Bad Art In Children's Cartoons - Why Does Peppa Pig Have 4 Eyes ?
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I personally never got the appeal for the art style in Adventure Time.
And these are the more exaggerated faces from the show.
But even the most professionally made cartoons have some pretty funny moments when they are paused at the right time:
And these are the more exaggerated faces from the show.
But even the most professionally made cartoons have some pretty funny moments when they are paused at the right time:
The art has grown crappier over the years for two reasons: increasing costs and declining artistic skill.
Animation is a labor intensive, expensive business. An episode of your average anime can be produced for a fraction of what a western cartoon is produced for, so costs have to be cut where possible. This leads to animators getting paid peanuts while still being expected to churn out animation. As such, shortcuts are taken- reduced ranges of motion, less detailed drawing, recycled shots, and so on.
Second, artistic skill has declined over the years. As I said, animation isn't profitable, and the good animators aren't willing to work for peanuts for established companies when they can make more on Patreon (Patreon also gives them more artistic freedom to work on their own ideas, rather than on someone else's ideas). This leads to subpar artists being hired, and subpar work being produced.
But don't just take my word for it. Below is the production art of the female lead for three shows: Faye Valentine from Cowboy Bebop, Kim Possible from Kim Possible, and Princess Bubblegum from Adventure Time. You tell me which show had the subpar artists.
Animation is a labor intensive, expensive business. An episode of your average anime can be produced for a fraction of what a western cartoon is produced for, so costs have to be cut where possible. This leads to animators getting paid peanuts while still being expected to churn out animation. As such, shortcuts are taken- reduced ranges of motion, less detailed drawing, recycled shots, and so on.
Second, artistic skill has declined over the years. As I said, animation isn't profitable, and the good animators aren't willing to work for peanuts for established companies when they can make more on Patreon (Patreon also gives them more artistic freedom to work on their own ideas, rather than on someone else's ideas). This leads to subpar artists being hired, and subpar work being produced.
But don't just take my word for it. Below is the production art of the female lead for three shows: Faye Valentine from Cowboy Bebop, Kim Possible from Kim Possible, and Princess Bubblegum from Adventure Time. You tell me which show had the subpar artists.
Modern day American production designers don’t believe in adding character details and flamboyance. They believe simpler the character design, less work for the animators. Because “adding some extra details and actual work might be overworking the Animators and we’re not the Japanese who over work animators to death!”The art has grown crappier over the years for two reasons: increasing costs and declining artistic skill.
Animation is a labor intensive, expensive business. An episode of your average anime can be produced for a fraction of what a western cartoon is produced for, so costs have to be cut where possible. This leads to animators getting paid peanuts while still being expected to churn out animation. As such, shortcuts are taken- reduced ranges of motion, less detailed drawing, recycled shots, and so on.
Second, artistic skill has declined over the years. As I said, animation isn't profitable, and the good animators aren't willing to work for peanuts for established companies when they can make more on Patreon (Patreon also gives them more artistic freedom to work on their own ideas, rather than on someone else's ideas). This leads to subpar artists being hired, and subpar work being produced.
But don't just take my word for it. Below is the production art of the female lead for three shows: Faye Valentine from Cowboy Bebop, Kim Possible from Kim Possible, and Princess Bubblegum from Adventure Time. You tell me which show had the subpar artists.
"Less is more" has been the mantra of American animators for decades. Compare the design of early Bugs Bunny to, say, Akira. But then compare classic Bugs Bunny to the current CalArts style.
Besides, they do overwork the Korean sweatshops that animate their shows. The art and animation style might be simple, but at any given moment the sweatshops are working on at least a dozen different shows at a time.
That’s why I find it hypocritical when some animator says less is more and then overwork the animators. Japan has the same problem but at least the Japanese puts a certain touch to it.
Plus the American animation scene is clique-y as shit.
IIRC, Steven Universe doesn't even bother with consistency in storyboards " so long as you can tell everyone apart", so whenever they have a guest animator, the jump in quality is very noticeable.
