Watercolor toon shading has become a popular style in the world of 3D rendering, merging cartoon aesthetics with the fluidity of watercolor painting. With the recent updates to Redshift’s shading capabilities, artists can easily create eye-catching, painterly effects. This guide will walk you through the steps to achieve a beautiful watercolor toon shading effect, specifically using Redshift and Cinema 4D.

The Rise of Non-Photorealistic Rendering in Redshift

Redshift has finally addressed the long-standing demand for a toon shading system tailored for non-photorealistic rendering (NPR). This new functionality is not only fast but also highly versatile, allowing for unique artistic expressions in 3D graphics. In this tutorial, we will focus on creating a watercolor effect, particularly customizing a mechanical robot model.

Getting Started with Cinema 4D and Redshift

To kick things off, ensure you have both Cinema 4D and Redshift installed. You can enhance your workflow with Grayscale Gorilla materials, which provide a robust library for creating vibrant textures and appearances. Here’s how to prepare your project:

1. Prepare Your Scene: Load your 3D model into Cinema 4D. We’ll be using a robot design as the base for our watercolor effect.
2. Disable Global Illumination: Go to your render settings and turn off Global Illumination (GI) to streamline the rendering process, enhancing computation speed.
3. Optimize Render Settings: Set the bucket quality to low, disable Hardware Ray Tracing, and limit the combined depths and reflections settings. This will ensure faster previews while working on the material setup.

Setting Up the Background

Create a suitable backdrop that complements the watercolor theme:

• Use Natural Textures: Start by integrating a paper texture from Grayscale Gorilla, such as the Natural Lotka Paper O2. This will give your render a traditional painterly print feel.
• Adjust Saturation: Bring down the saturation to around 85% for a more subdued background that won’t clash with the vibrant colors of your character.

Crafting the Watercolor Toon Material

Creating Contour Lines

Now that your background is in place, it’s time to build the material that will define the robot:

1. Add a Toon Material: In Redshift materials, drag a new toon shader onto your robot model.
2. Configure Tone Mapping: Focus on the Contour settings. Disconnect unnecessary elements related to reflections, as they aren’t necessary for our watercolor look.
3. Modify Line Properties: Control both the internal and external contours to get the sketchy look that we are aiming for. Adjust the thickness parameters to achieve a balanced line weight that highlights your model’s features.
   • For a sketchy appearance, consider varying the thickness to emulate hand-drawn styles.

Implementing Noise for Variation

To enhance the organic look of your sketches, you can drive the contour thickness with noise:

• Add Maxon Noise: Create variations in line thickness by applying noise and adjusting its scale and clamping values to produce a more hand-drawn feel.
• Control with Color Change Range: Using the Color Change Range node, you can alter the output thickness based on the noise characteristics which ultimately leads to a more artistic finish.

Applying Watercolor Textures

It’s time to add texture to your model:

• Watercolor Material: Drag a watercolor texture into your node setup for base colors. Adjust the projection to fit your scene, and ensure it’s set to camera projection so it aligns with your model’s surface.
• Integrate Jitter for Color Variation: To make the colors more lively and less uniform, apply a Jitter Node to randomize the hue, saturation, and values minimally, offering visual uniqueness to each part of the model.

Adding Halftone Effects

To really capture the essence of watercolor comics, layering in halftone patterns with some imperfect variations can elevate your model:

• Tone Mapping Patterns: Insert a tone map pattern to give a comic-like appearance. Adjust the scale using noise to not only retain some graphical freedom but also infuse character into the shading.
• Layer Additional Patterns: Experiment by layering different tone patterns like sine waves to add depth and intricacy to your shading effects.

Final Touches: Creating a Watercolor Wash

• Create a Dummy Version of Your Model: Use a volume builder to generate a soft silhouette of your model and position it behind your primary model. This helps create an illusion of watercolor that extends beyond the robot’s edges.
• Experiment with Transparency: Utilize a gradient transparency effect so that the watercolor bleed effect appears more natural and integrated into the overall composition.

Conclusion

By combining these techniques, you can create not only a mechanical robot imbued with watercolor aesthetics but also explore the wider possibilities of non-photorealistic rendering in Redshift. The flexibility and creativity afforded by Redshift’s toon shading system truly allow for dynamic artwork.

Intrigued by what you can create with this new shading system? Dive into your own project today and explore new artistic expressions!