[STYLIZED GRAPHICS TUTORIAL] Recreating the art style of Guilty Gear Strive in UE5

Guilty Gear Strive - Ramlethal Valentine Shader tutorial and model download.
I recreated the shader used for #Guilty gear Strive inside unreal engine in under 15 minutes. This is only part 1 the shader, part 2 will cover the outlines and will be released shortly.
Zip file with assets for the tutorial
www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ufl2p0...
Link to original ripped model
www.deviantart.com/o-dv89-o/a...
Link to GDC talk
• GuiltyGearXrd's Art St...

[@littleboots3809]

Thanks for taking the time to break this stuff down and making us aware of the GDC talk. Great stuff!

[@prostajkb]

I've been waiting for this. Thank you!

[@ProjectShinkai]

Your welcome please fill free to leave any tips for improvement

[@DJL3G3ND]

4:35 yeah lol, I stopped before even this because it already looked great to me, that was so much simpler than I expected, thanks for this

[@ProjectShinkai]

Welcome

[@imlostgaming9542]

Thank you so much for this tutorial! I read in a comment your working on a character I’m doing that currently as well! I hope you make a tutorial on the process trying to learn everything I can about this style in unreal engine! After that maybe anime environment tutorials!

[@ProjectShinkai]

I'm actually and indie game developer and anime lover. I started over by making a character from scratch. Completely recording the process. Almost finished. Going to release it as a full tutorial series. Then take the character and put into anime environment in unreal engine. And let people basically walk around and anime world. Or rather that's the plan

[@imlostgaming9542]

@@ProjectShinkai Thank you so much man for making this style more available to the public it’s so hard to find info that’s digestible to people just starting!

[@flamepaladinn]

Thanks for this! Really helped

[@ProjectShinkai]

Your welcome

[@TinNguyen-dg4zv]

Nice! Many thanks!

[@ProjectShinkai]

Welcome. I'm working on the outline material now. And making a character from scratch in the same style

[@TheVoiceOfChaos]

honestly this is really good and the tutorial isnt as long as some may think

[@ProjectShinkai]

Thank you I have more coming. Stay tuned.

[@RetroMikesVODs]

This is really cool and almost what I am looking for. I need something like this than can also do transparency, receive dynamic shadows from world objects and allow for emissive elements that stay full bright in shadow.

[@ProjectShinkai]

thank you

[@savageaniket2145]

will you teach me

[@HeroGetsu]

Viewtiful Joe is my childhood game and my name 😂 I will never forget it

[@ProjectShinkai]

i loved it

[@sergey8229]

to understand why there are no highlights on the hair, see 0:47 texture ILMMapAO red, I don’t understand why but only after that it worked

[@ProjectShinkai]

thank you

[@sara-uh8xy]

hey sweet video but, can this same video be used for a model for characters made in vroid studio. if not could u make a video to make it work on the vroid models. Thank you

[@venomtang]

Epic-- SUBBED

[@ProjectShinkai]

Thanks

[@venomtang]

@@ProjectShinkai What you working on these days dude?

[@polygonforge3633]

THANKS BREH

[@ProjectShinkai]

my pleasure. more to come

[@Farins79]

look clear, and nice tutorial. about baking maps its ok, but in the utility map, there its included AO and shadow matte...and it sok, but how bake shadow matte? usually in never use this pass

[@ProjectShinkai]

Thanks. I'm making a character from scratch now. For a full tutorial series.

[@NeioTube]

I'm studying cel shading for UE for years, intermittently. There is one big problem that I can't overcome. In blender we can do data transfer to get a perfect normal, but when we import the FBX, the data transfer is automatically applied, so when you the character is talking or smiling (or anything that use morph targets) you will see a lot of crap on his face. It's not that hard to make a cel shaded mesh without any morph targets, but have you already managed to keep that edited normal on face when the character have faciale expressions in UE5 (or 4). I'm talking about this with a very experimented cel-shading artist but his solution was complexe and I've never seen a full 3D game with expressive characters. Great stuff by the way! Nobody does tutorial about Guilty Gear shaders for UE5, that's why the stability of normal with morph targets is that important.

