So I have been messing around with Carrara recently just to try to learn more about it. and am trying to build a shader in poser. In the pictures below you can see that they are very similar. (the left 2 are poser and the right 2 are carrara).

They are procedural skin textures with the base skin color and an overlay that creates the shaow layer. Here is the problem. In poser by adjusting the x, y and z in the n node I can change the angle and amount of coverage on the shadow layer. In carrara I used Custom Terrain Distribution. I set the noise at 0 and coverage at 60% then bump all 0, altitude all 0 and slope all 0. On orientation I set influence at 80. I thought by adjusting direction and pitch I might be able to do something simmilar as I did in poser. however it always renders the same as you see in the image.

I was wondering if Anyone would like to try to create this shader better or help me to know how to do it?

p.s. with this I have almost been able to exactly duplicate all my poser animation in Carrara. In poser I delete all lights and and one diffuse ibl set to between 50-100% and in Carrara I delete all lights and set the scene effects ambient basic the same 50-100%. And I get a great cell shaded flat look on all my scenes even with texture maps. The only thing I have to do now is learn the shaders and also add outlines which Carrara does not do natively. I will eventually get toon Pro to try it. (I cannot use ya toon as I am on a mac).

Thanks for all the help. Also I posted this same question at the daz carrara forums and just thought I would here so I am sorry if you are reading this twice.

I never use the built'in toon render in Carrara, but I have two questions: Why to create a layer especialy for the shadows, this render engine don't render the shadows? The glow channel is it usefull here, why not the color channel? Thanks for an answer because I would learn this technique too!

I can't help on the shader, but there are some toon addons for carrara, YAtoon (Free) and Digital Carvers Guild Toon Pro (Cost). THough I will watch the thread to see what comes up

I guess I am a little surprised at this approach. I would try the cell shader native to Carrara first (as suggested). I use toon pro also which I like very much.

Here is a sample.

@dudu.car I am doing it this way because I want a cell shaded effect. If you use actual light for shadow you wi get an image that looks 3d not 2d. Also this gives me precise control on how the renders come out.

@Xerses0002 I am going to buy Toon pro soon. Unfortunatly I cannot use YA Toon because it is for PC only and I have a mac.

@kixum Yes I think I need toon pro. I did no particularly like the built in toon shader. I like the shader I created but really want to combine it with the edge lines. Toon Pro seems to be very good at that. I do like your render. I want to see how toon pro works with characters. Also I am working a shader that combines the toon effect with a texture map As I use hand drawn textures to create aging lines and embarassment lines etc.

The render I posted uses toon pro but some of the elements (the canopy) does not. The built in cell shader is not bad but it does require some tweaking to get it to work well.

Is there a way to turn off the edge lines in toon pro on some geometry. I remember one problem I had in poser 10 before the new edge lines in 11 is that their toon render would draw lines around geometry that was invisible or transmapped like eyebrows which looked really bad.

I think the answer is yes. I don't know about specific geometry but you can specify how toon pro behaves for specific objects. In the attached image, I have turned off the lines for the sphere but left the lines on for the cube. To do this, select your object, select the "Effects" tab, and there should be a toon pro block of options. You can override the toon pro general scene rendering options there and substitute specific rendering options for each object.

On a side note, here's a render using the general cell shader in Carrara. I have found that getting a good result requires rendering the scene with a very large size and then reducing the image to a more practical size afterwards.

I recommend Yatoon for Carrara cell shading here a sample no post work Cellshade Yatoon Carrara

I have several detailed blogs for Carrara shading on my blog

Thanks I will be getting it soon. I will post here once I have been able to play with it.

Excellent style, William.

William_Rivera posted at 10:55AM Sun, 30 April 2017 - #4298378

I recommend Yatoon for Carrara cell shading here a sample no post work Cellshade Yatoon Carrara

I have several detailed blogs for Carrara shading on my blog