What is The CalArts Style?
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- Опубліковано 6 чер 2018
- If you've been around the internet lately you may be familar with the term "CalArts style" to define the way modern cartoons look, but is this just an empty face value analysis? Where did "Cal Arts style" originate from? Let's dive in!
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While I do agree that the so called "CalArts" style has been overused just like with Hanna Barbara's cheap animation during the 60s and 70s, shows like Gumball are the ones using it correctly. After all, Gumball is well known for giving characters weird face animations.
Ya
Pretty much
It is also well known for having a lot of differently designed characters in general, instead of just making every character look like a bean.
at least the hana barbera animation took some skill and looked nice
Yeah but that looked ya know good
I mean CalArts has always been blamed for the art style in modern shows as it's seen as derivative, but many series creators that people cite for it never even went to CalArts lmao.
Zdot Nasty say it louder for the people in the back
THANK YOU
Exactly! Craig McCracken and Genndy Tartakovsky went to CalArts. 🤔
damonika09 So did Stephen Hillenburg and Butch Hartman
Calarts is likely so influential that a lot of the other animation colleges clone it's tactics.
Even if the Calarts style thing is BS, I still don't like how obnoxiously round the Thundercats Roar style is.
yeah you are right
Hey do you remember which episode vox changed his art style cause i can't find it
It burns my eyes.
Today you either have generic boring cal arts or modern spongebob assaulting your eyes for the whole 11 minute episode.
"All cartoons in the early 2000's wanted to look like anime"
And by all cartoons, you mean Teen Titans and avatar.
And Ben 10
Ben 10, Young Justice, in fact Justice League in general, and like half the marvel cartoons that were meant for older audiences
and Totally Spies
Beware the batman is from 2013 and thundercats is from the 80's. If you meant the reboot that's from 2011, either way not early 2000's.
@Rickey H. You probably remember it with a diferent name. I just checked on Google, Beware the batman is from 2013.
The calarts™ style is okay, but it gets a little repetitive *shrugs* But Thundercats Rawr is a bastardized child of them all
and teen titans go
is it roar or rawr? I REALLY hope it's just roar because rawr gives me bad memories...eww
It has no ™ dumbbas
Olmo C ever heard of sarcasm "dumbbas"?
nathan walton No TTG looks different then this so called "CalArts Style"
Im getting tired of this art style tbh
What i mean is i wish there was a show where the art style was unique, like Samurai Jack or the other old Cartoons, hell even Infinity Train
Phantom I understand.
Phantom Infinity Train art has changed since the pilot, Idk if you saw the screenshots
Someone finally understands too much of one carbon copy
Same
Showing The amazing World of Gumball to prove modern animation is getting lazy is a stupid argument by itself.
Because The amazing World of Gumball animation is a well animated mixture of live action backgrounds, 2D animated charters, and 3D animated charters.
I think gumball looks cheap with little effort put into it but that's just me.
sonicsnake44
did you even watch it?
Yes I did and it looks cheap. The clash of different styles makes it look like a mass. Theirs nothing wrong with liking the style its just not to my taste. Because of recent episodes (SJW mocking, deviant art) I actually want to go back and check out the series from the beginning.
sonicsnake44
What about a challenge:
Show me a non-Action animated show scene and i will show you a gumball scene that is better animated. (no third party studios included)
Sounds like a fun challenge but what is your definition of a first party and third party studio.
I don't know
The style looks cute but yeah, it would get really tiring seeing a copy and paste of the style over and over again
Now you know how I feel about it.
You're right.
Akihiko?!
Anime and Manga: ._.
Thing is, the gif is very misleading. If you can find me still frames from each show where those exact faces appear, be my guest, but until you can, I'll retort that the versions from the gif are aggressively off-model from what actually appears in the show. It's misleading and downplays A) the sincere differences in the styles, and B) the way motion and environment impact the aesthetic. As mentioned in the video, these shows are all visually distinct. Impressively so. I think to call it copy and pasted is just armchair artists pretending to know things.
I personally think the change of SU’s pilot art was a godsent...the Adventure Time-esque format and strange textures didn’t suit the show. I think the icy, glittery, and smooth colors of the current SU fits the narrative...especially since the style is very geometric much like the gems. It’s just more attractive and smooth
I do prefer the current style as well. Besides, I thought the old SU was kind of creepy, though our current style has it's own setbacks.
Even so, I want a show that looks like it did. It was so fuckin good-looking.
Miss Fedora i agree, especially the change on the color palettes. The colors were too warm and dark for SU, I’m more of a sucker for pastels.
I personally prefer the pilot's art style in terms of aesthetic appeal, but you're right about the new style suiting the show better.
Zaylen Alexander It’s just too overly complicated to animate. Simple is better for a reason. It’s kinda a rule of animation.
Personally I think it should be called "The 2010's style", as this look is the popular cartoon style of the 2010s, much like how cartoons from the 90's had their own trend in art style, for example. Different decades have different trends. That said though, while the 2010s cartoons have their own similarities, they also are distinct from each other, and the CalArts name doesn't fit when a few creators of some of these cartoons DIDN'T go to CalArts.
Yup
I'm pretty sure Gumball was originally made in the UK, too. That's gotta be an expensive trip to california...
besides, style doesn't equal quality. Shows with bad Flash animation can still do decently
MarissaOfUnderground I agree
It is called that way, just it is another Z-Gen Tumbler drama so what you expect? As this episode said itself.. term itself is a lie. It completely doesn't apply to current case, just someone use it to sound smarter.
Honestly, I thought the "CalArts Style" joke thing revolved around that one artist who kept gloating about getting to go to CalArts while their art arguably got worse as they attended. I can't remember their username or anything, but they're so damn prideful of themselves that they think anyone who doesn't think their art style is perfection just doesn't know how to hold a pencil.
