I'm seeing a lot of great discussion in the comments, but I'm also seeing some stuff that makes me think I didn't articulate a couple really important things as well as I thought I did, so it's time for a pinned comment! I definitely want to keep seeing you guys talk, it's interesting to see all the different points of view, but I want to make sure I'm coming across okay enough, lol! 1. For the tropes regarding anatomy and biology and all that, I am a massive nerd when it comes to evolutionary biology and physiology. That perspective informs my reason for not liking certain character or creature designs. However, I fully acknowledge that there are a bajillion reasons for somebody to make a character design a specific way without invoking my specific nerd interest. Budget limitations, time period of production, availability of certain practical or special effects, story reasons, and even just you thinking it look cool all are totally fine, regardless of my personal like or dislike. Omniman in particular isn't in the video because he is bad, he's in there because he's an example of an alien that looks exactly like a human. However, it's important to his story. [SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER] would hit way different, for the worse, if he was an eldritch beast. And, at the end of the day, my biggest gripe is simply that we don't get more non-humanoids and NOT that we get humanoids at all! TBH I started writing the alien rant after watching NOPE specifically, if you've seen that and want to see why my head is where it is, haha. 2. The non-sound sound effects is DEFINITELY a cultural thing when it comes to manga and k-comics, lol. From what I've been seeing from people who seem to know their stuff (genuinely thank you guys for informing me!!!) Korean and Japanese are both languages with words that do not cross over the best but would actually indicate a specific sound or at the very least indicate a specific vibe that does change the panel. In English, those types of words don't exist, so there just is no good way to translate it. On that, though, I want to specify my problem isn't with it happening at all, my problem is with its seemingly careless application. I have seen plenty of cases where this sort of thing was used to great effect for comedy, mood-setting, or to otherwise elevate the panel, but I often see it in a way that feels like it's taking away from my experience rather than adding to it. In the examples I showed, most if not all panels had words in them, and as an avid enjoyer of comics AND a creator of comics, I find that too many words like that can make me feel like I'm running a marathon. Having a simple panel without a bunch of words is kind of like giving a rest stop in my mind. Also, I just personally like to be left to enjoy the art on its own sometimes, so all the extra text can be a little distracting for me personally. It's just not my thing personally, but I know people who love it, so once again, you do you. 3. Argonians were a bad example for my gripes! They've got the Hist sap thing going on, which is actually pretty sick, and I need to brush up on my Skyrim lore. Wujeeta has lore-relevant boobies. You go girl (to rehab). 4. Sexy characters designs are NOT bad on their own. I love sexy characters, if that wasn't clear, haha. Context makes the difference between a sexy character and a character that feels like thinly veiled f*tish content. One of my favorite femme characters in all video gaming is Bayonetta. She is INCREDIBLY horny, but it is integral to her character in a way that feels genuine and purposeful. A character running through a battle field with their stomach exposed, whether it's to show off a perfect hourglassy lady or an 8-pack on a guy, is more of the disruptive thing. Regardless, I have no issue with people making sexy designs for the purpose of being sexy. It's fine. I do it too. My gripe, like everything else, is that its all over the place. 5. I am aware that there are a lot of things that make the human body excellent. We can throw things really well, we have highly efficient sweat glands, we have excellent endurance, and our hands allow for dexterity you just don't see with other animals that much, and never really to the same extent. Humans are not the worst thing to ever evolve on our planet. This is not lost on me, I promise. My comment about bipedal travel not being the most efficient method of travel was also just not phrased the best, which is my bad. With my zoology background, I was thinking of swimming, which is ACTUALLY the most metabolically efficient method of locomotion, as well as flying, which can be faster and more efficient than running over long distances if gliding is utilized over flapping. However, for short-distance land travel, if you're just walking, the bipedal model does win out as far as metabolic efficiency goes. As such, it would stand to reason that plenty of alien species, if we are assuming similar biology and similar evolutionary pressures, would end up being bipedal. On top of that, being upright with arms is generally useful for complex tool usage, meaning advanced alien societies would, most likely, theoretically, have arms too. My point was more that the HUMAN upright-walking bipedal model is not the end all be all if, once again, you can do whatever you want. Our spines, legs, and feet are not the ideal shape or size for walking upright, which was why I added that note of "especially with our skeletal structure" thing. Its why so many people suffer from lower back pain and why the joints in our legs get worn down so easily. That entire point was really about that, and not humans in general, considering that underlying skeletal structure is what results in people being the shape that we are. Hence my gripe. Humans have a lot of great adaptations, the skeleton is not necessarily one of them. This is all setting aside how annoying it is for me to see all these alien empries that I am supposed to believe out-bruted giant monsters on their planets or live entirely underwater and still just so happen to look exactly like humans, meaning that the conditions under which these aliens would have evolved would NOT make the human body the best blueprint for them. 6. You are allowed to do all the things in this video. My thoughts on these tropes doesn't mean that you can't enjoy them or do them, as I said at the start. Your reasoning does not have to be anything deeper than "I want to" when you do something in your art. I do things that I said in the video sometimes, and I do plenty of things just because I think they look cool. Yes ideally, you put a bit more thought into character designs, especially if you are publishing them professionally. Still, you do not need to check with me to know if your choice is okay because if it is right for you, that works. I don't like peanut butter flavored things, but I don't think that all peanut butter flavored things should be wiped off the face of the planet. They bring value to other people and have a right to exist. I just simply will not partake, and I shall say as much if asked. Do not put down your peanut butter flavored things because I said I don't like them. 7. I did not mention my having a degree in science or my having studied these concepts to try and say that I am smarter than you, have a greater position of authority on these topics than you, or even that you could not understand these same ideas if you did not also go to college and get my same education. In hindsight, I can see how that came across, and I apoligize that I worded that so poorly. The point of me saying those things was more to express that science is really important to me and therefore forms the basis for my views on these things. If I see more I shall edit this, I just saw these things the most and wanted to acknowledge them. Thanks for all your engagement, I'm glad to have sparked so much conversation!! Also thank you all for your recommendations of aliens to look at. I am so inspired, lol. 🥹
I saw in the alien trope that you added the xenomorph which is a confusing case according to me because in the first movie it explained that they are all crabs to begin with then embryos that morph into a shape thats alike to its host thats why the first xenomorph we see is human shaped. But then in other films they show human like mother aliens. And that makes you question.. has other humans meet these aliens? But then i remember they fucked up all the other aliens in its franchise like the predetors so thats probably why. So xenomorphs has lore implications. Even bigger coincidence tho.. they all start as crabs... Proofs that crabs are peak.
Miss Trope lady your voice is so recognizable! It's nice. Good for you to see that you have another channel. I like your gripes! They make a lot of sense and while this vid was incredibly far removed from what I expected (misleading thumbnail) I enjoyed it a lot! And your (almost?) uncut video is priceless-seriously, too much fake sizzle going around. Cheers, keep it up.
I was like 8 minutes in until I realized your shirt says "b o o b s" in Morse Code lol. I didn't think I'd be testing my knowledge on Morse in a video about art pet peeves😂
I love the mention of adding brests to things that wouldn't have breasts because I remember making an anthro character in the past that I did exactly that with, but when I learned that it would make no sense, I just played into it. She became a character that intentionally kept their chest fluffy to give the illusion of breasts because humans' reactions were funny, and their disappointment was funnier.
I once saw a funny comic about some sort of dnd story where a human guy was asking the female lizard person why she has boobs if she's not a mammal and she revealed she stores snacks in her shirt. And no he can't have some.
@@Ebus-ob2mq I've seen a similar comic where some reptile-looking characters used bras as heat-pad holders, to help them regulate their body temperature :)
I DESPISE the same body trope where every character is muscular. No, youre not telling me the 16yo depressed homebody is as jacked as a bodybuilder. And no, you're not telling me the malnourished teenager looks like he goes to the gym semi-weekly.
I think there's definitely a cousin to "bustification". Let's call it "be-swole-ment". It's when they take a masculine character with a perfect body, such as BoTW Link, and just make them jacked for no reason. Much like the bustification, it can get even worse in NSFW art, where it seems like every masculine body has to be anything but normal. On that note, *love* the way you draw masculine bodies! ;D
I took that route with my demon comic for a while as a result of my discovery and exploration of my sexuality, then a new special interest oc took over for a while and I put Sindemon Series on the backburner. Last year I started revamping Sindemon Series and redesigning my Sindemons and giving them orientations that actually make sense for them (Asmodeus is the only one of the Dominion of Passion who is allosexual and all three of them are aromantic) and audhd themes for my demons as a whole as the charming vibe and advocacy! Mammon is short skinny king with pointy shape language, Beelzebub is fat with round shape language (he was fat before but I've debarafied him) of medium height of the three, and Asmodeus is the tall buff one with a mix of pointy and round shape language, and their bodies are all very distinct of silhouette now! This goes for their humanoid forms, and I've redone their demon forms too (though Asmodeus's was largely fine due to his themes). I've also since found that I love drawing my pointy souls the most, so Mammon gets a lotta love in my sketchbook 💚
This pretty much always happens to Nyen from Ranfren, at least in the Western and East Slavic side of the fandom. In canon, he is rather fit but still average looking, but the fan art often makes him jacked and gives him bushy eyebrows as well (he doesn't have visible eyebrows in canon). The East Asian fan art has the inverse problem of making him basically a same-body syndrome skinny twink xD
Lowkey hard agree on the double standards with female character in a race Also often Doesnt take into account that boobs have a biological purpose for us so why does the egg laying bug have boobs?
MERMAIDS EHY DO MEMRMAID NEED BOOB Honestly I don't care much when I see mermaids with breasts they don't need but it does irk me when a mermaid has scales or flesh like from their tail on their torsos mimicking a bra or crop top because at that point you just have random bra-shaped fish scales that are shaped like clothes but at skin
@janesdead6802 that's exactly what I was thinking about bro thank you 😭 Fish don't breast feed why do they have big downers they don't need nipples either
Remember that this video is this creators personal preferences. Do not get discouraged if you still do any of these art "tropes", for no one is ever original and youre allowed to have fun.
