The Comic Artist’s Tools Suite: Centralized and Intuitive Non-Photorealistic Computer Graphics Renderings

Abstract

As advancements are made in Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) software and Non-Photorealistic Rendering (NPR) techniques, modern comic artists have reaped the benefits of technology-aided workflows by creating 3D CGI environments for their comic backgrounds. However, while several NPR techniques exist, there remains a high barrier to entry for many non-technical artists when learning how to use these techniques to their full ability. This paper introduces the Comic Artist’s Tools Suite (CATS), a system for the open-source 3D modeling software Blender, which enables artists to procedurally generate and synthesize a selection of curated Non-Photorealistic Rendering (NPR) effects through an accessible and user-friendly interface. Users can quickly create and adjust shaders that customize the style of their 3D environment backgrounds, bypassing the need to craft shaders by hand and speeding up the traditional workflow for rendering pipelines.