Because that is totally the case here.. just Z-Gen haters are so desperate that they would claim that "Star Wars is not as good as it was anymore" referring to prequels only to feel better (seriously, that is real thing).
@@TheRezro the prequels are legitimately better than the dogshit that is the new movies
@@jeangreffsbp And you, like usually don't have any arguments, outside bunch of bots creating alternative facts on Tumbler. Because even among those who dislike new movies or like prequels that would be usually false opinion. That bunch of fanboys create buzz don't change facts like highs scores and sells of those supposedly bad movies. But what numerous complex critical canalizes of fails of prequels have against bunch of teens hating on Disney, as that is another transparent tendency we clearly see 0_0
@@TheRezro That's because of less quality. All there is is jokes and puns and lack of action and not enough life teachings. The best "qualities", if you want to go at it, is just straight comedy from networks (like Cartoon Network, Disney, or Nick) down to even big named movie stations (like Disney's Pixar). You just can't get enough of that classic “GEN Z HATERS”, ah, sweet Millennial *Comedy* Gold. *The finest Millennial Classic Hour.*
@@obsidiancoppersunstones3479 "That's because of less quality"
Of what? Most Tumbler hate can't even form basic argument. It is pure puberty.
"All there is is jokes and puns and lack of action and not enough life teachings"
Partially I would agree. But that is relevant only to shows what weren't intended as comedies. I remind that hate mob attack also Shi-Ra and My Little Pony. Two show especially good in those zones.
"The best "qualities", if you want to go at it, is just straight comedy from networks (like Cartoon Network, Disney, or Nick) down to even big named movie stations (like Disney's Pixar)"
Again, from when comedy mean poor quality? That you has unnatural distaste for humor is not argument here.
If we really go into that Disney in fact has renaissance with amazing shows like Duck Tales reboot, Legends of Three Caballeros, Star vs Forces of Evil, Gravity Falls, etc. I completely don't get where you go with Pixar? I also don't see much relevant criticism regard Nick.
Majority of butthurt is surrounded around Cartoon Network, what in fact has really shitty policy, though that should be expected from something what basically always was Hannah "animation ghetto" Barbera. Good shows from them always were exceptions and that fanboys can't admit that in they nostalgia blindness. So instead make crazy conspiracies what is downright hilarious.
"You just can't get enough of that classic “GEN Z HATERS”, ah, sweet Millennial Comedy Gold. The finest Millennial Classic Hour"
Z geners don't have right to joke from millennial's, because if you didn't notice we are the old farts here (so it is basically like kid lecturing his father abut sex) and most anti-millennial bullshit was from side of even older farts, who usually still remember cold war if not world war. Addressing they complains toward younger generation who didn't care about "socialists in Hollywood" and other paranoid bullshit like that.
At least we were funny, when Z-gen is basically worst parts associated with Millennial's (even if that usually was margin), but without flexibility and humor of our generation. Not that it surprise my considering that you transparently lack sense of humor and people like that tend to miss the point. But gladly I know one thing.. people grow up from puberty. I just wish to see some potential there..
"They don't look the same"
Oh they do.
Not really
@@crypt5129 yeah, really
Roberto Stevens No, not really. These styles look different. Gumball has a very unique style, with a mixture of reality and cartoon.
Steven Universe has separated eyes and mostly upturned noses.
Star vs. the Forces of Evil has eyes that can be seen through hair, just without color.
Gravity Falls has attached eyes and round noses.
Plus these drawings of the characters aren’t even fully accurate.
The styles may be similar, but they don’t look the same by any means.
@@crypt5129 Well , I think that a lot of cartoon main characters currently have similar styles , but the side characters look different .
The Witches Hand They aren’t really that similar.
Really the only similarity is that they’re slightly round
Tons of art styles use round shapes
Wait. What?! Rebecca Sugar never went to CalArts?! Huh. You learn something new everyday!
Nowon & DPool Productions who are you talking to?
Zaylen Alexander ohhh
The name stuck we got deal with it
Nowon & DPool Productions yeah. She went to the school of visual arts in new york
Debating on whether to like the comment or leave it at 69 likes....
I have no problem with their design choice but I hate how people are generalizing all the character designs as the “CalArts style”. Just because they look similar doesn’t mean they have the exact same design!
Nowon & DPool Productions
I just call it the post-adventure time style. It's more accurate to call it that than "cal-arts".
I'd rather call it the "Easy Style" because it's easy to animate
The "Bean Head" style is more accurate since they look like bean heads
Dang my nigga you got three comments here all with lots of likes. Like damn why you complaining
Nowon & DPool Productions True that
They smile like Sans.
Don't mind me, I'm just waiting for the war to begin. Anyone want some popcorn? I've got plenty to go around.
Foxxie Era that's how the fans draw him
“The other Sanses”.
Ikr
Yes we should my good friend. We must burn them until the very ashes of their grandchildren are dispersed into the deepest void of nothingness for all eternity.
Most of these complaints seem to only apply to the main characters of said cartoons. But if you were to look at basically any other character in those shows you’d see how different their art styles can get. Look at Garnet, Stan, Moon, or Richard none of their designs even look a little bit alike.
Old cartoons had the same art style similarities like the old Star Trek and Thundercats.
Really no one is pointing that out
literally the only full-on consistency between the artstyles of these shows is the mouths, and even that has exceptions.
thats exactly what i thought
It’s my pet peeve when people only look at the main characters and say the new ‘style’ is boring, when previous decades’ shows had the same thing going on. Look at Dexter and Professor Utonium for example.
JiminyJustin
and the photo someone used to spark this conspiracy in the first place is deliberately edited to make the mouths and the face shapes look the same.
It's like anime. People are criticizing it for having big eyes, simplistic mouth or something.
It's obvious that they havent experienced a larger variety of anime
But anime is usually a lot more detailed, which gives it a positive. Most western cartoons today rely on a very simplistic style that's easier to make in Flash. Japanese cartoons get higher budgets a lot of the time.