There can be "big and flat". A wide surface area, but not "deep/hight". Like a large pancake. A large pancake can still fit her original silhouette. She is a Mammal/goat, so breasts are still in the realm of logical.
the boobification of characters is always hilarious to me. Gardevoir from pokemon is HUGE in this as well and so many artists conveniently forget she literally has a spike in the middle of her chest too xD
Heck, the Gardevoir isn't even implied to be feminine, which is implied by its male to female ratio being 1 to 1 instead of 1 to 3. In Pokémon, the sex ratio has a pattern. Only male or female, explicitly that sex. If it has a 7:1 male to female sex ratio, then that is a starter Pokémon or something else. If it has a 3:1 male to female ratio, then it is a masculine based Pokémon (e.g. Machop, and Growlithe). If it is 1:1, then you got a standard Pokémon, not really intended to be a masculine or feminine design. If it is 1:3 then you have a feminine based Pokémon (e.g. Jigglypuff, or Skitty). And 1:7 it's Litleo or Pyroar. Gardevoir and Kirlia are based off ballet dancers and European nobility, and ballet is a gender neutral art even though it is currently associated with femininity, even though male roles are required for most ballets, unless you want women to play male roles.
It's even funnier in those Pokémon Fusion Generators where so many fusions of Gardevoir with non-humanoid Pokémon will just have a massive rack for no reason. Like, Nidoqueen and Jynx are right there.
Which is strange to me since she's basically an animal fairy monster thing? Maybe its hust me but becuase I see my pokemon as my lil baby animals, I see ALL pokemon act that way. Like weird animals with powers and less like human intelligent creatures. So why do artists not only do that type of art, but they dont even explain why they are basically pokemon with rights and a job doing nsfw stuff with the pov human? Other than because the artist was horny. Idunno, I am just tired of people seeing these lil funni crechures as anime waifus.
In both the Japanese and Korean languages, an **ACTUAL** sound does get associated with non-sounds. A.k.a. *they are not just the word 'stare' literally written into the comic,* it is something like 'jii-' for Japanese and a couple different variations I know of in Korean based on the nuance of how the character is staring, without directly stating so. 찌릿 for example would denote a harsh glare similar to an electric shock in vibe, as it gets used for sharp pains as well. This is just a LANGUAGE difference as you said and there's nothing much translators can do besides putting nonsensical onomatopoeia that English speakers will not understand. This is not laziness or just cultural preference, it's straight up a lack of direct translations that makes the sfx fall short. I say this as a native Korean who studied a little bit of Japanese and used to translate manhwa as a hobby.
To be fair, Superman looking human had a narrative purpose. He's supposed to be an inspiring symbol for humanity. Also, hiding him in plain sight depended on his human appearance.
Honestly it's not impossible to think an alien species could have a close resemblance to humans, we Humans managed to break the cycle of nature for some very specific reasons, apposable thumbs being one. The ability to craft tools lead to us making things to better our ability to withstand the planets harshness and in a universe as massive as our own I'd say it's almost guaranteed there'd be a similar species like us
@@Finn_the_Catyes but now take into consideration that the planet the aliens evolved on has three times the gravity and twice the air density and you get something that doesn’t look so similar to us
@@Finn_the_CatIt's even stated that humans were actually on course to evolving into a super powered race more similar to kryptonians. The only reason why so few humans have powers is because the human genome was modified by an alien race to make them more rare.
Even more interesting was the Red Son adaption of Superman. The ending revealed that Superman himself wasn't from another planet but from Earth that was millions if not billions of years into the future. Superman himself wasn't some alien from another planet but a human from the tail end of Earth's lifespan.
One of my favorite subversions of the "aliens that look exactly like humans" trope is the Xiliens from Godzilla: Final Wars. When they first show up, they appear just like people, but once the main cast starts to discover their hostile intentions, one is killed, and it is revealed that it was a facade, and the actual creature underneath is a disgusting biomechanical-looking entity with no eyes and an unnaturally large mouth.
Someone make canonically dimorphic spider/praying mantis people. The females are taller/bigger and more muscular whereas males are smaller and weaker. And constantly worried their spouse will bite their head off.
there's also already a book about a planet of sapient spiders that were accidentally uplifted. they got to a point where there's males' rights movement for the male spiders to gain more social standing and be prevented from being killed off by their wives
THE ALIEN ONE IS SO TRUE. When I was little I would always be so confused as to why fictional alien characters would look so similar to humans LIKE IT DEADASS CONFUSED ME SO BAD…
And then they can have kids with humans and this makes my mind explode because there is no way that can happen yet here it is (star trek looking at you)
@@Coolprayingmantis I KNOW. It can be interesting for story purposes sometimes, but like. We can't even crossbreed most animal species on EARTH together, but you can have a baby with a critter from a completely different planet??? Sure, bud.
I actually wrote in a reason for that in my multiverse. Technically, every world i create is "alien" to the earth, but most characters i create are humans/humanoid cause of what i like to draw Sooo since this is a universe whose story revolves around its gods, my explanation is "basically the god from earth was the first to create a planet that evolved a stable ecosystem and sentient species, so everyone just copied their homework" It also makes sense thematically cause, you know,,,, i'm from earth and everything i create in my world is based around what we have here
I recently drew a concept for alien 'birds' that can survive on Jupiter. I have yet to write out everything that makes them work but I got a basic view of them. Nothing humanoid in them whatsoever.
Momo has some chub in the manga, which is both appealing and makes sense since her quirk relies on her body fat. Uraraka also has chub, actually. Horikishi draws his women with different prominent muscle groups usually (eg, Mirko is angular with bulky thighs, Midnight is very curvy and Mount Lady is more slim and tall)
not just that, but they pretty much zucked out most of the melanin from Miriko. Looking at how she's drawn in official art vs how she's animated in show physical burns me.
@@realdragon Same lol. It’s a little worrying sometimes. Like buddy, just because the dragon has the personality of your ideal sparkly edgelord bf does not mean you can talk about him like that. This is still just a very big lizard.
20:40 this is why I love subnautica. No humanoid creatures (aside from the player, who is human) and the architects, who are the most humanoid, are basically centaurs, and nothing about them screams human to me. Good job subnautica
That's because they did the smart thing and got a spec evo hobbyist/artist to design all their critters. The Architects' final weird centaur form is actually the MOST pedestrian design out of all the concept art. Alex Ries is awesome.
the one about aliens being just humans but with fancy face make-up ALWAYS gets me, because as a fellow artist and science lover, i ALWAYS appreciate when people pour as much creativity into their alien creature designs as possible. i find it SO unrealistic that all of the alien races look so similar to humans, so i always appreciate when work is done to make the aliens feel different. (and it is ALWAYS cooler.) like the halo franchise for example. the Sangheli or "elites" as they are called, have drastically different skull and limb shapes, and their bodies are easily recognisable as not human. their mouths have 4 separate mandibles instead of single jaws, and just MMMM their so cool
Strongly agreed with the Sangheili, they're awesome. Have you ever heard of the Zeno Clash series? (1, 2 and Clash: Artifacts of Chaos). It's not a sci-fi series but does have a whole H E A P of unique designs, to the point that in-universe there barely seems to be a concept of species and subspecies between intelligent creatures. There's so many unique designs for the creatures. Not just for biological appearance but their semblance of clothing, too. Oddworld is also great to look into.
13:35 another thing I don't like is when people don't do research on their animal characters, like I seen female pheasants with male colours, male bulls with udders, cats who "wag their tail" cos they're "happy" when cats are only suppose to swish their tail when frustrated, foxes who literally bark just like dogs when they aren't suppose to bark like dogs, rabbits with paw pads, "fennec foxes" with the shortest ears possible (more common with ocs) who look more like a pale fox than a fennec, african wild dogs with dew claws and small wolf ears or teensy round ears when they're suppose to have big mouse-like ears, tigers with domestic kitty ears, rabbits who sound like guinea pigs, the list goes on. common mistakes I've seen alot, I do wish people do research on their animals before having them as characters. the same goes with countries, important to do research beforehand, because uk/britain is *not* england. another thing I hate is kemonomimis with 4 ears, like I don't get why they still need a set of human ears along with animal ears, when their animal ears could do all the hearing and expressing instead. kemonomimis just look better when their human ears are actually replaced with animal ears, instead of having 4 ears. unless a human is playing dressup and is wearing a set of bunny ears for cosplay or something, then kemonomimis shouldn't need to have human ears aswell.
Yeah personally that one with animals and country personifications really irks me, especially in this day and age. Is it really that hard to google that particular animal/nation to get a basic rundown of what they're actually like, before making a design?
