I'm quite frankly shocked & appalled no one mentioned specific anime lmao My main style influences are Sailor Moon, Ouran High School Host Club, and Steven Universe!

Fun fact You can pause The Spider-verse movie at any moment throughout the show and it will be an art piece not a blurred human.

Rebecca sugar actually has a pilot of steven universe that is on the internet. CN approved her work but wanted it to be simplify. She said this in her artbook of steven universe. When she released steven new look for the first time, everybody on the internet were outrage and accused her using flash animation for the show. I' pretty sure that most artists want to show their unique art style especially in shows but have to simplify their works to be easier to animate and cost less.

9:03 The inclusion of Dipper in that gif has always bothered me. Like, that depiction of Dipper looks nothing like Dipper in the show. He never does the "bean smile" at any point, his cheeks in the gif are wildly exagerated in comparison to his actual cheeks, even his nose is missing the characteristic pink shade to it.

One thing I noticed about the "Cal arts" style, or one flaw it how it is portrayed, is that while the character designs do look similar, almost none of these characters move the same. Were these comics I would be more concerned about the stagnation, but once any of these shows get moving they can manage to be unique. certainly a "Don't judge a book by it's cover" situation.

When hardest part about any work of art is the balance between creativity and practicality. You handled this well.

I think negative art style bias can somewhat encourage people to branch out more stylistically which can be a good thing. The negative bias against “anime” art styles of the 2000’s definitely helped me experiment more and develop more as an artist.

The "life-like" era of 3d animation brought SO much innovation to the medium though. While we may not necessarily want a 1 to 1 match with reality in animation, imagine if pixar and dreamworks never worked on realistic fur or water. The physics and mechanics of those can now be stylized and played with because we know how to do the "reaistic" version.

Again can all just absorb the pure look of just giving up on life on Mint’s face!? Pure gold I love it.

babe wake up Fionapollo posted

I find it fascinating how slim down streamlined "simple animation" is conflated to a single sort of style. It makes me think of how electronic music can often be reduced "techno" or soulless. Regardless of how simplified or basic something appears, there is at least an individual somewhere in that process that is genuinely giving it everything they've got!

I love that you're an art commentary channel that actually comments on art instead of controversies. Very refreshing

I've gotten weird comments on my own art style in the past (though critiqued for it not looking realistic or "serious"), so it was interesting hearing your perspective on this topic. :)

Personally I do not like the fact that people labeled the modern art design “cal arts” or “tumblr” because to me it seemed forced, not to mention there’s plenty of animated series that have alot of diversity in style to make them stand out Plus the term makes no sense since there’s plenty of people who worked at cal arts that have diverse styles such as Craig McCracken, jj vilard, genndy tartakovsky, Jorge Gutierrez, Stephen hillenberg etc Also just because an art seems simplified doesn’t mean it’s not diverse I personally wouldn’t say adventure time has the same art style as Steven universe since Steven universe is clearly going for a Lupin the third, studio ghibli approach whereas adventure time looks like an underground comic in some aspects Plus Clarence and gumball has a lot of wacky character designs especially gumball since it used multiple animation techniques Hence the term feeling out of place I understand people want diverse styles of art in animation but in alot of ways we’re still getting more of it depending on the creator Here’s the bottom line, I feel like the “cal arts” term is forced and nonsensical especially since some artists may use a similar style through inspiration I personally don’t mind the “bean mouth” style because it’s not as corporate as most made it out to be Some don’t even use the so called character models for that style Honestly the only reason the style got hated is because of thundercats roar not being a serialized adventure I understand thundercats roar is not for everyone but it is worth getting angry over an art style for a different approach of the franchise?

My artstyle gets compared to Steven Universe a lot, which, fair, but as happy as I am in my art style right now, in a sense I;m kind of unhappy with how I got there. The main reason I drastically changed my art style was that my art kept being branded as "beginner art style"(big circle heads/eyes, chunky body proportions, minimal to no clothing folds/shading, etc). It made me feel really embarrassed of my art, and while yes, I was technically a beginner artist at the time(it was around the time I first started to take drawing seriously), the way it was being applied to my art was negative, and I think that's pretty stupid. Anyway, great video, and I hope you have a nice day :)

The whole point of art associations and biases is specifically to create a sense of familiarity. After all, people don't like change (and it only becomes more apparent the faster the change takes place) due to their personal and natural biases.

When I went to art school and later graphics design, the teachers frequently put down "anime style" as they called it for various reasons. The "weeb scene" in the area was pretty big, so it was seen as unprofessional and "not having an own identity". It did eventually lead to me diversifying and ending up with a weird mix of cartoony and anime (that also is liked by my clients, so it's something!), but man do I feel the term negative art style bias.

