The purpose
Unity has a preview of the Unity Toon Shader (UTS) for toon rendering (cel shading), so I’ll try it out.
Toon rendering, cel shading, anime-style rendering, are all terms for this technique.
Environment
Unity Toon Shader：0.10.2-preview
Use Unity Toon Shader
Install
Launch the Package Manager from the Unity menu: Window → Package Manager.
Select “Add package from git URL…” from the “+” in the upper left of the Package Manager.
Enter “com.unity.toonshader” in the edit box that appears and click Add.
After waiting a while, the following message will appear, indicating that the installation is complete.
Create material
Change Shader
Create and select a new material.
In the Inspector view that appears, select either “Toon” or “Toon(Tessellation)” under Shader.
The 3D object has become monochrome and shadowless, as shown below.
BEFORE：
AFTER：
Shadow setting
Next, in the inspector view, under Three Color and Control Map Settings, set the 1st Shading to gray as follows:
A shadow appeared on the single-colored sphere, making it two-toned.
Change the Base Color Step in the Shading Step and Feature Settings of the Inspector view.
Increasing the value increases the area of shadow.
Base Color Step：0.4
Base Color Step：0.5（default）
Base Color Step：0.6
Show outline
We will display the boundary line.
Change the Outline Width in the Outline Settings of the Inspector view. (The default is 0.)
A outline was drawn on the sphere. Increasing the value thickens the outline.
The difference between “toon” and “toon (tessellation)”
As shown above, UTS has “Toon” and “Toon (Tessellation)”.
Tessellation is a process that further subdivides polygons, so it may be more computationally expensive than Toon.
The advantage seems to be that dividing the polygons smooths the shadow boundaries and outlines.
Toon:
Toon(Tessellation):
Result
We are able to perform toon rendering using Unity.
By the way, the shadow on the floor has a gradient because the floor material isn’t using toon rendering.
Reference
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