they are just normal models. nothing special about them.except that it’s easyer to paint textures for them beause they dont have to look “real”. the one in the cartoon example isn’t textured at all. just vertex colors where used. but you usualy would use plain colors with a few details.
about that toon effect… i’m working on a non-shader solution which works on older graficcards,too. might be even more simple.
about cartoon grafic. there are 2 points. one is the shading and the other are the black outlines. i’d skip the black lines like in the zelda game.
once i finnished my non-shader-shading i’ll let you know =)