My views on the topic of art biases as a creative media student are that people are quick to judge artists and their art styles as I think they don’t understand quite clearly what kind of impact and damage they are doing to the artist especially around the anime style of art , overall art biases are just another dent in the art community, thank you Fiona for covering this topic as I really appreciate your views

Thank you for covering this topic, I find it really important for me and seeing your perspective is really interesting.

In the early 00's, there was a wide wariety of art styles and animation, from chalk zone's doodles to simplicity of Bruce Timm, or general anime inspirations like Teen Titans/A.T.O.M.! Anyone?

Though one additional part on John K, why should we trust him on this? Because even before the allegations made about him harassing female employees, he had such a hard-to-get-along with ego that really affected whatever company or whoever he once worked with.

Very wonderful video!!! You covered the topic really well!! Yeah the CalArts style dispute really bugged me, and I believe people should be able to draw in whatever style they want (As long as they're not doing any harm of course)! Heck I love to incorporate aspects of styles you see a lot in like 2010's cartoons and lots of anime into my artstyle, such as bean mouths, anime expressions, etc.! Overall, I think artists should have their own style that's suitable to them and what THEY'RE happy with! I do really love however how Spider-Verse played a major part in encouraging more media with more diverse and unique artstyles!! It's super cool seeing them all like with Mitchells vs the Machines and Puss in Boots the Last Wish!!

'Calarts' as a style and trend isn't bad, but it just feels like to the general audience as a perception of oversaturation and drowning out of other styles. Anime is not excluded from this. The anime industry as its own version of 'calarts' and that is because certain studios do a lot of work for a lot of anime and that makes a lot of anime look samey. Its on the same principal as its a cost-saving measure and way to not have to retrain your artists much. The best thing for animation in this competitive environment, is to have differing styles that really let the work standout and be easily recognizable as a genre onto itself.

Insightful commentary as usual! My artstyle has been compared to SO many things, but I honestly don't believe my style correlates to anything other than I picked up a pencil, drew some really terrible anime art, and slowly evolved my style. I have taken inspiration from many media, including some of the "calarts" style cartoons, but for me it doesn't go much farther than that. P.s your art style seems like early anime mixed with a bit more realism! Love it

9:00 I had no idea Ren & Stimpy's creator was behind this "CalArts" meme. But, hey, incidentally... Ren & Stimpy was the first in a series of 90's cartoons that I refused to watch as a kid just on account of how unappealing I thought the art style was.

I think it's important to note that John K. is a horrible person.

CalArts originally referred to 90s Disney art. Not sure how it became associated with Steven Universe-looking cartoons. I've seen other terms like "Bean-Style" & "CN Style" & "Corporate Memphis."

The fascinating thing to me about the 3D animation boom that Spider-Verse kicked off is that, technically speaking, 3D (mostly non-AAA) video games had already been engaging in such varied stylization by this point. From the unique linework of Borderlands (2009) to the toon-shaded aesthetics of Wind Waker (2002) and, most famously similar to Spider-Verse, Arc System Works reinventing anime-styled 3D animation with Guilty Gear Xrd (2014) and every game they've made since. The tools and techniques were always there, functional even in real-time environments so we KNOW they were doable in fully rendered sequences, but it took something as experimental and huge as Spider-Verse pushing things as far as it did to really convince the corporate world this was a direction worth pursuing. I just find that interesting is all.

As someone who has a very simpel artstyle and loves shows like adventure time/steven universe etc. its sad to hear that the only reason you would want to have an artstyle like that is for efficiency reasons. To me, there is a certain beauty in using only whats absolutelely necessary to create an amazing scene. To me, artworks made in these simpel styles are fun but they can also be very serious and very beatiful. And I like to imagine that the artists that create these shows also get that.

One thing I'm glad is being deconstructed recently is this idea of art styles reflecting the maturity a piece has behind it. It's very cool to me how shows like Centaurworld subvert this, and mix art styles that would normally be considered to have a large gap in 'maturity'. It really puts into perspective that regardless of art style, a story can still have maturity and depth embedded inside whether it's framed in a bubbly art style or a more realistic one.

I used to have a bias against shows with the "Cal arts" style because it reminded me so strongly of really childish shows that didn't vibe with me. Then I started watching SVTFOE, Amphibia, The Owl House, Gravity Falls, and so many other shows with similar styles and fell in love with them. Lesson learned: don't judge a show by it's style of animation.

Your art style gives like halfway between cartoon and anime vibes. So my guess would be you grew up with a lot of cartoons but appreciate the beauty of anime.

