoped onto the animation cels. Retroactively, this achieves exactly the same look as modern-day cel-shaded animation.

* ''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.]])

Cel Shading is a type of rendering style used by video games to make them look like a 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.

* The freeware title ''Lemmingball Z''.

* The ''SlyCooper'' series

* ''NoMoreHeroes'' and its sequel.

* The ''{{Futurama}}'' game.

* ''{{Digimon Savers}}: Another Mission'', released in English as ''DigimonWorld Data Squad''.

* ''Auto Modellista'' is notable as the only auto racing game to use cel shading.

What is usually not emulated in the rendering technique is the comparatively choppy framerate that most hand-animated cartoons are drawn to. While a cartoon is doing well to run at 18 frames per second, 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.

* ''TheIronGiant'': The Giant is CG, and fits perfect with the traditionally-animated human characters and landscapes.
** This is largely because the animation team added subtle imperfections to the Giant's outline and framerate to make it more closely resemble traditional animation.

* ''[[MusashiSamuraiLegend Musashi: Samurai Legend]]'', loose seuel to ''BraveFencerMusashi''

* ''TalesOfSymphonia'', ''TalesOfTheAbyss'', ''TalesOfVesperia'' and ''TalesOfGraces''. Playing one after the other shows how Namco's cel-shading abilities [[ArtEvolution got better and better.]]

* ''InitialD'' Fourth Stage uses cel shading to great effect, compared to the ''ConspicuousCG'' of earlier stages.

* ''TheSimpsons Game''

* ''{{Borderlands}}'', an FPS with an entire freeroam world Cel-Shaded, including all 87 Billion guns (They stopped counting at 17 million).

** The only people I've ever heard of complaining about the art style of the game was for the cartoonish body proportions, not the cel-shading.

* JetSetRadio and its follow-up ''Jet Set Radio Future''
** In fact, the Dreamcast version of ''Jet Set Radio'' [[TropeCodifier developed the basic technique for cel shading in videogames for the first time.]] It was the earliest true 3D game to deliberately incorporate manga-esque cel Shading into its graphics engine.
* CelDamage
* ''Musashi: Samurai Legend'', loose seuel to ''BraveFencerMusashi''

* The majority of, if not all of the Ps2 ''ShinMegamiTensei'' titles.
** ..you mean Nocturne. Which is just one. If you're talking about SMT main series, there was only one to choose from. Even if you're talking about the games that have been given the SMT moniker in the west, Nocturne is still the only one that's cel-shaded.
*** Not true. DigitalDevilSaga uses the Nocturne engine, so it also qualifies
* ''TalesOfSymphonia'', ''TalesOfTheAbyss'', ''TalesOfVesperia'' and ''TalesOfGraces''. Playing one after the other shows how Namco's cel-shading abilities got better and better.

* ''NoMoreHeroes''

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

* the ''{{Naruto}}: Ultimate Ninja'' [[LicensedGame games]]

* ''StreetFighter IV'' has adopted a sort of inkbrush look.

* ''ChromeHounds'' uses cel-shading in a subtle manner, similar to ZoneOfTheEnders 2.
* A good deal of [[http://xenoaisam.wordpress.com/ XenoAisam]]'s custom ''UnrealTournament2004'' skins are celshaded; this make them stick out, as not only they aren't affected by lighting, but ''[=UT2004=]'' itself is not celshaded.

* ''{{Digimon Savers}}: Another Mission'', released in English as ''Digimon World Data Squad''.

* Auto Modellista is notable as the only auto racing game to use cel shading.

* [[{{Disney}} Disney's]] {{Tangled}} was originally supposed to look like an oil painting on canvas, but the technology was never perfected, so it ended up being done with conventional computer animation. However, the look is much softer and more fluid than any movie that's come beforehand, and the character designs are a very good translation of Disney 2D.

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<<|AnimatedTrope|>>
<<|JustForPun|>>
<<|VideoGameTropes|>>

* ''TalesOfSymphonia''
** ''TalesOfVesperia'' even moreso, to the point it looks like an anime at first glance.

* A good deal of [[http://xenoaisam.wordpress.com/ XenoAisam]]'s custom ''{{Unreal}} Tournament 2004'' skins are celshaded; this make them stick out, as not only they aren't affected by lighting, but ''[=UT2004=]'' itself is not celshaded.

* ''InitialD' Fourth Stage uses cel shading to great effect, compared to the ''ConspicuousCG'' of earlier stages.

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

!!Examples

* [[{{Disney}} Disney's]] {{Tangled}} was originally supposed to look like an oil painting on canvas, but the technology was never perfected, so it ended up being done with conventional computer animation. However, the look is much softer and more fluid than any movie that's come beforehand, and the character designs are a very good translation of Disney 2d.