THE BULL THING! I HATE THAT! I think they did that in barn yard or whatever it wall called. And various other things of course but that’s the only example I can name rn. Always made me so mad.
i got to the alien part, suddenly became aware of the homestuck troll fanart i'm currently drawing... and then remembered there's an actual reason why they look like humans and went back to drawing
I was also in the middle of drawing my own human like aliens then remembered that there are reasons why I made them human like. (Some meta, some tonal, and some lore related)
@@undyingUmbrage413 there is a reason though Cherubs need hands and fingers to fill out the roll paradox space has in store for them, they also need legs and feet for any time there not flying, farword facing because they of course are upright standing bipeds And while there’s no inharent reason for them not to have multiple eyes, you’ll find most creatures here on earth don’t usually have more then 2 due to our commonly decended traits As stated multiple times in homestuck, the orgin of every race is paradoxical in some sense, and for an ancient race of angelic aliens that are hinted to descend from magical “Trickster” Bs, constantly migrating from universe to universe, likly so that the race persists presumably across all known universes, it’s more likely that all of Sburbs chosen races are intended to evolve a more “humanoid” form, because it is the most suitable to play and win the game, and thus fulfill skaias ultimate purpose in becoming the genesis frog This would explain not only why even the consorts, caripacians and Leprechauns are all Humanoid, but also why even the denzens are always humanoid, even if there part snake (even Cetus still has a vaguely “human” looking face shape) And as a bonus, the genesis frog could also be considered “humanoid” Or, I’ll do you one better and say that maybe every sucessful race chosen for the game is meant to evolve into a more adapt vaguly “FROG” shaped form, with 2 arms, 2 legs, 2 eyes, one head, and a single body Weather they stand upright likly Doesn’t matter as long as long as it Doesn’t hinder there ability to USE there upper limbs, independently from there general means of walking running or standing Alternate forms or bodies also likly make the cut, as long as they still meet the criteria Like bird people with wings for hands, as long as those wings (or some other part of there anatomy” can mimic hands, they should still get the pass Though it’s possible the game shows more favor to those that stuck closer to the blue prints. As a bonus, assuming cherubs are reptilian, it’s possible there race has its evolutionary origins stemming from a similar place to the genesis frog
TLDR, make whatever you want, regardless of someone else’s pet peeves, internet animation use to be nothing but “epic stick figure fights” which laid down the foundation for what we have now Just make your art projects with genuine passion, and you’ll find more enjoyment and fulfillment in that alone compared to the Approval of others
17:23 once, in elementary school, they asked us for homework how we thought an alien would look like. me and my dad sat down ad started with suff like "oh, they're on space, probably different atmophere, so different bone structure and maybe- ecc ecc". We ended up with a slime with un antenna and a few eyes, the essencials that we thought (fun time) (english is not my first language, sorry for miss spelling)
I really want a humanoid species that reveses the “monster male, human-like female” trope where the males look more like male human models and the females like more like eldritch monsters. Edit: 18:08 About the Xenomorph, if I remember correctly, the reason why they look so human-like is because they have human DNA. Xenomorphs have a weird reproduction cycle where they inherit the DNA of their host’s body. So if the host is a human, they will look more human-like. Could be wrong though, it’s been a while since I watch the Alien movies
Yeah I'm pretty sure that's true, literally the only reason I know this is true though is the alien in the mortal kombat x dlc having styles based on what species their host was so maybe I'm not the best source to confirm this lol.
As much as I get the inappropriate use of onomatopoeia, the **MENACING** thing from jojos is just soooooo cool and really sets the scene when a battle is about to start. When used in specific ways it really does help build up hype and mood versus a simple staring face with a determined expression
Plus that’s translated from a sound effect which is essentially just “the sound of something intimidating which doesn’t actually have a sound but we’re pretending it does”
@ oh yeah, especially in the anime with the bass boosted synth-like boom and all the crazy stuff they did with the later parts with the stands (Star platinum time stop, act 3 freeze, Killer Queen bombs, king crimson time skip) It can definitely be used in such a way that it enhances the story on the page if you can’t translate it otherwise, plus it’s become iconic for both the series and Japanese manga as a whole to push the readers imagination and their art as far as they can go.
@@Bepiswawa Yeah. Especially in later parts, the low rumble sounds associated with **MENACING** could easily be confused for some Stand power charging up. Side note, Star Platinum: The World's time stop sounds cooler than The World's
Whenever I do sexual dimorphism, it's always super minor. An extra pair of horns, shorter fins, different colors, etc. It's almost never monster male, human female.
Now THAT'S the version of that trope I prefer, realistic dimorphism, like how Pokémon does with some of their monsters (Unfezant, Hippowdon, Pyroar, Meowstic, etc.)
How i like it if you are gonna mkae 1 hot make the other hot too gonna make 1 a monster make both monsters gonna make 1 a ho monster make both a hot monster
Yeah the sexual dimorphism is STRONG. I vividly remember seeing the character design for a wolf shifter and the male was the hairiest bastard. He was fierce, hulking, and and looked like he can and will snap me in half over his knee. And the woman wolf shifter was just… a human woman with fur lingerie. She had glowing eyes, a full face of makeup(why?) and her nails were slightly longer to look like claws. Wow.
I've seen cuter and prettier feminine wolves from Animal Crossing. Skye, Freya, Audie, Whitney, and Vivian are just as popular as some of the male wolves (Fang, Wolfgang, Dobie).
And even in fantasy armor design you can see the difference between how people draw male armor, and female armor. Got a shawty wearing METAL PANTIES and a METAL BRA and fucking METAL HEELS TO BATTLE.
The sexual-dimorphism bother/ me too. A common example I find annoying is dwarfs. Because they are always described as a strong and durable race and basically walking bricks but most people draw dwarven women with relatively narrow shoulders and to make up for that really wide hips and I kind of didn’t like that because to me the naturally high strength of dwarfs always implied a lot of muscle mass which correlates with high testosterone: long story short in the book I am writing dwarvish women have beards ( though they style them differently to the men and non-binary dwarfs) and are also built like absolute units
OML 100% THIS in one of the first DND campaign i ever played my character was a dwarven woman and the dm would describe her as having a beard/stubble and being openly proud about it it always annoyed me when the other players tried """girlyfying""" her ((wanting to shave her beard per exemple))
Yeah you'd think that the whole 'both have beards' thing would stick around after tolkien, the father of this type of fantasy, made it. Though its also stated that other races get confused on which one is male, and female due to it, with it being a thing only dwarves are able to differentiate. It is partly the same with elves, as they are incapable of growing beards, have youthful faces due to imortality, and have long hair for their bowstrings, so the males end up looking like girls a lot. Though due to their higher stature, its easier to tell which is which.
Yeah!! And stories like dungeon meshi prove that even in a “stricter” anime art style that can be achieved!! I ADORE dungeon meshi designs they are so diverse and ACTUALLY THOUGHT OUT!!
THE ALIEN ONE HAS ALWAYS BEEN MY BIGGEST PET PEEVE I love aliens so much I love them to bits, but part of what makes them so fun is imagining how DIFFERENT they are. I can not STAAANDDD aliens that look just like people and my one exception to that formula is Irkens because I love Invader Zim and they're bug-like enough for me to love them. Besides, I can infuse my headcanons onto them anyway.
And also check out 'Serina, the world of birds' Technically the species in Serina aren't 'aliens' (it's a speculative evolution) but it really shows you how different an intelligent and sapient species can be from a human.
When I draw Aliens I make them different shapes. Sizes. Colors. Some lack legs or arms. You want a memorable aliens? Scrap human features. Just…..let your brain spew random ideas. It works for me. Thanks bubbs!
@@bluesteno64 I’ll have to check them out. Thnx for the suggestion! I also like checking Ben10 aliens. Their proportions are so wacky and alien. Which is what I LOVE in a alien design
One of the reasons I love Wander Over Yonder so much is how creative the alien designs are by completely throwing realism out the window. You might think the only solution to the "They're just like us, but blue" trope would be to meticulously worldbuild realistic aliens, but woy is over here with: - a guy with a shark head and tanned oily man body - a sentient sandwich - servants with crystal ball heads and powdered wigs who carry around the sentient sandwich on a little platter - a tin can telephone where each end is its own person like catdog (appeared for half a second as part of a joke but still stuck with me) - a flying black perfectly cut cube of pure darkness and misery - a banana with a giant mustache it uses like hands It's *extremely* entertaining
I believe Craig McCracken worked on it (and that's why it gives Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends vibes since he made that show). I never saw WOY but your description makes it seem like either show's characters would blend in perfectly with the other and that's what makes it funnier about Craig's involvement
OMG THE CUBE!!! He was my favorite character He was just so sad and just wanted to live a normal life after he gave up his life of villainy, but kept getting fucked over
17:20 Holy shit! This is Star wars to the max! Holy shit! Like a galaxy of some of the coolest looking alien designs put on film and we get humans from here to beyond. Like fucking 3 characters that actually look like aliens are Ahsoka, grievous, and Yoda. Not counting Darth maul because he's just a human with horns. But thank you this drives me up the wall!
I'm actually rather fond of non-sound onomatopeia when used in moderation. It can be used for emphasis or to preserve pacing when a lot of less significant movements happen in quick succession. Example: Panel 1: _character B is looking at his phone_ Panel 2: _character A asks something about what character B is looking at_ Panel 3: _character B absentmindedly responds, without lifting his gaze to look at character A_ Panel 4: _character A gets a mischevious look on his face_ Panel 5: _almost a fullbody shot - character A has pushed himself into character B's personal space, leaning over to look at his phone. one of his hands is interacting with character B with a little "poke" or "shove" spelled next to it, the other is pulling character B's phone away from him to read it_ Here it's important that the "cut" is immediate and surprising. The small movement of character A's other hand adds to the scene enough to be worth emphasizing, but giving it its own panel would mess up the pacing. Sure, it can mess with the tone of more serious scenes, but for more humorous moments it can work. And yeah, it's dumb when the effect is already obvious from the panel itself (like "blush") but I don't think a long stare is obvious unless you dedicate multiple panels to it or at the very least add a "..." above the character's head. Sure, straight up writing "stare" is a little awkward in English, but I like what the Finnish translation of Kijitora Neko no Koume-san did by both shortening and stretching the word tuijottaa/tuijotus into _"tuiiiijjjjjjj"._ It adds both a sense of time and murerous intensity that would be hard to convey without the text
This is a great point/perspective. Personally, I've even used "STARE" in my own stuff. I should've been more specific in saying I don't like it when it's not actually being used to elevate a moment. Like if "stare" is being used for comedy or to indicate intensity or silence or something, that's great! Thanks for this comment :)
@@bubbs6969 Thanks :) And yeah, the way the comic in your example images was definitely redundant and pretty distracting. I'd be annoyed reading that too
@@bubbs6969 I was about to point out how this can be used for comedic effect! One of my favorite uses of this is a blink and you'll miss it moment from Into the Spider-Verse when Miles throws a bagel at a guy and the word "bagel" appears above his head when it hits him.
I’ve started to appreciate non-sound onomatopoeia a lot since it can be pretty comedic but also at times I think it can be useful in other ways if done right
I agree with all of these, especially the anthropomorphic one about having boobs is so true! As you mentioned birds are the only ones that make actual sense and even then it's not really boobs, its just that they literally have a larger chest to hold in more air during flight- like literally, I'm in vet school and I had to do so much damn research on birds lungs/rib cage structure- birds have some of the most effective lungs in all of nature, and like there are sooo many other ways to distinguish the difference between male and female species, like colours, markings, vocals!
