Cel shading: what it is, its step-by-step process and 10 essential examples

Ever wondered how they make the characters in Dragon Ball FighterZ look like they're straight out of anime, or why The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker still looks amazing two decades later? The answer has a name: cel shading. This non-photorealistic rendering technique transforms 3D models into art that looks hand-drawn, and is behind some of the most recognisable visual styles in video games and movies in history. 

If you're fascinated by the world of animation and want to understand how this look is built from scratch, you've come to the right place. In this complete guide we explain what cel shading is, how the professional process works step by step and show you ten examples that have made their mark on the entire industry. If after reading it you feel like mastering these techniques with professional tools, in UDIT's Bachelor's Degree in Animation you will learn how to apply them in real projects, from pre-production to final rendering in real time. 

What is celshading and why is it everywhere ?

Cel shading (also called toon shading or flat shading) is a 3D lighting technique that mimics the look of traditional hand-drawn animation. Instead of creating soft, realistic shadows with continuous gradients, it divides light into flat, well-defined areas: light, shadow and sometimes a very controlled spot glow. The result is direct, visual and immediately reminiscent of a comic book, manga or anime series. 

The name comes from "cel" (short for celluloid or celluloid), the transparent acetate on which characters were painted in classical animation. Each layer was a hand-painted "cell" that was then superimposed over the backgrounds in productions such as the Disney classics. Digital cel shading seeks to digitally recreate that clean, graphic aesthetic, but using the possibilities of modern 3D tools. 

The first time this technique was consciously used in a video game was in the reboot of Dr. Slump (1997), although it was Jet Set Radio (2000) for Dreamcast that made it massively popular and caught the attention of the entire industry at the 1999 Tokyo Game Show. Since then, cel shading has become a fundamental art direction choice in both video games and animated film. 

Cel shading, toonshading and NPR: are they the same? 

These terms are often used interchangeably in professional practice, but there are important technical nuances: 

• Cel shading refers specifically to the technique of staggered shadows with sharp outlines that mimics the acetate cells of traditional animation. 
• Toon shading is a broader term that encompasses any "cartoon" shading style with a non-realistic appearance. 
• NPR (Non-Photorealistic Rendering) is the entire family of non-realistic rendering techniques, ranging from cel shading to watercolour, oil, etching or impressionistic painting styles. 

In everyday practice, when an animation professional talks about cel shading or toon shading, they almost always mean the same thing: a style with flat shadows, solid colours and black lines that mimics traditional hand drawing. 

When does it make sense to use celshading in your project? 

Cel shading is not just a nice aesthetic resource that you add at the end. It's a strategic art direction decision that affects the whole project from the initial concept art. In UDIT's Bachelor in Animation we work precisely this artistic decision making from the early stages of pre-production. 

It makes sense to choose this style when: 

You are looking for a strong and differentiated visual identity that moves away from the photorealism typical of many current AAA productions and creates an instantly recognisable visual brand. 

You want your project to age well over time.Stylised graphic style is not as dependent on technical power as hyper-realism, so it retains its visual impact even decades after its release. 

You need immediate visual clarity on screen.Sharp outlines and flat shadows help characters and objects read perfectly even in fast-paced, complex or element-heavy action scenes. 

You are working with limited resources in real time.Cel shading can be technically very efficient if planned correctly from the beginning of the production pipeline. 

You want to connect emotionally with anime and manga audiences. This visual style has a direct cultural connection with audiences who have grown up watching Japanese animation. 

Hugely successful projects such as Persona 5, Borderlands and Guilty Gear Strive didn't choose this style on a whim: they did it because it reinforced their narrative, enhanced their visual universe and improved their gameplay by offering clarity on screen. 

Thecelshading process  step by step: from idea to final  rendering

Creating a project with cel shading is not about applying a magic filter at the end of the production process. It's a complete way of working that starts with concept art and goes through every stage of the pipeline. Here is the complete process you would follow in a professional production. 

