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.

There are two ways to convert. If this is your first time, use the Setup Wizard.

	Setup Wizard (recommended)	Manual conversion
Where	The wizard inside the Inspector	MingToon Manager, Start tab, Convert / restore existing target
Result	Keeps the original and places a copy prefab from a new folder in the scene	Switches the original Renderers' slots to new materials in place
Original object	The original in the scene is switched off	Stays in use
Undoing	One wizard Undo. The files it made stay	Undo Conversion (back to pre-MingToon materials)
Mesh channel bakes	Not done	Baked together under Advanced conversion settings

The wizard is covered in Setup Wizard, and manual conversion under Manual conversion below.

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. Use the wizard
• When reviving an avatar that turned pink because the shader files are missing
• When moving only some materials first to compare the result. Use manual conversion

Try it in 30 seconds

1. Right-click the topmost object of the avatar in the Hierarchy and press MingToon > Convert to MingToon....
2. In the wizard at the top of the Inspector press Next, then press Create copy in the Look step.
3. You succeeded when the done screen shows Converted slots: N.

If N is 0, or a notice says there is nothing to convert, see Slots that are not converted.

How to turn it on

With the Setup Wizard

1. Open the wizard as above. Other ways are in How to open it.
2. In the Meshes step, add the face and bare skin meshes. If you are moving only hair and clothing, leave them empty.
3. In the Look step, pick a Look, and turn on Lighter (Low) if you want the lighter one.
4. To keep the source colors, do not pick a Color Preset. The starting state Choose colors… uses the source colors as they are.
5. Press Create copy, then read the succeeded, excluded, failed, and loss items under Conversion details on the done screen.

What you pick on each screen is in Setup Wizard.

Manual conversion

Use it to change only the materials in place without the wizard, or to move a few more slots of an avatar you already converted. The slots of the original Renderers switch to new materials.

1. Attach MingToon Manager to the avatar root with Add Component in the Inspector. When the wizard opens, press Skip setup wizard. Keep it on the root even when moving only an outfit. GameObject > MingToon > Add MingToon Manager does not attach a component; it opens the wizard.
2. On the Start tab, expand Convert / restore existing target.
3. In 1. Assign face & skin renderers, put the face and bare skin meshes into Face Renderers and Skin Renderers, then press Mark Roles on the Named Renderers.
4. In 2. Choose look → Convert, pick a look on the Look card. Turn on Lighter (Low) if you want the lighter one.
5. Pick Color Preset in the same place. This choice is remembered by the editor, and if nothing is stored the factory preset Neutral is selected. To keep the source colors, change it to Keep Existing Values yourself.
6. If needed, pick the mesh channels to bake together under Advanced conversion settings.
7. Press Convert Child Materials to MingToon and continue in the confirmation window.
8. Read the succeeded, excluded, failed, and loss items in the result.

To rewrite only the look onto materials that are already MingToon, use Apply this look in the same place. Pick All materials on this avatar or Only selected materials under Apply to, and go through the confirmation window. Values the preset owns are overwritten, so have Undo ready.

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. In the wizard, leaving Color Preset unpicked behaves the same way.

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.

Converting again in 0.1.12

New lilToon conversions apply 0.5 times the previous corrected toon specular blend opacity. Existing edited MingToon values and PBR environment reflection opacity are not changed automatically.

After updating, create a new copy from the original materials and compare it with the previous result. Materials whose toon specular was too strong may look different. Removing 105 obsolete mask-channel entries from 15 Factory looks also fixes blocked preset application without changing valid look values. This does not partially apply or automatically migrate custom presets.

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 (Basic Toon · Hard Toon · Soft Toon)	The whole look applied right after conversion	Basic Toon	With Lighter (Low) on, the same name gives a lighter look with depth effects off
Lighter (Low)	Whether to turn depth effects off	Off	On is lighter, and off is the High look with depth effects
Color Preset	The color tone laid over the look	Unpicked in the wizard, Keep Existing Values in manual conversion	Picking another preset replaces the source colors with that tone
Outline Smooth Normals (UV8)	Outline continuity on sharp corners. Under Advanced conversion settings in manual conversion	On	Off splits the line at corners
Overwrite Occupied UV Channels	Whether a UV channel already in use can be reused. Under Advanced conversion settings in manual conversion	Off	On overwrites someone else's data and can break the look

The first three rows exist in both the wizard and manual conversion, and the last two only in manual conversion. The wizard does not bake mesh channels.

Common problems

Pressing the convert button does nothing

Every readable slot is on the conversion exclusion list. The wizard shows No supported materials were found. Choose another target above. The list is in Slots that are not converted.

The face is shaded exactly like the body

The face slot is still Regular. In the wizard, add the face mesh in the Meshes step, or change that slot to Face in the material list of the Look step. How to assign it in manual conversion is in Face and skin assignment.

I want to drop the wizard copy and go back to the original

Placing the copy in the scene and switching off the original are undone together in one Undo. After undoing, delete the <name>_MingToon folder yourself. Undo does not remove that folder's files.

I reverted and the values I had just fixed disappeared too

Manual conversion's 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

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