I don't know style names, but to me, if I had to describe your art, it reminds me a little of infinity train specifically. Also, a show I started watching recently that I think has something really unique is Moongirl and Devil dinosaur.

Incredibly fascinating topic and you covered it really well! The 'Spiderverse effect' is something I've been thinking about lately, especially after watching the new TMNT trailer. I definitely want to cover art styles and movements in a video so thank you!

Your art style fells like a combination of anime esque and comic book style, which I like

Funny enough, when talking about the word CalArts, you forgot to mention that the John K didn’t even use it to refer to modern cartoons but cartoons that imitated the “Disney Style” of the renaissance. His go to example would be the Iron Giant. Basically, his argument was that they only cared for the style of this type of animation without actually knowing the form, how they should move and all that. It’s funny how it’s modern meaning has been basically completely switched in a way

I would say your style is anime influenced based off of how you draw/render the eyes and hair. But it's unique at the same time and has your own personal taste -- and it's wonderful!

"And other imperfections to bring awareness to them." Or it could just be to give more visual distinctions to the characters so they stand out from each other. There's a really good reason for this sort of thing outside of politics or social causes. Rather rude to dismiss art just because it's detailed and the artists are interested in portraying people as they actually sees them. Not of you, of people who actually dismiss that.

Whenever I hear someone complain about "cal-arts" most of their actual complaints seem to be directed more at the show's contents than the show's art style.

honestly I would love to see you talk about Mob Psycho 100 because of how different it is to other animated shows

I am very well aware of my art style bias, though I prefer to refer to it as the importance of aesthetics. I've matured enough to have developed a "live and let live" approach to it, thankfully, but there are many times when I've dropped a series simply based on the art style. Teacher's Pet, if anyone remembers that show for example, didn't appeal to me, neither does a lot of so called Adult animation, Cow & Chicken or any of the Klasky Csupo productions. Simply found there styles too "ugly" for my taste (on a similar note, I've never liked Steve Dillons or Frank Quitely art styles when it comes to comics for similar reasons). And yes, it has been detrimental sometimes. When I first saw adds for Phineas & Ferb, I dismissed it because I thought the characters looked to weird (but I'm a big fan nowadays) and I remember rolling my eyes when I first saw glimpses of Avatar: The Last Airbender because, to me, it looked like "Oh, Nickelodeon is trying to cash in on the anime wave. Lame!" But, like with P&F, I've become a big fan since (hell, I'd argue it's one of the greatest animated shows of all time). Other times I've fell for a series just because of the Art style. Kim Possible for one I remembered wanting to check out because I liked how it looked, same thing with Arcane (gorgeous) and more than likely why I was so into anime during my teenage years. Still, I find it very enjoyable to ponder this topic and ask myself questions like "How come this appeals to me? What is it I like about this artstyle? Or this one that is so completely different from the previous one?" Like while I know I dislike a form of uglyness I previously mentioned, I do have a soft spot for soft and clear lines with a Punk Rock edge to them. I.e. a bit rougher and with more spikes and edges to supplement the softness. Like Sonic the Hedgehog, a lot of anime (I mean just look at Gokus hair!), Calvin & Hobbes, Spectacular Spider-Man, 90's X-Men etc. Also, being a big fan of Donald Duck, I noticed how some comic book artists like Cavazzano gives him three tuffs of "feathers" at the front of his head similar to hair, and I really love that little detail.

Your art style feels very natural. I haven’t seen a lot of styles like that so this os very refreshing (even if I like those other styles). I like how unique it is. if it were to be animated and put onto the big screen, it would be 2D with real nice shading, and bouncy animation. (Expressive as well)

Your art reminds me a little of Splatoon. I think it's because of the clothing and the eyes that reminds me of how Octoling eyes look.

lol my art gets called japanese disney (aka a mash up of anime and disney, more specifically the illustrative disney style), i have heard this since high school... it used to bug me a lot, but i have accepted it now, i grew up watching a lot of disney and anime so it makes sense. your art actually reminds me a little bit of the studio ghibli artstyle mixed with a semi-real anime style. clean and easier to animate.

Beautiful animation in the speedpaint! I admire you!

