In this tutorial, I will show you how make a procedural anime-style material in Blender for your project.

Basic Color

I will be using Suzanne for this tutorial

I use CTRL + 2 to add a Subdivision Surface Modifier with 2 levels – applying the modifier

I right-click and choose shade auto smooth

I use the Z-key and go into material preview so I can see my shader

I split my viewport and open the shader editor

I make a new material and rename it

I add a Shader to RGB node between the Principled Shader and the Material Output [Convertor]

This node only works in Eevee

It is used to apply additional effects to the output such as a color ramp

I then add a Color Ramp between the Shader to RGB and Material Output

This will allow me to control the color shading on the object

I change the interpolation to constant because I want a sharp line between the multiple colors

If I move the white color stop, I can now see the effect on the object

I change the black color stop to a dark red and the white color stop to a bright yellow [#62171F #A7840D]

I can also add a third color stop and make it a midtone blue [#4F7081]

This will give me multiple steps to the colors

I use the Z-key and go into Render Mode

Under the World tab, I change the color to a lighter tone

I add a sun light and position it

I adjust the color stop positions

As I rotate the sun light around I can see the shader reacting

Outlines

For the outline, I will add a new material and change the Principled Shader to an Emission Shader

I will leave the color white so it is easy to see the effect

In the Settings Panel, I check backface culling so I can see the material

With Suzanne selected, I add a Solidify Modifier

Under the Normals Panel, I flip the normals and choose high quality

Under the Materials Panel, I change the material offset to 1 so I can see the emission material and I change the thickness to a negative number [-0.02]

I can now change the Emission color to whatever I wish