what is the best rendering tool for toon shading??

[klingspor]

Any renderer will be able to render out the cel shading effect as it's essentially just a ramp shader.

The bigger problem is the outline rendering, which will probably have to be comped in later anyway. I've had best results using Maya software with Paint FX, the polygon mode never looks right to me. That, or mental ray's contour shaders which produce visually pleasing results but is far less controllable than Maya's Toon outlines.

Another alternative is the vector renderer, which however has never given me good results in anything more complex than a simple one-color-one-width outline.

Overall, I'd say do it in comp as a post process... if that's not an option, go with Maya software.

[Sphere♥]

Have a look at the toon examples in the Visor for ways to create different effects using Maya's own toon tools.

[yenvalmar]

i'd probably use the mental ray contour lens shader thing.. its more fire and forget. the pfx can be made to look a lot better but i find it often needs tweaking shot by shot basis.

[jupiterjazz]

this is my first time using toon shaders..
i am rendering it for a tv series..what is the best render in maya software render,mental ray or some other type for toon shaders..thanks.

Usually toon-style rendering is a combination of proper toon shading and outlines.

Toon shading can be easily achieved with the Ramp shader (as it is used in the Maya toon menu for the fill shaders). You should then enhance the look with hatching by texturing channels with a proper shading network. You can render this with any renderer.

Contour outlines can be achieved with Maya's pfxtoon, this is a great and unique tool which provides an incredible control on the outlines, and you see the outlines in the OpenGL view. Again you can render this with any renderer.

You can also achieve contours with mental ray contour shaders, which are added at rendertime are, in my opinion, implemented quite badly in Maya. If you want to use mental ray contour outlines you should really use XSI which has some better controls (and provides also a nice toon shader). Anyway, they lack of control during modeling-animation, are incapabile of previewing the effect and especially there is a lack of texturing and control of the look of the contour outlines. So use pfx toon which is really powerful compared to mental ray contours.

Another good solution was Dave Gordon's Espressive Effects, I don't know if he compiled his nice plugin for latest Maya versions: Expressive Effects
http://www.algorithmic.com/efx.html

Since I was speaking of outlines, Pixar has done a nice paper at siggraph, in RenderMan they can control outlines with scalar fields:

http://graphics.pixar.com/ToonRendering/paper.pdf

[klingspor]

Since I was speaking of outlines, Pixar has done a nice paper at siggraph, in RenderMan they can control outlines with scalar fields:

http://graphics.pixar.com/ToonRendering/paper.pdfI read that paper as well. To be honest, I don't know if their approach was a step in the right direction.
The toon-style Chef speaking from the book in Ratatouille was just about the only thing I didn't like visually about the film... for something meant to look 2D, he still had that airy 3D look to him that many other 3D toon artists have long come to avoid.

Either way, the paper doesn't describe anything that couldn't be achieved using Maya's pfxtoon IMHO...

[jupiterjazz]

I read that paper as well. To be honest, I don't know if their approach was a step in the right direction.
The toon-style Chef speaking from the book in Ratatouille was just about the only thing I didn't like visually about the film... for something meant to look 2D, he still had that airy 3D look to him that many other 3D toon artists have long come to avoid.

Either way, the paper doesn't describe anything that couldn't be achieved using Maya's pfxtoon IMHO...

I agree that you can probably do well the same with pfxtoon. Maybe the scalar fields approach does however catch some more line details...

Hey, BTW looking fw to see the sleeping dragon, the few images I have seen look really well done. Congrats.

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