Why does modern "serious" western animation tend to have such bland art styles? I'm not talking about stuff that's the equivalent of mediocre seasonal anime, even some of the most praised examples and "hidden gems" tend to play it safe purely visually speaking, pic related>Adult Sci-Fi show inspired by the likes of Serial Experiment Lain, Ergo Proxy and Texhnolyze>Has the blandest pseudo faux-anime/serious cartoon art style imaginable similar to Vox Machina or Invincible instead of looking anything like it's influences
you should have put the quotation marks around the word western. western animation hasn't existed since don bluth.
>>7956561It looks pretty similar to Western Saturday morning cartoons that were airing around the 90s (e.g. Batman The Animated Series). In that sense, it’s keeping with tradition.Western animation has just never been that great outside of a select few films tbqh.
no one tell op where the animation studios for western adult animation shows come from
>>7956578Obviously this is about art styles and not whether the hand that drew the art was literally white or yellow.
>>7956561I can tell from just the screenshot that show was written by, animated by and directed by women. So that's your answer. Next.
>>7956581This made me look up the show and it was in fact not touched by women in notable roles at all. However, most of the team aren't even anglo sax, they're all a mix of chinks and Koreans and Nepali
>>7956583The lead character designer was a Christie Tseng a woman, that's why all the characters have feminine character design and shape language and the entire story revolves around a girl and her mom.
>>7956561I'm guessing it's a problem similar to the calarts/beanmouth style. It's an easy to animate style, and a couple of popular shows probably had the style, so audience's MUST love it! It's not even a particularly appealing art style.>>7956577>It looks pretty similar to Western Saturday morning cartoons that were airing around the 90s (e.g. Batman The Animated Series).Oh please. No character looks as shit and half assed in any of Timm's work as both character's in OP's image. No doubt Timm's style influenced the current look, but that's not his fault, nor does that devalue his work.>Western animation has just never been that great outside of a select few films tbqh.At least wipe the japanese cum off your hands when typing this braindead tasteless shit.
>>7956561I like it. You're too young to remember Martin Mystery and Totally Spies but that used to be what we made fun of back in the day. I would have made fun of your OP pic when I was, like, maybe 21 but now I actually don't mind this style at all.
>>7956580its cheaper thats why. compare the rugrats pilot to the show for examplehttps://youtube.com/watch?v=6IPYrUdVces
Avatar and Kora did unspeakable damage to western faux anime.
>>7956592>Avatar and KoraNo doubt they influenced this style, but there's something about the current iteration that feels so sterile and unappealing by comparison to what Avatar was doing.
>>7956592avatar was animated better than pantheon. i dont think the style is the issue, just the effort/money spent. the show was cancelled and dumped on streaming with no advertisement afaik.
>>7956592it started before then like another anon mentioned Totally Spies and also Xmen Evolution. Totally Spies is French but I assume Xmen E was Korean animated which seems to be a big reason we got this shit faux-anime style.People used to trash the 90s cartoon style for being try-hard/edgy but it's way better than what we have now.
>>7956590>Martin Mystery and Totally SpiesUnironically more fun to look at character designs and coloring than Pantheon and other streaming services animated slop desu
>>7956608it's an acquired taste
>>7956561Drawn by woman>>7956608Drawn by manHow is it so easy to tell? It's as easy to see as when someone from the lgbt community draws. I don't think people realize just how much the content and culture they grow up around and consume affect their visual language. It's almost like an accent, the more ingrained within the culture or lack of exposure to other cultures, the thicker your accent.
>>7956561Based on what I've seen, these Western-led shows tend not to place much emphasis on designs with scalable levels of detail. This might partly be due to a reliance on reusing assets. Even "hand drawn" shows aren't really hand drawn in the classical sense. Everything is broken up into body parts, then swapped and combined as needed. When animation is done that way, you want everything to have the same LOD. Or you don't think about it at all.This ties in with cinematography. For example, you don't see extreme close up shots where the character's eyelashes are drawn in a more defined way.These designs lack visual sophistication, because these shows don't require it. Or maybe the shows are basic because the designers are incapable of anything more sophisticated. I'm not sure which one it is, but these things probably reinforce each other in a death spiral.
>>7956608>Drawn by woman>Drawn by manNeither looks like anime you stupid fuck.
>>7956561i dont know this show but it could be that it's rigged and not hand drawn, that effects the style too not just the animation. rigged stiff is always more stiff and soulless in style imo
>>7956608I think the person most responsible for the character style of Totally Spies, plus a bunch of other Marathon faux-anime, was this french-asian woman. I only know this because she died last year.
>>7956640there's no way the show is rigged animation that would be stupid
>>7956594Can’t draw
>>7956616This
>>7956643>le drawn by a man was infact drawn by a woman Holy kek these genetically defected semenoids are embarrassing
>>7956561>>7956608when does something look western and when does something look like "faux anime" if the art director still wants more realistic proportions in animation?
Americanized anime future doesn't look so bad.
>>7956608Even when western fauxnime tries to do fun colours they still fail.
