Cell Shading in LW: creating the edges/outlines?

[LittleFenris]

I have come to the conclusion that I will just have to paint out any unwanted outlines made by LWs edge filter in each frame if its an animation. I have got decent results using LWs edges, but not perfect by any means. I think some manual drawing will be needed, but just touch up if you use LWs edges...Unreals edges suck. On the topic of cel shaders, Unreal is by far the best. It handles things such as reflections and specularity that the others don't (SCS at least doesn't). I tried BESM and though it looked like crap on the model i tried it on. But maybe its just me. :shrug:

Here is a model I did using Unreal for the shader and Lightwave edges (not pure black):

http://www.littlefenris.com/JPGs/Lightwave/Rocco_CellShaded_Unreal.jpg

The parts I don't want are the lines on the fingers and the lines on his lower jaw. ill just have to paint them out later.

[ArtisticVisions]

The biggest problem I'm having with LW edges is that if I turn on surface edges (in order to outline the hair and skin), it'll create outlines for the eyes and eyelashes (which I do not want).

I also agree about the Unreal edges or ToonTracer. At first, I thought it would give me what I want, but it has the same problems as LW edges (as well as many more....).

[LittleFenris]

it might be a matter of planning the model around the shader. find out what the shader and egde filters do and model the character based on that. like maybe the eyes will have to be in a different layer so they are treated as a different object so you can apply edges and shaders based on objects, not just surfaces. get what i mean?

[ArtisticVisions]

Yeah, I was actually considering trying that to see if it would work or not. I'll try it out and report back.

EDIT: Tried it, but it doesn't seem to make a difference. Also, since the character has mulitple endomorphs, it's just easier to have it all as one object.

[ArtisticVisions]

Well, I found somewhat of a solution; it's still a bit tedious, but it's probably the best I'll get.

The model has LW Edges applied, but I render out the image twice: one with Sharp Creases applied and one without. Using the first as a template, I create the outlines I want on the second image. In addition, I edited and cleaned up the image a bit (smoothed out some of the shadows on the character, etc.).

BTW: sorry for such crappy JPEG images, but since my website isn't online yet, it's all I can upload at this time.

[LittleFenris]

looks good.

[JohnD]

What I've noticed working on my animation with cel shading, is that I don't get as many detailed lines as I want, especially in the face. Aura is really the only answer I have at the moment ( I think it's called "Mirage" now and sold by Bahaus). I'll post some images when I get home from work.

Also another thing I do is if you are having problems getting a thick line around the edges, I batch "stroke" effect in Photoshop all the images to give a more crisp and thicker outline. Just a helpful hint.

[Fasty]

Originally posted by ArtisticVisions
The biggest problem I'm having with LW edges is that if I turn on surface edges (in order to outline the hair and skin), it'll create outlines for the eyes and eyelashes (which I do not want).


I'm not sure what the problem is here, because simply turning on sillouhette edges should give you the hair and skin outlines you want, and keeping surface edges off will keep your eyes edge free. If that doesn't work and you want the eyebrows and hair outlined, putting them on a separate layer shouldn't be too much of a problem should it? :)

[ArtisticVisions]

Originally posted by Fasty
I'm not sure what the problem is here, because simply turning on sillouhette edges should give you the hair and skin outlines you want, and keeping surface edges off will keep your eyes edge free. If that doesn't work and you want the eyebrows and hair outlined, putting them on a separate layer shouldn't be too much of a problem should it? :)
Sillouhette edges also causes a few problems, because of how the area around the eye is modeled it creates outlines where the eye and skin meet. However, I don't want to remodel it cause it'll screw up the eyes too much.

[Fasty]

Oh ok, now I get it. Well you could always patch up the eye socket so that there are no edges any more. The eyeball will just protrude through the polygons and you shouldn't be able to tell. It might take a bit of tweaking but that could work.

[mooncat]

Hi :)

Try assigning a seperate surface to the area where you don't want sillhouette edges to appear, copy and paste the old settings to the new surface in surface editor, but make this new surface double sided.
This way you can isolate parts of the object that you don't want edges to appear.
Hope that helps.
Cheers.

[Tudor]

I simply make my object as several parts. If the character uses bones, I use 'use bones from object'. This way I can set the edges/outline on a per object basis.

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