Topic: When to use Cell shading and Soft shading.

Posted under Tag/Wiki Projects and Questions

Hello, I'd like some help to understand exactly when to use Cell Shading and Soft Shading and what's the threshold between these two. So let's put the definitions from the wiki of these two tags here and some examples:

Cell Shading (A)

Cell shading

A group of shading techniques that represent light and shade in a drawing or painting thru blocked in forms. Characterized by consistently sharp edged forms of shade and light. Popular among comics, mangas and animation.

Based on that do you think these posts are cell shaded:

1. post #2850758
2. post #2850059
3. post #2846066
4. post #2851865

I can see the blocked forms (brush strokes) of shades and they seem sharp to me, but I don't find other posts tagged with cellshading with this amount of colors. So I don't know if they are really cellshaded.

Soft Shading (B)

Soft shading

A group of shading techniques that represent light and shade in a drawing or painting through smooth gradation based on the laws of light logic. Characterized by soft transitions between shade and light throughout the image.

Based on that do you think these posts are soft shaded:

5. post #2838940
6. post #2851480
7. post #2850658
8. post #2848979
9. post #2846158

  • Toriel almost seems like Cell Shading, but the shading borders are soft and the bounce light is really soft. So it's soft shading, right?
  • The wrestlers seems cell shading, but it seems the artist blurred some of the shading borders, seems cell shading for me. But the definition of the cell shading tag asks for consistently sharp borders. So it's soft shading????
  • The Cat's face and hand seems cell shading but the clothes seems to be soft shading??? So what do I tag? Simply shaded?
  • The Dragons really seems to be cell shading, there's like 2 minor borders that are a bit soft. But there's also this subsurface scattering which is a soft effect. So, again, what do I tag these as? Simply shaded too?

I already tagged some of these posts either as cell shading or soft shading. So if I was wrong I'll check and fix it. Also sorry for the broken English. (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

Updated