**Toony Colors Pro 2** **Main Documentation** v2.6.4 - January 2021 ([See changelog](changelog)) © 2021 Jean Moreno jean.moreno.public+unity@gmail.com ================================================================================================================================ Welcome ======= Thank you for your interest in *Toony Colors Pro 2*! This is the main documentation. Other specific documents are available: - [Shader Generator 2 Documentation](shader_generator_2.html) - [Shader Generator 2 Tutorials](tutorials.html) --- *Toony Colors Pro 2* (abbreviated *TCP2*) is a collection of shaders and tools to help you give a *stylized look* to your Unity game or application. There are currently two base shaders to choose from: - Use the *Hybrid Shader*, which is a complete "ubershader" giving a lot of options out of the box to achieve various styles (*Built-in* and *URP* pipelines) - Use the *Standard PBS* shader, based on Unity's Standard shader, to give a stylized look to your PBS materials (*Built-in* render pipeline only) (You can also use the old *Desktop / Mobile* shaders, which were the default shaders before the introduction of the Hybrid shader in v2.4.6). Advanced users will want to take a look at the [[Shader Generator 2]] to generate their own shaders, adding more features and allowing further customization. The [[Shader Generator 2]] is the most complex and powerful tool included with *TCP2*: if you ever feel too constrained or limited by the default shaders, then this is the way to go! Other [[tools]] are provided to help within your stylized pipeline: Shading Ramp Texture Editor, Smoothed Normals Utility... Here are some *examples of styles* that you can achieve with *Toony Colors Pro 2*:               Quick Start =========== The easiest way to get started is to assign either shader to a material: !!! **Toony Colors Pro 2 / Hybrid Shader** for full control over the stylized look **Toony Colors Pro 2 / Standard PBS** for using a PBS pipeline with limited stylization ...and start tweaking the values, that's it! ---------------------------------------------------------------- ## Hybrid or Physically-Based? Choosing between the two workflows might not be as easy as it seems. Physically-Based Shaders have been created to ease up artists' workflows: by setting up a material once, it is supposed to look good in any lighting and environment conditions by calculating a lot of light interactions automatically. The *TCP2 Standard PBS* shader was built on top of *Unity's Standard shader*, thus it inherits those automatic calculations, and some of the *constraints* that come with it, while still allowing some degree of *stylization* on top of it. Depending on your art style however, you might want to *not have any constraints at all*. In such cases, the *Hybrid Shader* should be preferred. Here is a pros/cons list that can help choosing between either workflow:
Hybrid Shader | Standard PBS | ||
---|---|---|---|
PROS | CONS | PROS | CONS |
***More control***: you can precisely tweak all values to get the exact look wanted | ***Longer material setup***: more control means more parameters to adjust! | ***Easier material setup*** similar to Unity's Standard shader, with additional stylization options | ***Less stylization options***: features like sketch or textured threshold are not supported in the PBS shaders |
***More Stylization***: e.g. comic-book like visuals using features like halftone or sketch effects | ***Less consistency***: you may have to readjust material parameters so that they fit in each environment (although that can be mitigated) | ***Works in all lighting settings***: no need to do further tweaks to materials once they're properly configured | ***Limited value ranges***: you can't go too much outside the "physical" values and get extreme results (that's actually the whole point of PBS!) |
***Better Performance***: that depends on the number of features enabled, but generally speaking the computation is less intense than a PBS shader | ***Automatic mobile version***: the best shader optimizations are loaded internally depending on the target platform | ***Higher Cost***: the Standard shader generally requires more GPU power than the Hybrid one | |
***Shader Generator***: more features to choose from, and get the ultimate stripped-down shader with just the code you need | ***Stylization in 1 click***: the shader will automatically inherit parameters already defined for a material using Unity's Standard shader |