<aside> 💡 Download:

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ucss.blend

• Compatible with Blender versions 2.8-3.4 (if you open in 3.4, you won’t be able to open it again in lower versions, due to the removed MixColor node in 3.4)
• CC-0 (attribution appreciated, commercial use allowed)
• For Eevee only, not Cycles

What sets this apart from the other similar shaders out there?

A lot, to be concise. This combines principles from LightningBoyStudio’s shader and Pierre Schiller’s shader with theory from Atsushi Tamaki, Lohit Petikam, and Raymond Cripps- with a heaping dose of my own theory, tinkering, and discoveries. It’s highly flexible, lightweight and performative, largely customizable, and can be used out of the box without any node editing at all. It’s the cumulative product of years of work and research, and I believe it’s the best out there.

How do I use it?

It’s fairly simple- just append the material titled CEL to your own file and apply it to an object. This shader is UV independent and will work with any shader coordinates, as well as custom normals.

This is designed to work in tandem with a simple inverted hull outline. While not a requirement, it will elevate your outlines to the next level.

Let’s take a look at the parameters. You can access these from the Properties editor, or from the Shader Editor.

<aside> 💡 To use hair, inner lines, or colored lighting, you’ll need to access the Shader editor.

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BaseColor

Changes the non-shaded color.

https://i.gyazo.com/9f3d266abafaf9a4a776114e26161a66.mp4

ShadowColor

Changes the shaded color.

https://i.gyazo.com/147ea7c1834b9134645cb2f12a9e65da.mp4

InnerLines

This parameter allows you to pipe in a black and white mask to add inner lines. Thus, a flat color should not be used- the expected input is an Image Texture.

White will result in no change, black results in a visible line.

https://i.gyazo.com/b978098144f49c24a6d31f9fd95b5a51.mp4

ShadowMask

This parameter allows you to pipe in an Image Texture to set areas that should always be shadowed. This can be useful for things such as cloth folds or necks.

https://i.gyazo.com/c70d50495f3a2b5d9bead7025ac8a760.mp4

ShadowAmount

This parameter changes the ratio between shaded and un-shaded areas. It’s essentially a dynamic shadow mask. In this example, I’ve enabled the light visibility so you can see how this is affected by the light angles.

https://i.gyazo.com/57245621660d51723965676ea8a38e8f.mp4

<aside> 💡 Note that not all three lights have the same effect- this is a channel separated shader, designed to be used with a pure Red light, a pure Green light, and a pure Blue light. I’ll explain this further on.

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