CelShading for all y'all

Cel Shading.  In my opinion, I believe that cel shading is one of the most cool and unique features used in video games.  Some of my favorite games of all time used cel (or toon) shading in them.  Even though I feel this way, certain individuals do not agree and they believe that cel shading actually ruins the gaming experience. In this blog I will attempt to give my reasons as to why cel shading is not only a great addition to games, but one that should be used more often.

Before I begin with the fun side of Cel Shading, I need to review the technical side (booore).  Cel shading is the use of non-photorealistic rendering methods to make the scene shown to the viewer seem hand drawn.  Much of how toon shaders are created is due to the light sources that are projected onto the object being made.  When a certain amount of light hits the texture it is turned into flat looking shades.  This will give the object a look as though it was designed to look like the colors were added to the object in blocks.  After the Object has been given its shades of color, a heavy black outline is added to the object, giving a standout appearance from the background.
 

Now that we have covered the technical side of the cel shading, we can talk about the fun games that use toon and cel shaders.  My personal favorite use of cel shading is in the Borderlands franchise.  This style is designed so that it resembles a realistic comic book.  Not only does the gameplay rock, but the cel shading helps to add a unique element that isn't present in many games today.  My second favorite use of toon shading would have to be the Legend of Zelda games that implement this.  By changing it up throughout their franchise, the Zelda series has been able to implement very cartoon style toon shaders, as well as more realistic cel shading.  I personally love cel shading and hope that it stays around in the industry.

Stay tuned next week as I cover the different lighting used in games and their pros and cons.