Corona Toon Material

The Toon material changes how the Diffuse and Reflectivity (especially specular highlights) respond to lighting. Instead of following realistic shading, they use color gradients defined by ramps in the material settings. When a strong light source is used—like the Corona Sun—these gradients don’t blend smoothly, but instead create a banded or posterized look, with clear, sharp transitions between different brightness levels.

Toon material is very useful for avoiding becoming locked in to specific materials, letting the focus remain on the building, design, interior layout, etc. This can be handy early in a project, but sometimes can also be useful for final deliverables, too, where a photorealistic render may present a very specific material that will not be the one used in the actual construction giving confusing expectations. Toon material can also be used purely for artistic purposes as well, for conveying a particular feel or mood.

Base

Level – The constant color, texture map, or shader will be multiplied by this number. Settings 50% and using pure white color is equal to using 50% gray color or using a texture map or color shader with an output level of 50%.

Color – Defines reflection color for metals (conductors) or diffuse color for non-metals (dielectrics).

Texture – Defines the texture map or shader that will be used for the material's base layer.

Mix mode – Controls the blending mode of the texture map or shader over the color.

Mix strength – Controls the intensity of the texture map or shader that is being used.

Ambient color – Specifies an ambient color affecting only direct rays and not the GI.

Roughness

Value – Controls the smoothness of the base layer surface. A value of 0% (black if a map is used) fives a completely smooth surface, which leads to sharp reflections (and possibly refractions) from the base layer. On the other hand, a value of 100% (white if a map is used) gives completely rough surfaces leading to blurred reflections. The smoothness of the surface also influences the diffuse reflections, where the smooth surface gives the perfect Lambert reflection, and the rough surface leads to a more flat-like appearance.

Texture – Defines the texture map or shader that will be used for the base layer's roughness.

IOR

Value – Sets the Index of Refraction (IOR) for a non-metal (dielectric) object, which controls how much a ray is bent when entering the object and the amount of reflection in a physically plausible way. A value of 1 gives a non-bending of the ray and non-reflection, while a value of 1.52 is good for a generic glass. Precise values for the IOR of different non-metal (dielectric) materials can be found in various online references and guides.

Texture – Defines the texture map or shader that will be used for the base layer's IOR.

Diffuse Ramp

Ramp – Allows you to specify the knots and colors in the ramp.

Ramp offset – Shifts the ramp input, as if the ramp keys are moved left. See the Diffuse Ramp Offset example below.

Output offset – Shifts the ramp output, as if the ramp keys are brighter colors.

Ramp Textures - Specify the texture maps for each knot created.

Specular Ramp

Ramp – Allows you to specify the knots and colors in the ramp.

Ramp Offset – Shifts the ramp input, as if the ramp keys are moved left. See the Specular Ramp Interpolation example below.

Output Offset – Shifts the ramp output, as if the ramp keys are brighter colors. 

Ramp Textures – Specify the texture maps for each knot created.

Anisotropy

Value – Specifies the anisotropy of the glossy reflection highlight. A value of 0 disables anisotropy, which creates a perfectly isotropic highlight. A value of -1 creates a maximally anisotropic highlight in one axis, and a value of 1 creates maximally anisotropic highlight in the perpendicular axis.

Shape – Allows you to specify a shape for the anisotropy effect. See the Anisotropy example below.

Simple – This option doesn’t affect the material’s reflection highlights.
Shaped – This option allows picking a custom shape for the material’s reflection highlights.
Textured – This option defines the material’s reflection highlight shape based on a custom texture.

Color – When enabled, the color for all lights illuminating an object with the material is replaced by the given color. 

Blend mode – Specifies how the original light color is blended with the replacement color. 

Over
Add
Subtract
Multiply
Lighten
Darken
Saturate
Desaturate

Blend intensity – Specifies an amount for blending the original light and the diffuse color. A value of 0 results in no light blending, while a value of 1 results in full light blending. 

Level – Both the constant color and the texture map are multiplied by this value. Setting this parameter to 0.5 or using a white color is equal to using 50% gray color, or using a texture map with output level of 0.5.

Color – Specifies opacity color, where white is opaque, and black is transparent. 

Texture – Defines the texture map that is used for the material's opacity.

Mix mode – Controls the blending mode of the texture map or shader over the color.

Mix strength – Controls the intensity of the texture map or shader that is being used.

Clip – When enabled, Clip applies a threshold to the opacity map, so that everything below 50% gray is completely transparent, and everything above 50% gray is completely opaque. This option can speed up rendering significantly.

Min level – Specifies displacement distance applied to areas with black (0.0) texture. This value is measured in world-space units. 

Max level – Specifies strength of the displacement effect. The world-space displacement distance is applied to areas with white (1.0) texture. 

Enable water level – When enabled, this option enables the clipping of the displacement starting from the 0.0 values or black areas of the texture map or shader.

Water level – Sets the clipping distance in world space units.

Texture – Defines the texture map or shader that will be used for the displacement.

Mode – Defines the mode used to calculate the displacement.

Visible directly – When enabled, this makes the Corona Legacy material directly visible to the camera.

Visible in reflections – When enabled, this makes the Corona Legacy material directly visible in reflections.

Visible in GI – When enabled, this makes the Corona Legacy material directly visible for GI calculation.

Visible in refractions – When enabled, this makes the Corona Legacy material directly visible in refractions.

Propagate masks – Specifies the propagation of non-shading render elements (masks) after interaction with the material. Available modes are:

Never – Mask passes are never propagated through the material, i.e. the material is always visible in masks.
Through reflection – Mask passes are propagated through the material if reflection occurs.
Through refraction – Mask passes are propagated through the material if refraction occurs.
Always – Mask passes are always propagated through the material, i.e. the material is never visible in masks.
Invisible in masks – This mode makes the material invisible in masks.

MaterialID – Defines an ID for the material that can be used in the Corona Compositing tag or in the Corona Data shader.