I searching for websites/forum, that have here main focus on creating Anime like 3D Graphic (with Cel/Toon Shading - not only Character, Landscape and such things too). With good Tutorials, Resources or some stuff. Are there any websites? Best english, but japanese sites helps too.
I self searching for such websites, but only find here and there some little things under other stuff not related to Anime, but to do good Anime 3D Graphic is a complex topic.
Stylized art like anime style is much harder to do IMO then realistic. But you’d need a firm grasp in doing realistic style first. That’s basically what i did. I learned how to model things that sorta looked real and went from there.
However, I’d be interested in any links anyone else could provide as well.
I know, but Anime have also his special rules. So Tutorials, Tips and Tricks and other things would be a good thing. But i must say its easily said, but difficult to find at the internet. I think the most is hidden on japanese sites in japanese. Here and there i have found some japanese site with Anime 3D stuff, but not many. I dont know for what i must search on google to find the japanese sites.
An other problem is, that japan have mostly her own graphic and rendering software that is only available in japanese.
No one have some links? A better place to search for this help me too.
I have a personal distaste for the anime style, however, this is one of the best anime models I’ve ever seen.
http://www.mike-altman.com/gallery/anime.htm
The tutorial for how he created the model is linked in the side comment of the site.
I have seen already better once, but the tutorial there can be useful, thx.
But i not only searching tutorials for characters, like i said i search for Anime like landscape and textures too.
One the one side i will learn to do such Anime like Landscapes, Textures and other things (like Water), but on the other side i think about to create a own website, with such tutorials about Anime 3D graphic, when i not found anything special to that on the Internet.
How hard are you searching? I typed 3d model anime into Google and clicked on the youtube result and found dozens of 3d anime related modeling tutorials.
As for textures, just get some realistic ones and use Posterize/Cutout, blur and healing brush to make things blend well. The easiest thing to do is dumb down real textures. Don’t go to far to make the texture look 100% anime because the toon shader will add the rest of the effect in the 3d world.
Check this out:
Youtube Video with numerous useful related videos
As for additional tips on how to model anime, just approach it as any other model. Make front and side views and use them as referance pics to model from. It’s all just shapes. If you are looking for premade things, I didn’t look into that with my quick search on google. I think you might be thinking too hard on the topic. Use the toon shader and the rest is all in the model geometry and texture. Model just like you would model anything else, except exaggerate some of the proportions a bit. Its the same concept as trying to make ultra realistic models, except realistic models use lots of shaders per model.
So your search is for tutorials on the anime style as an artistic preference. In that case your in for years of dedication and study.
The way I was taught was learn to work in 2d first. Draw and paint anime character’s and landscapes, this will help you develop an understanding for the shapes, basic shapes, color pallets, details, cel shading and more. Then work on some basic 3d models or sculptures in clay. Further your understanding of the shapes and forms.
Your task sounds more like a life goal and that is something no tutorial can deliver.
It’s up to you to study and work at it for years.
@MakerOfGames: thx, some of the tutorials on youtube are new for me, others i know since years. Its not the first time that i search for Anime 3D models.
The Thing is: i not search only websites for tutorials, i primary search website with communities, where you can find users, that already have done such Anime stuff things so there can be asked and answered to that topic, as here for Unity.
Just like your hint for creating Anime like textures, but more specific things. Tutorials are nice and helpful, really, but sometimes there are open questions that no tutorials answer and where should you ask? Anytime search with Google and hope you find something? Not the best thing. A specific Community is much better, like here with unity.
@TheLlama: yeah, i know its a complex topic, but the first time i wish i could make Anime like 3D stuff was after the release of Final Fantasy 7 (12 1/2 years ago) and i am a big fan of the Anime look since my childhood early 80s (as i dont know that most of my fav cartoons was Anime). Have already try to draw Manga, but i have problems to draw characters when they not exactly in front or at the side, at 3D on the PC not that big problem. But i have many ground knowledge.
The other side is, that i love games and my first video game was a Pong like game machine end of the 70s. After all i still play many video games today. Beside that i code from time to time some little software, the last years with PureBasic. As well make some Websites included the design and graphics since over ten years. So there are many knowledge in different things, that help me here. The problem is more, that i have only many ground knowledge, not that many that i could say i am a prof of one of this (at most at webdesign/coding).
Why i did not start earlier? I have try it, but i had not the money for a good Raytracing software (only know lightwave3d a little bit form mid 90s at my Amiga computer) and with Blenders GUI i cant do much there, but Blender 2.5 is much much better and i use this version now (the last days i modeling a Anime head - works better than i expected).
But its not only Blender, a month ago i only play Tales of Vesperia and i loved the graphic and as i play it the wish grows again to make a game with such a graphic. After that wish i again searching for a good Engine (not a cheap “Game Maker” Engine - this peace of software IS cheap) to make first only a map with Anime look (game is at the moment a little bit too much), but then i found unexpected Unity and after that i found the new version of Blender and i realize that its form year to year easier for private users to make self good looking 3d stuff with even lesser barriers (thanks to the better (free) Software) and so i will finally do it and make it to a real hobby.
