Hey everyone! New update on shader stuff!

I added rim lighting to Bitgirl's shader to add some depth. I came across this method that only draws rim lights in lit areas of a mesh that involves calculating the dot product between the light input and the Fresnel effect. (Don't worry, it's easier than it sounds.) I wanted to break it down cuz I wanted to share this method with other 3D artists here on Newgrounds hoping to give ideas for stylized shading. Here's Bitgirl before and after adding rim lighting.

Visual Breakdown

Like I said before, you just take the specular lighting, convert it to rgb, calculate the dot product, step it to get a sharper edge, and add it to the color output. This way, the rim lighting is always dynamically drawn at the edge of the model in lit areas only. (It is drawn based on light direction and camera direction, so you'll always have an edge to create contrast.)

Here's the visual node setup for the shader in case anyone wants to recreate it. (I used ramps cuz its easier) I should disclose that the final look will greatly depend on shadow quality, so make sure your model isn't too small or that your shadow resolution isn't too low.