+Void of Space and Time Simplistic styles that can give more time and energy to more detailed moments or larger, more complex scenes.
@Void of Space and Time
So what? Modern cartoons (at least good ones) also rely on strong writing with scripts what are enjoined by both parents and the kids, so I wouldn't say that they are cheaper in general (excluding CN politic what is own issue). This whole complain is so nonsensical that I'm not even sure who made it outside some raging teenagers? Because cartoon style cartoons always were made, so it is like complaining that water is wet. Only difference is that there is more good shows made like that.
@@voidofspaceandtime4684 no he is right anime has more then one style
agreed!! also it bothers me whenever i tell people who don't watch cartoons/anime about anime, and they keep referring to it as "the cartoons with the big eyes". like, c'mon. but yeah, i totally agree with you. anime has various expressions and styles that are very unique. there's this book called "100 manga artists", and when i saw that book, i remembered that there's so many different styles in anime itself. it's a good book btw, check it out! :-)
I don't care what a cartoon look like as long they are funny and interesting
Edward Sanchez Productions Yeah, an art style really has to be hot garbage for the cartoon to turn me off immediately.
Interesting and engaging doesn't have to be funny
Problem Solverz changed my mind
Edward Sanchez Productions just as long as the artstyle isn't so bad that the show is unwatchable... Looking at you, Problem Solverz. Apparently the characters and writing of that show wasn't great either, but the art and animation was so horrible that I didn't notice anything else.
We almost only get cartoons that try to be funny nowadays and rarely get more serious adventure and action shows anymore.
Things like the CalArts style are the reason I like less known, niche, extreme animation styles. One of my favorites is a style used in an animation called “The Village”, made by Mark Baker, the same guy who animated many shows you’ve probably at least heard of.
to all of the people who are telling other people to stop complaining about this unoriginal art style and appreciate a show's other qualities: it's frustrating to see a lack of stylistic diversity in a show that allows it to be completely seperate aesthetically from another show
00⁰lĺ
This is a crap argument. For one thing, it's actually incredibly easy to tell the faces apart. I don't think I could ever get the four shows in the thumbnail confused for one another. Choice of line quality, style of hair, eyes, nose, even forehead size. Literally the only common denominator is the mouth and cheek. And I don't know what's up with the drawing of Dipper in the thumbnail, but it's ridiculously off model.
And that's if you're only paying attention to the face. The bodies have totally different ways of being drawn, and even if you still don't quite have the eyesight to tell the difference, the backgrounds should tell the tale. SU environments are heavy on textured brushes and pastel palettes. Star Vs. employs an almost late 90s nickelodeon style background in its use of perspective. And if you think any other show on earth looks like Gumball, you lack functioning eyeballs. Literally the most aggressive and unapologetic use of mixed media short of a Peter Gabriel music video. So when you say these shows aren't visually distinct, I don't know what the hell you're talking about.
@@FabbrizioPlays To be fair animals of the Mustelidae family do have distinct differences but they all still look EXTREMELY similar. Same thing with the bean head. This wouldn't be that bad if they didn't all look like shit. (not the mustelids)
Here's the thing; when I look at Thundercats Roar, I don't see its art style as something Gumball or SU did. To my eyes, it looks like the same style Breadwinners used.
Heck, the character calling himself "Lion-o's" face expresses itself in a manner similar to how Sway-Sway and Budeuce did
Bean style is a better and more descriptive term for it. I hate it. It looks boring and generic to me. I would rather go back to the 2d Disney style trend or the fake anime trend because those art styles are more detailed, varied, and beautiful. I even prefer good 3d to bean style.
Emralled then watch miraculous or something
Emma Jensen that’s one show is it to much to ask for other shows like it rather than just have one and all the rest have the same style
+shock
it's not currently popular, they are forcing it to exist.
Kratos If that were entirety true, Over The Garden Wall wouldn't have happened.
Except they're more expensive hun
I don’t like the current “CalArts style”, though I always called “Flash style” because I assumed it was developed using Flash software.
More to the point, it seems to me that this video, as well as many in the comments section, are in denial of how terrible the Flash style is, as well as how detrimental to the medium of animated cartoons it truly is. In one word, Flash style’s influence can be summed up as “cheap”. Flash style’s simplistic drawings, inexpressive facial structures, and lack of variance in body type, show an overt “speed over quality” style of animation; an attempt to make a show as quickly and inexpensively as possible. Rather than taking the time and tender-loving-care to make a variety of visual styles, the Flash style emphasizes a one-size-fits-all form of animation. The result: every show looks the same, including that have no business looking the same. ThunderCats Roar looks like talking balloons from Steven Universe, and don’t even get me started on that awful promo for My Little Pony: Pony Life; it is all a detrimental, cheap, worth less than than the paper it is printed on.
The Flash style is not only detrimental to the visual aspects of the show itself, but also negatively impacts future show-creators because they will be forced to make the Flash style so that the outsourced animators that perform the actual character animation will only be used to that one style instead of the variety that was shown back in the 90s era of cable television. Just like how Disney (from what I have been told) axed 2D animation because their animators didn’t know how to animate in 2D, and found it too hard to unlearn the Pixar-esque 3D style of animation; so too is television animation suffering due to the standardization of the cheap-and-speedy Flash style.
You asked for my two-cents; take from it what you will.
I have to agree with you on that, modern cartoons look uncreative due to them having the same look and art style. You rarely see any cartoon that doesn't have Calarts or flash style, granted it is easier to use but it's not creative when any animator can use the art style. This is why I want to see more animators use their own art styles to make cartoons than follow the norm. It is also the reason why I love cartoons from the 2000s with their art style and could we get a cartoon with buff guys and chicks that inspire kids
I actually disagree with you. Flash isn't inherently a bad software for animation, it's just the people misused it lazily. Saying that Flash is "cheap" is just an invalid argument. There are good Flash animation on the Internet out there, especially from the Newgrounds or here on UA-cam.
