Original subtitles

Hello, in this video we're going to create a cell shading effect in Unreal

Engine 5.

So games like Zelda Breath of the Wild use this, and this can help make your

game look nice.

Before we get started, shout out to Cadeco. They made a tutorial on Unreal

Engine 4 on how to create a cell shader effect.

I'm going to be updating it to Unreal Engine 5 in this video.

I'll leave a link to their website tutorial somewhere in the description of

video.

Okay, so to get started, what we're actually going to do is create this post

-process effect volume, and then we're going to apply it to areas in our game

which we want to have the cell shading effect.

So, to create this, we just want to find some free space in your project, right

-click, and go Create Material.

And I'm just going to call this the PP underscore Cell Shader. So that stands

for the Post -Process Cell Shader.

We can double -click and open it up.

And the first thing we want to do is just select it.

and go over to the details here, into material, and change this to be a post

-process. So now we're ready to create our post -process cel -shader effect.

So the first thing we're going to do is create a lighting buffer.

This will basically store information about how we want to light our scene. To

do this, we can just right click and look for the scene texture, and we want

this one, the scene texture.

Select it, and just change this to be post -process, and we want this one,

-process input zero.

We want to copy this.

and paste it again and then this time we just want to change this to be diffuse

color then off of the color we're not actually going to be using the color of

any of these we just want to drag up here and look for desaturation then drag

here and look for desaturation and then we just want to divide this

and we'll divide them by each other

and then look for clamp

And this will basically calculate how we want to light our level. So this is

just going to make everything look grey.

So for our cell shader, what we're going to do is we're going to make it so any

pixel on our screen which has a value greater than 0 .5 is going to use the

normal colours.

And any pixel on our screen which has a value of less than 0 .5 is going to use

a colour with half the brightness.

So to achieve that effect, let's just move all these nodes backwards.

Then right click and look for the if node.

We want to connect from here into here.

And for B, we want this to have a constant of 0 .5 because that's the

we're going to be comparing it with. So if I just look for 1 on my keyboard and

left click, this will create a constant.

And make this 0 .5 because that's the value we're going to be comparing this

against.

So if a pixel has a value greater than 0 .5, what we're going to do is just copy

this.

and connect it into here.

And if it doesn't we can drag off here and click multiply and make sure that

this value is 0 .5 and then connect this into B here.

Then just connect this into emissive color here and go to apply, close this.

So next we want to basically apply this post process material onto our level.

to do that we can go over here where it says quickly add things to the project

and we just want to go to volume and look for a post process volume

then make sure selected go to details and then we're going to look for

so under rendering features

we just want to click this arrow and just go add element then we want to

choose and select asset reference then we can just drag our material onto here

and right now this is only going to affect things which are inside of the

to make it affect our whole level we just want to look for infinite and make

sure we just check this and this will affect everywhere in our level now you

notice things don't really look like they're cell shaded and that is because

under engine is applying other effects before our post -processed material in

order to make sure that this basically is applied before those effects we can

just open up this material and then we want to scroll down and we want to go to

post process material and change this to scene color after dos so this will

basically apply this after it's applied the depth of field channel so let's just

select it then go apply and you should see it is applying the post process

effect nicely nice Right now, our post -process effect is affecting everything

on our level. You may want to isolate it so it only affects certain things on

our level.

So, let's go over how to do that.

So, we can do that by using a custom depth.

This will tell Unreal Engine this is the only object we want to be affected by

our post -process volume.

So, if I just select my character here, I'm going to look for render custom

depth. And just check this.

Then we just need to make a few changes to our material that will only affect

things which have the Render Custom Depth path.

So I'm going to open it up.

And then we want to add the following nodes.

So in some free space, we just want to right -click and look for Scene,

For this first one, we want to change this to be Scene Depth.

Then just copy this again.

For the second one, We want to change this to be Custom Depth.

Then we just want to copy this one more time.

And for the third one, we want it to be the Post Process Input 0.

Then we just want to drag off here and look for Mask.

And we want this one, Component Mask.

Click this arrow, and we want to uncheck G. So we'll only be masking the red

color channel.

Copy this again.

Connect it into here.

Then we want to add an if. So if I just right click and look for if.

Connect from A into here.

From here into B.

And from color into here.

This will basically allow the only objects with the custom depth will

have the cell shader effect applied to them.

And then we just want to connect from this if.

into the a is greater than b node and then connect this into emissive color

go apply and if i just close this so now unreal engine will only apply the post

process material to things which have the render custom depth field enabled i

did find that no matter what i did it would always make the sky black although

did find a fix for this so in unreal engine 5 they made it so the sky is this

mesh if we just delete it

Then go over to settings and make sure show engine content is enabled.

Go over to our engine and then just look for the BP underscore sky. This should

be in your project.

This is what Unreal Engine 4 used to use so I'm not sure why they changed it.

I just drag this in and this will give us a sky.

And then just select it and for the directional light actor just change it

this. This is what Unreal Engine 4 used to use so I'm not sure why they changed

it.

Okay, so now we have our sky working as normal. If we want objects to have the

cel -shaded effect, we can just select it and then look for Render,

Custom Depth, and if I just check it,

this will have the cel -shaded effect on it.

Nice. So that is how to add a cel -shaded effect in Unreal Engine.

If you want the project files for this, they'll be available if you're

subscribed to my website. And if you're subscribed, you get access to a bunch of

courses like how to make a 2D platformer, an FPS game, and more.

That's all for this video. If you enjoyed, make sure to like and

I'll see you guys in the next one. Bye.