Toon Render



Animation Master’s Toon Render has a lot to offer. This topic is dedicated to providing the Animation Master Community with an in depth examination of Toon Rendering.


Of the many properties for surfaces, Toon Lines and Toon Shading control how surfaces render when Toon Render is ON in the Rendering Options window.



To turn Toon Render ON, click Tools on the menu bar and select Options, or press Ctrl+P to bring up the Options window. Click on the Rendering tab, make sure that Advance is checked, and click on the OFF next to Toon Render to turn it to ON.



If you open up the Toon Render menu, you will see three different selections: Lines Only, Override Lines, and Override Shading.



Lines Only

If Lines Only is turned to ON, there will not be any shading for the scene that is being rendered. Lines Only cannot be used with Override Shading. If none of the models have Toon Line properties set, all of the lines in the scene will have default values.



For the examination of Toon Render, frame 175 of the project Toys will be used.



This is what is rendered when Lines Only is turned ON with default values for Toon Lines.



The outlines of surfaces are now the only visible definition of the original render. Lines Only is a very simple rendering option, and has no other features inside of itself.

Please continue to my next post on Override Lines.

That wasn't everything I wanted to know.

I'm just settingup the correct color right now. I've got about 20 pages of stuff allready, so don't worry; you'll know more than you want to.

That was everything I wanted to know. I'm outta here!

Ooo...A shiny new forum!

patience grasshopper:)

I for one love the toon render!

Looking foward to seeing this section grow!

Mike Fitz
www.3dartz.com

Override Lines

When Specified Color is selected, the Color Method menu shows a color value. Specified Color for the Lines Only image is set to black, but it can be set to any color. The background color is the color of the camera’s background color, so you can make any combination of color with them.

When Percent of Underlying is selected, the Color Method menu shows a Percent value that can range from 0%-100%.



The default value is 20%. This is what is rendered for Percent of Underlying.



This may look like the Lines Only render, but under a closer look, the lines are not the same color. This is what is rendered when the percentage is increased to 100%.



Now the lines are colored the exact color of their surface’s diffuse color. The blocks, spaceship, and crayon box have a white diffuse color, and that explains why they only have a grey outline of their edges.

Thickness
The Thickness sets the width of the lines. The value ranges from 0 to 20 with 2 as the default. This is what is rendered when the thickness is set to .5.



The lines are much finer, and details that had once been covered up by large lines have come into view. This is what is rendered when the thickness is set to 10.



The thick lines have covered up much of the detail in the scene. If the lines were any thicker, it would be difficult to tell what was in the scene.

Toon Line Bias
The Toon Line Bias sets the amount of line detail for a surface. The smaller the value of Toon Line Bias, the finer the detail that is rendered. The values range from .01 to 1000. This is what is rendered with a Toon Line Bias of 2.



The thickness of this render was set to .5. Far more detail is visible now with a lower value for Toon Line Bias. This is what is rendered for a Toon Line Bias of 500.



Only a small amount of detail is left around the outsides of the main models. This is what is rendered for a Toon Line Bias of .1.



An incredible amount of detail is now visible; however, because there is so much detail, the scene no longer has the look of Toon about it. This would be better used for a stylized look rather than a cartoon.

Please continue to my next post on Override Shading.

Have you tried using a negative bias on the toon lines? I saw Rodney use that trick to create a pseudo-poly-mesh texture one time.

Edit: (The results looked like the bias=0.1 render above.)

Override Shading

Override Shading does exactly what it says it does. It sets the shading for every surface. Remember that you must have Lines Only set to OFF in order to use Override Shading.

There are four different Methods for Override Shading: Standard, Toon, Toon with Fallof, and Toon Gradient Only.



Standard

The Standard method takes the original background, and simply overlays lines onto it. Here is what is rendered with Standard Method.



The Standard method does not have gradients like the other three methods, so the only thing left to do for renders using Standard is to adjust the Override Lines.

Toon
When you select one of the other three Methods, you get another option.



Gradients control how surfaces are shaded, but there is a lot to gradients, so those will be discussed in the next section. The Toon method, in version 12, only renders ambiance with lines, so if you want to use this method with little to know ambiance values, you will have to use lightly colored lines. Otherwise, you will have to turn on Gobal Ambiance, or set the individual Ambiance Intensity; there are faster ways to do this with other methods. This is what will render if you simply turn on the Toon method, and do not change the Specific Color Method Color.



The Spaceman is barely visible. This is what is rendered with any gradient will render with the Toon method that has a white color for the Specific Color Method.



Toon with Falloff

This Method is very similar to the Standard method, except that now you have a gradient that tells how the shading of surfaces will be rendered. Like the Standard method, Toon with Fallof method uses the diffuse color of models as well as the diffuse color of lights to create the color layer for a render.

This is what is rendered when you use the default Two-Tone (with line) gradient.



The render is much brighter now because of how the gradient is set up. There are also solid lines which indicate where the least amount of lighting is on models like the binoculars. Once again, an examination of gradients will be saved for the next section.

Toon Gradient Only
The Toon Gradient Only method does not use the diffuse color of lights to create the color layer of a mask. Instead, it relies on the setup of the gradient, and the diffuse color of the models.

This is what is rendered with the Toon Gradient Only method with the default Two-Tone (with line)gradient.



By selecting a different gradient, you can get a different shading style. This is what is rendered with changes to the line thicknesses, and gradient is now set to the Preset gradient of Two-Tone(Soft).



Please continue to the next section on Gradients

Yes, but you're already a black belt in this kind of stuff!

Gradients

Gradients control how shading is rendered in certin Shading Methods. Animation Master comes with five preset gradients. To select a preset gradient, right click on the gradient bar in the Method menu, and select Preset.



When a different gradient is selected, a new set of key points apears on the Gradient bar.



Each of the gradeints renders differently because of the properties of each key point. The construction of a Gradient is not difficult. Start by deleting all of the key points on the gradient map. To delete a key point, first click on the key point, then right click on it, and select Delete Key.



I suggest saving the cleared gradient so you do not have to delete every key every time. To save a Gradient, right click on the Gradient bar, and select Preset, and then select Create at the bottom. Name this gradient CLEARED. If you look at the presets, the new gradient will appear.



Now that the gradient is cleared, new points can be added without being changed by prexisting points. To add a point, left click anywhere on the Gradient bar. The points you add will be set to the default value which is based on the percent the key point is at and creates a grey scale gradient. To look at the properties of the key point, first left click on the key point, then right click on the key point, and select Key Settings.



At the top, you have the Position. This is the location of your key point on the gradient. Setting different values will move the point. The closer the percentage is to 100%, the farther right the key point is, and visa versa for percentages closer to 0%. Next is the Color. The color has two options: This Color, and Object Color. If you select This Color, the Gradient will be set to that color at that point.

Topic is currently under Construction

This is all very very interesting.Thank you for all the efforts you have put in this tutorial.

Wow Matt! That is quite an exhaustive coverage of the topic. Well done.

I am going to move this topic to a Wiki page. Here is the link. Right now, nothing is uploaded, so it will still be under construction.

This Wiki will have all of the features on it.