Stylized GGX Shading

10 hours ago

Toon shading in 3D rendering uses thresholding to create flat colors from soft gradients.
Stylized GGX shading blends 2D and 3D looks, using PBR for most shading with sharp or soft specular highlights depending on roughness.
Examples include Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which mixes toon characters with PBR environments, and Spellcasters Chronicles, which tested a similar approach.
The simple version modifies the GGX Trowbridge-Reitz NDF by adding a 'SpecularSize' parameter to expand specular highlights with minimal cost.
An improved version preserves the original NDF shape at high roughness while expanding highlights at low roughness using a 'GGXMatching' parameter.
Additional techniques to enhance the toon look include pruning GI probes, simplifying distant props, rim lighting, outlines, and optimized textures.

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