Nowadays, people are using Toon Boom Harmony, ClipStudios TV, or even Flip-a-Clip (which it's cheaper but it's still free) rather than just Flash. Heck! Even Flash has a hand-drawn animation features now so it's not just about rigging a character and all that. The whole "Adobe Flash is bad because it's cheap" is just an outdated rant that most people find an excuse to hate on modern cartoons. You basically just overlooked on the bads rather than the goods.
Calling Gumball anything close to regular animation based on that one character is a bit narrow - that series flips between cgi to stop motion to traditional to digital animation. There was even a friggin puppet episode.
There was even an episode where nicole looked like an anime character
When people trash on cal art students for having the same style but don’t realize the JG Quintel the creator of Regular Show, actually has a very unique and noticeable artstyle
He does!
I don't think I've seen anybody point at JG as an example of this degradation. Not literally everybody who goes to calarts or a college that is cloning it's techniques will develop the same style, if they already had an idea brewing beforehand or if they simply realised that the stylistic choices they were teaching are kinda shit.
Until it turned to shit later...
Coolio M how did it turn to shit?
TragicLight the animation was really wanky later in seasons, and some main characters lost some texture patterns they used to have.
S1 looked better than the last couple of seasons.
I'm not a fan of the artstyle tbh but if its a good show I'll watch it I prefer like avatar the last avatar artstyle or teen titans
So, anime?
Kyle Krazer not exactly all anime characters have like the same eyes and hair and that's low key a pet peeve for me
I too prefer the "anime" style. Only because I prefer drama over comedy and this style is most effective in drama.
So basically Western Anime?
have you seen Gargoyles, even is obviously a Disney cartoon but I watch it for the plot, history and characters
The first time I saw someone going off about the "CalArts style" it was in reference to artists going in with more complicated or realistic art styles and coming out with styles that are far more simple and look more like sketches. Those simplified looks looked nothing like Star, Steven, or Gumball either. The sudden grouping of those shows came along with this more recent definition change.
Honestly, it reminds me of the whole "Tumblr nose" thing that was going around. Only a handful of artists at the time did the heavy blush on the nose, but because those people were _popular_ artists it was taken to mean that _all_ artists on Tumblr did that. It had nothing to do with Tumblr the same way this "style" has nothing to do with CalArts.
The Smol Bean style seems an more accurate name 😂
That’s so weird to trash on an entire school like that. The squishy style of characters didn’t derive from the same school. That’s saying that all successful modern cartoons are all being made by the same alumni and that’s not true. I don’t think🤔Anyway, my generation just seems to like to complain about things. Go back to the time of Hanna-Barbara cartoons, they all looked the same from the exact same company and those were the only cartoons on and you don’t see anyone from that generation complaining! Millennials or Gen Z or whatever we’re called, shut up and enjoy your lives for once!
You sound really salty... like, don't blame the millennials for everything? Cause we don't know the ages of the people complaining about this.
But look, Hanna Barbera was one company, who made cartoon on his own style...today, we have a few companies, independents from each other, which make cartoons in the VERY SIMILAR STYLE. Is it just not weird?
LoboTaker z Gdańska
No weirder when most 80's cartoon heroes looked like strong jawed men.
Cartoon High why do you have to make this a millennial thing?
"That's so weird to trash on an entire school like that"
*proceeds to trash an entire generation
Like honestly every every generation seems to have there own like style In shows it’s like clothes and hair styles the 60’s has its own style like it’s just a trendy thing that happens and I personally would call the style like bean style
i was born in 90s and i like diffrent styles from old older and new but thats me
I like the style of anime in the 80s
Except first decade what suck in general. I think Z-Gen haters are so butthurt nowadays because they feel that they lost personality build on Star Wars prequels and weeb animations of that period.
@@kyleraccoon6195 same
I wonder why nobody ever brings up The Simpsons when talking about “CalArts style”; the Simpsons clearly had a huge influence on this trend, just look at Homer’s head for example.
Mr Sparkle!
uhhh, homer's head was clearly different compare to other kids modern western animations.
Futurama has that art-style
In the mouths and eyes, maybe. I can see what you mean. I'm not sure about the head shape though.
I thought Aardman was the main inspiration
John K might be a pervert, but nobody can draw facial expressions like that man...
yeah right
We'll, his facial expression are HIS.
Some tried though-see: Cow & Chicken.
He kinda abused the artists for it, saying that there can't be the same expression twice and if he's seen it before he would make them restart. He was a dick
@@fawfulmark2 I loved cow and chicken, as well as I. Am. Weasel.
I’ve been wanting to attend CalArts for the longest and I still would want to despite what people are saying about the college.
Edit: thanks guys for all the likes and comments you left.
Nowon & DPool Productions Follow your dreams, let no one stop you 🤗
Nowon & DPool Productions You better follow your dreams!
Nowon & DPool Productions dude who cares what people, I wanted to attend their I don’t give two shits of what people say, everyone’s a critic
I want too
Same!
This video does a good job summarizing how I feel about the whole Cal Arts Style term, and the claim that all modern cartoons look the same; every era is going to have its trends, and you can say you don't like the style, but don't act like all cartoons used to be super diverse in looks
Batman Every era has its trends? Example? Don't mention Hanna Barbera because those were all by one person. I can kind of see the anime-esque style being like that perhaps, but then again, Japan is much more guilty of making every anime follow a typical style.
Yeah!...Besides, if you want to change that, you have to do it yourself.
TayoEXE in the 80's most cartoons were made to sell toys or to make toys and thus had very limited animation with characters looking like action figures, the 90's showed artists bringing back the Hannah Barbara style of thick lines but with more fluid animation, the 2000's had a lot of cartoons trying to look anime esque... You should watch ChannelFrederator's video about this for more detail
TayoEXE
Well, in the 80's, most cartoon heroes were strong jawed men.