In my opinion, the Calart Style hate has gotten WAY out of control. Art is subjective, and everyone have their own preference on what style they prefer. With me, I personally don't mind the bean mouth style because I actually find them adorable, and it's one of my inspirations when it comes to my style. It's okay if you don't the Calart/Tumblr style. That's perfectly fine, but when you goes as far as to attack an art school over it, that's when you know you are crossing the line. Don't get me wrong, I can be a stickler when to comes to art style sometimes, but I would never goes as far as to attack a school just because it happened to had an art style that I don't like. That's not okay. Lastly, a CalArts meme gif just reeks recentcy bias and complete lack of understanding of what those shows are actually are. Any person with basic common sense know that Gumball, Steven, Clarence, Gravity Falls, and Star Vs. are completely different shows and some of the creators didn't even go to CalArts in the first place. Not to mention, it's very disrespectful to the creators and students who go or worked at Calarts. Anybody think this otherwise clearly had no idea how the industry works. With that said, the current bean mouth will come and go like any other cartoon style from many generations. We shouldn't be treating it as the worst thing in the history of the animation industry when there are FAR worse things happening in our society. In most cases, I wouldn't even care about the art style so much if the show themselves are actually good. Point being, it's fine to have preference of art style that you like, but please the leave the show's cast and crew out of this. They're human beings and we should treat them with respect (unless they did something legitimately wrong behind the scenes, but that's a different discussion for another day). P.S: Fionapolla's artstyle looks cute.

I love animation and art no matter what.

Barely related to the actual serious parts of the topic I. Just wanted to say that I think we should start comparing art styles to food more often. (In a silly way obviously) I've had my art style compared to things like marshmallows and s'mores and gummy candies and it's the best thing. It's funny, and cute. And it isn't irritating (to me at least) A lot better than people going "is that anime" in response to an art style that isn't even remotely anime. Comparing art style to foods you like is such a good compliment and I think we should use it more. It's so much better and sillier than saying "oh that looks like anime" or "that's a tumblr art style" like instead it's just "that's a haribo gummy bear art style" (actual compliment I saw given to art artist on Pinterest)

"God, I love this medium." Truer words were never spoken. Your observations on cyclical styles are dead on the money. I grew up in the seventies and eighties and you could tell a production house just by watching a few seconds of a show: Filmation (He-Man, She-Ra, Fat Albert) Hanna-Barbera (Yogi Bear, Scooby-Doo), Jay Ward (Rocky & Bullwinkle, Underdog), to name a few.

I think it would have been cool if you could have talked about KZfaq art styles! They're very varied and I bet it would be interesting to talk about.

Wow. Getting left rude comments on your work and reacting by becoming intensely curious about the cultural and psychological factors that led to those rude comments being left, then channeling that to create a full video essay on the subject is an energy I really respect

I personally think that there will always be a fase of having a similar style in the early days of animation rubber hose was a big thing. In the 80s people has this kind of comic book style. In the 90s a lot of cartoons wear trying to replicate the Disney style in movie. Heck until recently most 3D animation replicated the 3D pixar/Disney style. In the 200s flash puppets were a big thing. Also children's books tend to have well know style of soft colours and more soft shapes.

I was once told by my friend I had a my life as a teenage robot art style.

Mitchell's VS Machines also had a great artstyle for 3d.

Im learning digital paint/art and I recently download a friends pieces to study better. I found out where the style of this person comes, whats the inspiration, etc. I found out that i dont like the reasons, but the style of him, just amazing. With all the video, im on agreement with the modern style, the fact that some stuff just are popular and thus more copied than the things that are consider to be "not selleable". Trends is how you depicted. About your style, I think is somewhere on the anime side but with little teaks/twist.

Is that why everyone is so mad at all the round cartoons? Like, we've had a phase like this in cartoons before, it was just sharp and angular I'm pretty sure.

I personally lean towards media with simple art styles since it's easier for me to view the whole picture and appreciate it. If I was to say what my favourite "style" is, I guess I would say that of the golden age of animation, From the classics of Felix the Cat, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Mickey Mouse, etc, etc. To stuff Like Roger Rabbit, Spider-Ham, Sonic the Hedgehog and Cuphead which take from these characters and art styles. But I also have appreciation for other styles I don't really engage with enough like Anime and detailed Comic book art styles due to me respecting and appreciating the hard work/Passion any artist has to put into their work. Of course, everyone is open to criticism, But creating or using a particular art style is up to the artists and we should enjoy things that we like for their style rather than looking for things to hate since we don't like the art style of it . (Sorry if this came of a bit muddled, Animation is a special interest of mine and I can sometimes just toss all my thoughts out in a messy way)

Your art style is like candy and I want to eat it

I often referred to the 'call arts' as the Eco Bean style. Cause i find that is generally the main motivation behind it. It can be very cheap! But just like with cheap food, eventually people get a desire for something more interesting and over time you find this increased likelihood of something new appearing, setting off a new animation trend. Be it in the form of the growing indie animation scene like Helluva Boss, Lackadaisy and Murder Drones OR groundbreaking animation experiments like Spiderverse.