[@ProjectShinkai]

I don't think guilty gear strive uses morph targets. They use hundred of bones and posted every animation frame by frame.

[@NeioTube]

@@ProjectShinkai That's true... Weird... The friend I'm talking to about is an experienced tech artist (he's working on the cel shaded "Silkroad project" you can easily find on KZbin), it sounded deliriously complex for him to maintain the normal edit with facial expressions on UE... I must redo a couple of tests.

[@ProjectShinkai]

@@NeioTube I'm modeling a character from scratch now. I'm going to attempt to rigg and animate it

[@NeioTube]

@@ProjectShinkai I'm very curious to see that. I've already do my own characters, but yes, facial expressions was an issue (fake projected shadows too)

[@ProjectShinkai]

@@NeioTube im not the best at editing so it will take a bit of time. but im actually recording myself from the beggining. making a demon slayer character int he style of guilty gear strive. goign to share a tutorial on each part of the process.

[@benlachaine]

Hey Chris, I don't understand Blue channel from ILM map, can you explain?

[@HenriqueAugustodejesus]

I noticed that elements of the scene do not reflect shadows on the character, he always follows the shadow according to the sun, how to solve this? I want when the character passes into a shadow, part of his body becomes dark too

[@GISxRayzen]

Hello sir, Have you solved this issue ? ^^

[@thronosstudios]

This looks insane! Is there a way to affect the whole scene, instead of a per character thing?

[@hipjoeroflmto4764]

Just do this with all of your materials for scenes

[@thronosstudios]

@@hipjoeroflmto4764 That sounds like you could turn into a pain. Maybe I could just take one base material and then make a ton of different material instances of it and copy paste

[@mitchelhooft023]

How did you import the model into Unreal?

[@hristozafirov7110]

Can you please explain the thoughts, logic, why and how the green texture is made for a character? I am trying really hard to understand the custom shading. I have no problems with shaders and math but when it comes to modelling and baking textures I'm at underground level 😅

[@ProjectShinkai]

sry for late response. you basicly are saving the shadow details and ambient icculsion to one texture.

[@ejwkwk]

Thank you for the tutorial. But I checked it a few times and followed it, and my lips came out transparent. Can you tell me why? I think it's because the uv map splits out of the area

[@Switchpoppy]

I think the fbx mesh is missing triangles in that area, because you need to untick the 'remove degenerate triangles' in import options.

[@theendisnear2398]

so are you not using the red channel from ILM map?

[@GISxRayzen]

Because this is based on sun light vector, when you are in an indoor environment it still apply the shadow according to the sun light vector. what would be the workaround to make it work with static and dynamic shadow ?

[@americoperez810]

The workaround is a completely different workflow. The whole of point doing it this way was so that the characters shadows would be static so that it has the anime/2D look even though it's in 3D space

[@ProjectShinkai]

thank you for answering that. missed it.

[@Otakubro6]

Did you use custom texture maps that need to be downloaded or are they built into ue 5 by default?

[@ProjectShinkai]

custom but i gave them out

[@reitokenvideogamecreation7655]

Hello, DO you Think you will be able to do something similar for game like "Genshin Impact, Honkai Impact, Outerplane, Archeland, Blue Protocole" ?? not enough information and i know lots of people are search to learn how to achieve that quality

[@ProjectShinkai]

thats the plan, but im also making my own fighting game, that's heavily stylized. i also want to break down animations in games like this, and darkstalkers.

[@takodachi8283]

@@ProjectShinkai Yes! I'm still learning the basics, but aiming to model for a fighting game. I'll check your channel.

[@unrealgame192]

would love to know how i would recreate this shader in unity, please if you have time could you make a tutorial for that

[@ProjectShinkai]

i ccna try, but havent used unity in a while

[@unrealgame192]

@@ProjectShinkai Think about the amount of views bro, trust me. You got this👍👍👍 Ill be waiting👀

[@techpriest5676]

I stopped at 4:25. The shader isn't working for some reason, what did I do wrong? I just get objects either black or white.