One of my pet peeves in the anthro community is giving anthro non-mammal animals breasts. Like…those are mammary glands? Meaning they’re only found in mammals?
i mean, if we talking about evolution, human breasts were not evolved to look how they are for a functional purpose at all? just look at how less developed other mammal's breasts are, the main reason human breasts are so full is for attraction, because we evolved to do the deed looking at each other, otherwise women with smaller breasts wouldn't be able to produce milk, which isn't the case at all.
I agree with these! In the body diversity/same body syndrome, I had this problem for awhile too, I have been expanding my range drawing bigger characters, muscular characters and what not and it's been great! I love being able to represent more and more body types
It’s probably just cause that’s how they think they are. People can be blind sighted with characters they like. They want them to be like themselves. I personally don’t write fanfiction. For multiple reasons, but one being that I’d just wanna write characters like myself, which wouldn’t work
HELP I'M GOING TO CRY BECAUSE YOUR SHIRT SAYS BOOBS IN MORSE CODE 😭 When I said to myself "I'm going to learn Morse code even though I'm probably never going to need it" I was being serious
@@jellylemonade1655 Or female selazzle. On her own she seems just like a sexualized furry pokemon, but shes actually bigger and the superior one of the salandits :>
I think the complaint is more that the female ones are usually meant to be normal and the dudes are given the most absurd things possible. Rarely does it make it the other way around.
Something that sexual dimorphism reminds me of, is fantasy armor. Like you see male characters covered from head to toe, and then there’s female characters with thighs exposed, which considering the huge artery there isn’t exactly practical, and not to mention those foresaken metallic undergarments 😭😭 AHHHH AND THE HEALS. imagine having to swing a claymore WITH HEELS on uneven ground 😭😭 (Edit: male fantasy armor is just as bad if not worse since it doesn’t even get acknowledged properly 💀 I’m well aware of that!!! The point that I’m trying to make here is why female fantasy armor gets more acknowledgment for its crappy designs, which is blatant sexualization. Some Male fantasy armor sexualizes too don’t get me wrong!! And you’d probably fall off your horse with how big those shoulder pieces are 💀 but they’re not with their thighs in the open with metal thongs and high heels (though six pack chest plates are a thing there too lol). Its more how they’re impractical ahhh 😭😭😭)
Or the metallic thongs and breast-shaped chest plate 💀 Like you have to get that SPECIFICALLY MADE for your size, cuz I can't imagine there's a "one size fits all" option for freaking metal 🤡
@@Ha-neulieyep, and breast shaped chestplates don't even make sense and there's a reason why they're not historically accurate, you do NOT want an intentional divet in the middle of your chest as it'll cause blows to be directed toward the center of your chest and your heart, which will cause internal damage and can get weapons caught on your armor. A chest piece built more like a pyramid though, will easily redirect glancing blows off to the side and make it easier to avoid getting your armor pieced by a particularly strong sword thrust. Breast armor, unfortunately, kills the user in real life, though if artists wanna do it intentionally anyway them eh, i just think there's more subtle ways to do it without breaking your girl's ribs lol
It's not like the male armour is practical in those artworks though. You're not going to do much fighting covered in several inches of thick metal, with oversized ornamentations and poorly thought out articulation. As in, people complain that the female armour is impractical, but in reality both are impractical, which shows that they don't actually care about the practicality of the armour - they are complaining about something else.
The one time I can truly excuse trope 4 is with demonic entities that embody concepts more than being natural organisms. The hulking monstrosity war demon works just as well as the sultry seductive demon when they are not played as "regular people from the infernal realm"
The otomotapia thing is a very interesting topic to me. I think they do it often in Asian languages because they are much more symbolic. Usually stuff like "stare" in your panel is not a translation of the literal word for stare. like Japanese the word for stare is jittomiru but they also have an otomotopia that you can use to describe someone staring: "jiiii", and it looks like this: ジー. That's what they're likely doing in these panels and it heightens the immersion because they're used symbolically. They're usually drawn and inked as part of the image as well and not part of the lettering. Incorporating symbology into visual works is what visual art is all about and I love the way that Asian comics so seamlessly blend language and imagery in their art. It's the same as when you draw the little excitement triangles above your character sometimes, or any of the symbolic visual shorthands for an emotion we use like having a lightbulb pop up over a character's head. They're also way more common in comedic situations, it's similar to the way that in manga characters will suddenly be drawn in a chibi style for a punchline. Manga artists often change the level of abstraction to express a different mood, and as we know from Scott McCloud, "words are the ultimate abstraction". Very advanced stuff! But since English doesn't have many words like that it makes translating it awkward. It's not that it's a "bad translation" it's just hard no matter what you do. The other options are to leave it untranslated and leave out important context, or leave the image as-is and give the translation as a footnote in the gutter which is what I see in most fan translations. It isn't always important for context, but sometimes it is, and as a translator you can't just pick and choose what to translate based on whether you think it's important enough. You have to make a plan and stick to your own rules.
i remembered getting a book on learning manga onomatopoeia when i was in middle school i believe, and from what i understand it's basically just an issue on the translation end. there are associated sounds in japanese and korean, but since there's no english equivalent the translators just...give up? at that point either remove it entirely or just don't translate it at all, i'd rather have "jii...." than "stare..." anyday because at least it's a noise and not a damn word cosplaying as a sound effect.
I noticed that in anime adaptations characters would make a specific whining sound when staring at something while in the English translation of the manga there is an onomatopoeia saying “stare” in the same scene. So I think you’re right that there is a specific sound tied to an action that doesn’t translate very well to English.
Greatest Estate Developer did a funny twist on trope 4 by giving the orc men slim bodies and pretty boy faces. I'm not sure if it was intentional, but it really seemed like they were directly making fun of this trope by making them look like that.
I've been working on a fantasy world that primarily focuses on extinct animals (dinosaurs and shit) and when I decided to add humans to this world, I knew I didn't want them to just be hot people running around in the jungle, so I purposely looked to one of the first times I drew humans and accidentally gave them fuckin' weasel teeth and clawed rat or possum toes and added even more features from there, a bit of fur around their necks and the ears of an African elephant (albeit, scaled down to the ear proportions of humans) to make them feel fantastical and whimsical
I think you'd like the Zeno Clash series. A big part of the inspiration for the creatures is lesser known prehistoric animals, like the Entelodont and Deinotherium. There are "humans" but the concept of a "human" doesn't exist in Zenozoik-- there barely seems to be a notion of species and subspecies. Or even currency. There's not even a law, despite there being a big city and mechanisms. The city, called Halstedom, is like its citizens' clothing: Decked out in semblances of covering, with whatever the people thought looked nice or would get the job done for still fulfill the purpose of a home. Fascinating and colorful world. Wiush you good luck on your fantasy world!
Correct! I love reading up on how humans would literally just power walk behind stronger and faster prey until they were too exhausted to fight and then they became dinner. A little sad for the critters that became dinner, of course, but still fascinating! My point was more in terms of hypothetical peak body shape, humans aren't necessarily the best possible, so I find it silly that advanced alien species always tend to be shaped the same, lol.
We're also far stronger than our skeletal system can support. If we used anywhere close to what the actual limits of our strength are rather than the limited to safe levels we normally do, we'd be constantly tearing our bodies apart!
To add on, humans are THE BEST warm climate persistance hunters. Most persistance hunters rely on cooler climates to keep good stamina, but humans sweat to get around the heat instead. (There are better persistance hunters in cold climates, like wolves, but humans out-compete in warm climates.)
I have never seen your videos before, this is the first video I've seen from you and I'm absolutely in love with your persona, the design and your style is so pretty 😭
The worst example of the boobles animals having boobs is venues de Milo from tmnt the next mutation. Not only do turtles not have breasts but they do have a hard chest plate called a plastron wich is rigid and bone like. This would mean that her plastron formed the shape of boobs and it just makes me uncomfortable. It feels so sexualy driven because all the. Boys have the same flat plastron
yeah that always confused me who in their freaking mind thought it was smart to give a mutant turtle breasts look I know she's a girl turtle but you do much more than give her boobs
Not even the boys have appropriate plastrons, they are usually pecified/abified. The main exception I've seen of this is the nick series, complete with their plastrons extending past the clavicle like real turtles. Fun fact, if you want accurate dimorphism, the boys' plastrons should be concave.
On the alien point, Superman always pissed me off because of how... normal he looks? I feel like it would be really fun to have a Superman reboot where he's just... the entire opposite of a human. His co-workers keep refering to him as Clark Kent btw.
Your art style is very reminiscent of LavenderTowne's. It's very nostalgic for me, in a way. I like it. Happy holidays to you and yours, if you celebrate!
9:37 I learned not long ago that japanese has alot of ideophones that arent onamotapeia. Like fuwa fuwa for something that's soft and fluffy. Obviously, a pillow doesnt make a fuwa fuwa sound. That's about the extent of my knowledge on the topic so application rules are completely beyond me.
Yes! I feel like they’re used to represent a sound which would be used in animation. Like kira kira for sparkly things. Sparkles don’t make sounds irl but can in very cartoony universes
Like "choo choo" for kissing, like how we say smooch. Even though we don't really say choo or smooch when kissing. I guess smooch is at least an onomatopoeia, but I always thought it was a weird one.
Hello, i love your art style, and this video actually convinced me to not Cut myself tonight, and I'm just starting to get into art and this video is extremely helpful and wonderful so thank you so much for the video ❤❤❤
That's very heavy. I am so sorry you're dealing with thoughts like that, but I am also glad I could give you a distraction. I hope you can build up a good support system if you don't have one already and get through what you are going through. Remember that you matter, and that you deserve kindness, even if it only comes from yourself. Hang in there, champ.