If you watch the Steven universe pilot you can see that the enital show that was produced does not use Rebecca sugars art style. Pretty sure cartoon network forced her to change it to fit the demographic.

My art style changes depending on what I'm drawing :') Though I feel like you can still tell it's the same artist as there are the elements that remain the same. (or generally the same) it works for me but sometimes I do wish I could develop it into one single style that works for everything. I don't know.

Your art style reminds me of Love2DrawManga and emirichu's style so very colored manga esc and simplistic ❤

I love your takes on the evolution of animation.The change in trends, and how they define certain eras of animation. Coming from a gaming background, the first time I saw 3D animation like Spider-verse was in Guilty Gear Xrd's release trailer. One animatoe for this game gave a presentation on how they accomplished that style. They used the techniques again to make Dragonball FighterZ, which has a bigger audience due to the anime associated with it. I believe it brought the styalized 3D which mimics 2D to prominence.

When people say "CalArts" style, they don't mean it literally that the people who draw in that simplistic way actually went there, just that it's obvious that their style (whether they went there or not) was inspired and/or influenced from overly simplistic trend that started it from people who did attend there like Alex Hirsch with Gravity Falls and Patrick McHale. That's all really. Because when you would see these hobby and freelance artists who don't work in the industry yet draw in that style and ask what influenced their style, they usually would name off cartoons like Gravity Falls, Steven Universe, and so on. And evne if the 80s cartoons looked similar, they were still far more interesting to look at in my opinion as someone who doesn't mind the pseudo-realism meets cartoon style a lot of the 80s cartoons had and the coloring styles were so dynamic looking as well. But also to add that when the 90s did have a variety of styles in that decade, it did carry over into the early 2000s as well. Xiaolin Shodown, Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, Codename Kids Next Door, Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends, Samurai Jack, and so on. When you put these 2000s cartoons side by side, they too don't really look similar at all unless you take certain studios like Marathon with Martin Mystery and Totally Spies or artist like Butch Hartman with Fairly Odd Parents and Danny Phantom but the point is, the variety still remained consistent overall. So as someone who grew up in the 90s and the early 2000s and reflects about how those old shows and movies inspired my own work in some way, after having a taste of the variation of art style back in it's prime, it just makes me bored of what became the TV industry standard that was the "CalArts" style. Thankfully though we have seen a boom of variation in series animation art styles on Netflix and the indie scene.

Yt is so boring now. Glad i found an interesting creator.

Finally someone knows that dead end paranormal park exists! :D

Two shows I loved were victims of this bias, partially due to changing styles from previous iterations. Pokemon Sun and Moon, and Ben 10 Omniverse. I loved both, but I remember when they were still unaired and just early ads, a lot of people took one look at the art style and imediately dismissed it as bad. Also, it really bothers me when people refer to the art style as "animation style", when they're two different things. Art style is how it looks, animation style is how it moves.

This is why I like the JoJo style. It's unique and actually recognizeable.

If I remember correctly, John K coined the "CalArts style" when referring to Disney and the way they drew hands, using series like The Iron Giant for example. Could be wrong though. I think the reason for the term was because series like Steven Universe and Adventure Time were huge at the time and is when the "Tumblr/SJW Style" started to pop up as you mentioned. So most associate the style with SJWs, hence the hate. While some didn't like it, it didn't get that bad until shows like Thundercats Roar (created by Victor Courtright who worked on OK KO for a while, iirc) was revealed. The backlash towards it got so bad that some artists, including professionals expressed concerns about their safety due to people taking the hate way too far on Twitter. It even became a meme where people drew OCs and certain franchises like Gargoyles in the style to mock it and reboots of cartoons. Pretty much if you drew in a style similar to shows like SU, AT, GF, OK KO, etc. you were a potential target for negativity on social media. Thankfully things have cooled down, but I have seen some people use the term for pretty much any cartoon that has a round and simple style, even if they lack the bean head and/or mouth. Personally, I just see the it as taking inspiration from series like Dragon Ball and Astro Boy (and the chibi style in general) where some characters had similar head shapes, though not as exaggerated. Even when it came to bean mouth, it's been around longer than us have been on this planet like in shows like Popeye and even some anime. I get where people coming from with how much the style is used, but it was for the most part a trend, like how we got anime inspired shows like Teen Titans, Totally Spies, and Code Lyoko in the early 2000s.

Camp Camp has an art style that's a mix of Gravity Falls and South Park.

I had a girl tell me that I need to learn animation bc my art style would look good animated; and I have never received a better compliment. I've always wanted to learn animation. I haven't yet bc I'm too much of a wuss. LOL

one thing I hate is when I say something is very Tumblr or uses the Cal Arts style, people might just presume I'm using it as a pejorative, when I actually love both, and just don't know what else to call it so people know what I am refering to. P.S your own channel is very Tumblr and uses Cal Arts styling; which is why I am subscribing now.

