The long-awaited new Ghost in the Shell anime series, which reboots Masamune Shirow's iconic manga, is finally here, giving fans a chance to experience a version that moves away from the serious tone of the 1995 film and stays closer to the spirit of the original story, alongside a fresh and distinctive art style. As expected, 3D assets are used in large-scale anime productions to make workflows easier and handle complex scenes more efficiently. However, these elements can sometimes feel out of place if they don't blend well with the overall look.

In this case, as shared by Makoto Endo, the team created the car models in 3D and emulated a cel-shaded look to match them with the series' art style, achieving some seriously impressive results. More behind-the-scenes videos, including a look at the Maya viewport and how it compares to the final result:

It's kind of funny how digital technology has come so far that it's now trying to look hand-drawn again. Let's hope we get even more behind-the-scenes content from the Ghost in the Shell 2026 series in the future.

With the release of Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender, many members of the team have been sharing behind-the-scenes glimpses of their work, including how the entire environment for Toph's introduction was built in Blender:

We've covered plenty of useful tools for Maya animators before, including Ehsan Bayat's Animo and Zhenggang Deng's free ones. And if you're after a cel-shaded look, check out Martin Chang's shader:

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