@bubbs6969 Wow...thank you so much, and I'm very glad to have recently found you as a creator, and I'll try to build a support system since I don't have one yet... Abd just thank you so much 😊.... I'm feeling a little better now, and I hope you have an amazing evening, I know that at least for a while I can refrain from cutting with people like you in the world
When you mentioned same body syndrome, I immediately thought of Winx Club cuz ive been rewatching it lately, and when the image popped out I can't help but laugh 😂
For animation the same body syndrome is probably just a budget issue. You can make one stock puppet asset, and then you can create multiple different characters by just changing the colors and clothes, very cheaply and quickly.
I came here for the art stuff, then you started nerding out about science and I instantly developed a crush. Why must I be like this? Anyway, I'm commenting for the algorithm. Your content is really fun, and I think more people should see it!
I relate to the aliens one so much it's unreal. Like, the possibilities are endless in a vast universe of different planets and ecosystems, so why on Earth would I want this far-off intelligent species be just like me? It kills the fantastical vibe they're meant to give immensely. I feel the same way about deity designs I see as well-A majority of the time they're just people with long robes and glowy long hair, maybe a few extra arms or eyes, but still distinctly human... which can be cool don't get me wrong, but it does suck because there could be so much more done with the concept! Gods/deities I feel are meant to be incomprehensible beings that we are not meant to understand, so their appearance matching said unknowns would be such a treat. Of course, this all comes down to the intention of the artist as well! While I have my own tastes, others have their own as well, and that's totally cool :] great video!
The point about gods/deities is a really interesting point! This one, I can kind of better understand from a narrative standpoint why humans and gods look alike since in most mythology and religions, deities make humans in their image. However, I also am more inclined to enjoy the Unknowable Cosmic Entity type better. 😁
@@bubbs6969 I like that thought a ton! I think it can also possibly be a great comfort for humans in different mythologies to worship a being that they are able to perceive in a way that makes sense to them and doesn't make their heads explode if that makes sense. Monster-y designs just scratch a special itch in the brain 100% and I'll never have enough of them
@DerpDerp3001 I love David bajda's "serina, the world of birds", especially the alien design of tribbets, like the antlear. Super cool and unique sapient species, that doesn't look at all human.
I dunno, the gods actually make perfect sense, because for all of human history gods actually WERE just "a magical dude in the sky", with a slight riff on it that sometimes the magical dude has an animal head.
Same here. As I said in the video, I just wish people would do it with INTENTION more often, lol. Like, goats have horns for a purpose, and it's not just for looks, so why does your humanoid aliens have horns?
@@SafiyyaSaffiya211 pretty random but when I was small I used to think that fang and kaizo are humans just like the main cast (was just a casual watcher so ye I got some things wrong lol) and i was surprised that they actually weren't (looked up fang boboiboy in Google aaaand boom), also a pretty rare sight to see boboiboy on a non-malaysian youtube video
The only things I'm gonna say about trope 2 are these: Toriel, Amy Rose, Sayori. Edit: About trope 1, you can also give your characters completely different bodies that *contrast* their personalities too! Just to make things interesting. For instance, I have two OCs who are supossedly best friends; One is a very tall, mature girl who has a very straight posture that makes her look confident, but despite that, she's extremely shy, reserved and scaredy, while the other's a shortstack skinnier than a twig with the personality of a goddamn chihuahua, you know what i'm talking about. She WILL beat you up given the chance.
Contrast can be great like that. I've got a few like those too! I've got a tall, white haired goth girl named Sammy. Almost 1,97. In her stories she gets a metal claw and a preference for maces. But Sammy follows the Shaggy Rogers School Of Surviving Monsters: Get scared and book it out of there. Although she has a balance to learn: Sammy can have a short fuse sometimes, and thus the anger can be turned around to make her go against the monster more. The trick then is to not let anger get the better of her, either.
Omfg how even tf people s3x74l1z3 Amy Rose and Sayori THEY'RE LITERALLY KIDS, at least Toriel is adult (it doesn't make me stop hating the nsfw arts DON'T you DARE worry) BUT AMY ROSE AND SAYORI??? Amy is like 12 (before sega going bye bye and removing every sth ages...) and Sayori...I'm unsure how old she is but she's MOST likely an teenage LEAVE THEM ALONE YOU DAMN CREEPSSSSSS
Not to flaunt but ive got an alien oc and i pove her because her human form is a very pretty girly girl but in her true alien form she's a gooey weird bug and her exoskeleton opens hp and her insides change colors and textures to she can shift forms :D I was kind of weirded out by the whole "man meets and falls in love with a sexy alien thing" i heard of in old movies and i tought it would be nice if i had a girl alien and boy be friends instead
slayyyy I love seeing reasons and well thought out things about how some creatures shapeshift [not that it's bad] but sometimes it's not taken into account as much and it's just some poof of smoke yk example I have of my own, I have a character made of magic and tech, which uses nature to sculpt their bodies into other animals but have to be near nature for it to happen, and underneath it they still have tech [I blew up their original form teehee so they need tech]
She sounds cool, I love weird bug aliens and being gooey or very squishy in her true form gives her a reasonable explanation as to why she can shift into a human form in the first place so awesome! Also, ew, gooey alien, keep that design! We don't get enough friendly gooey alien critters
Unfortunately my one alien character falls into trope 5 At least I'm *somewhat* taking his environment into account. He's a frog-like humanoid who lives in a very marsh-like planet, but he still looks very human because the creator is a lazy bum
9:07 Id like to bring an honourable mention of how Jojo's Bizarre Adventure uses this, one of the most recognisable parts of its style is the way it uses the "menacing" ( ゴ ) letter alot. While this does fall under the trope you are describing in being onomatopoeia for a non sound, its become such a notable part of Araki's style, that ive even seen multiple fans get it tatooed on themselves and merch sold of it. I feel like this just goes to say they are not always a bad thing, and sometimes leaning into the tropes can make something better, and even be a distinct mark of an artist. At the end of the day, its all personal taste. Love the video
Tbh about trope #6, some birds have vaguely boob-like structures on their chests. The only issue is that these structures are found on male birds, not female birds. Edit: but those "boobs" don't produce any kind of milk, it's purely for display
Huge same to everything you said about sexual dimorphism! It’s sooooo boring to see all women of every race look the same just with different color palettes. If you wanna distinguish gender of a fantasy species, at least be interesting about it! Look at the imps from the Hazbin/Helluva verse. They have noticeable differences that aren’t “male big, female small”, namely natural hair color and horn patterns. (Bonus points for being easy for casual trans rep because it’s obvious without needing to explicitly say a character is trans)
i hate the male big female small trope. like it doesn't even make sense for lots of animals or all humans. hell lots of female animals in nature KILL their mate and are much bigger😊
I also love that their imps have different types of horns or body size. Like one can look like a human with horns but another will look more like a possum or another will look like a twig (In comparison, for example, imp from s1e8, Moxxie and Stolas' buttler)
For trope three I can understand why it’s really weird, I read a good amount of manga so the “stare” thing is kinda just ingrained into my brain as normal.
20:29 could you imagine if, in DBZ instead of being humanoid they leaned heavy into the monkey aspect of Saiyans, I think that would be cool as hell honestly. If anyone has seen Legend- a dragonball tale on RUclips, that Goku design after he goes super is *chef’s kiss* beautiful. Mix it with the great ape form and I’d have a new addition. (I know that in dragonball there was no such thing as saiyans being aliens and that was just something added in Z but it’s a fun thought)
Actually sat down for trope six to think over my anthro characters. Some of them, a majority of the sea dwelling ones are questionable, I’m referring to merfolk. There is a dragon in my story who pretends to be one of the merfolk to eat humans and I have come to the conclusion that while he absolutely does not need to have breasts (he is capable of creating an illusion of being a beautiful mermaid) however he absolutely *would* have them anyway as a way to lure humans to him. I’m 50/50 on making the merfolk more mammalian or fishlike but the dragon himself is absolutely using breasts as a trap.
6:42 my biggest peeve is when they give naturally skinny characters unnaturally large breasts. Breasts are proportionate to the rest of the body, the only exception being with plastic surgery and health issues. Edit: I'm talking about breasts the size of large 30 lb watermelons on a 108 lb 5'6" woman when I say unnatural. Obviously there are very large breasts out there, but most of the time these people are drawing these characters with large breasts for the male gaze, not for representation.
@@CAve_CreAture Let’s take into account gigantomastia exists. It’s a condition that causes boobs to grow INSANELY large plus there are documented cases of it happening to women. This condition can be treated with breast reduction surgery.
First time viewer here! I use Morse code to talk to my friends for fun (we even have A group of OCs where we each designed a monster based on a certain sense like touch or sight & had them communicate in Morse code) so when I saw the dashed lines on your art persona? avatar? (sorry٫ im not sure what the right word is) I immediately knew it was Morse code. I think its so cool to include that you included that as a character design element!!! (also٫ as a sapphic: nice) long story short: cool Morse code message on your avatar's(?) shirt :D
In Japanese there are lots of onomatopoeia just for non-sounds (such as stare) and it’s really an extra flavoring on top of the narration. I think having sounds for non-sounds to express tone is what makes comics as a medium magical! Same thing could be said about italic, bold, and underlined characters in a book.
One gripe I have with the Rito is that all the females are really colorful (for seemly no other reason but to make them look more feminine) while the males are generally muted when with birds it's typically the other way around.
I do see this, but, there are actually a lot of bird species where the females are more vibrant, which happens for a variety of reasons! Electus parrots are a fantastic example (and I just Googled it to make sure that I was right about how to spell that lol). But, I do agree the reason might be to make them prettier than any actual zoology inspired ideas, haha.
As a Digital Circus fan artist, I have to say trope 2 REALLY stands out for other’s art of the female characters of TADC, especially Pomni and Ragatha. Poor Pomni has no boob meat and Ragatha literally has a bit of stuffing on her, but like, WHY ARE THEY DRAWN SO BIG I DONT GET IT 😭
I’ve been searching for someone talking about Same Body Syndrome forever! Also couldn’t help but notice the Cult Of The Lamb background music lol New sub! :D
I will say, the original Sailor Moon, made the "same body type" a plot point. They used Sailor Venus as a body double for Sailor Moon. So if you do "same body syndrome", make it a plot point, like body double/body guards or long lost siblings. Etc
Trope 2, that’s something that as a relatively young artist i love, i feel like so many people forget how much story telling you can do with designs and body shapes. Imperfections, exaggerations, anything is on the table! And i think you did a great job covering that. Ps: loved all the scientific things, im a sucker for science myself and i think your persona has a really cool design!
For the third one, in Japanese they have extra onomatopoeias. For example kira means that something is shiny/sparkly, if a character’s skirt is sparkly they would write kira kira. It might be the same in Korean so that would explain the extra onomatopoeias
These are all so true. Even the just opinion ones are so relatable! Especially the sexual dimorphism in non-human species, since it's just... Why is the female orc, who is supposed to be big and bulky, thinner than a stick? And why does she have makeup???
I love drawing different body types; it gives each character a unique silhouette! I’m also a cartoonist, so my shapes can be a tad exaggerated🤣 but it’s fun! Love this video, I’ll have to look at more of your channel!❤️
Totally agree with you on the original star wars having crazy species in it. Lizard men, gray aliens, giant slugs, three eyes goat men, hammer head shaped flat worm people. There’s a reason that when people see a setting with a bunch of wacky, non humanoid races, they sometimes call it a creature cantina
im a little late to this discussion, but i just wanted to say that how passionately you discuss everything is so inspirational. a lot of the problems you listed are just things that are fundamentally wrong with human beings mentally but just portrayed in art form, like the entire bustification idea. it could be discussed forever and ever the way people will do that for their own selfish reasons but i digress. again, i really love the way you put the energy into some of these subjects, even if they’re just personal opinions. it’s incredibly entertaining and the way you push creativity in character design kinda makes me rethink some things 😭 im not the best with words so i hope i got my point across properly, just saying i love this video 🫶
as someone with a small chest I feel you. i’ve felt disgusting or unwanted most of my life because I don’t see myself in fanart I like or how small chested women are often pushed aside or made fun of in favor of their bigger chested counterparts. I am working on my own alien characters and there are different types for different biomes. my biology nerd loves to do research on different adaptations for different biomes. they all descended from a single type and due to millions of years of evolution their body’s have adapted in very specific ways to their environment they are humanoid(ish) but please I need my alien x human ships (ships are what keeps me making characters). Even if they are humanoid I love thinking about the best way for them do adapt for whatever environment i’m putting them in. (And on a completely separate note i’m in love with the Architect’s / Persecutors from Subnatica.)
Dude, you are aware your alien doesn't have to look humanoid at ALL to ship them with a human character? You could ship a litteral insect looking alien with a human, and there are no moral problems with that. Any non-human sapient being is a person.
This was my second video and I loved your opinion. It made total sense to me and I'll be following from here in in. Keep doing what you love, it's great! 😊 😊😊😊😊
Turns out I like listening to you talk too. I'll be coming back and binge watching your videos when doing work, drawing, eating, play ur vids in the background when I play games. Thanks for being nice to listen to, keep ranting! I love it!
I'm seeing a lot of great discussion in the comments, but I'm also seeing some stuff that makes me think I didn't articulate a couple really important things as well as I thought I did, so it's time for a pinned comment! I definitely want to keep seeing you guys talk, it's interesting to see all the different points of view, but I want to make sure I'm coming across okay enough, lol!
1. For the tropes regarding anatomy and biology and all that, I am a massive nerd when it comes to evolutionary biology and physiology. That perspective informs my reason for not liking certain character or creature designs. However, I fully acknowledge that there are a bajillion reasons for somebody to make a character design a specific way without invoking my specific nerd interest. Budget limitations, time period of production, availability of certain practical or special effects, story reasons, and even just you thinking it look cool all are totally fine, regardless of my personal like or dislike. Omniman in particular isn't in the video because he is bad, he's in there because he's an example of an alien that looks exactly like a human. However, it's important to his story. [SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER] would hit way different, for the worse, if he was an eldritch beast. And, at the end of the day, my biggest gripe is simply that we don't get more non-humanoids and NOT that we get humanoids at all! TBH I started writing the alien rant after watching NOPE specifically, if you've seen that and want to see why my head is where it is, haha.
2. The non-sound sound effects is DEFINITELY a cultural thing when it comes to manga and k-comics, lol. From what I've been seeing from people who seem to know their stuff (genuinely thank you guys for informing me!!!) Korean and Japanese are both languages with words that do not cross over the best but would actually indicate a specific sound or at the very least indicate a specific vibe that does change the panel. In English, those types of words don't exist, so there just is no good way to translate it. On that, though, I want to specify my problem isn't with it happening at all, my problem is with its seemingly careless application. I have seen plenty of cases where this sort of thing was used to great effect for comedy, mood-setting, or to otherwise elevate the panel, but I often see it in a way that feels like it's taking away from my experience rather than adding to it. In the examples I showed, most if not all panels had words in them, and as an avid enjoyer of comics AND a creator of comics, I find that too many words like that can make me feel like I'm running a marathon. Having a simple panel without a bunch of words is kind of like giving a rest stop in my mind. Also, I just personally like to be left to enjoy the art on its own sometimes, so all the extra text can be a little distracting for me personally. It's just not my thing personally, but I know people who love it, so once again, you do you.
3. Argonians were a bad example for my gripes! They've got the Hist sap thing going on, which is actually pretty sick, and I need to brush up on my Skyrim lore. Wujeeta has lore-relevant boobies. You go girl (to rehab).
4. Sexy characters designs are NOT bad on their own. I love sexy characters, if that wasn't clear, haha. Context makes the difference between a sexy character and a character that feels like thinly veiled f*tish content. One of my favorite femme characters in all video gaming is Bayonetta. She is INCREDIBLY horny, but it is integral to her character in a way that feels genuine and purposeful. A character running through a battle field with their stomach exposed, whether it's to show off a perfect hourglassy lady or an 8-pack on a guy, is more of the disruptive thing. Regardless, I have no issue with people making sexy designs for the purpose of being sexy. It's fine. I do it too. My gripe, like everything else, is that its all over the place.
5. I am aware that there are a lot of things that make the human body excellent. We can throw things really well, we have highly efficient sweat glands, we have excellent endurance, and our hands allow for dexterity you just don't see with other animals that much, and never really to the same extent. Humans are not the worst thing to ever evolve on our planet. This is not lost on me, I promise. My comment about bipedal travel not being the most efficient method of travel was also just not phrased the best, which is my bad. With my zoology background, I was thinking of swimming, which is ACTUALLY the most metabolically efficient method of locomotion, as well as flying, which can be faster and more efficient than running over long distances if gliding is utilized over flapping. However, for short-distance land travel, if you're just walking, the bipedal model does win out as far as metabolic efficiency goes. As such, it would stand to reason that plenty of alien species, if we are assuming similar biology and similar evolutionary pressures, would end up being bipedal. On top of that, being upright with arms is generally useful for complex tool usage, meaning advanced alien societies would, most likely, theoretically, have arms too. My point was more that the HUMAN upright-walking bipedal model is not the end all be all if, once again, you can do whatever you want. Our spines, legs, and feet are not the ideal shape or size for walking upright, which was why I added that note of "especially with our skeletal structure" thing. Its why so many people suffer from lower back pain and why the joints in our legs get worn down so easily. That entire point was really about that, and not humans in general, considering that underlying skeletal structure is what results in people being the shape that we are. Hence my gripe. Humans have a lot of great adaptations, the skeleton is not necessarily one of them. This is all setting aside how annoying it is for me to see all these alien empries that I am supposed to believe out-bruted giant monsters on their planets or live entirely underwater and still just so happen to look exactly like humans, meaning that the conditions under which these aliens would have evolved would NOT make the human body the best blueprint for them.
6. You are allowed to do all the things in this video. My thoughts on these tropes doesn't mean that you can't enjoy them or do them, as I said at the start. Your reasoning does not have to be anything deeper than "I want to" when you do something in your art. I do things that I said in the video sometimes, and I do plenty of things just because I think they look cool. Yes ideally, you put a bit more thought into character designs, especially if you are publishing them professionally. Still, you do not need to check with me to know if your choice is okay because if it is right for you, that works. I don't like peanut butter flavored things, but I don't think that all peanut butter flavored things should be wiped off the face of the planet. They bring value to other people and have a right to exist. I just simply will not partake, and I shall say as much if asked. Do not put down your peanut butter flavored things because I said I don't like them.
7. I did not mention my having a degree in science or my having studied these concepts to try and say that I am smarter than you, have a greater position of authority on these topics than you, or even that you could not understand these same ideas if you did not also go to college and get my same education. In hindsight, I can see how that came across, and I apoligize that I worded that so poorly. The point of me saying those things was more to express that science is really important to me and therefore forms the basis for my views on these things.
If I see more I shall edit this, I just saw these things the most and wanted to acknowledge them. Thanks for all your engagement, I'm glad to have sparked so much conversation!! Also thank you all for your recommendations of aliens to look at. I am so inspired, lol. 🥹
fun fact the hell nights from doom are female
...source? I have never seen/heard that I my life, lol.
I saw in the alien trope that you added the xenomorph which is a confusing case according to me because in the first movie it explained that they are all crabs to begin with then embryos that morph into a shape thats alike to its host thats why the first xenomorph we see is human shaped. But then in other films they show human like mother aliens. And that makes you question.. has other humans meet these aliens? But then i remember they fucked up all the other aliens in its franchise like the predetors so thats probably why. So xenomorphs has lore implications.
Even bigger coincidence tho.. they all start as crabs... Proofs that crabs are peak.
Miss Trope lady your voice is so recognizable! It's nice. Good for you to see that you have another channel.
I like your gripes! They make a lot of sense and while this vid was incredibly far removed from what I expected (misleading thumbnail) I enjoyed it a lot! And your (almost?) uncut video is priceless-seriously, too much fake sizzle going around. Cheers, keep it up.
I... I don't have another channel?
I was like 8 minutes in until I realized your shirt says "b o o b s" in Morse Code lol. I didn't think I'd be testing my knowledge on Morse in a video about art pet peeves😂
lol she really likes boobs
I only know 'SOS' in morse, so as soon as I read '_OO_S' I knew XD
I thought it was like the tiny lines ppl use on non important text-
I didnt even realize it was morse! what an easter egg
i dont know morse code and somehow i guessed that was what it said 😭i think its coz they said it so much in the video LOL
I love the mention of adding brests to things that wouldn't have breasts because I remember making an anthro character in the past that I did exactly that with, but when I learned that it would make no sense, I just played into it. She became a character that intentionally kept their chest fluffy to give the illusion of breasts because humans' reactions were funny, and their disappointment was funnier.
That's actually a really good idea lmao
I once saw a funny comic about some sort of dnd story where a human guy was asking the female lizard person why she has boobs if she's not a mammal and she revealed she stores snacks in her shirt. And no he can't have some.
@@Ebus-ob2mq I've seen a similar comic where some reptile-looking characters used bras as heat-pad holders, to help them regulate their body temperature :)
@@Ebus-ob2mqthe “and no he can’t have some” is the perfect ending to that story I love it
@@helenanilsson5666 then wouldn't the man lizards also use them?
I DESPISE the same body trope where every character is muscular. No, youre not telling me the 16yo depressed homebody is as jacked as a bodybuilder. And no, you're not telling me the malnourished teenager looks like he goes to the gym semi-weekly.
Jojo, I love you, but…
Yeah, and the biggest problem is that it's unrepresentative.
I think there's definitely a cousin to "bustification". Let's call it "be-swole-ment". It's when they take a masculine character with a perfect body, such as BoTW Link, and just make them jacked for no reason. Much like the bustification, it can get even worse in NSFW art, where it seems like every masculine body has to be anything but normal. On that note, *love* the way you draw masculine bodies! ;D
I took that route with my demon comic for a while as a result of my discovery and exploration of my sexuality, then a new special interest oc took over for a while and I put Sindemon Series on the backburner. Last year I started revamping Sindemon Series and redesigning my Sindemons and giving them orientations that actually make sense for them (Asmodeus is the only one of the Dominion of Passion who is allosexual and all three of them are aromantic) and audhd themes for my demons as a whole as the charming vibe and advocacy! Mammon is short skinny king with pointy shape language, Beelzebub is fat with round shape language (he was fat before but I've debarafied him) of medium height of the three, and Asmodeus is the tall buff one with a mix of pointy and round shape language, and their bodies are all very distinct of silhouette now! This goes for their humanoid forms, and I've redone their demon forms too (though Asmodeus's was largely fine due to his themes).
I've also since found that I love drawing my pointy souls the most, so Mammon gets a lotta love in my sketchbook 💚
@@wonderlanddedemonanastasi Your style is great and your passion for what you create is genuinely inspiring. ;D
@@Pensive_Scarlet bless you! ;w;
This pretty much always happens to Nyen from Ranfren, at least in the Western and East Slavic side of the fandom. In canon, he is rather fit but still average looking, but the fan art often makes him jacked and gives him bushy eyebrows as well (he doesn't have visible eyebrows in canon). The East Asian fan art has the inverse problem of making him basically a same-body syndrome skinny twink xD
@@CHRONOPSYCHOID Well, thanks for introducing me to that. Genuinely, thanks. ;D
Lowkey hard agree on the double standards with female character in a race
Also often Doesnt take into account that boobs have a biological purpose for us so why does the egg laying bug have boobs?
fr! i need gooners to stop drawing atp.
MERMAIDS
EHY DO MEMRMAID NEED BOOB
Honestly I don't care much when I see mermaids with breasts they don't need but it does irk me when a mermaid has scales or flesh like from their tail on their torsos mimicking a bra or crop top because at that point you just have random bra-shaped fish scales that are shaped like clothes but at skin
@@janesdead6802they wouldn't have hair either+!
And some mermaids would be very scary and a bit transparent if they live deeper down...
@janesdead6802 that's exactly what I was thinking about bro thank you 😭
Fish don't breast feed why do they have big downers they don't need nipples either
Remember that this video is this creators personal preferences. Do not get discouraged if you still do any of these art "tropes", for no one is ever original and youre allowed to have fun.
Absolutely!!!
Trope 2 is literally Toriel from Undertale. She's fridge-shaped in-game and yet people draw her with the biggest boobs in history lmao.
I think that's because she's a goat... goats produce milk...
You know where this is going...
@@Blueartist246 Literally, lol.
This. Exactly.
There can be "big and flat". A wide surface area, but not "deep/hight". Like a large pancake.
A large pancake can still fit her original silhouette. She is a Mammal/goat, so breasts are still in the realm of logical.
@@Blueartist246shes a mom tho too
the boobification of characters is always hilarious to me. Gardevoir from pokemon is HUGE in this as well and so many artists conveniently forget she literally has a spike in the middle of her chest too xD
Heck, the Gardevoir isn't even implied to be feminine, which is implied by its male to female ratio being 1 to 1 instead of 1 to 3. In Pokémon, the sex ratio has a pattern. Only male or female, explicitly that sex. If it has a 7:1 male to female sex ratio, then that is a starter Pokémon or something else. If it has a 3:1 male to female ratio, then it is a masculine based Pokémon (e.g. Machop, and Growlithe). If it is 1:1, then you got a standard Pokémon, not really intended to be a masculine or feminine design. If it is 1:3 then you have a feminine based Pokémon (e.g. Jigglypuff, or Skitty). And 1:7 it's Litleo or Pyroar.
Gardevoir and Kirlia are based off ballet dancers and European nobility, and ballet is a gender neutral art even though it is currently associated with femininity, even though male roles are required for most ballets, unless you want women to play male roles.
It's even funnier in those Pokémon Fusion Generators where so many fusions of Gardevoir with non-humanoid Pokémon will just have a massive rack for no reason. Like, Nidoqueen and Jynx are right there.
Another thing lots of artists forget is that Gardevoir can also be male. And no, I am not talking about Gallade.
Which is strange to me since she's basically an animal fairy monster thing? Maybe its hust me but becuase I see my pokemon as my lil baby animals, I see ALL pokemon act that way. Like weird animals with powers and less like human intelligent creatures. So why do artists not only do that type of art, but they dont even explain why they are basically pokemon with rights and a job doing nsfw stuff with the pov human? Other than because the artist was horny.
Idunno, I am just tired of people seeing these lil funni crechures as anime waifus.
I was worried Gardevoir would get brought up in the actual video itself.
In both the Japanese and Korean languages, an **ACTUAL** sound does get associated with non-sounds. A.k.a. *they are not just the word 'stare' literally written into the comic,* it is something like 'jii-' for Japanese and a couple different variations I know of in Korean based on the nuance of how the character is staring, without directly stating so. 찌릿 for example would denote a harsh glare similar to an electric shock in vibe, as it gets used for sharp pains as well. This is just a LANGUAGE difference as you said and there's nothing much translators can do besides putting nonsensical onomatopoeia that English speakers will not understand. This is not laziness or just cultural preference, it's straight up a lack of direct translations that makes the sfx fall short. I say this as a native Korean who studied a little bit of Japanese and used to translate manhwa as a hobby.
LOUDER
To be fair, Superman looking human had a narrative purpose. He's supposed to be an inspiring symbol for humanity. Also, hiding him in plain sight depended on his human appearance.
Honestly it's not impossible to think an alien species could have a close resemblance to humans, we Humans managed to break the cycle of nature for some very specific reasons, apposable thumbs being one. The ability to craft tools lead to us making things to better our ability to withstand the planets harshness and in a universe as massive as our own I'd say it's almost guaranteed there'd be a similar species like us
@@Finn_the_Catyes but now take into consideration that the planet the aliens evolved on has three times the gravity and twice the air density and you get something that doesn’t look so similar to us
@@Finn_the_CatIt's even stated that humans were actually on course to evolving into a super powered race more similar to kryptonians. The only reason why so few humans have powers is because the human genome was modified by an alien race to make them more rare.
Even more interesting was the Red Son adaption of Superman. The ending revealed that Superman himself wasn't from another planet but from Earth that was millions if not billions of years into the future. Superman himself wasn't some alien from another planet but a human from the tail end of Earth's lifespan.
@@Chinothebad I think that was a dumb ending myself. Turning the large universe into time travel shenanigans.
Trope 4 often gets called "Sexy dymorphism" which is kinda funny
That's a great name for it 🤣🤣
One of my favorite subversions of the "aliens that look exactly like humans" trope is the Xiliens from Godzilla: Final Wars. When they first show up, they appear just like people, but once the main cast starts to discover their hostile intentions, one is killed, and it is revealed that it was a facade, and the actual creature underneath is a disgusting biomechanical-looking entity with no eyes and an unnaturally large mouth.
Someone make canonically dimorphic spider/praying mantis people. The females are taller/bigger and more muscular whereas males are smaller and weaker. And constantly worried their spouse will bite their head off.
YES
Doing this rn
I do! :P
there's also already a book about a planet of sapient spiders that were accidentally uplifted. they got to a point where there's males' rights movement for the male spiders to gain more social standing and be prevented from being killed off by their wives
the biting head off thing is a misconception! they only do that when hungry or stressed!!!
THE ALIEN ONE IS SO TRUE. When I was little I would always be so confused as to why fictional alien characters would look so similar to humans LIKE IT DEADASS CONFUSED ME SO BAD…
And then they can have kids with humans and this makes my mind explode because there is no way that can happen yet here it is (star trek looking at you)
Transformers>
@@Coolprayingmantis I KNOW. It can be interesting for story purposes sometimes, but like. We can't even crossbreed most animal species on EARTH together, but you can have a baby with a critter from a completely different planet??? Sure, bud.
