I will be the first to admit, I am a total noob when it comes to 3d modeling and animation but I am learning. I am able to draw 2d anime but after seeing some 3d anime cel shaded works , I decided to give up 2d all together. My question is, when converting a nicely rendered high polygon anime character into a anime cel shaded one , Do you lose or reduce the polygon count ? Get faster rendering times ? Lose character detail ? From a video game perspective, I was just wondering which would be more fesiable for real time performance. Cel Shading or General. Thanks !

Polygon count stays the same... the way it's rendered has nothing to do with how the model IS, only how it's ...er... passed on to the screen. So in that respect ot won't make any difference for a video game either. It's probably faster rendered than a full textured-and-bumpmapped character, but if polygon count is your concern it won't matter.

Some figures are made to do anime type renders like aiko3 ichiro and anime doll. For games cell shading probably takes slightly longer but only slightly.

Thanks guys for the quick response !