An Anime Tutorial on Cell Shading in 3D Studio MAX

3D Studio MAX is an advanced modeling and animation application developed by Autodesk for Windows operating systems. 3-D models consist of vertices that define a wire frame mesh. This mesh is wrapped with a texture or material that is affected by lights and shades. It is possible to create anime-style 3-D models that appear to be drawn in two dimensions, a process known as "cell shading." You generate this effect in 3D Studio MAX by editing the falloff, diffusion and self-illumination attributes of a model.

Instructions

1. • 1
     Open the model that you want to render with cell shading in 3D Studio MAX. Click Rendering in the main tool bar at the top of the application window. Select Material Editor from the Rendering drop-down menu.
   • 2
     Enter a value of 100 in the Self-Illumination field.
   • 3
     Click the box to the right of the diffuse value in the Blinn Basic Parameters section of the Material Editor window. Highlight the Falloff option and click the "OK" button. Click the "Falloff Type" button and select Shadow/Light from the drop-down menu.
   • 4
     Click the "Add Point" button in the Mix Curve control window. Place four additional curve points on the line by clicking within the graph. Click the "Move" button to activate the curve point manipulation tool. Click and drag a curve point to adjust the black and white levels in the model. Adjust the values until you are satisfied with the look of the mix curves.
   • 5
     Click the "X" button in the upper right corner to close the Material Editor window. Click Rendering in the main tool bar and select Render from the drop-down menu. Click the "Render" button in the bottom right corner of the window to display your 3D model with the applied cell shading.