[@ProjectShinkai]

Let me check

[@savageaniket2145]

cel shaded environment tutorial please

[@ProjectShinkai]

i actually did a small test and have a video from it on my channel. but havent made a full tutorial

[@animeculture]

Is it hard to get those textures? I make my models in Vroid and it isnt all in one png like these. Its a separate texture for each piece of clothing, eyes etc.

[@ProjectShinkai]

I gave them in the zip

[@animeculture]

That’s only for the character in the model though isn’t it? I’m using a custom character model.

[@ProjectShinkai]

@@animeculture I'm actually going through the full process where I do a custom model in this style. I actually don't like the way they unwrapped the model. I'm going to try and do a custom uv. I guess sit tight and we can figure it out together

[@EliasSoler-wp5is]

What about the Red Channel of the ILM? Looks like you didn't use it here

[@ProjectShinkai]

No but I use to in the next one dropping

[@washingtonsenadefranca1913]

Nice tutorial, but you did not use the vertex color information, do you know how to use it? I'd like to understand better how to use them.

[@ProjectShinkai]

not gonna lie, i was kinda slow. with updates. ubt i did learn it after this one. i plan on updating it.

[@washingtonsenadefranca1913]

cool, I'll wait for it, thanks

[@ProjectShinkai]

@@washingtonsenadefranca1913i like all things stylized from final fantasy to guilty gear strive. for some reason i like it better then photo realistic.

[@washingtonsenadefranca1913]

​@@ProjectShinkai me too, it is harder to make realistic feels good, anything off and the entire scene looks weird, in stylized way we got more liberty

[@ProjectShinkai]

@@washingtonsenadefranca1913 true and if done right it can come out amazing. Such as killer instinct, or guilty gear strive

[@savageaniket2145]

does anyone know how to make environment like hifi rush

[@ProjectShinkai]

I made a shader for it. Maybe I'll put it out as a tutorial as well

[@risodda]

Do you know where's the original thumbnail from?

[@ProjectShinkai]

Made it.

[@risodda]

@@ProjectShinkai are you the artist of the image?

[@ProjectShinkai]

@@risodda I took an image off Google into Photoshop to make the thumbnail. I can try to find the unedited image

[@risodda]

@@ProjectShinkai yea I was wondering about that

[@AlexGonzalez-ru9hp]

Do you think you’d release a tutorial on how to make all the maps before this step?

[@ProjectShinkai]

I'm actually working on it now sorry it's taken so long. But it will cover everything from modeling, texturing, maps, and making a basic scene in unreal engine.

[@AlexGonzalez-ru9hp]

@@ProjectShinkaiThat sounds amazing! I am trying using some other tutorials for setting up the maps for my own projects. Have you dabbled in the animating stage yet? I am confused on how to switch between the low poly eye and the high poly eye on the texture map. Have you gotten to that step in your own projects yet? Looking forward to your next posts!

[@ProjectShinkai]

@@AlexGonzalez-ru9hp yes I've done animation, at moment I am using ai mocap. To start the animation off the adding to it by hand.

[@AlexGonzalez-ru9hp]

@@ProjectShinkai I will have to look into that! Thanks for replying :D

[@dogamer238]

i tought it was a post process shader

[@ProjectShinkai]

Nope...I feel you have more control this way.

[@dogamer238]

@@ProjectShinkai but wouldnt i have to modify every single material for it to have this shader effect ?

[@ProjectShinkai]

@@dogamer238 that's the point. Anime is pretty direct. So if you want a game to look like anime everything need to be direct. It's the difference between something like breath of the wild and guilty gear strive.

[@dogamer238]

@@ProjectShinkai And for the light angle i would have to change it for every single piece of environnement with Blueprint or you only apply this on the charater ?

[@tatsuoryuu7743]

Nice! Many thanks!

[@ProjectShinkai]

Welcome. I actually made improvements and designed a character from scratch. Stay tuned for a full tutorial set.