And in the 90's, a lot of cartoons had Ren and Stimpy envy
Kid Goku looks like Steven Universe and its a fucking Anime
It's just the style of 2010's and 2020's cartoons
1920's cartoons all had the same type of style
1990's cartoon had the same type of style
2000's cartoon had the same type of style
This "Calarts" style doesn't exist, it's just the style of modern cartoons.
Also, these people who criticize the "Calarts" style for looking the same are the same people who watch Anime.... Pretty much every Anime looks the same (except for JoJo) but you don't see us complaining?
@@thecommie9992 you are doing some straight up facts rn, but IMO, I don’t like the art style that much, to me it’s lazy and simple, simple can sometimes work but when overused it’s just bad, but the cal arts people are so annoying and toxic
My biggest problem is when someone tries to make a deep story with this simplistic art style, it really takes me out of my immersion.
That's why the anime style works so much these days. As it actually takes effort to know the human anatomy, got to know where to stylize, and where to simplify, giving up a few frames in exchange for detail. This simplistic art style is why I can barely watch most western animation, it looks too simple. Hell I kind of do not like the style of most adult animation in the west, while Japan and Korea crank out competent animation. Korea is second, but better than USA's last place.
I find this style is just LAZY. It works in the contexts of comedy... Smiling friends I find a tad lacking in animation, but it is more distinct. Atleast it's starting to move away from the over-roundness of cal arts, the way it moves is HILARIOUS. It keeps it simple on main characters, but everything else is more detailed. It has weird and surrealness that makes it work.
Western Animation, when it is not indie, just looks lazy compared to the rest of the world's output. The older cartoons atleast weren't lazy.
Anime on average has more depth than western cartoons. Due to not having the same stigma early in its history, the first anime was political satire.
@@MaoRatto can you like.... shut up?
@@MaoRatto Haven't been watching Pony Life or Tell Your Tale for the same reasoning. Interestingly, given the fact that those spin offs aren't just looking simpler, they actually are simpler, by a lot. The depth in MLP stuff is where the better art styles are as well.
It's not like it's Hanna Barbera with Scooby-Doo, Speed Buggy, Josie & the Pussycats, and Jabberjaw all with pretty much the same premise of mystery solving teens with a fun animal (or vehicle) side kick. With the exception of the Pussycats the character design was practically the same from show to show with slight variations in hair styles and color schemes. (I was a boomerang kid)
Those were all the same company with mostly the same production staff. The problem is that multiple companies are using the same low detail, low effort CalArts artstyle and it all ends up looking the same, despite being from different companies. It’s a corporate thing of “spend less money on detail and animation effort. We want it to sell, so make it look like the other ones”. They’re trying to spend as little money as possible on production so they just make it all look similar and too simple. And people are eating it up like good consumers.
EDIT: Honestly I don’t even know why I posted this. This is a year passed and the people who like the style for some reason are just gunna flame me for disagreeing with them, judging on past experience of the subject, if anyone bothers reading this at all.
I need That’s so calarts to be a full song
John K was totally right in his critiscism, because the meme of calling things "CalArts" has more to do with the elitism and snobbery of the animation industry than it has to do with style. The reason things look alike on a stylistic level has to do with productive convinience, but it´s also indicative of a group of people, specifically over-educated and entitled people who run the industry and only hire and make content that are liked by, their own social group. Rebecca Sugar didn´t go to CalArts, but she went to an expensive artschool that are entrenched with the other schools.
Ben B is a genius, because he managed to create a show that actually gave of a holistic vision of his entire teams creative abilities (read up on why there are so many styles) but a lot of people in the industry are extremely rude when underdogs who don´t conform to their way get their chance. Just look at the sheer toxicity that Smiling Friends' creators was met with when the pilot became succesful.
Animation schools nurture talent but degrade genuine creativity. And most animators in the west can´t even properly animate to begin with. Just storyboard and then outsource the actual labor to Korea
@@thischannelhasbeenabandoned420 Ben Bocquelet made the amazing world of Gumball, which has the perhaps most dynamic animation style for any cartoon the past decade. He came from and used to work in France, and thus outside the social bubble that usually hires from a select cadre in american animation, post 2010s.
The story about how he concieved and his cartoon is fairly interesting, as its mostly a patchwork of projects he was involved with in the past, and Gumball´s success gave a lot of power to various creators, while it was underway
I've noticed this art style being extremely prevalent as well and have always referred to it as the "Steven Universe art style" lol.
But you're right. Every decade has their own art style that was very popular at the time. I think a lot of 2d animated shows in the 2000s looked more angular with (sometimes, though not always) thicker outlines (The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Fairly Odd Parents, Teenage Robot, Clone High, Total Drama Island, Johnny Test, Word Girl, Dexter's Laboratory, Danny Phantom, El Tigre, Kim Possible, Winx Club, Phineas and Ferb, Cyberchase, Foster's Home of Imaginary Friends, and the list goes on), but that's fine. It's not a bad thing.
I feel like years from now, this art style will be seen as nostalgic for those of us who were around when The Amazing World of Gumball or Steven Universe were popular and airing. That'll only happen once animators move on to a different trend style of character design. CalArts is a cute style, and most shows that I've seen with this art style are pretty fun to watch, but the art style is so common right now that's it's pretty understandable that people are growing tired of seeing it. We've been seeing to for years, and I have a feeling that we're at that stage where cartoons will start distancing away from this style and moving on to another trend that people will eventually grow tired of once the 2020s is nearly finished.
Honestly I’m miffed that Gumball was grouped in like that because I’m certain it has the most diverse cast design of any major cartoon in the recent years. Not even in just the shapes of the characters, but even in the way they move or how they’re textured. There’s nothing quite like it.
