Not sure how to do this in Freestyle with any old mesh, but you can simulate the correct edge geometry with a shrinkwrap projection modifier – some meshes with a bunch of horizontal lines projected onto the mountain from different places. Depending on how complex your terrain is, this could get you the edges you need to use Freestyle.
answer for #1 and #2
#3 render layer, masking and that sort of stuff, then combine in post
#4 remesh it
As for #1 it looks really great, but your screenshot doesn’t provide any clue how to get that effect, could you please describe your process?
Sorry late reply, seldom come here these days.
The glowing intersections because there are extra geometry.
The fading line using alpha modifier.
The glow is post processed, glare node.
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Keyframing edge/face marks tutorial by T.K. [LINK]
I really wish there is an easy UI for this, at least an add-on to pull the stuff into 1 neat UI for speedy workflow.
We are supposed to use keying set to use it and directly to select and to mark edge in 3D view.
It would help to be able to play animation in edit mode in 3Dview, too.
In 2.71rc2, you have to go back to object mode, change frame and then go to edit mode to visualize marking changes.
If you change frame in edit mode, displayed freestyle edge marks are not updated.
We have a button to see shapekeys animations in edit mode. We can see vertices weight animation in weight paint mode.
It is a logical to preview freestyle edge marking animation in the mode in which they are created.
zeauro,
Having to switch between the object and edit mode is a major obstacle for keyframe animation workflow involving edge and face properties. In the specific case when edge/face properties (including Freestyle edge/face marks) are keyframed using keying sets, this mode switching is automatically done, although that is a kind of ad-hoc workaround (kindly reviewed and approved by Aligorith). Obviously a more generic support as you suggested is desired. I did not pursue that development direction much further myself, but that’s definitely a feature request worth making.
Has anyone figured out how to do multiple line colors on a single mesh? I’d imagine it’d have to use vertex groups or something.
Apply multiple materials to different portions of a mesh, and use the Material color shader to pull diffuse, specular and other material properties as line colors.
Cool, very well done! Thank you for sharing.
I came up with this 2D pencil drawing look. I can give him different facial expressions (mouth shapes) with shape keys.
Don’t mind the bad animation. This was mostly a test to see how the lines work. I totally forgot to move his arms on the last walk stride, and his jump is weird.
Hey Scotchtapeworm, I like the style! Freestyle requires faces to draw lines along edges, while your model looks as if it is only made of edges without faces. I guess you have some trick there. Well done!
Thank you. Yeah, his body and limbs are 1 polygon thick with the edges VERY close to eachother, with one of them edgemarked. When you see his arms have holes in them, that is due to the edge being obstructed from view by the polygon. I want to figure out a way to do this without putting holes in the line.
Thanks for the tips, Scotchtapeworm! Technicall it is not difficult to treat as visible edges those occluded by the mesh object the edges blong to. Here is a proof-of-concept Freestyle render:
The red straight line along the yellow-ish twisted mesh is consistent and drawn as if it were all visible even though it is partly occluded by the mesh, whereas the red line along the blue-ish mesh is partly occluded by the mesh in front of it. This render was done using a custom feature edge selection rule implemented as part of a Python style module. Here is the blend file containing the test scene as well as the Python script:
Now the problem is that this kind of custom feature edge selection rules cannot be easily integrated into the Freestyle GUI. There is a plan to allow users to embed Python scripts in line styles through the GUI. I wish I have time to work on that plan very soon.
is there any way to get my Freestyle lines to show up on my 3d model in unity as well? can they be exported etc?
I need to read up on this approach. I’ve been sketching my drawings and animating around them. it’s easy, but wow I’d love to try this style instead.
MrManza,
Freestyle lines are mostly view-dependent. If you move the camera and other objects in the scene, then you need to recalculate Freestyle lines. Freestyle is not a real-time rendering engine, while unity is. Maybe Freestyle is not a solution for what you need.
how does freestyle render its lines? does it create view-dependent geometry for the lines? and then use BI to render it?
will freestyle for cycles be in 2.72? then cycles renders the freestyle lines? will the lines be noisy? 
i am very much looking forward to using freestyle with cycles. thanks for all your work t.k.!
Yes, Freestyle generates a 3D temporary scene populated by mesh objects representing 2D stylized strokes. The temporary scene is then rendered by the BI.
In the case of Freestyle for Cycles, the temporary scene generation is identical, whereas the scene rendering is done in Cycles instead. Strokes are likely noiseless because stroke materials are shadeless based on the Emission shader node. Ray samples are efficiently consumed by only accounting for camera rays, thanks to a very handy technique explained in a CG Cookie tutorial by Jonathan Williamson.
I hope Freestyle for Cycles will be part of 2.72 although the code changes are still under review.