QuickSDFTool

Anime/toon face-shadow SDF authoring directly inside UE5.
Paint masks on the character mesh, preview Live SDF, and bake threshold maps in-editor.

For artists and technical artists building controllable anime-style facial shadows in UE5.

Demo · Why QuickSDFTool? · Quick Start · Documentation · 日本語

Demo

QuickSDFTool brings the face-shadow authoring loop into the UE5 editor: paint masks on the actual character mesh, preview the SDF result, and bake a threshold texture for toon or cel-shading materials.

output.mp4

Paint masks in UE5 -> preview Live SDF -> generate a threshold texture -> use it in your toon material.

Select active slot	Paint in Screen mode	Generated SDF preview

GIF character model credit: にゃも / Nyamo "Original 3D Model" by あるまろん. Screenshot character model credit: 真冬 Mafuyu / Original 3D Model by ぷらすわん. Character design and 3D modeling: 有坂みと.

Why QuickSDFTool?

Workflow	QuickSDFTool	External SDF workflow
Paint masks directly on a UE mesh	Yes	No
Preview on the actual character	Yes	Usually no
Material-slot aware painting	Yes	Usually no
2D Canvas and pen-display workflow	Yes	Depends on tool
UE undo/redo support	Yes	No
Generate SDF threshold texture	Yes	Yes
Requires DCC / paint / script roundtrips	No	Often

Who is this for?

QuickSDFTool is for technical artists, character artists, and UE5 developers who need controllable anime/toon face shadows without round-tripping masks through DCC tools, 2D paint software, scripts, and Unreal Engine.

Use it when you want to paint shadow masks directly on the character mesh, author multiple light-angle masks, preview them in Unreal Editor, and bake an SDF threshold texture for toon or cel-shading materials.

Feature Highlights

• Dedicated UE5 Editor Mode named Quick SDF.
• Direct painting on Static Mesh and Skeletal Mesh components.
• Material-slot aware painting, slot isolation, and Select-mode active-slot overlay.
• Screen, Surface, and 2D Canvas paint workflows with pen-display input support.
• Live SDF material preview before the final bake.
• CPU SDF threshold texture generation with half-float texture output.

Quick Start

1. Download the latest release.
2. Copy QuickSDFTool into YourProject/Plugins/.
3. Regenerate project files.
4. Build your C++ Unreal project.
5. Enable QuickSDFTool in Plugins, then restart the editor.
6. Open the Editor Mode selector and choose Quick SDF.
7. In Select mode, click the mesh/material surface you want to edit, then confirm the active slot in Material Slots.
8. Click Start Paint and paint white with LMB or black/shadow with Shift + LMB.
9. Use 2D Canvas for texture-space strokes, UV guides, onion skin, checker/grid guides, zoom, rotate/flip, or pen-display input.
10. Optionally switch Material Preview to Live SDF, then use the timeline to add masks and generate the final SDF threshold map.
11. Use the generated texture from /Game/QuickSDF_GENERATED/ in your toon material.

See Authoring Workflow, Material Setup, and Troubleshooting for the full workflow.

Installation

QuickSDFTool v1.1.0 requires Unreal Engine 5.7.x and a C++ Unreal project.

git clone https://github.com/yeczrtu/QuickSDFTool.git

Place the plugin here:

YourProject/
|-- Plugins/
    |-- QuickSDFTool/
        |-- QuickSDFTool.uplugin
        |-- Source/
        |-- Shaders/
        |-- Content/

Then regenerate project files, build the project, enable QuickSDFTool, and restart the editor.

Compatibility

Unreal Engine version	Status
5.7.4	Required release verification target
5.7.x	Supported target for v1.1.0
5.8+	Intended to be supported, but not v1.1.0 release-tested
5.6 and earlier	Not supported

The v1.1.0 source release targets Unreal Engine 5.7.4 as the required verification version. Rebuild the plugin from source for your exact engine build, especially if you use a source-built, licensee, custom, or otherwise different engine build.

Documentation

• Documentation site
• Authoring Workflow
• Material Setup
• Troubleshooting
• Release Notes
• Roadmap
• Development Notes
• 日本語 README

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Good first areas are documentation, UE version verification, small workflow fixes, and sample content. Keep changes scoped and include reproduction or verification notes in pull requests.

Acknowledgments

• Unreal Engine Interactive Tools Framework - foundation for the editor paint workflow.
• Felzenszwalb & Huttenlocher - Distance Transforms of Sampled Functions (2012).
• Jump Flooding Algorithm (JFA) - GPU distance field generation reference.
• UE5 SDF Face Shadow Mappingでアニメ顔用の影を作ろう.
• SDF TextureとLiltoonでセルルックの影を再現しよう.