Toon shading creates the look of 2D cel or cartoon animation using 3D modeling and animation software. Elements of the “toon” look include profile lines (outlines), border lines, crease lines, intersection lines, and solid color shading. Combined, these elements recreate the look of traditional animation’s “ink and paint” technique, where ink refers to lines and paint refers to shading.

The Toon menu in the Rendering menu set contains various items and tools specifically for creating toon shading, which lets you:

• add fill shaders to surfaces or use the Ramp shader to create a custom fill shader
• add profile lines, with the option of using offset surfaces or Maya^® Paint Effects^™, to create a toon line look to outline everything
• add border lines
• add crease lines
• add intersection lines
• set a background color for rendering
• assign a Paint Effects brush to toon lines
• convert toon lines to polygons
• modulate line character by painting, applying a toon line modifier, or editing other toon line attributes

For an example of toon lines in animation, click the link below to play the movie of Carrot Top, created by Duncan Brinsmead and Rick Kogucki.

carrotTop.mov