# Cel-Shaded Game Graphics (Toon-Shaded Real-Time 3D)

> A look for real-time 3D video games in which normally lit models are quantised into two or three hard bands of flat, saturated colour and ringed with ink outlines, so a freely moving 3D world reads as a moving cartoon, anime cel or comic panel. Each game pairs the rendering with one borrowed graphic idiom: graffiti in Jet Set Radio, comic balloons in XIII, sumi-e brush and parchment in Okami, hand-drawn comic textures in Borderlands. It carries into key art, box art and logos.

- Period: 2000–present
- Where: East Asia, North America, Western Europe, Global / networked
- Origin: Japan: Sega's studio Smilebit, whose Dreamcast game Jet Set Radio (shown at the 1999 Tokyo Game Show, released 29 June 2000) drew attention for its cel-shaded look; taken up by Nintendo, Ubisoft Paris, Clover Studio, Gearbox Software and Arc System Works
- Branch: Digital native
- Also known as: Cel shading, Toon shading, Toon rendering
- Page: https://stylogeny.com/styles/cel-shaded-game-graphics/

## Use it with care

The characters, worlds and logos of these games (Link and The Wind Waker, Okami's Amaterasu, Borderlands, Guilty Gear, Eric Haze's Jet Set Radio logo) are owned by their publishers and artists, and Okami's gods and brush art draw on Shinto myth and Japanese ink painting: draw original characters, logos and tags in the shared idiom, never ask an image model for a named game, character or artist, and never present a generated picture as studio key art.

## How it works

- Light the 3D model, then quantise the shading into two or three flat bands with sharp edges instead of smooth gradation.
- Draw a dark ink outline around silhouettes and major features, thicker on whatever must stand out.
- Keep a single controlled key light and full volumetric form, so the camera can move freely while every frame still reads as a drawing.
- Use flat, saturated, many-coloured fields and exaggerated, simplified figures rather than photoreal detail.
- Pair the rendering with one borrowed graphic idiom (graffiti tags, comic balloons and onomatopoeia, ink-brush strokes on parchment) and carry it into the logo and key art.

## Its design choices

Defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.

### Layout & composition
- [Full bleed](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/full-bleed/) (characteristic)
- [Diagonal axis](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/diagonal-axis/) (occasional)
- [Isolated object](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/isolated-object/) (occasional)
- [Framed panels](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/framed-panels/) (occasional)

### Space & hierarchy
- [Illusion of depth](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/illusion-of-depth/) (defining)
- [Single focal point](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/single-focal-point/) (characteristic)
- [Layered information](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/layered-information/) (occasional)
- [Extreme scale contrast](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/extreme-scale-contrast/) (occasional)
- [Visual tension](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/visual-tension/) (occasional)

### Typography
- [Hand-lettering](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hand-lettering/) (characteristic)
- [Ornamented display](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/ornamented-display/) (characteristic)
- [Type as image](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/type-as-image/) (occasional)
- [Brush & pen calligraphy](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/brush-and-pen-calligraphy/) (occasional)
- [Experimental & distorted](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/experimental-and-distorted/) (occasional)

### Colour
- [Flat fields](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-fields/) (defining)
- [Full polychrome](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/full-polychrome/) (characteristic)
- [Complementary clash](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/complementary-clash/) (occasional)
- [Fluorescent & neon](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/fluorescent-and-neon/) (occasional)
- [Earth & mineral](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/earth-and-mineral/) (occasional)

### Form & shape
- [Stylised figuration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/stylised-figuration/) (defining)
- [Distortion & exaggeration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/distortion-and-exaggeration/) (characteristic)
- [Rounded & pill](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rounded-and-pill/) (occasional)
- [Angular & zigzag](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/angular-and-zigzag/) (occasional)

### Surface & texture
- [Hard offset shadow](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hard-offset-shadow/) (defining)
- [Flat](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat/) (characteristic)
- [Painterly brushwork](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/painterly-brushwork/) (occasional)
- [Paper & letterpress bite](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/paper-and-letterpress-bite/) (occasional)

### Ornament
- [Restrained accents](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/restrained-accents/) (characteristic)
- [Emblems & badges](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/emblems-and-badges/) (occasional)

### Imagery
- [3D render](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/3d-render/) (defining)
- [Comic & cartoon](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/comic-and-cartoon/) (defining)
- [Line illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/line-illustration/) (characteristic)
- [Painterly illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/painterly-illustration/) (occasional)
- [Icons & pictograms](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/icons-and-pictograms/) (occasional)

### Medium & production
- [Motion & broadcast](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/motion-and-broadcast/) (defining)
- [Pen, brush & ink](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pen-brush-and-ink/) (occasional)
- [Offset printing](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/offset-printing/) (occasional)

### Tone & intent
- [Playful & witty](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/playful-and-witty/) (characteristic)
- [Technological & futurist](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/technological-and-futurist/) (occasional)
- [Rebellious & subversive](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rebellious-and-subversive/) (occasional)
- [Ironic & self-aware](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/ironic-and-self-aware/) (occasional)
- [Warm & approachable](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/warm-and-approachable/) (occasional)

