PERFECT Anime/Toon Shading in Blender 4.0!

In this video I show you how to make Perfect Anime/Toon shading by editing the normals. This method allows us to edit the normals of a model without having to manually edit them. It uses Data Transfer modifiers in a creative way to make easy smooth shading with custom normals.

00:00 Intro and Explanation
01:38 Blender Setup
03:09 Defining Shadow Zones
05:04 Editing Topology
06:39 Editing the Normals
08:32 Fine Tuning Normals
10:26 Smooth Normals Explained
11:09 Smooth Normals Setup
12:57 "Painting" the Shadow Transitions
15:24 Fixing Bad Shading while animating
16:26 Custom Normals for body
16:51 Permanent Shadow Zones
17:11 Outro

[SalamaAhmed-pjjv]

Wow, I finally got it. I started to think that good anime shading is one of the top secrets that no one wants to share their knowledge about so that they remain superior. Thank you a lot. I really appreciate that you weren't selfish.

[rajabwali]

Years of searching good anime shadow methods and this is the first tutorial that explains everything smoothly. Thanks!

[_zurr]

I remember the GDC talk about GuiltyGear Xrd doing this and how it was done, and I've been searching for a way to do this fast enough to be good to iterate on, and it's glad to see more people show ways to achieve it.

[Cakemagic]

HOLY SHIT, AFTER LITERALLY YEARS AND YEARS AND YEARS. FINALLY A VIDEO THAT EXPLAIN HOW THIS WORKS!
I always got some bits and pieces here and there and already had an idea how it worked, but it's nice to finally see it in detail.

[GiftGross]

your normal editing add-on is the best christmas gift I've ever recieved bro XD
CANT THX YOU ENOUGH FOR THIS!

[YouluC]

This is pretty impressive, thanks for uploading! I’ve been meaning to try out toon shading but like you said, it’s pretty painful.

[baran]

I have seen a lot of toon shading videos with custom normals in blender, but this has to be the best. You explained everything very well and even for a beginner its very easy to understand. Very nice!

[takapapatapaka]

For anyone lost like I was, if you cannot achieve the snappy normals, and still have a subdivision surface modifier active on the mesh : it's because Subdivision surface does not use custom normals by default, there is a checkbox to activate it in the advanced section of the modifier.

[alan-sf]

Pretty informative video, and you cover quite a bit of subjects too, but I'd highly discourage againts using the mark as sharp or spliting/seprating your mesh as you'd just be spliting the normals and causing posible issues down the line on the shading on the outlines generated from that mesh. If you wanna have an easy way to select the shadows you can simply mark as seam, asuming you are not currently on the UV Unwraping stage of course, it won't affect the look of the shading and won't change the actual UV Mapping unless you Unwrap yourself. If you don't wanna do that, another easy method is to create a temporary vertex group simply for quick selection of specific vertices, it should not affect rigging as long as the name isn't the name of a bone or parented object used to animate the character.

Another thing is that you didn't add support loops to the shadows, that will help with the shading transition and shape. And for those who find Abnormal bothersome you can also simply edit normals by pressing Alt+N, and should be plenty options to change the direction of the vertex normals.

Also, here's a translated slide of how Arc System Works aproaches modeling and a bit on custom normals, at the end of the slide theres links to the other translated articles (Erase spaces within periods, hopefuly this comment wont be marked as spam lol)

docs. google

[SophieBordoni]

I was literally studying this type of shading on my own, mostly taking inspiration from guilty gear, and i was really struggling .. watching multiple videos, all different, and trying to put all the pieces together, and then this gem comes out, you have no idea how helpful this was :3, none talked about the snappy normals, which was exactly what i wanted to achieve.

[alecmackintosh]

Im happy theres more tutorials on how to do this. I've gone with the SDF face shadows instead personally, because it makes transitions really easy and it works well in vrchat.

[DioBrando-zn]

Great video. I knew about this concept from analyzing the shadows in Genshin Impact and the like but this is the first video I've seen break down the method.

[bigboss]

What an incredible way to approach a solution to a problem. Great work.

[knaksi]

I remember attempting something like this years ago, but back then I lacked the general expertise to get anywhere with it. Might give it another go now!

[Lunarsong.]

My friend, reaching your channel today was a miracle, it's the first time I've seen someone willing to share knowledge about this topic to help people, in general, to create better character shadows. I hope your channel grows to a million and your life will be full of happiness Thanks again for sharing this.💯

[sugarydespair]

oml thank you for this! I've tried a few different ways of doing this and none have worked how I want it to. This is easier to understand

[MashuStar]

I did this twice with all manual movement of each normal a couple years ago. I'm glad you found a way to make it more streamlined. :D

[EricDeSantis]

Very informative, makes so much more sense on how to approach after these explanations.

[dragosoprea]

this is the best anime toon shading tutorial i've ever seen

[ZealousP]

This is actually an expensive trick, so I'm holding onto this method. Certain indie groups value this method a great deal