1. Concept art and definition of visual references

It all starts here, in the pre-production phase. Before touching any 3D software, the art direction team must answer key questions that will define the entire project: 

• How many shadow steps will we use (typically two or three: light, medium shadow and dark shadow )? 
• How thick will the black outlines be? 
• Will the colour palette be vibrant and saturated, or more muted and nostalgic? 
• Will we use rim light to separate the characters from the background? 
• How will shiny materials such as metal or water behave? 

A  well-craftedstyle frame at this early stage is worth gold. It is the visual reference document that will maintain aesthetic coherence during months of production. It defines colours, proportions, textures and the general "feel" of the project that the whole team must respect. 

2. Clean silhouette 3D modelling

Modelling for cel shading has specific technical particularities. The silhouette is absolutely everything, because the contour lines depend directly on the overall shape of the model. A character with too many small details and irregular edges will generate shaky, dirty and unprofessional lines. 

The key to modelling is to build clean, geometric shapes, with an orderly topology that allows for smooth deformations if the character is to be animated with rigging. Many professional projects use the inverted hulltrick : they duplicate the entire geometry, invert its normals (the direction of the faces) and scale it slightly outwards to automatically create the characteristic black outline. For this technique to work properly, the mesh must be homogeneous and without gaps or overlapping geometry. 

3. UVs and flat  textures

In cel shading, textures are usually much simpler and schematic than in a photorealistic model. It is usual to work with flat colours, limited palettes or very controlled gradients. The visual detail does not come mainly from the texture map, but from the shader and how the lighting behaves on the surface. 

Some professional projects use  colour ramps within textures to precisely control the transitions between light and shadow areas. These ramps are basically gradients that tell the graphics engine exactly where to change from one tone to another. It is a very powerful technical resource to fine-tune the style without the need to modify the shader. 

4. The heart of the style: the shader toon 

This is the real magic of cel shading. A shader toon quantizes the lighting, i.e. it groups the light values in discrete steps. Instead of getting a continuous gradient from dark to light, you get two or three clearly differentiated zones that read as "direct light", "shadow" and "deep shadow". 

The specular (highlights and reflections) are also controlled completely differently. In a physically realistic material, shimmer follows the laws of physics and conservation of energy. In cel shading, you artistically decide whether the shimmer is a round, flat blob, or even non-existent at all. It all depends on the specific look you want for your project. 

Modern engines like Unreal Engine, Unity or Blender allow you to build these shaders from scratch using visual node systems. You don't need to know how to program in HLSL or GLSL to start experimenting with your own cel shading styles. 

5. Simple but accurate lighting

Cel shading works best with simple, directional lighting schemes. A strong main light clearly marks the volume of objects, and one or two soft fill lights complete the scene without adding unnecessary complexity. If you add too many light sources or too complex lighting schemes, the characteristic style is diluted and loses visual strength. 

The rim light is a common and almost essential feature of this style. It creates a clear halo around the character that visually separates the character from the background and greatly improves legibility on screen. Think of it as a visual highlighter that guides the viewer's eye exactly where you want it. 

6. Outlines: three main methods for creating them

Black outlines are the unmistakable hallmark of cel shading. There are three main methods for generating them, each with its own technical advantages and limitations: 

Inverted hull: This consists of completely duplicating the object, inverting its normals (the direction indicated by each face of the polygon) and scaling it slightly outwards. The result is a black silhouette that perfectly surrounds the original model. It is a fast method to calculate and very stable in motion, although it can give visual problems in very complex geometries or with deep indentations. 

Post-processing with edge detection: The graphics engine automatically analyses the depth information and normals of the entire rendered scene, and draws black lines where it detects abrupt changes between objects. It is flexible and allows the thickness of lines to be dynamically adjusted according to the distance from the camera, but requires a robust anti-aliasing system to work properly without visual artefacts. 

