Sketch and Toon

Overview

Welcome to Sketch and Toon, the Cinema 4D application element for non-photorealistic (NPR) rendering. An NPR simplifies a scene’s look and renders edges using lines, which makes it possible to achieve en illustrated or technical look.

An NPR shader is primarily designed to render two things: lines and shading. In Sketch and Toon, lines are drawn with the help of a Cinema 4D post effect. The shading is done by the Cinema 4D material system - that also makes use of some unique Sketch and Toon shaders, which make it possible to render halftone or comic looks.

One object, numerous styles

What makes Sketch and Toon unique is its ability to combine almost all of its features with other Cinema 4D features, including GI, caustics, shaders, splines and particles! The result is ultimate flexibility and an unlimited number of styles that can be created - even within the same scene.

The same scene but two completely different images © 2003 Artur Bala

The wide range of styles that can be created with Sketch and Toon’s lets you render detailed drawings that don’t look like they were created on a computer.

Sketches

Images © 2003 by Samir Kharchi

This room and the dinosaur look like they were drawn by hand. The key to creating this look is in the variation of line thickness and line style. Sketch and Toon makes it possible to (re)create just about any style.

Technical style

Image © 2003 Artur Bala

Sketch and Toon covers all types of NPR styles, including technical illustration. You can define precisely which lines should be rendered.

Making a point

spaceship © 2003 Michael Welter, Kopf © 2003 Toshihide Miyata.

The very popular halftone look (and more) can be created using the powerful Spots shader.

cell shader

Image © 2003 Michael Welter

Sketch and Toon’s Cel shader also lets you define the color on an object’s reverse side, which is ideal for creating Manga-style artwork and animations.

Mixing things up

Image © 2003 Toshio Fuji

The integration of Sketch and Toon in Cinema 4D gives you the option of defining which object(s) should be rendered in a Sketch and Toon style and which should be rendered using the Cinema 4D renderer.

What now?

This was just a very brief overview of what Sketch and Toon has to offer. More information to get you started is available in the Cinema 4D Quickstart manual.

What’s new in Cinema 4D R16:

• The previously separate Hair and Sketch and Toon renderers have been combined into one - the BiRender:

Hair and Sketch and Toon effects in a single Project.

Render speed is increased, and Sketch and Toon and Hair can be rendered together. Disadvantage: Rendered Projects will not match previous rendered versions 1:1. Deviations can occur in certain details.

• No more separate antialiasing. The previous Best antialiasing is now used to render Sketch and Toon lines. With the exception of Antialiasing None (which disables the line antialiasing completely), the general antialiasing settings in the Preferences menu have no effect.
• The control layers have been removed. All settings are now visible at all times.
• Multi-Passes no longer have to be activated in the Sketch and Toon render settings (previously Post Render option) and can be activated in the general Multi-Pass render settings.