I am not talking about the kind of 3D animation that is sort of realistic and look like 3D. I am talking about the 3D animation used in Japanese animations that try to mimic 2D, like the one below. They usually have some distinctive look, so I am guessing that they are all using the same software. By distinctive look, I mean that the colours are monotone other than the shaded area. That is, there is no gradation, there are only two colours: monotone shadow and monotone non-shadowed area. I guess I cannot do this with Blender (without some unknown addon).
Above tutorials are great, but I don’t think they give a definitive explanation on what you essentially need:
To do such animations, but without torturing yourself, you need (a) a 3d modelling and animation program such as Blender and (b) a rendering engine which supports cel-shading (less commonly known as cartoon shading), which Blender also supports for about as long as I can remember.
Now, such style also sometimes incorporates “edge” or “outline” rendering or shading. That is a separate effect from cel shading. There are few types and few ways to do that. Some artists use it with cel shading, some do not. It’s about preference. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=blender+outline+shading
Common examples of cel shading without the outline shading are the games “Legend of Zelda: WInd Waker” and Breath of the Wild". An example where outline shading is used as well is “Genshin Impact”. So it’s about artistic choice, no good or bad here.
Finally, there is a way to achieve somewhat similar animations without real 3d, a pseudo3d trick of layered 2d images with alpha maps and rigging and animating those layers with spines. I’m not sure which program is best for that and whether Blender is a good choice here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4k9zKvngKY
Renzatic
(Professor Emeritus Billy H. Wafflesmith XIV Esq.)
7
Also, Blender BEER would be a good thing to look into.