Artistic tracing (Freestyle in Blender): This is the method that offers the most absolute artistic control, because it allows you to decide exactly where, how and with what thickness the lines are drawn. Ideal for projects where artistic expression is a priority and the computational cost of rendering is not so important. 

7. Render: offline or real time

Cel shading works perfectly in both production environments. In offline rendering (Cycles, Arnold, V-Ray, etc.) you have full control over every technical parameter, but computation times are significantly longer. In real-time (Unity, Unreal Engine), visual feedback is immediate, which speeds up iteration tremendously and allows you to work on video games or interactive experiences running at 60 fps or more. 

For traditional animation projects, short films or feature films, offline rendering is still the usual choice because of its final quality. For video games, virtual reality or any experience that needs to run in real time, engines such as Unity and Unreal are the standard professional way to go. 

8. Final compositing and post-production adjustments

While cel shading already has visual personality from the 3D engine itself, final compositing in post-production adds the subtle touches that take it to the next level: additional colour posterisation, subtle comic book-like printed grain, cinematic vignettes or saturation adjustments that unify the look across all scenes in the project. 

Anti-aliasing at this stage is absolutely critical: if not set correctly, contour lines will visibly shake and the final result will look amateurish and unprofessional. In UDIT's Animation Degree we pay special attention to these technical details of post-production that make the difference between a student project and a professional one. 

Professional tools for cel shading 

Blender (free, open source and extremely powerful ) 

Blender is the perfect option to start experimenting with cel shading with no initial investment. Its node system in the Shader Editor allows you to build custom toon shaders from scratch with full control, and the Freestyle system gives you full artistic power over contour lines. 

The Eeveeengine  gives you real-time previews as you work, while Cycles gives you offline render quality with the full power of path tracing. Both engines support cel shading seamlessly. 

Unity (URP/HDRP ) 

Unity is the undisputed king of real-time in the gaming industry, especially with the Universal Render Pipeline (URP). Its Shader Graph system is completely visual and intuitive, ideal for rapidly prototyping styles without touching a line of code. 

The URP is lightweight and more than sufficient for most indie or medium studio stylised projects. HDRP will give you more advanced technical control if you need AAA-like scaling with additional features. 

Unreal Engine 

Unreal Engine gives you brutal and professional control over absolutely every aspect of rendering. Its Material Editor is extremely powerful and flexible, and the Custom Depth, Stencil Buffer and Post Process systems allow you to create sophisticated contours with per-object or per-material control. 

It is the standard professional choice for AAA projects, high-end technical productions or any project that requires state-of-the-art graphics while maintaining cel shading style. 

10 legendary examples that defined cel shading 

1. Jet Set Radio (2000 ) 

The video game that literally changed everything forever. It was one of the first titles to bring the urban comic book look to a fully open 3D world, with highly saturated colours and sharp black outlines that read perfectly in motion. 

It proved to the world that visual style alone can be the identity of an intellectual property, winning the award for "Excellence in Visual Arts" at the Game Critics' Awards at E3. 

2. TheLegendof Zelda: TheWindWaker (2002 ) 

Many fans complained bitterly when it was first revealed, accustomed to the darker, more realistic Zelda of Ocarina of Time. Today it is considered an absolute visual classic that ages infinitely better than any photorealistic game of its time. 

Its light and bright palette, clean silhouettes and expressive animations are a timeless design masterclass that continues to influence designers around the world. 

3. Ōkami (2006 ) 

Mixes cel shading with a visual aesthetic directly inspired by traditional Japanese sumi-eink . Every stroke appears to be painted with a calligraphic brush on rice paper, and the user interface is seamlessly integrated into the game world as part of the artistic experience. 

It's cel shading literally elevated to the level of interactive artwork. Director Hideki Kamiya described his vision as "to create a game with the natural beauty of the Japanese countryside... to make a world that was shimmering and beautiful." 

4. XIII (2003 ) 

A tactical first-person shooter that unabashedly embraced the visual language of Franco-Belgian comics: overlapping on-screen vignettes, giant onomatopoeias and stark shading that turns every scene into a page of printed paper. 

