Clever idea on removing strokes based on sharp angles - I assume you used fresnel as the alpha mask for the angles? Or layer weight like system? I wouldn't know the best way to do this.. but nice piece!
Oh, the embossing is in post. Yeah the NPR nodes will make this much easier for sure. I did my normals by a recast to canvas the relit in 3D with normal extraction from shader.
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What were the techniques you used to get such nice brush normals in volumes?