I personally also dislike how the CalArts name has been ruined the way it is because of people. The topic of art trends and the way things go publically on the net is a fascinating topic. As for my artstyle? I've had varying receptions from people on it but I'd say the most common one I got was people saying my artstyle looks very "organic", especially the lineart.

My art has too many inspirations for me to accredit it to one single thing, but I do have heavy inspiration in the types of colors I use in my drawings, that being Voltron Legendary Defender, I lean towards dark vibrant colors, and usual for character designs choice a dominant color that is darker and less saturated and then a brighter vibrant color that I use to accent it, which is how the color palette of Shiro is organized, likely this influence happened because I drew him so much and still do, hehe

I'm usually told that i use the Dragon Ball artstyle, and it's true, that's what i get for drawing Gokus for 15 years, and i'm not stopping.

I would say your style echos anime but looks to have influence from the early 07-2013 rounded artstyle the internet used back in the day. A nice blend of the two.

People are already complaining about the Spiderverse look, so yeah. Time is a flat circle

Funny how most people who complain about styles are often not artist themselves. Viewing art as just a comodity has lead to poor art literacy.

lets be real we have all gotten "Is that anime?" at least one 😅

Sorry for the long comment, but wanted to share a couple of thoughts. Thank you! 1- I'm probably throwing myself to the lions for saying this, but I am one of the people who's extremely mixed on how much value I put into a series visuals. On the one hand, I love Ranma 1/2 for being a funny series, even though the animation gets rough on places. On the other hand, the beautiful art and animation of Demon Slayer doesn't change the fact that I find every character so annoying that I can't keep watching. 2- This may be a bit off topic, but I find art style also effects my interest in different videogames. It's not a matter of how good or bad the graphics are, but more design of the game itself. The more fantastical or imaginary a game is, the more I'm inclined to play it. Give me Mass Effect over Call of Duty anytime.

My art was inspired by shows like Naruto and Pokemon, a ton of other anime too growing up. I got a lot of annoyed teachers. I ended up finding pop artist who were also inspired by anime and they became my new inspriation. After college My art style completly changed, since I had to focus on doing a LOT more realism and being pushed to replicate styles for "industry reasons". Now a days I've found a system that resonated with me. Though i still get a couple of comments saying it looks "innconsistant" and "Uncanny" when I share my work. Still scared to post my art to places half the time XP

The Dead End Paranormal and Anime comparison shows the base of the issue. When done with care and balance, most issues people don't like with art styles can be a reason to like it. Dead end is as if they used the Fill Bucket tool on an outline, and it feels plain and gaudy with the multiple standout colours. While with Anime the extra details break up that monotonous space and tend to keep one colour for person, amongst other things. So while they share an element of bright colours, it's utilized to make the characters stand apart visually unlike Dead Ends gaudy solid colour blobs even sharing some colours. Sharing colours can be a good as a visual way to connect characters, but it is not used that way here. And then less small details can still have bright colours without looking bad like Dead End. Your art style used for the Reaction PNGs shows this off well. Dead end has heavy solid black line and uses super simple shapes, so the people look blobby and ill defined. And the colours themselves are abrasively solid or bright. While you used a thinner line and used thicker lines for the eyes, while the body shape is simple but not a blob. You also used a less abrasive but colourful sea foam/mint green. And you limited yourself to ONE standout colour so unlike Dead End it doesn't clash. In the end, I believe the issue with lots of modern simple art styles for animation, is that some people who don't understand how to properly do a simplistic art style and add too much with nothing to balance it, like a chef over salting food. Part 2 is a difference of definition and what one considers Tumblr Art/Calarts and that's a hassle so I won't say anything

The more I see of modern animated art, the more I understand that the artists of the "Termite Terrace" (Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, Tex Avery, Bob Clampitt, etc...) were true geniuses. Their work is approaching 80 years of age and has a life and feel that is so rare to find today. In another 100 years, "What's Opera, Doc?" and "Rabbit of Seville" will still be watched, discussed and admired, while the current crop of bean-mouthed sludge will be consigned to the rubbish bin in 10 years, only to be replaced by even worse fare. Buy the classics on physical media while you still can, before all the old classics become "problematic".....

