idea #553: incidence angle/light angle for controlling normal angle, or shading in nodes

to better see what I am describing, please check out the video linked below: I found another app that does this already.
ftp://ftp.newtek.com/multimedia/movies/w3dw/Light_Incidence.mov


So first off, a gradient node that doesn't need a bunch of color curves to control it would be nice.....but since we dont have a gradient node yet...:

The ability to manipulate the NORMAL node's angle via the incidence angle and/or a lamp's angle or position in relation to a surface(or vertex group, normal group, or even object)

I'm trying to manipulate the normal angle of a cell(toon)shaded node(I can post any links here yet ugh). I want to be able to maintain a constant "lighting" of a characters face by parenting to a bone/null in the "character's-head-mesh" in some form, the angle/position of a lamp. Thus achieving a bit more of an old-school disney like effect of a character able to maintain a toon-like-lighting appearance aside from the background/environment's lighting setup. Obviously not parent the lighting-incidence-angle source would also be useful in many cases as well.

I know you can do a "version" of what I am talking about using layers, however, I would like to achieve this on a per-surface basis. So nodes seem to be the way to go.


I'm referencing the following node structure below(though mine is a bit more complex):

http://www.blender.org/typo3temp/pics/ebfa1d1250.png

http://www.blender.org/typo3temp/pics/bc660eea8e.jpg

Thank you for reading.

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