>>7956677draws like a man looks like a man, i bet she's chill af too, next
>>7956586>At least wipe the japanese cum off your hands when typing this braindead tasteless shitHe's right thoOnly the French have done non-movie animation that looks better than random dogshit seasonal anime
>>7956605I liked the 90s, liquid television was cool. Unfortunately the majority of western animating knowledge and talent for 2D has been dropped in favor of 3D and puppet rigging
>>7956586I mean, if you think these character drawings look amazing, I think you've just got rose colored nostalgia glasses on. It's fine if you're just personally partial to the style, but I don't think you can argue that it looks objectively much better than what you see in Netflix original shows today.The backgrounds in BTAS in particular were really good though, I'll give it credit there.>At least wipe the japanese cum off your handsThere's a reason individual manga series sell more than the entire Western comics industry combined lel. It's because anime is simply superior in terms of both art and storytelling.>>7956594>>7956596Gonna be honest, even as a kid when Avatar was first airing I thought it looked cheap compared to anime. Guess I've just always been a weeb.
>>7956605>Xmen EvolutionX-Men Evolution was one the last major western cartoons to have actual japanese studios working on it with Mook and Madhouse working on it (which might also explain why the latter went on to make those marvel anime series around the late 200s)
>>7956788>It's fine if you're just personally partial to the style, but I don't think you can argue that it looks objectively much better than what you see in Netflix original shows today.I don't know how to respond to someone who just flatly has a wrong opinion. If I have rose tinted glasses, you have glasses with shit smeared on the lenses. Also, using a random pixelated in-between frame to prove your point feels disingenuous. You can make the most beautiful looking animation look like shit by just grabbing a bad still.>There's a reason individual manga series sell more than the entire Western comics industry combined lel. It's because anime is simply superior in terms of both art and storytelling.Sales don't mean much of anything. Are the most mainstream musical acts the best Musicians? Are blockbusters the best movies?Superman was, up until recently, selling more than the entire Manga industry probably everywhere but in japan, did that mean the whole of the manga industry was shit by comparison until manga started outselling it? Of course not, I don't even like Capeshit much outside of Timm's animated adaptations.You obviously have a bias, and think that your own taste is some indisputable fact. All the great and lauded western animated shows, and you think all of them are shit, and only anime is good?... C'mon...I get the feeling that you neither watching western animated shows, nor read western comics, if you think all of them are shit and there's nothing of value. Anime and manga is doing better financially and artistically that Western Animation and Comics, but that doesn't mean there isn't great stuff coming out of the west all the time for both of those mediums. Comics is more than just capeshit, etc. >But you think BTAS is factually goo-Yes. I don't give a fuck that it's contradictory to believe that one of the most critically acclaimed animated shows of all time, beloved just as much for its art as anything else, is a factually good show.
>>7956697Defined nose, defined lips(for the women), flat/no shadows. This is the western way Realism in animation.
>>7956831I'd add they're always thin lined, and usually quite angular/straight with their lines as well.Though I'll disagree with it being an attempt at realism. Realistic proportions? Sure. Actually realistic? No more than Anime is, and we wouldn't say anime is realistic, now would we?
>>7956561They try to hard to copy anime but can't help themselves to insert their ugly fetish into the style, thus, failing pathetically. You can preach feminist cancer around all you want, by the truth is that beauty sells, and anime is literally the amalgamation and exaggeration of what men find appealing. Yes, the youthfulness too, as much as cucks try to deny it.
stg weebs have a negative iq on this board
>>7956831There are also the less realistic styles associated with western animation like those from Bob Clampett, Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, and later guys like Tom Rueger and John K. And a whole slew of other stuff that I don't feel like mentioning.>>7956876It's an anime focused website, there are naturally going to be more weebs here. Western animation has also been in a decline since the 2000s, we've lost a lot of our talent in 2D animation.
>>7956561It's mostly just anime, except the faces are modeled on westerners/non-japs.Cinematography in western animation is absolute dogshit, though. Who the fuck frames a scene like this.
>>7956643Neat
>>7956915The only difference between this and anime is anime spams pitcher shots and the highly detailed backgrounds.
>>7956915Hm, I think I prefer the threadpic, the faces here look sort of off. I agree with you on the poses, it's bland. Lighting and colors are also bland. There are a decent amount of modern western artists with striking styles, so the only reason why adult animation here would look like that is to cut costs (the most likely answer).
>>7956821>Superman was, up until recently, selling more than the entire Manga industry probably everywhere but in japan,ENTER
>>7956821In terms of pure animation quality, detail, smoothness, etc, I've simply never seen a non-movie western animation that matches to random shitty romcoms I've seen, nevermind actual high-quality anime. You can argue that old cartoons had great writing and storytelling, but they definitely never ever looked as good as anime regularly does.
>>7956561the life has been sucked out of everythinghttps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Pov0MKuyJfg&ra=m
>>7956586>>7956821/co/pe & seethe
I always wondered why the western industry doesn't do more comic adaptations like the Japanese industry does. Yeah we have invincible but it's pretty disappointing, especially the last few seasons. But I've heard we're getting a Transformers Skybound cartoon. I really like DWJ, I hope they adapt in his style.
Dumbest thread on the board rnThis is neither artwork nor critique>>>/co/>>7956566Log off Don, You didn't matter that much.
>>7957035He's not wrong. Western animation has died long ago
>>7957066He's not an artist either, nor are you. So take it back to /co/ntaiment
