lilToon Material Conversion

This page is for anyone moving a lilToon avatar to MingToon. It covers what conversion carries over, what it cannot, and what to check afterwards. It takes about 15 minutes.

What is this

Conversion reads the source material and creates a new MingToon authoring material. The source material file is not deleted and stays as it is. Only the Renderer slots switch to the new material.

What conversion carries over:

• Base color and textures, HSVG, normals, emission, occlusion, PBR, MatCap
• 2nd and 3rd layers and their masks
• Reflection settings, lilToon backlight and face-only data
• Render states such as stencil, render queue, visible faces, and surface mode

If the source holds real data, the PBR, emission, outline, and alpha mask modules are turned on too. Features that cannot be carried over are recorded in the loss report as lossy or unsupported.

The look will not become identical

The two shaders differ in their formulas and in what their features mean. Conversion is a tool that creates a starting point, not a cloning tool.

When to use it

• When moving a whole avatar made with lilToon
• When reviving an avatar that turned pink because the shader files are missing
• When moving only some materials first to compare the result

Try it in 30 seconds

1. Select the MingToon Manager on the avatar root.
2. Find 2. Choose look → Convert on the Get Started tab.
3. Press Convert Child Materials to MingToon.

You succeeded when the result line shows a converted slot count. If it is 0, see Slots that are not converted.

How to turn it on

1. Attach Manager to the avatar root. Keep it on the root even when moving only an outfit.
2. Assign the face and bare skin meshes in 1. Assign face & skin renderers.
3. Pick Look Preset On Convert in 2. Choose look → Convert.
4. Pick Color Preset in the same place.
5. Pick Keep Existing Values under color to keep the source colors.
6. Press Convert Child Materials to MingToon on the same card.
7. Read the succeeded, excluded, failed, and loss items in the result.

If you already have MingToon materials, use Apply to Current MingToon Materials.

The order is convert → look → color

Convert the source first, apply the look preset, then apply the color preset last. Source reflection, backlight and face data are preserved in the source reapply step. Edge Rim keeps the selected look preset's value instead of being overwritten by the source. Keep Existing Values applies no color preset and keeps the source colors.

If some materials fail, the rest are still processed. Do not read the presence of successful materials as overall success. Failed slots keep their source materials attached.

Recovery conversion for Missing Shader materials

You can also convert materials that turned pink because the shader file is missing. It reads the stored property names and values to identify the NiloToon, lilToon, or Unity Standard family. The basis for that identification is shown in the conversion preview.

On this route, the hidden defaults and keyword meanings of the original shader cannot all be recovered. Check the four items below yourself after converting.

1. Surface Mode and Alpha Cutoff
2. Visible Faces, the render queue, and stencil
3. Whether the emission, PBR, and outline modules are on
4. Mask channels and inversion

Checking after conversion

• Does the Renderer use the new MingToon material, with the source asset still present
• Do opaque, cutout, semi-transparent, and transparent give the same result as the source
• Are the render queue, visible faces, and stencil as intended
• Are the texture tiling and offset, channels, and inversion the same
• Are PBR, emission, outline, and alpha mask on where they are needed
• Are the face and skin roles and the face proxy correct

How to read the loss report is in Reading the Conversion Report.

Values you will touch often

Inspector label	What it changes	Suggested starting value	Raise it / lower it
Look Preset On Convert	The whole look applied right after conversion	Basic Toon High	Switching to Low gives a lighter look with depth effects off
Color Preset	The color tone laid over the look	Keep Existing Values	Picking another preset replaces the source colors with that tone
None	Skips the look preset itself	Do not pick it	Picking it leaves only the values read from the source and can look flat
Outline Smooth Normals (UV8)	Outline continuity on sharp corners	On	Off splits the line at corners
Overwrite Occupied UV Channels	Whether a UV channel already in use can be reused	Off	On overwrites someone else's data and can break the look

Common problems

Pressing the convert button does nothing

Every readable slot is on the conversion exclusion list. The list is in Slots that are not converted.

The face is shaded exactly like the body

The face slot is still Regular. How to assign it is in Face and skin assignment.

I reverted and the values I had just fixed disappeared too

Undo Conversion (back to pre-MingToon materials) is a single Undo step. It returns only the current slots to the source, and it does not delete the created conversion materials or mesh bakes.

More detail

MingToon Manager · Reading the Conversion Report · Automatic Optimization On Build · Troubleshooting