It is the perfect example of how graphic style can directly and powerfully reinforce the narrative and atmosphere of a videogame. 

5. Borderlands (since 2009 ) 

The Borderlands series popularised cel shading for the mass mainstream audience of millions of gamers worldwide. Its unique blend of thick black outlines, hand-painted textures and irreverent humour created an instantly recognisable universe. 

Millions of gamers associate this visual style directly with fun, personality and creative freedom. 

GuiltyGearXrd / Strive (2014 / 2021 ) 

The absolute and undisputed technical benchmark for anyone who wants to make a 3D model look like traditional hand-drawn 2D anime. Arc System Works literally broke the rules of physical lighting to make each individual frame look like it was drawn by a professional animator. 

In his GDC 2015 tech talk "Guilty Gear Xrd's Art Style: The X Factor Between 2D and 3D", Junya Motomura explained the technical secrets to capturing one of the most celebrated and technically advanced cel shading ever seen in a video game. It's technique put completely at the service of art. 

7. Dragon Ball FighterZ (2018 ) 

Captures the pure essence of Akira Toriyama's anime with absolutely stunning technical and artistic precision. Every move, every facial expression, every flash of ki energy looks like it's taken directly from the most iconic scenes of the original series. 

It's cel shading taken to its highest technical and artistic expression simultaneously. Arc System Works' art in this title is superior to numerous animated projects released in cinemas. 

8. Persona 5 (2016 ) 

Its cel shading is elegant, understated and sophisticated, perfectly integrated with an art direction that oozes contemporary Japanese style in every menu, every scene transition and every dialogue. 

It brilliantly demonstrates that cel shading can be mature, sophisticated and aimed at adult audiences without losing any of its visual personality. 

9. Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm (from 2008 ) 

Brings the frenetic martial arts combat of the anime into a fully playable 3D environment without losing a single bit of visual legibility on screen. Clear lines and sharp shadow steps allow you to fully understand everything that's going on in even the most chaotic multi-character fights. 

10. ValkyriaChronicles (2008 ) 

Mixing traditional cel shading with watercolour textures that give the immersive feeling of literally playing inside a hand-illustrated war sketchbook. 

Its unique and distinct aesthetic turned a tactical war strategy into a visually unforgettable experience that no gamer forgets. 

Common mistakes to avoid in cel shading 

Even with good technical knowledge, it's very easy to mess up a cel shading project if you're not careful about these critical details that make all the difference: 

• Inconsistent line thickness between shots: If you don't control how lines scale with distance from the camera, they will look shaky, unstable and unprofessional in the final edit. 
• Too many complex light sources: The style is diluted and loses strength. Always keep lighting simple, directional and with clear hierarchy. 
• Noisy textures or too much fine detail: Microscopic detail completely breaks the characteristic visual clarity. In cel shading, less detail is almost always more impact. 
• Insufficient or poorly configured anti-aliasing: Lines will look jagged and jagged, and the result will appear to be of very low technical quality. 
• Unstylised realistic specular highlights: If the specular still behaves in a physically realistic way, it will break the whole graphical aesthetic of the whole. 

Your next step in professional animation

Cel shading is not just another technique to add to your portfolio. It is a complete way of understanding image, light, volume and colour from an artistic perspective rather than a technical one. If this style has got you hooked and you want to learn to master it within a complete professional production pipeline, UDIT's Bachelor in Animation prepares you to work from initial concept art to final rendering and post-production, with industry-standard professional software and collaborative projects that simulate real studio assignments.

At UDIT you won't just learn how to do cel shading technically: you'll understand when to use it strategically, how to integrate it coherently into a complete production, and how to make it your personal hallmark as an animator or 3D artist. The animation and video game industry is constantly looking for creators with an artistic vision of their own, and this style could very well be yours. 

Ready to take the leap? Discover everything you can learn in UDIT's Bachelor's Degree in Animation and start building your professional future in the animation industry.