You’re a bit off about the 80’s cartoons. The main show that used the same mold for the different characters was He-Man and Transformers. Primarily because they were toys first before they became animated properties. Looking at other shows like TMNT, GIJoe, etc compared to their toylines would demonstrate the differences. The TMNT, for example, you’d expect to have the same body mold, but they actually don’t. It’s pretty interesting stuff

Love the animation of all of it. I’m an animating fan of it all. Anything with movement and more work in it than my awful animations. I love it. And maybe I’m one of the few that just likes animation for what it is. Movement and flow.. not design.. not characters.. not story.. just movement and flow and how it looks from one frame to the next. To me that’s magic and my mind is stimulated. And I can rewatch fantastic animation for the animation alone. Brave is one of my favorite Pixar films just for visuals and animation styles. I could care less about what the film is about I’m just amazed by how fantastic it looks visually. And I watch it all.. South Park to Bluey. A.I. to traditional hand drawn stick figures. Nothing is off limits.

I was thinking about this earlier but people talk and make fun of how Steven Universe's art is inconsistent in proportion and size. However, this is never really applied to any other shows (that I know of). For example, The Misadventures of Flapjack also has a style that can be inconsistent (I'm not referring to the style changes, just the normal 2D art) as Steven Universe's. And I AM NOT insulting the art of either of these shows. Those shows are fantastic visually. And I also know why these inconsistencies happen. It's because they're both done without puppet animation. Sorry for the ramble. I might be missing something but I wanted to bring up here due to the video topix

I find it weird that anyone would complain about Gumball for being "CalArts" style in the first place. Gumball in particular is famous for its distinctive look and mixture of animation styles and mediums.

I once had a monster I made compared to Dark Souls, I had yet to play at the time but I found it to be a stellar compliment. My intent was a holy abomination. I was aware enough that Souls has that dark/horror fantasy tone. And this was a design outside my comfort zone. I wasn’t intending Dark Souls, but it wasn’t a baseless comment.

Hey, Fionapollo, just want to say that I really enjoyed this video! (I've enjoyed a lot of your recent videos, actually, I just don't usually get the time to respond to them as in-depth as I want to-as you're about to see, I am incapable of responding in any way but essay format. 😅) If I tried to go over my reactions to the full video, we'd be here forever, so I'll just zero in on the point that most stood out for me-that being when you brought up people's nostagia for different eras, that hit me hard. At the risk of dating myself, I've lived through all the animation eras that get brought up and compared most loudly on the modern internet. - The 80s were... there? Very striking designs and styles for sure, but also very samey (made to fit toys _so hard_), and don't even ask about narrative depth, my goodness. Probably an upgrade from what came before, but as I rarely go back that far, I wouldn't be the best judge. There's also technological and process differences to consider for sure. - The 90s, gonna be real, _were my jam_ and I love them forever (especially on the anime side of things). Very diverse, very colorful, storytelling took a level up. - Meanwhile my dark period (with regards to my personal stylistic tastes and nothing else) was the 00s. I spent so much of that decade complaining about what cartoons and anime were starting to look like were going--with very little perspective, naturally. That said, I've also been going back and realizing I missed a lot of bangers (and I still will contend that the greatest non-Sailor Moon magical girl show of all time came out of 2006) but yeah, this still the era I look upon least fondly, but my younger millennial/elder Gen Z friends WORSHIP it because it was their childhood much like the 90s was mine. Takes all kinds, and such. Also, Avatar. - The 10s actually started to bring me back a bit. People were really starting to show a ton of inspirations from around the world, thanks in no small part to how much faster we could receive information over the decade prior. A lot of cultural style influences and innovations were taking place, more and faster, and storytelling in kids' animation kept following up from the 00s and started getting even deeper. The latter half of this decade especially just popped off on all cylinders. - And to my eyes, the 20s are like a galvanized version of the 10s. Like, it feels like we just live in this just this stylistic and narrative paradise. This is my favorite animation era, and we're only three years in. I mean, Moon Girl's here, this decade might've already won 😂 (Now if the megacorps could just _stop cancelling everything they don't like..._) It tends to confuse me when the internet discourse machine tries try to boil down the last 15 years into 3 overarching tropes ("Disney clean," "CalArts", etc) because I've just... seen so much, and odds are I was around to witness the origins of a lot of shows today firsthand. Please, can we just start giving more credit where it's due, is what I guess I'm trying to say here? This really is some cyclical stuff, and after being around for so many of these phases of complaints, I'm noticing that the uproar tends to mainly happen when an older property gets reimagined or rebooted in a current "popular" style. Then suddenly that style's "taken over" and _"oh why can't they go back to the golden age people dared to do things differently/were less woke/some other whiny nonsense"_ 😂 But... well, that goes in circles too. Really, just wait it out, y'all. You'll be fine. But enough rambling from me. Really enjoyed this one, it was eye-opening for me in several ways, as someone who's got 99 points in writer and 5 in artist. 😅It's a learning experience. You also seem to be loosening up the more of these videos you do, and I've been loving the upgraded visual format and redone chapter cards. (Also I am simple person, I see Sorbet and I squeal and stay for whole video 😄💖) So... yeah, take care, and I'll be here for the next one!

