Toon Shading and Lighting Sven - Arnold for 3ds Max
In this simple 'making of' tutorial, we will break down the steps used to render the image above using the toon shader. We will cover how to use the rim_lighting, base_tonemap, specular_tonemap, and stylized_highlight attributes of the toon shader to create a 'painterly' type portrait of our intergalactic hero Sven!
Assign Toon Shaders
- Start off by assigning
toon
shaders to the head, hair, eyes, and spacesuit. Connect the relevant diffuse maps to thebase_color
of eachtoon
shader.
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Base Tonemap (ramp)
- Create a ramp similar to the one below and connect it to the
base_tonemap
of thetoon
shader assigned to Sven's face.
ramp_rgb -> base_tonemap
Specular Tonemap (ramp)
- Lower the
specular_weight
to around 0.1 and increase thespecular_roughness
to around 0.7. - Create a ramp and connect it to
specular_tonemap
.
rampRGB -> specular_tonemap
Rim Lighting
- Create a spot light and position it so that it is pointing at Sven from behind and at an angle. Add it to the Rim Lighting-> Light attribute.
- Create a ramp_rgb and connect it to rim_lighting_color.
Light -> rim_lighting
Stylized Highlight
We can use the stylized_highlight
to create a cartoon-style highlight on Svens eyes.
- Create a spotlight and point it at Svens eyes. Hide the light so that it does not illuminate Sven.
- Connect a circular ramp (similar to the one below) to the
stylized_highlight_color
of the Eye shader and increase thestylized_highlight_size
to around 0.8.
stylised_highlight (specular reflection)
Tip:
indirect_specular
(and indirect_diffuse
) can have a subtle effect on the appearance of the toon
shading. In this case indirect _specular
: 0 works better for the eye shader.
indirect_specular: 0