Cel-Shaded Character

This recipe takes a character mesh from default to anime-ready toon. The result is the classic three-band cel look with a colored shadow tint, a fresnel rim, and an inverted-hull outline. It is also the single most-used material profile in the Preset Gallery.

What you’ll build

An anime-style character with a warm-to-cool diffuse ramp, a rim glow from the key light, a single stylized specular highlight, and a clean 1.5-pixel black outline.

Video

The finished cel-shaded character rotating under a moving key light, showing the ramp shadow tint, fresnel rim, stepped specular, and inverted-hull outline.

how-to/cel-shaded-character/result.mp4

The finished anime-style character this recipe builds.

Requirements

A skinned mesh character (the Genesis Samples ship one).
An albedo and normal map.
A 256x4 ramp texture (or the Ramp Creator).
Genesis in Toon rendering mode.

Steps

1. Set up the base material

Create a Genesis material, drop it on the character, set Rendering Mode → Toon. Assign albedo and normal in the Maps foldout.

2. Author the ramp

Open Tools > Genesis > Ramp Creator. Drop two color stops: a warm peach for the lit band, a cool muted purple for the shadow. Save as RAMP_Skin.png.

3. Enable cel shading (Ramp mode)

In Lighting → Cel Shading, switch to Ramp. Assign RAMP_Skin. Lower Smoothness to 0.01 for a hard ink edge.

4. Add rim lighting

Lighting → Rim. Set Color to a warm white, Power to 4, Intensity to 1.2. The rim defines the silhouette against dark backgrounds.

5. Specular highlight

Lighting → Specular. Choose Stepped(1) for a single anime-style highlight blob. Set size and intensity to taste.

6. Outline

Effects → Outline. Enable. Width 1.5, Color near-black, Cull Front. The inverted-hull stroke now wraps the silhouette.

If the outline looks chunky on tight features (fingers, eyelashes), drop Width to 0.8 and bake outline thickness into a vertex color channel.

7. Adjust shadow color

Open _CelShadowColor in the Lighting foldout. Push toward cool purple for skin; toward green for foliage; toward red for cloth. This is the signature toon move.


material.SetColor("_CelShadowColor", new Color(0.50f, 0.42f, 0.58f));
material.SetFloat("_CelShadowIntensity", 0.85f);

Verifying

Single-threshold cel, faint outline, neutral shadow.

Ramp cel, warm rim, stepped specular, colored shadow tint, clean outline.

Default Toon

Finished character

The default Toon material versus the finished recipe. Drag to compare.

Variations

Soft toon: switch to Stepped(5) with Smoothness 0.05. Reads more painterly.
Hard ink: Single mode + Smoothness 0. Manga look.
Hybrid PBR: keep Lit mode and only enable Cel → Stepped. Specular and reflections stay physical.