John K did NOT coin the term calarts style. Back when he used it, he was referencing young animators copying milt khal's style and cites films like the iron giant as an example. It is completely unrelated to the modern use of the term, which started on 4chan's /co board to describe shows like adventure time and gravity falls with an overly simplistic cartoon style with thin linework. I'm so tired of people not getting this right. No one uses the term cal arts style to refer to what john k originally meant it for, these two different definitions came about seperately.

13:04 i feel like its not JUST that. you gotta remember that there was also alot of discussion about how "fanservicey" animated shows were. and how "unrealistic" many were because half the cast wasnt overweight(literal argument someone made back in the day). so many people felt personaly attacked as they simply didnt agree with many of those arguments. so its not just "trolls and haters", i still remember some people complaining about certain anime and how "unrealistic" the body proportions were. and how they themselves thought anyone who defended that type of art was in the wrong. so the way i see it, there was alot of push and pull from both sides, and unfortunately for everyone, that's the type of enviroment that leads to trolls and "my way or the high way" mentality(again, from both sides).

Ah yes, the "Is that anime?" chestnut indeed. Someone even once asked me if I was drawing Pokemon. My art style, for further information, neither resembles anime nor Pokemon. ESPECIALLY not Pokemon. I am 90% Western influenced, largely by American action cartoons, Canadian animation and US graphic novels. I guess people see the way I draw the hair and the fact that I draw decently large, stylized eyes and immediately think about anime, even though anyone into anime would immediately recognize my style as Western. And I really don't care how prominent the "bean mouth" art style is. Some versions of it are largely unappealing to look at imo, but others, like Steven Universe, I actually think look very nice and appealing. For me personally though, I gravitate toward angular character designs with a bit more detail, so the soft, round, simplistic approach of this style isn't really my cup of tea. But more power to anyone who can make simplistic and appealing character designs, because that is an area in which I lack. :) -Cy

I wonder if you’ll be able to make a video about how non-artsy people are like “you should work at Disney” or the like? It’s very uncomfortable for me when people unironically say this to me because I’m aware that Disney is restrictive with what they want in their products that is suitable for audiences. A lot of the times, their shows and movies are family friendly, but I know I wouldn’t be able to work for exclusively. Yes we got Owl House and Steven Universe (Cartoon Network I know but I’m just talking about the inclusivity of LGBTQ+), yeah, but the people behind them had to fight or censor to be able to air particular episodes and still have a risk of getting your show shut down. I make character that have serious topics in them, especially mental health issues and LGBTQ+ related aspects, so Disney is definitely not for me.

In my opinion i feel like the 90s had the best animation art style same with 90s anime

This is unrelated, but I don't like how 2d animation has been sidelined to only series nowadays. The Steven Universe movie, Amphibia's *true Colors* and The Owl House's Clawthorne fights are a large example of how 2d animation work just as well for fights and emotional moments.

Your art style reminds me of a children's coloring book but like the very pretty ones

Art styles is a interesting way of kinda dating things, because we as people kind of have a herd mentality when it comes to these things. Someone starts a art style that either stands out enough to be noticed or simply because it’s different, people start copying/changing/rearranging over and over till it cycles around enough to where people lose interest and wanting something new, or a new style appears or becomes popular. As for your art style I guess: pseudo anime. Your character reminds me heavily of Amity Blight from “The Owl House” tho I have only recently found your channel, so I really can’t say much else.

Let's not kid ourselves here. The people who act like this are almost alwasy anime fans. I'm not talking about your average anime enjoyer. I'm talking weaboos. Otaku. Japanophiles. Whenever I see someone trash modern animation they will always compare it to anime and say that western cartoons need to be more like anime. I find it funny that their solution to wanting shows look more original is to just make them like every other bargain bin anime with the same copypaste style.

People who claim one art style to be superior in any way to any other art style haven't understood the most basic thing about art in the first place. You might not LIKE a certain art style, but the only thing that can objectively be said about art is how capable an artist is in emulating a certain style. Everything else is just preference. And the thing with preferences is that it's just like bungholes: Everyone has their own.

It is an interesting discussion about artstyle waves. PERSONALLY I wish there was a return to more 2D focused art, as I find that 3D simply can't match the pure detail and animation speed that 2D can bring. (at the least as it is now) Also, we need a new justice league animated show damn it. A proper one. Justice League Unlimited was 10/10.