There's so little similarity in any of them. This whole calarts argument is dumb people who don't do art saying dumb things about art. The gif is heavily misleading and a bunch of lemmings are reacting to that reflexively. These four shows look nothing alike and using Thundercats Roar as an excuse to complain about other shows is a braindead take.
Honestly I think the people defending the Cal Arts style aren’t exactly helping their case.
You don’t have to literally go to the Calarts school to develop the easy/simple/cost effective style that got popular.
HellRay Most of the shows used as examples don't really even look very similar
Zaylen Alexander
I question Steven Universe's quality as a whole.
There are simple animation mistakes that make newbie animators cringe. With that in mind I'd be slightly pissed if I was funding the lack of quality control. One of the best scenes in the show was done by a guest animator that worked on anime and is only showed the quality gap. And he came from an industry where those sort of mistakes are severely frowned upon.
if i remember correctly, the reason SU has such wonky animation is because they don't have defined character models. from what i've heard the show has 4 story-board artists, who each draw the characters a little differently, and when the episodes are produced the animators are told to make the episode to look like whichever story-board they're using. that's why the characters have different proportions in different episodes. the creators say it makes the series more free-form, but a lot of people have criticised this policy for making the cartoon as a whole look sloppy
zilesis1 this trope is called "your art style may vary"
+zay
and they shouldn't do that. You have to remember they're outsourcing this to some SK studio whos' probably confused as fuck as to why the storyboards from this one cartoon keep changing.
I feel like people don't actually watch student animations from calarts
2:00 No they didn't.
First shot shows all hanna barbera cartoons, the second is all disney. Of course the studio is gonna have similiar style across all its productions. But they are different from other studios. Now you have different unrelated studios producing nearly identical looking cartoons.
Did you not see the moment after that??? He literally explained how modern day cartoons aren't identical copies
From Gumball to Star, Steven, Gravity Falls, and many others...I love those shows and their stories. Who cares what it looks like! Hannah-Barbera, Disney, and many others have recycled their work and got influenced by others simply because it works! It sells, and people like it! So I won't harsh these art styles... if you have a excellent show, that's all that matters! 😍
Because if you don't have a nice package as well, there will be a lot of people who won't ever watch the show.
DJSkywalker I agree
Unless it's an anime or movie that involves a lot of mutated bodies, blood, assault, and a lot of very graphic stuff in it to the point the people who their hands on it destroyed most of the animation. I forgot what it was named again.
ThatCrazyFurrball Now anime is on a WHOLE different category! And I love anime as well!
DJSkywalker Yeah but they do have nice packages, just barely similar face styles (when redrawn so it's not even fucking accurate). Like the faded thick lined 90s-2000s style. Or disney. Or anime. Or cgi. Give these shows that don't look that similar credit, I will immediately tell apart who's from which show if you showed mr background characters. Like the characters don't look similar aside from certain head shapes.
Growing-up in the 1980s, there were a lot of cartoons that had the same art style. You see this in the way life-like people are drawn, as well as the vehicles, equipment, and the painted backgrounds. The funny thing about many of them was that they, like most Japanese studios, often outsource to animation studios in Korea and Taiwan. So you can watch shows (by diverse studios) like G.I.Joe (Sunbow), ThunderCats (Rankin-Bass), The Go-Bots (Hanna-Barbara), Pole Position (DiC), and so on, and then watch an old '80s "Japanimation" (what we called "anime" back then) like Go-Lion (aka Voltron), SDF Maccross (Robotech), Megazone 23, Captain Harlock (Lars of the Stars... LOL), etc. and you'll see similarities in the art-styles.
So basically, long before the trend in the 2000s, most western animation looked like anime... But this was not intentional, as Japan and the US where just using the same (dirt cheep) third-party animators to animate everything.
I think my main problem with this "CalArts" thing is the fact that it ignores all the older animation trend for other eras. It was never a problem before, so why is it now?
people are running out of things to point out
Because the cal arts trend looks way worse and lazier than those trends
Who Care
Just Enjoy The Show.
Wally Gameing exactly
I agreed but I wish their was more variations in art style as opposed to everyone being on the same boat that being said each show have their own style and feel to it while using that same art style
Steven Anchundia this is a nice thought
I love Star, Steven, Gumball and GF...but we need variation
They're just crybabies
I always felt that gif of the ‘similar’ modern cartoon faces was way too cherry-picked.
Besides, there’s much more to a show’s value than just the animation- If I’ll be honest, I’m way more invested in the actual writing and voice acting. That is not to say that the animation is unimportant, but I feel that a show with great writing will stick with me more than a show with great animation. And even then, that gif seems to be less complaining that the animation quality of those shows are poor, but rather that they ‘look the same’.
Just because there's value in a show other than it's animation doesn't give them the right to be lazy and make their styles very similar. Animation is called ANIMATION for a reason.
I'm sorry, but are Steven Universe's dreamlike ascetics" lazy"? Are Gravity Falls trippy imagery "lazy"? Are Gumball's mash of multiple styles and techniques "lazy"?
@Void of Space and Time
Yes, and what style is best suited for good animation.. something called "cartoon" maybe? (so what idiots call CalArt here) Anime developed detailed design specifically to cover they lack of animation.
So, shit.. perfect example of suicidal argument you did make now 0_0
+Void of Space and Time But their styles _aren’t_ very similar. If you looked at ANY of the shows outside the gif, you’d see how vastly different in animation they are. And literally every era has trends. No one complains about early CN Golden Age shows being both similar AND made by a lot of the same people.
@bh5496
At least Hannah-Barbera products were in fact similar. Here people literally made up random arguments to cover own preconceived bias. I in fact will admit that cartoon style clearly back to graces after era of CGI and anime rip off's, but why is that a issue exactly? Well outside TTGo and TC:Roar, as I do get why people are pissed on CN shitty politic, even if they clearly went overboard with it like some babies.
