This merged VAE improves anime-style shading by refining the color balance and reducing visible gaps between lineart and fill colors. The merge also suppresses the white fringe that can appear between dark outlines and flat color areas, resulting in cleaner edges and more stable rendering.Highlights keep a slight cool tint while shadows remain warm, producing smoother gradients and cleaner soft warm tones commonly used in stylized anime rendering.As a trade-off, pink tones may appear slightly stronger in some situations, especially with warm lighting or high saturation. This behavior helps avoid muddy gradients, but it may not fit all styles.This VAE was tested with Qwen-based image models, but it is also compatible with Anima-based models that use the same VAE format, and can be used as a drop-in replacement in most Anima workflows.<pre><code>from PIL import ImageEnhance

PALE_ORANGE = (238, 196, 172)
LIGHT_BROWN = (198, 122, 96)
DARK_BROWN = (110, 58, 42)
PURE_BLACK = (18, 18, 18)


def clamp8(x):
 return max(0, min(255, int(round(x))))


def lerp(a, b, t):
 return a + (b - a) * t


def smoothstep(edge0, edge1, x):
 if edge0 == edge1:
 return 1.0 if x &gt;= edge1 else 0.0
 t = (x - edge0) / (edge1 - edge0)
 t = max(0.0, min(1.0, t))
 return t * t * (3.0 - 2.0 * t)


def apply_gamma_u8(v, gamma):
 x = max(0.0, min(1.0, v / 255.0))
 return clamp8(255.0 * (x ** gamma))


def dist3(r1, g1, b1, r2, g2, b2):
 dr = r1 - r2
 dg = g1 - g2
 db = b1 - b2
 return dr * dr + dg * dg + db * db


def snap_to_palette(rr, gg, bb, palette, strength=1.0):

 best = None
 best_d = None

 for pr, pg, pb in palette:
 d = dist3(rr, gg, bb, pr, pg, pb)
 if best_d is None or d &lt; best_d:
 best_d = d
 best = (pr, pg, pb)

 pr, pg, pb = best

 rr = lerp(rr, pr, strength)
 gg = lerp(gg, pg, strength)
 bb = lerp(bb, pb, strength)

 return rr, gg, bb


def preprocess_anime_color(img):

 img = ImageEnhance.Brightness(img).enhance(1.10)
 img = ImageEnhance.Color(img).enhance(1.04)
 img = ImageEnhance.Contrast(img).enhance(1.04)

 r, g, b = img.split()

 r = r.point(lambda x: clamp8(x * 1.07))
 g = g.point(lambda x: clamp8(x * 1.04))
 b = b.point(lambda x: clamp8(x * 0.98))

 img = img.merge("RGB", (r, g, b))

 px = img.load()
 w, h = img.size

 for y in range(h):
 for x in range(w):

 rr, gg, bb = px[x, y]

 lum = (rr + gg + bb) / 3
 maxc = max(rr, gg, bb)
 minc = min(rr, gg, bb)
 sat = maxc - minc
 avg = (rr + gg + bb) / 3

 warm = rr &gt; gg &gt; bb

 # shadow S curve
 shadow_w = 1.0 - smoothstep(70, 115, lum)

 if shadow_w &gt; 0:

 factor = (max(lum, 1) / 100.0) ** 1.2

 rr = lerp(rr, rr * factor, shadow_w)
 gg = lerp(gg, gg * factor, shadow_w)
 bb = lerp(bb, bb * factor, shadow_w)

 # mid tone fix
 midgray_w = smoothstep(75, 95, lum) * (1.0 - smoothstep(120, 140, lum))
 low_sat_w = 1.0 - smoothstep(65, 90, sat)

 fix_w = midgray_w * low_sat_w

 if fix_w &gt; 0:

 rr = lerp(rr, avg + (rr - avg) * 0.85, fix_w)
 gg = lerp(gg, avg + (gg - avg) * 0.85, fix_w)
 bb = lerp(bb, avg + (bb - avg) * 0.75, fix_w)

 # lift shadow
 shadow_lift_w = smoothstep(90, 105, lum) * (1.0 - smoothstep(135, 150, lum))

 if shadow_lift_w &gt; 0:

 rr = lerp(rr, rr * 1.04 + 4, shadow_lift_w)
 gg = lerp(gg, gg * 1.04 + 4, shadow_lift_w)
 bb = lerp(bb, bb * 1.04 + 4, shadow_lift_w)

 # gamma skin
 midtone_w = smoothstep(70, 95, lum) * (1.0 - smoothstep(170, 195, lum))

 if midtone_w &gt; 0:

 rr_gamma = apply_gamma_u8(rr, 0.95)
 rr = lerp(rr, rr_gamma, midtone_w)

 # highlight transparency

 if warm:

 bright_w = smoothstep(125, 145, lum)
 highlight_w = smoothstep(205, 225, lum)

 if bright_w &gt; 0:

 rr = lerp(rr, rr * 1.04, bright_w)
 gg = lerp(gg, gg * 1.03, bright_w)
 bb = lerp(bb, bb * 0.94, bright_w)

 if highlight_w &gt; 0:

 rr = lerp(rr, rr * 1.02, highlight_w)
 bb = lerp(bb, bb * 1.05, highlight_w)

 # pink fringe fix

 fringe_w = 1.0 - smoothstep(10, 22, sat)

 if fringe_w &gt; 0:

 gray = avg

 rr = lerp(rr, gray, fringe_w * 0.9)
 gg = lerp(gg, gray, fringe_w * 0.9)
 bb = lerp(bb, gray, fringe_w * 0.9)

 # boundary cleanup

 boundary_w = smoothstep(55, 105, lum) * (1.0 - smoothstep(150, 185, lum))
 pinkish_w = smoothstep(8, 22, rr - gg) * (1.0 - smoothstep(28, 55, gg - bb))

 fix_boundary = boundary_w * pinkish_w

 if fix_boundary &gt; 0:

 rr = lerp(rr, rr * 0.96, fix_boundary)
 gg = lerp(gg, gg * 1.01, fix_boundary)
 bb = lerp(bb, bb * 0.90, fix_boundary)

 # palette snap

 warm_skin_like = rr &gt; gg &gt; bb

 if warm_skin_like:

 if lum &gt; 170:
 pal = [PALE_ORANGE, LIGHT_BROWN]
 s = 0.7
 elif lum &gt; 95:
 pal = [LIGHT_BROWN, DARK_BROWN]
 s = 0.8
 else:
 pal = [DARK_BROWN, PURE_BLACK]
 s = 0.85

 rr, gg, bb = snap_to_palette(rr, gg, bb, pal, s)

 px[x, y] = (
 clamp8(rr),
 clamp8(gg),
 clamp8(bb),
 )

 return img</code></pre>

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