Cel Shaders

I've seen a couple of buildings that used Cel (aka Toon) Shaders and know of the occasional avatar. I was wondering if anyone had some more info on how this was done in SL. Tutorial maybe? Big hint? It would be much appreciated info!

Hi Leone. Welcome to SL.

The way cell shading is tyipcally done in SL is by a little trick with doubled prims and transparency. Here's the how-to:

1. Create a prim and hollow it. Put a transparent texture on the outside, and a black texture on the inside. This prim will become your "outline".

2. Create a slightly smaller prim of the same type, give it a solid color, and place it inside the first prim.

Because the exterior of the"outline prim" is transparent, you'll be able to see the "color prim" through it. Because the "color prim" is smaller, you'll see the black interior of the "outline prim" all around the edges.


You mentioned buildings. Becsause they are rectangular and they don't move, often cell shading on buildings is much simpler. The above trick is not usually necessary for non-rounded objects. Just create cartoonish textures and apply them directly to the surface.

Once again Chosen hits it home run with a post!

Also...

There is a lovely tutorial which Forseti Svarog made called the MERRY DRAFT, which shows you how to do cellshade and others.

If you would like one, free, please IM me inworld, even if I'm offline. That'll prompt and remind me to send ya one Leone. Cheerio!

Depending on the effect you want, the inner prim may need to be set to fullbright; if you're using a texture to fake block shading for instance.

To create a one-prim cel shaded sphere follow these instructions(from some notecard I found in-world somewhere)

Create a sphere
Hollow to 95%
Set a blank texture and make the color black(shade color)
Back in the Objects tab, twist B AND E to 180
At the top of the edit window, select "Select texture"
Click the ball once so it selects the outside
Make the color white(main color)

Thanks for that, Zepp. When I first read your instructions, I was skeptical, but somehow this really works. I have no idea why, but it does. Great prim saver.

heheh yeah ditto

i always wonder how people discover these things... just trying every possible combination? lol

btw torley, can you drop that double loop 1-prim example on me? speaking of "how did they discover that?" examples lol

Heh. After posting I realised that it was probably something like this! That'll teach me to post without trying to problem solve properly But I'd definately benefit from ppl's experience so I'll PM/IM and get that info real soon, thanks everyone. But for now it is New Years Eve and I must go get drunk!

Okeydoke will do so! Look for it soon...

Schtuff sent! If anyone else wants, SAY SO! IM me in... Second Life (where else?).

I made that and turned on physics and watched it slow sink into the ground and disappear. Freaky

Finally got around to trying it. That works a treat, though I'd love to have a "show normals" button so I could see how it happened I tried physics and it worked fine for me...I was pushing bright orange cel shaded balls around no problems. Thanks Zepp!

Setting the twist beginning and end both to 180, as far as I've come to understand it, turns the object inside-out....