That art stye is cute but I'm tired of seeing it all the time
“ in 5 to 10 years” 3:16 bro it’s been 5 years and things are still the same 💀💀💀
"Calarts" style more like "copycat" style! No im jk, honestly i miss the days when everyone followed their own unique art styles like the people who worked in nicktoons 😮
The real reason everyone is upset against CalArts is mostly because of Thundercats Roar and everyone especially you Awestruck Vox knows it's true
The funny thing is none of the shows used as an example in the image Which people use as an example of the style being bad. Is based on unofficial images
Only thing worse is the style UA-camrs use when they want to be represented by a cartoon avatar instead of showing their real face
Bean gaped head?
More like Sans shaped head 0:15
Most of these cartoons look very distinct from each other in their own right! So, apparently taking inspiration from something else means that it's an exact rip-off? Whatever, the internet will find something else to complain about next week...
Lol right?
Aspen Attack! No they don't.
*Very?* In fact, the words "distinct in their own right" is pretty self-evident of your own acknowledgment that their differences are, in fact, subtle.
So from what I've heard (from one of my animation teachers) is that the software we use for animation also lends towards the convergence in style.
Cant wait for art style to return to that sharp, blocky, edgy geometric look of early 2000s and hanna barbera era
You know who else had similar style to this? Brandy and mr Whiskers and this show is run since 2004 to 2006.
That show was really shitty
I remember this show. Yeah the style is similar but there are still some different things about it that make it not look like the CalArts style but I agree it's very close to it
Ya know what i call characters with a bean head?
*bean bois*
I've actually seen some CalArts shorts and found a lot of various styles, I'm glad I'm not alone on this.
Years later, and nothing changed
"To say these shows all look the same, you're totally looking at it at face value"
Well yes. That's how you can tell if two people look the same. By looking at their faces.
Thats like saying two people ARE the same because they LOOK the same.... Thats what "face value" means, you only get the looks and not the personality and history.
@@declaringpond2276 They're drawings, not people. If they look the same, they are the same.
@@zarlg Thats a logical fallacy. Its like me claiming that since you have a pepe and nazis have pepes, that you're a nazi
@@declaringpond2276 No, it's like you claiming that my avatar looks like a green frog.
Maybe you misread the quote. He didn't say that the claim is that the shows ARE the same, but merely that they LOOK the same.
@@zarlg Yea, you and nazis LOOK the same
Honestly, it's just the style right now. And all these shows are unique in their own animation and look amazing - a lot of work gets put into these shows and people are ridiculous for putting them down.
If there's one constant about art on the internet, it's that people who start drama about art styles are not the same people sitting down and making art. It's just a bunch of arrogant brats who think their opinion matters. Someone who thinks Gumball looks like a single other show on the planet can have their opinion safely chucked in the trash.
Like what you like, and dislike what you dislike, but don't talk shop about art if you don't do art.
@@FabbrizioPlays One year late but why aren't people allowed to criticize art if they don't do any art?
I prefer the early 2000s anime inspired art-style. It just works better for action and drama. I take issue with redesigning those shows like Teen Titans or Thundercats with the new style because it doesn't work for the action drama shows that they were meant to be.
People have been accusing Edd00chan's FNAFHS series for having a "CalArts" style but they don't accuse my FNAF artworks of having a CalArts style despite me attending CalArts
Honestly I didn't know what the art style was called, but I loved it and still do. I would always look at drawings people made in that art style, specifically drawings in a more kawaii Bee & Puppycat style, but I always called it the Bubble Gum art style lol. I've always felt like it's a pretty light and easy style people could make! I also believe it's a good style for kids to draw in because they could practice they're art skills and flourish in this art style and it'd be much easier for them to find their own art style or try more difficult art later in life!
Its unfair to call it Cal arts. Genndy Tartakovsky attended there and his work is EXTRA T.H.I.C.C!
Now that Adventure Time is gone, I wouldn't mind something with a similar tone and art style.
I don’t normally comment on your videos and I’ve only seen most of your content on Steven universe but this video was interesting.
It makes me think about the types of trends you see in art in general.
When I say art I am referring to even music, animation, video games, and even modern art too.
I think it would make for a neat history series if someone actually sat down and looked at the trends of animation. The different styles. How they differed. How they changed. What things carried over. Like what little nuances do artists tend to draw in their cartoons. Like for example in anime sometimes characters have a hair that sticks up in a particular spot( there is a name for it but I can’t be bothered to google it lol)
Little stuff like that but in western art and animation.
If there was a history series like that I’d love it.
I know it’s kinda off about what this whole video is about but it did spark my interests.
Kinda doubt someone has done a series on something like that.
The mouth is the same 100%
Rebeca looks so freaken cute with long hair. Wish she did it more often
She's got it now
She has long hair right now
Inflated cheeks and kidney/bean faces are the most accurate technical names.
I think Thundercats Roar looks like a O.K K.O clone if anything.
Who else thought Clarance was dead?
I mean they didn’t run it for a long time, come on CN gotta step up ur game
Jaden Thompson that’s Cartoon Network for you they don’t advertise there shows or really air a lot of them
2 vids in one day! My day just keeps getting better!
The Peridactle13 congratulations
👍👍
The Peridactle13, Yellow Diamond is changed to Yellow Douchebag.😁
The Peridactle13 I gave you a congratulations for your good day
It’s because a lot of us grew up watching Ed, Edd, n’ Eddy, Fairly Odd Parents, and Kim Possible at the same time, when not all cartoons looked the same. It’s weird when you’re used to watching a diversity of styles with a few similarities here (either by the same artist like Butch or influenced by anime), and there then all of a sudden the different wild styles stop and becomes more minuscule.
It may be either corporate or artist reason, but let’s not hate if the story is great. Sure it’s a bit annoying but it’s phase. Probably the 2020s will have another diversity of style.
