The facing_ratio shader and the standard_surface.sheen can also be used to achieve this shading effect.

A rim shader is useful for achieving a lighting effect related to the contour/outline edges of an object. This tutorial demonstrates a simple shader that simulates a fake rim light shading effect. It can be useful for creating fresnel or cartoon-like skin effects.

This shader is available here.
No rim shader (Standard Surface)
Rim shader color set to white


  • A SamplerInfo node is connected to a ramp which determines the color of the rim light effect. This is connected to the base_color attribute of a standard_surface shader.

Rim shader network


  • Changing the color of the ramp will affect the rim lighting effect. You can adjust the width and strength of the rim effect using a ramp texture.
Ramp color set to yellow
Ramp color set to black





Thanks to sample and hold for the use of the toy scan model.