Ever since I started working in 3D, I’ve always been looking for a way to create a toon shader. I actually started this project some time ago, but had to put it on hold because I didn’t have the technical knowledge to achieve the result I had in mind.

Recently, I decided to pick it up again and really dive into the idea, combining Street Fighter, a franchise I’ve always been a big fan of, with my exploration of toon shading.
For this project, I worked on every stage of the process, from modeling and texturing to animation and the final presentation. The big challenge here was the ToonShader, where I tried to mix a bit of 2D style while keeping the 3D feeling.

The Marvel Rival was the main influence for the hand-painted highlights, while Street Fighter 2 and Alpha art were used for the purple shadows and the character's general style. Even though the toon shader was the main focus, I tried to give as much attention as possible to every step so the final result would feel polished and complete.

I used MetaHuman more as a rigging tool than a character creator; it helped me skip part of the technical rigging process and gave me more time to rig other areas.

The body animation was fully keyframed, no magic here! I used mocap only for the face animation.
I added some motion graphics to the background to make the animation a little more dynamic, and the final render was done in real time, no post-process needed.

It was a very rewarding project to work on, and I already have a few other characters ready to test this process.

I’m preparing a full breakdown of the entire process. I'm about to release it in the next few days. Stay tuned.
Hope you enjoy
Thanksss