This is a phase I like to call Western Chibi, since a lot of these new artist are greatly influenced by anime.
There was actually this meme on tumblr a few months ago where artists took a bunch of cartoons that are currently airing and/or were airing in recent years, and drew themselves with that show's art style, and you could see the actual genuine differences. My own art style is a mix of Steven Universe, Star Vs., and anime.
I saw that gif, and I saw that term several times, but I've decided to look into it until now. Thanks for breaking it down.
It's just another trend and another reason for 90's kids to hate on modern day reboots. Yes it is a bland and basic style, but it's very trendy. Majority of shows with this artstyle are very good and have interesting stories. Whose to say the new Thundercats Roar won't be good. If DuckTales proved y'all wrong I'm sure Thundercats Roar will too..
DeVii's Uniiverse see the difference between ducktales and thundercats roar is the channel producing them....also doesnt “thundercats roar” sound a lot like “teen titans go”?
But in Thundercats Roar’s case the art style makes it a bastardization of the source material. I don’t get why action shows keep getting this treatment where they get turned into “LOL so random” comedies.
Guanglai Kangyi, Age 15 unfortuntaley as long as cartoons are seen as for kids they'll keep turning avery animated property into lol so random shows.
DeVii's Uniiverse Except DuckTales reboot stays true to the original comic's design and the art is a WHOLE lot better than this CN crap, BOI!
X3C But when we were kids we had shows that weren't "lol so random"! PPG, Samurai Jack, Ben 10, Mega XLR, Transformers Animated, He-man, TMNT 2003, Beast Wars and most of them actually have "narrative" or meaningful episodic story. Such a sad time for kids to be alive.
The year is 2030. A college senior has just finished posting a nostalgia meme about the 2010s animation style.
The issue is people don't realize from disney art styles that are "seemingly" disney specifically most likely came from Don Bluth who did work for them at the time and being just at successful early days of don bluth productions disney tried to copy his darker tone of animation hence the failure of the black cauldron. Also Disney and Hanna-Barbara had styles blended when their animators and artist worked for both companies adding their own spin to the art
I guess you could call it Beanmouth, but like you said that's it. Only the basic head shape is the same. Everything else is different. That's like saying other cartoon characters all look the same because their head is made up of one circle.
Hi the roundtable!
I think one of the big reasons is that all these shows are probably animated overseas en masse, and its probably a lot easier and cheaper to have those animators animate in a style that they already know rather than teach them a new one with every show.
I don't know if Disney, CN etc have overlap in their Oversees Animation Studios, but I wouldn't be surprised.
ARE YOU EVEN WATCHING THE SHOW? 😂😂😂 so true... Tho Gumball and Darwin are based on CalArts style, most of the characters are not based on this style
All the shows mentioned above are fun because though they have a simplistic art style they're enjoyable, funny and warms our hearts. Many just think TCRoar doesnt have a good art style.
I was on with everything you said until your said "Different Designs". The critique is the fact that the designs are too close to each other.
*Aren't you the man who attacked a child with cancer for spoiling steven universe?*
I think the only bad thing I can say about CalArts is that it's overrated. A lot of artists see it as the dream school (I was one) but talent and good art shines no matter where you studied (if you even did)
so true
I actually want to go to CalArts. And my style is nothing like "The CalArts style", it's my own style. Everyone has there own art style. Some refer to mine as anime style or realistic cartoon. But to be fair, I really don't think I would be able to get in to CalArt, but then again, I still have years to go to improve my art.
I love Calarts and youtubers who post animations from the school, and let me tell you, none of them look like that. They frequently have calm movements couples with skinny heads. It's a completely arbitrary criticism that is finally getting the rest of the internet to realize how shitty our cartoon community is.
and then there was that period of time where flapjack and chowder had similar animation styles
The 2000's had two predominant animation styles: The aforementioned Animesque style, and Thick Line Animation (Mostly seen in Nicktoons) The late 2000's-early 2010's had the much maligned Flash Animation, which you still see with TTG. The modern style is Thin Line Animation,.
i read that blog back when he posted it and after he apologized for saying it way before some of these shows were on air. i looked it up again recently because i remember the style had nothing to do with the designs but how they are animated. mainly how the characters move and how expressions are drawn. it has to do with the lack of personality in which learning a cartoonist would have a foundation. below is a quote from the blog.
"This is a style that is the opposite of cartoony. It's about moving things smoothly and using the poses and expressions you have seen a million times in Disney and Bluth movies. These types of artists don't have cartoonist personalities. They aren't wacky or zany. They aren't hard-bitten sarcastic men who take a grim realistic view of life and then make fun of it in their cartoons. The character is technically well-drawn by a talented artist, but is not very fun or cartoony and the expressions don't reflect anything identifiable. They are Cal-Arts expressions."
what we are currently dealing with has been influenced by what john k was talking about call cal arts style or what i like to call industry. but design wise this looks influenced by the indie comic artist that worked on shows like adventure time, chowder, and the misadventures of flapjack. many indie comic artists worked as storyboarders and animator in those shows and served as animation hubs for networking. not to mention nearly everyone who was involved in those series are still active in the industry in influential ways rather it's they are creators of their own, storyboarders, writer, actors, character designer animators. its just shows how the creation has been streamlined due to networking.
the criticism of the boils down to one of industry in the influencing of networking artists which kind of been modeled by cal art graduates who influence the industry prior. as the network and studios know what is marketable and appealing to the audience so some time creators of shows have to compromise or redevelop their vision to succeed.
Saying "cal arts style" does not mean one is implying someone went there, it means the crap they draw looks like that.
At the rate we're going, I give it about 4 or so years before the internet starts complaining about people who wear underpants.
Honestly, I don’t have a problem with the style ITSELF. But it does need some improvement because it feels kinda lazy.
I don’t care if cartoons don’t look the same, I just I don’t like the style (whatever it’s called)