Avoids: Naturalistic depiction, Straight photography, Chrome & 3D render, Frosted glass, Soft extrusion, Non-representational, Typography only, Rational & objective, Gradients

Palette: #111111, #1e88d8, #ffd23f, #e8402a, #3fae49, #f4e9d0

Typefaces: Graffiti handstyles and hand-drawn logo lettering (Jet Set Radio's logo by the graffiti artist Eric Haze, with tags sprayed across the 3D city), Comic-book onomatopoeia lettered in bubbles, popping up over the 3D scene (XIII), Brush-and-ink lettering in the sumi-e register, echoing the strokes the player paints with the Celestial Brush (Okami), Heavy outlined display lettering for title logos and key art, drawn with the same ink outline as the characters (a working recommendation: the style has no settled typographic canon)

Known for: Jet Set Radio (Smilebit/Sega, Dreamcast, Japan 29 June 2000; Jet Grind Radio in North America): artists Ryuta Ueda and Kazuki Hosokawa, graffiti by several artists including Eric Haze, who also designed the logo; The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (Nintendo EAD, GameCube, Japan 13 December 2002): director Eiji Aonuma, cartoon Link drawn by designer Yoshiki Haruhana, design manager Satoru Takizawa; shown at Space World 2001, where its cel-shaded look divided fans and critics derisively dubbed it 'Celda'; featured in the Smithsonian American Art Museum's The Art of Video Games (2012); XIII (Ubisoft Paris, November 2003), after the Belgian comic series by Jean Van Hamme and William Vance: comic-strip insets and onomatopoeia in bubbles; Okami (Clover Studio/Capcom, PlayStation 2, Japan 20 April 2006): director Hideki Kamiya, lead character designer Sawaki Takeyasu; sumi-e-inspired cel shading under a parchment filter; BAFTA Artistic Achievement 2007; featured in The Art of Video Games (2012); Borderlands (Gearbox Software, October 2009): switched late in development to hand-drawn textures with engine-drawn outlines, a change led by Brian Martel; Guilty Gear Xrd Sign (Arc System Works, Japanese arcades 20 February 2014): cel-shaded 3D on Unreal Engine 3 made to look like 2D anime, with frames deliberately cut; Genshin Impact (miHoYo, China, 28 September 2020, Unity): an anime-style open world, listed among cel-shaded video games; criticised on its 2019 unveiling for its similarities to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, one of its main inspirations; Hi-Fi Rush (Tango Gameworks, 25 January 2023), whose art style Polygon called 'Jet Set Radio-esque'

## Where it comes from, and what it’s close to

- Influenced by: [Story Manga (Postwar Japanese Comics)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/story-manga.md) (1947–present)
- Influenced by: [American Four-Colour Comic Book (Golden to Bronze Age)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/american-comic-book.md) (1934–1993)
- Influenced by: [Graffiti & Hip-Hop Graphics](https://stylogeny.com/styles/hip-hop-graffiti.md) (1972–present)
- Influenced by: [Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints](https://stylogeny.com/styles/ukiyo-e.md) (1670–1900)
- Alike in its design choices: [Cobi and Mariscal's Barcelona '92 Mascot Graphics](https://stylogeny.com/styles/barcelona-92-identity.md) (1987–1992), 67% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Push Pin Style](https://stylogeny.com/styles/push-pin.md) (1954–1980), 62% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [VTuber Avatar and Stream Graphics](https://stylogeny.com/styles/vtuber-graphics.md) (2016–present), 59% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Rubber-Hose Revival (Cartoon Mascot Graphics)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/rubber-hose-revival.md) (2017–present), 59% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Natural Wine Label Art](https://stylogeny.com/styles/natural-wine-label.md) (2007–present), 59% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Chat Reaction-Sticker Cartooning (LINE)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/line-reaction-sticker.md) (2011–present), 59% alike

## Sources

- Wikipedia, Cel shading, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cel_shading
- Wikipedia, Jet Set Radio, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_Set_Radio
- Wikipedia, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_Zelda:_The_Wind_Waker
- Wikipedia, XIII (2003 video game), en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XIII_(2003_video_game)
- Wikipedia, Okami, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%8Ckami
- Wikipedia, Borderlands (video game), en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borderlands_(video_game)
- Wikipedia, Guilty Gear Xrd, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guilty_Gear_Xrd
- Junya Christopher Motomura (Arc System Works), GuiltyGear Xrd's Art Style: The X Factor Between 2D and 3D, Game Developers Conference talk, 2015 (cited in Wikipedia, Guilty Gear Xrd)
- Wikipedia, List of cel-shaded video games, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cel-shaded_video_games
- Wikipedia, Genshin Impact, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genshin_Impact
- Wikipedia, Hi-Fi Rush, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hi-Fi_Rush
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Art of Video Games (16 March - 30 September 2012, curator Chris Melissinos), americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/games

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From Stylogeny (https://stylogeny.com/), an atlas of graphic-design styles by Van Riel Online Services. How it is made: https://stylogeny.com/about/. Cite as: Stylogeny, “Cel-Shaded Game Graphics (Toon-Shaded Real-Time 3D)”, https://stylogeny.com/styles/cel-shaded-game-graphics/