Anime-Style Clouds In Blender: Step-By-Step Tutorial

These are some really nice stylized clouds by Sumi, finding a great balance between realism and simplicity. The limited color palette keeps everything cohesive, and the style could work really well for an illustration too.

After several Blender users asked for a tutorial, they put together a video showing how it works. Check it out, the main trick isn't just in the shader, but in the geometry too:

And of course, a Kuwahara filter to finish it off, always a good choice:

Have a look at Sumi's own work for some inspiration, they blend 3D and 2D really nicely:

And if you're after something more advanced for stylized skies, Rei recently launched a fully procedural system for creating skies, clouds, and suns, built specifically with NPR workflows in mind:

Casey Sheep and MeiU's Cloud Paint might also be worth checking out if you're interested in stylized 3D clouds with true volume:

We also recommend taking a look at Iro Ikyu's shader breakdown, which has a really nice illustration-book feel, as well as lassyla's tutorial on a hand-painted-like shader: