Cel Shading vs Low Poly
セルシェーディング / ローポリ
Cel Shading comes from Digital Image Techniques and Low Poly from Digital Art. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.
Cel Shading
Cel shading quantizes continuous 3D lighting into a few flat bands and may add contours, retaining spatial movement while making the surface read like animation cels or printed illustration.
Low Poly
Leaves the few polygons and hard facet changes visible, using simplicity of form as the expression.
| Cel Shading | Low Poly | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 1990s– | 1990s– / revival |
| Family | Digital Image Techniques | Digital Art |
| Kind | Technique | Technique |
| Cues | Shadow split into two or three flat values / Strong outer and crease contours / Uniform color planes with restrained reflections / Three-dimensional motion beneath a drawn surface | Triangular facets / Angular contours / Flat shading / Few vertices |
| Best used for | Giving 3D games and animation a readable drawn surface · Clarifying complex forms in diagrams and interactive exhibits | Scenes that must run light while still reading by silhouette alone · Backgrounds with many terrain and prop pieces held to one facet size |
| Type | Use headlines as strong as the contours and move small copy onto a flat field. | Treat letters as facets too, extruded or laid flat on the surface |
| Composition | Choose an angle where silhouette and light-dark plane division remain clear. | Light from an angle where silhouettes read and facets separate depth |
| Material | Quantize diffuse light to two to four bands, suppress reflection and draw only necessary silhouette and crease lines. | Flat shading, a fixed vertex budget, color assigned per facet |
| Caution | An outline around ordinary 3D shading is not cel shading. The lighting itself must become discrete planes. | Cutting vertices as the only goal removes the ones that defined the silhouette, leaving a lump nobody can identify. |