I don't understand how anyone (especially children too young for satire) can watch CalArts-style shows. I'd rather look at a dead-eyed attractive woman moving only her mouth while the screen shakes and flashes epilepsy awareness lights for five minutes than Peppa at 24 FPS. I was even more picky as a kid.
I’d laugh if one of these modern CN Cartoons gets like anyone from Studio Trigger to animate an entire episode.
Funny you should mention that. They didn't do an entire episode, but...
(Source: the Studio Trigger Wikipedia page.)
Holy fuck. Real shit?
I think people forget how many shit cartoons there were in every age since there have been cartoons.
80's cartoons? Yeah, plenty of bad ones.
80's cartoons? Yeah, plenty of bad ones.
Modern character design is based entirely off of making it too simple for the Koreans/Indians to fuck up when you hand them over.
Animatics are generally the farthest the US team goes before it's shipped to a sweatshop for the difficult work that keeps costs down.
Animatics are generally the farthest the US team goes before it's shipped to a sweatshop for the difficult work that keeps costs down.
I agree, those are lousy cartoons from the days animators were paid with pure cocaine instead of money- but the animation is still head and shoulders above almost any modern cartoon (which is what the OP was talking about).
I think it's more to do with there not really being a lot of demand for it in the west and as such a lack of appeal or money to reward talented people.
Consider this; the "best", as in the most detailed and skilled, animated productions were full length feature films produced by the big names like Disney (and even then they produced some real horrors like the direct to video sequel to the Hunchback of Notre Dame). There's been a dramatic shift towards computer-generated and live action productions in the past twenty years as quite wrongly; animation is assumed in the west to be just for kids and of less worth rather than a medium with its own merits and weaknesses (One of the reasons the Lion King remake failed so badly is because it's relatively hard to express the subtleties of human emotions and body language with a quadruped; whereas for the original with the changes in pallet and exaggerated faces you could watch the entire thing without sound and fully understand what was happening). Talented people will go wherever the money is, and if that's in CGI or independent work than so be it.
There just isn't the funding these days to attract the artists with the skills for these productions anymore; should anime become mainstream in the west we might see a resurgence of talent in western studios.
Consider this; the "best", as in the most detailed and skilled, animated productions were full length feature films produced by the big names like Disney (and even then they produced some real horrors like the direct to video sequel to the Hunchback of Notre Dame). There's been a dramatic shift towards computer-generated and live action productions in the past twenty years as quite wrongly; animation is assumed in the west to be just for kids and of less worth rather than a medium with its own merits and weaknesses (One of the reasons the Lion King remake failed so badly is because it's relatively hard to express the subtleties of human emotions and body language with a quadruped; whereas for the original with the changes in pallet and exaggerated faces you could watch the entire thing without sound and fully understand what was happening). Talented people will go wherever the money is, and if that's in CGI or independent work than so be it.
There just isn't the funding these days to attract the artists with the skills for these productions anymore; should anime become mainstream in the west we might see a resurgence of talent in western studios.
Projects like A Fox in Space gives me hope for some in the animation industry. It’s something that can stand out compared to what TV animation.
Money is a huge reason, I agree, though there's also the very intense attitude of getting the projects done fast rather than done well. Seasons are made well in advance from random episodes slapped together with a very small amount of time between production dates. This also results in the previously unheard of longevity, seasons extending past 3 which used to be the cutoff for even popular cartoons/shows. The profits are great and can sustain the show, but personal burnout can kill it when nobody is motivated enough to keep going. A movie is one thing; a cartoon that's been going for five, maybe ten years? Eating caviar every day for ten years gets old really quickly.
There's also the motivation behind current artists - anyone who's passionate that manages to get into CalArts is almost violently brainwashed into placing efficiency over detail. They're the ones setting these standards, they're the ones making you accept that you can't produce a show without hiring Koreans to complete it for you, because it takes too long. This is why so few shows are ever produced in-house, and when they are, for maybe an episode, they look bad. Really bad.
This reminds me of a cartoon called Fanboy and Chum-Chum.
Here's the opening. Look at these creatures mother of God:
Here's the opening. Look at these creatures mother of God:
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Who cares, cartoons are for children.
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