Cel shading

Okay, kiddo, imagine you have a coloring book and you want to make all the pictures in it look like they’re from a cartoon. That’s kind of what cel shading is.

You know how when you color with crayons or markers, you can see the lines where you colored? With cel shading, we try to make those lines really stand out, so the picture looks more like it’s made up of separate pieces that have been put together.

A lot of times, artists will use bright colors that don’t blend together, almost like they’re coloring with markers that don’t really mix. They might also make the lines darker and more pronounced, almost like they’re outlining everything.

The end result is kind of like a 3D cartoon, like the characters from The Incredibles or Zelda: The Wind Waker. It looks like it’s 3D because there are shadows and highlights, but it still has that flat, cartoon look.