I know well that this is no easy thing and i know well that it takes time, much time. Thats why i searching a place where i can find other users, that do Anime like graphic and why i think about to create a own website, because it is not only a short living idea, as it is with many other users.
Edit: i working since some days on a anime character, first picture are here (Eyes not ready):
http://hoto.ath.cx/unity/AnimeHeadStillAtWork2.jpg
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Good start on that head there. Maybe if you have emulators enable wireframe or show wireframe mode to look at model details if you have ROMs of games n anime style. I must place a disclaimer, I do not know the legality of ROM’s or emulators and do not endorse their use as in many cases any use is considered illegal.
Look closely at screen shots if you have a chance, you can actually pick out a number of polygons for many games. Just start tracing lines where you think they go and it can reveal the underlying geometry.
@Balmung, have you looked at http://www.deviantart.com? There are a lot of anime/manga fans there and if you search tutorials, you’ll find hundreds of them (of varying quality).
@MakerOfGames: i use a picture with front and side view and a other model of a Blender Anime model. That help much. But i still learn Blender, so i dont know all functions.
@IslandDreamer: i know deviantart, awesome artists there, have a account there too, but i dont know that there are tutorials too. Will look for it, thanks.
You might also want to simply do their big infamous eyes as part of a texture (yeah with a different ID so you can animate them through a texture change without having to change the whole character’s texture) and not modelize them. Which will allow you to do animesque eye expressions otherwise impossible with a regular 3d eye such as ^_^.
Actually many characters from Nintendo also work the same way such as Princess Zelda or Peach.
Depending on your poly budget you could even do the mouth the same way thus allowing to have exaggerated various mouth size that would be very tedious to rig in low poly. That’s what they did for Dragon Ball on Wii (not Dragon Ball Z, the one when he is a kid).
As for their hair it’s hard modelling.
Hm, you are right, i dont thought about that, with polygon eyes not all works, but many of this eye expressions are only used in SD (Super Deformed) Anime look. In Tales of Vesperia and Eternal Sonata (play this at the moment) are the eyes modeled too and not only a texture and the normal Anime expressions work there very well.
But it is good to know, i thought about only textures, but not thought about the possible expressions. When i will do more SD stile, it is good to know, but i think there is no much work to change the polygon eyes back to texture eyes, the other way is more work. And so how it is i learn more. 
Yes, the hair… but this make i when the whole character is finished, because it should be a (naked) template for other characters and the hair is the most different thing on other characters.
Here is a close up of both the eyes and mouth done in texture, note that this was for the Wii and the textures are quite low res.
For the eyes since they are definitely non realistic human looking, attempting to model them may cause your character to fall into the uncanny valley, so careful if you go that road.
For the mouth, a real 3D mouth usually works, just know that there is still the alternative of a texture if well done, just like in the examples below
The Akira Toriyama style is anyway something special (a bit more SD like), but on the picture with the open mouth you see good, that it is only a texture on a 3d model. But in general it is a good example for a good looking Anime game graphic.
I dont remember how the models in Blue Dragon was made, because it also is the Toriyama style, but i mean it was with modeled eyes too.
http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2006/262/927950_20060920_screen002.jpg
Ok, that was no complete anime style, but i think it must go that way.
The key for creating anime character models is just being able to distort normal proportions. A lot of the effects you see in say those dragball game images is created by the textures and shaders. To model an anime character, some good examples would be any character from Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time, or the Early 3D final fantasies. Regardless of their texture style, the model style is “anime”.
We will see, first i will make my own experience with it, than can i thought if i would do it the other way or not.
Yeah though maybe more recent models than the early n64 ones since they had very very little details. If you have Super Smash Brawl I’d suggest you to go look and study the trophies as it is a true gold mine, you have models ranging from realistic humans (Solid Snake), to anime characters (Fire Emblem) to more cartoony ones (Mario and friends) to anthopomorphic animals (Sonic, etc).
As for the environment as you were asking too, it is usually very realistic looking (realisticly painted that is) with lots of shades and nuances mainly because the backgrounds were not animated and would just receive the cellulos with the characters and moving stuffs on them, so more details could be given to them.
Therefore definitely no outline for them, as suggested you can either start from realistic textures that you’d work on to make them look less real and more cartoony or you can as well create them from scratch if you’re good with photoshop. Probably a shader like the one for Team Fortress applied on the environment could give it a nice “cartoony though still real” look.
Also depending on the interactivity of it, you could decide to give the same treatment to interactive objects (chairs, etc) as for your characters. That is to say, cell-shaded look with outline, pretty much like in the anime when you could guess when a rock was supposed to fall or a branch to crack due to their different shade. Gameplay wise it could be very interesting as it would give the player an immediate knowledge of the objects s/he can interact with.
Excellent points Wild Pegasus! Those are ideas and concepts that every game designer should consider. I honestly forgot about how important it is to keep things simple and even stand out to the player, and that visual trick is subtle but present. Very nice, I will have to keep that in mind for my project(visually styled FPS-"its not toony not realistic, just non-realistic graphics with toon shaders and other shaders mixed all together) Also, I forgot about the trophy’s in Melee and Brawl. Very good references.