The next rendering engine that I will talk about is Freestyle. Freestyle has been around for many years. It was always used as a standalone program. Since the last Blender release (Blender 2.67 RC1), this rendering engine has been integrated into the program as an add-on. Now, the Freestyle engine is easier than ever to use.
Freestyle should not be considered its own engine. It is more of an addition to the Blender Internal engine. It is used to create stylized strokes on your objects. This can be used to give a cartoony feel to your render, or even to make a technical render.
Once you have all of the textures and objects set up in your Blender Internal scene, you can check a box in the render tab to activate Freestyle. Freestyle uses “line sets” to do it’s magic. These line sets are used to calculate where stroke is added to objects.
This rendering engine is very technical, and takes some time to master, but the extra work is worth it. If you are looking for a cartoony effect, this is the way you are going to get it.
Rendering the lines takes a relatively short amount of time. Adding a basic stroke to your objects can take 30 seconds for a simple scene, and several minutes for a complex setup. If you want to make a full animation using Freestyle, be prepared to wait longer for it to finish. Even though it adds to your render time, the results are amazing.
Happy Blending,
Nick Bobryk
Bobryk 3D 