Miro Board Link:
https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVOKHnfj0=/?share_link_id=371325218573
While experimenting with the character textures I thought I could apply to him a toon shader which would fit much better with the overall tone of the short film given the whole story a comic vibe. I have first followed this video:
I selected all the different parts of the model and created a toon shader for each of them and is the result:
Although, since I am using arnold to render this type of shader is not compatible to it and resulted to a matte texture with no edges at all:
I looked more into it and found out that there is an aitoonshader which is compatible with arnold:
I have added a base colour with a ramp setting for the shading of each texture
The edges also appeared more subtle which were less overwhelming compared to the first toon shader
I had to set the filters to contours in order for the edges to appear
when working on the original file I was using a skydome as a light. However in the animation scenes there is a physical sky which is simulating an early morning light, so there is not much light in the scene which made the shadows of the different aitoown shadows the only thing to be seen.
I tried to edit the physical sky setting which made some improvements:
I also applied the toon shader for the other props present in the animation:
Light developments
these are the physical sky setting that I have used in order to make the lighter parts of the aitoonshader appear as well:
Animation
In the meantime I also carried on the animation process and this following videos shows the progress I have made on a specific scene where I worked on the timing and spacing of the animation to make it more believable and natural as possible: