Cel Shading

セルシェーディング / 1990s– / Technique / Digital Image Techniques

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.

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

Cel Shading — AI-generated interpretation — AI-generated interpretation, not a reference work

Dictionary entry

Best used for: Giving 3D games and animation a readable drawn surface · Clarifying complex forms in diagrams and interactive exhibits
Type: Use headlines as strong as the contours and move small copy onto a flat field.
Composition: Choose an angle where silhouette and light-dark plane division remain clear.
Material: Quantize diffuse light to two to four bands, suppress reflection and draw only necessary silhouette and crease lines.
Caution: An outline around ordinary 3D shading is not cel shading. The lighting itself must become discrete planes.
Further study: Non-photorealistic rendering / Quantized diffuse lighting / Silhouette and crease lines

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