Poll: Cel-Shading is ugly

[Kira Must Die]

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Sep 30, 2009
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I love cell shading, but I'd usually prefer stylistic, vibrant graphic than boring, realistic graphics anyways. It's just more pleasing to the eyes for me, as I love cartoons. But that's just me, much like how you don't like that style. I'm aware that it can look ugly, but I'd still probably take it.
 
Mar 30, 2010
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Actually, I find the graphical style of the Borderlands games to be a refreshing change to the fairly repetitive 'realistic' shooters we are inundated with these days. At least cell shaded games have colour palettes that don't use dirty dishwater as their inspiration.
 

Ren_Li

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Mar 7, 2012
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We can say the exact same thing about any style of colouring and shading:
If done well, with a good understanding of ALL the styles in any piece of work (be it a picture, an animation, a video game) that style can look good. It can look stupendous.

And if done badly, it can look really, really bad.

If you think any one particular style looks bad, you've either not encountered good examples of it, or it's just not for you. And while everyone has their right to their opinion, that doesn't make it "true", any more than one person's dislike for a particular colour makes that colour "bad".

:EDIT: Also, I'm confused by the examples in the first post. Is it supposed to be in favour of cel shading, or not? Because either the OP doesn't know what cel shading is, or they're poking at none-cel shading to make a point about how cel shading isn't ugly. I'm assuming the first. That example is not cel shading.
 

Zefyrix

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Feb 11, 2013
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I myself are not the biggest fan of cel-shaded graphics. I prefer a more "realistic" look. But I do have to say that if the look doesn't bother you then the games hold up much better graphic-wise. Take Zelda as example, I do think Wind Waker holds up much better in graphics than Twilight Princess. But I still do prefer TP's graphics.
 

DoPo

"You're not cleared for that."
Jan 30, 2012
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I love cel-shaded games. And the more "cartoony" look, too - Borderlands included, even though it's not cel-shaded. Mirror's edge looks really good normally, but the cutscenes were even more amazing






Mark of the Ninja was all cel-shaded and it was awesome


















I'm loving them. I like colours, so sue me - it's just so pleasant to look at.
 

Raggedstar

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Jul 5, 2011
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I have a real soft spot for cel shading. While not all games look great in it, most of the games I've seen look stunning. No More Heroes kinda looked ugly, but then again you're playing a dude who most likely humps a waifu pillow of a 12 year old looking anime girl.

But it seems like we're lacking some Sly Cooper in this thread. I'll help.




 

Maevine

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Feb 4, 2013
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*shrug* Cel-shade graphics tend to last longer than ~uber-realism~ in my opinion. It's also more artsy to me.
 

farbrorbla

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Jan 14, 2013
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Back in the PS2 era it was the best stuff out there with titles like Dragon Quest 8 and Rogue Galaxy looking like heaven when compared to the other eyecancer. These days i dont really enjoy CS because there are far better engines that can paint up a far better picture of a game. Some years ago...loved it, nowdays....a cheap trick to make things look smother
 

SecondPrize

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Mar 12, 2012
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They look fine to me. I grew up watching cartoons so cel-shading in a game isn't exactly unnatural to me.
 

Nadia Castle

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May 21, 2012
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Modern cell shading looks ugly as hell because the developers try to put waaaaaaaay too much detail into the characters. Keep it simple and it looks gorgeous. The amount of shadow and lines on those Borderland characters just completely buries any style the might have. Go back a generation and cel shading looked gorgeous, but for some reason now they insist on ruining it with a Lifeldian level of scribbly lines and grungy colours. Cel shading is best when it looks hand coloured, but even the Wind Waker remake is looking disturbingly like bad CGI.

Its a pity really, HD could make a Cel Shaded game look absolutely pristine if done right. Imagine Killer 7 or maybe even a Samurai Jack game done with crystal clear cel shaded graphics and I'd be throwing my money at the developers.
 
Dec 14, 2009
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I love cel-shading in games.

It's the reason why Okami still looks so great today, or the reason why TF2 still looks great, or why Wind Waker still looks great.

It ages beautifully.
 

Roxor

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Nov 4, 2010
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No, cel-shading isn't ugly. I'm sure it can be if done badly, but it's usually pretty good.

It's also simple to do. You can fit it onto one line of code:

final_pixel = light_colour * (floor(dot(light_ray, surface_normal)*4)/3) * surface_colour;

Replace 4 and 3 with n and n-1 for more general quantisation of the brightness.
 

Souplex

Souplex Killsplosion Awesomegasm
Jul 29, 2008
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Cel-shading not only looks nice, but it still looks nice ten years after each use.
"Realistic" graphics age terribly, and often don't look good in the first place.
 

Llil

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Jul 24, 2008
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Cel-shading doesn't usually look nearly as good as actual 2D animation, but if done well, it can still look nice. My main problem with cel shading is that the movement is too fluid, so it's obvious that it's 3D trying to look like 2D. And there shouldn't be too much detail either. A limited colour palette, lots of flat colours, clear outlines and sharp shadows make for good looking cel-shading. It does age better than something that's trying to be realistic.

That Guilty Gear Xrd looks really good. They've made the character animations intentionally choppy to mimic the really low frame rates of Japanese animation. In most parts of the trailer, it's pretty much impossible to tell it's not 2D animation. That's really clever, lowering the character animations to something like 12 fps on purpose, which actually makes it look better.
 

Adam Jensen_v1legacy

I never asked for this
Sep 8, 2011
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I love cel shading. I don't need my games to look realistic at all in order to have fun. And cel shading kind of gives games a unique look. But cel shading alone isn't enough. You can't just cel shade a realistic game. You need to create a game to take aesthetic advantage of cel shading from the start.
 

ninjaRiv

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Aug 25, 2010
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I love it. It's a style, it's not supposed to be loved by everybody and it's not supposed to be used everywhere (which is why it's not).
 

minimacker

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Apr 20, 2010
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Andy of Comix Inc said:
Also, due to the lighting techniques employed, Team Fortress 2 is technically cel-shaded:
If we're going to start using technicalities, we can just stop right here. If someone says cel-shading, you know what they mean. TF2 is not what they mean.
 

Milanezi

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Mar 2, 2009
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Cel-Shading is TRICKY, but thing is, when it's well done, the game's graphics never grow old. I don't see Borderlands growing old, the cel-shading there rocks. However, when cel-shading is bad, it is baaaaaaaad, but sincerely, I haven't seen bad cel-shading in a long time.

I'm not sure about Dishonored though: it's sorta cel-shade in my opinion, graphics giving an impression of water painting or something, but it seems they held themselves from going head on with the idea and it turned out sorta weird, the game however is excellent and even though i find those graphics weird, after you get used to it it's pretty nice.
 

busterkeatonrules

- in Glorious Black & White!
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Jun 22, 2009
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I like cel-shading. Always have. My first cel-shaded game was the original Sly Cooper, and I've since played through The Wind Waker, Okami, and the rest of the Cooper series. I love that cartoony look, especially in this modern day when most games strive only for gritty realism - and end up all looking the same!

Besides, as several others point out, cartoonish graphics do tend to last longer. Technology, always on the march, will inevitably leave your average state-of-the-art photo-realistic AAA title looking hopelessly dated within a couple of years while games with more whimsical visuals (say, Psychonauts or WoW) look as fresh today as the day they came out!