I actually wrote in a reason for that in my multiverse. Technically, every world i create is "alien" to the earth, but most characters i create are humans/humanoid cause of what i like to draw
Sooo since this is a universe whose story revolves around its gods, my explanation is "basically the god from earth was the first to create a planet that evolved a stable ecosystem and sentient species, so everyone just copied their homework"
It also makes sense thematically cause, you know,,,, i'm from earth and everything i create in my world is based around what we have here
I recently drew a concept for alien 'birds' that can survive on Jupiter. I have yet to write out everything that makes them work but I got a basic view of them. Nothing humanoid in them whatsoever.
16:44 “i know at least three of them and they are totally fine” SENT ME TO THE FLOOR
3:32 yeah it’s annoying, in MHA all the girls had different body shapes in the manga, but the animation studio said Nuh uh.
Wait.. They do? I'm actually curious, just wanting to see it, can you share an example? Cuz I'm all in for different body types
@@LatchinOn you can see the biggest difference compering that chirleading scene from anime and manga
Momo has some chub in the manga, which is both appealing and makes sense since her quirk relies on her body fat. Uraraka also has chub, actually. Horikishi draws his women with different prominent muscle groups usually (eg, Mirko is angular with bulky thighs, Midnight is very curvy and Mount Lady is more slim and tall)
@@janesdead6802 just checked and man they were done dirty by the anime 😭
I know it's a lil chub but cmon, a lil diversity won't hurt the industry!
not just that, but they pretty much zucked out most of the melanin from Miriko. Looking at how she's drawn in official art vs how she's animated in show physical burns me.
this made me create a new freaky alien called crabcats thank you bubbs for the crabcats
You're very welcome. Enjoy your crabcats 👏
accidental homestuck
crabcat :D
@@DreamyFlowerzI was gonna say hahaha
your name is crabcat pantas
"People ARE endeared to... very object-like characters all the time."
*laughs in osc*
I am in dragon communities, people have hots for dragons with 0 human characteristics and I mean it, like imagine typical fantasy dragon
@@realdragon Same lol. It’s a little worrying sometimes. Like buddy, just because the dragon has the personality of your ideal sparkly edgelord bf does not mean you can talk about him like that. This is still just a very big lizard.
20:40 this is why I love subnautica. No humanoid creatures (aside from the player, who is human) and the architects, who are the most humanoid, are basically centaurs, and nothing about them screams human to me. Good job subnautica
That's why I like a lot of Doctor Who's aliens. Sure some look humanoid but others look so odd.
Yeah subnautica is awesome
I loved the architects and AL-AN. He looked so graceful and not human, aside from his arms and chest a bit.
That's because they did the smart thing and got a spec evo hobbyist/artist to design all their critters. The Architects' final weird centaur form is actually the MOST pedestrian design out of all the concept art. Alex Ries is awesome.
the one about aliens being just humans but with fancy face make-up ALWAYS gets me, because as a fellow artist and science lover, i ALWAYS appreciate when people pour as much creativity into their alien creature designs as possible. i find it SO unrealistic that all of the alien races look so similar to humans, so i always appreciate when work is done to make the aliens feel different. (and it is ALWAYS cooler.) like the halo franchise for example. the Sangheli or "elites" as they are called, have drastically different skull and limb shapes, and their bodies are easily recognisable as not human. their mouths have 4 separate mandibles instead of single jaws, and just MMMM their so cool
If you haven't seen the design of the birrin, check them out.
I love the Sangheili. They have two sets of pectoral muscles because of their double thumbs, too.
I do disagree heavily on the inclusion of the Predator in the video however.
Crowns ftw. I have seen some amazing aliens in spec-bio spaces, and I wish there would be more of them, cause they can get epic!
Strongly agreed with the Sangheili, they're awesome.
Have you ever heard of the Zeno Clash series? (1, 2 and Clash: Artifacts of Chaos). It's not a sci-fi series but does have a whole H E A P of unique designs, to the point that in-universe there barely seems to be a concept of species and subspecies between intelligent creatures. There's so many unique designs for the creatures. Not just for biological appearance but their semblance of clothing, too.
Oddworld is also great to look into.
13:35 another thing I don't like is when people don't do research on their animal characters, like I seen female pheasants with male colours, male bulls with udders, cats who "wag their tail" cos they're "happy" when cats are only suppose to swish their tail when frustrated, foxes who literally bark just like dogs when they aren't suppose to bark like dogs, rabbits with paw pads, "fennec foxes" with the shortest ears possible (more common with ocs) who look more like a pale fox than a fennec, african wild dogs with dew claws and small wolf ears or teensy round ears when they're suppose to have big mouse-like ears, tigers with domestic kitty ears, rabbits who sound like guinea pigs, the list goes on. common mistakes I've seen alot, I do wish people do research on their animals before having them as characters. the same goes with countries, important to do research beforehand, because uk/britain is *not* england.
another thing I hate is kemonomimis with 4 ears, like I don't get why they still need a set of human ears along with animal ears, when their animal ears could do all the hearing and expressing instead. kemonomimis just look better when their human ears are actually replaced with animal ears, instead of having 4 ears. unless a human is playing dressup and is wearing a set of bunny ears for cosplay or something, then kemonomimis shouldn't need to have human ears aswell.
Yeah personally that one with animals and country personifications really irks me, especially in this day and age. Is it really that hard to google that particular animal/nation to get a basic rundown of what they're actually like, before making a design?
THE BULL THING! I HATE THAT! I think they did that in barn yard or whatever it wall called. And various other things of course but that’s the only example I can name rn. Always made me so mad.
Kemowhois?
Another one that comes to mind for trope 2 is pomni. Fanart says she’s caked up front and back, when in reality she’s a literal stick
Real like she is a virtual model, not an onlyfans model
Her body is like a chicken nugget.
Also, the digital circus is a family friendly “show”
She’s meant to be goofy as hell not sexual
RAGATHA TOO like i was looking thru fanart yesterday. shes a RAGDOLL why are people giving her AN HOURGLASS FIGURE
i got to the alien part, suddenly became aware of the homestuck troll fanart i'm currently drawing... and then remembered there's an actual reason why they look like humans and went back to drawing
cherubs don't really have an excuse though, unfortunately. i try my best to emphasize their inhuman qualities when i draw them.
I was also in the middle of drawing my own human like aliens then remembered that there are reasons why I made them human like. (Some meta, some tonal, and some lore related)
@@undyingUmbrage413 there is a reason though
Cherubs need hands and fingers to fill out the roll paradox space has in store for them, they also need legs and feet for any time there not flying, farword facing because they of course are upright standing bipeds
And while there’s no inharent reason for them not to have multiple eyes, you’ll find most creatures here on earth don’t usually have more then 2 due to our commonly decended traits
As stated multiple times in homestuck, the orgin of every race is paradoxical in some sense, and for an ancient race of angelic aliens that are hinted to descend from magical “Trickster” Bs, constantly migrating from universe to universe, likly so that the race persists presumably across all known universes, it’s more likely that all of Sburbs chosen races are intended to evolve a more “humanoid” form, because it is the most suitable to play and win the game, and thus fulfill skaias ultimate purpose in becoming the genesis frog
This would explain not only why even the consorts, caripacians and Leprechauns are all Humanoid, but also why even the denzens are always humanoid, even if there part snake (even Cetus still has a vaguely “human” looking face shape)
And as a bonus, the genesis frog could also be considered “humanoid”
Or, I’ll do you one better and say that maybe every sucessful race chosen for the game is meant to evolve into a more adapt vaguly “FROG” shaped form, with 2 arms, 2 legs, 2 eyes, one head, and a single body
Weather they stand upright likly Doesn’t matter as long as long as it Doesn’t hinder there ability to USE there upper limbs, independently from there general means of walking running or standing
Alternate forms or bodies also likly make the cut, as long as they still meet the criteria
Like bird people with wings for hands, as long as those wings (or some other part of there anatomy” can mimic hands, they should still get the pass
Though it’s possible the game shows more favor to those that stuck closer to the blue prints.
As a bonus, assuming cherubs are reptilian, it’s possible there race has its evolutionary origins stemming from a similar place to the genesis frog
TLDR, make whatever you want, regardless of someone else’s pet peeves, internet animation use to be nothing but “epic stick figure fights” which laid down the foundation for what we have now
Just make your art projects with genuine passion, and you’ll find more enjoyment and fulfillment in that alone compared to the Approval of others
homestuck jumpscare
17:23 once, in elementary school, they asked us for homework how we thought an alien would look like. me and my dad sat down ad started with suff like "oh, they're on space, probably different atmophere, so different bone structure and maybe- ecc ecc". We ended up with a slime with un antenna and a few eyes, the essencials that we thought (fun time) (english is not my first language, sorry for miss spelling)
I really want a humanoid species that reveses the “monster male, human-like female” trope where the males look more like male human models and the females like more like eldritch monsters.
Edit: 18:08 About the Xenomorph, if I remember correctly, the reason why they look so human-like is because they have human DNA. Xenomorphs have a weird reproduction cycle where they inherit the DNA of their host’s body. So if the host is a human, they will look more human-like. Could be wrong though, it’s been a while since I watch the Alien movies
Yeah I'm pretty sure that's true, literally the only reason I know this is true though is the alien in the mortal kombat x dlc having styles based on what species their host was so maybe I'm not the best source to confirm this lol.
This is true! I forget what movie, but one of them has a Xeno-dog that had a dog host
Oh there is one already, Gears of War Berserkers, compared to the human sized male Locust the Berserkers are larger and armored.
Gnolls if you're not a coward
There is actualy a term for that, genetic swamping
As much as I get the inappropriate use of onomatopoeia, the **MENACING** thing from jojos is just soooooo cool and really sets the scene when a battle is about to start. When used in specific ways it really does help build up hype and mood versus a simple staring face with a determined expression
Plus that’s translated from a sound effect which is essentially just “the sound of something intimidating which doesn’t actually have a sound but we’re pretending it does”
@ oh yeah, especially in the anime with the bass boosted synth-like boom and all the crazy stuff they did with the later parts with the stands (Star platinum time stop, act 3 freeze, Killer Queen bombs, king crimson time skip)
It can definitely be used in such a way that it enhances the story on the page if you can’t translate it otherwise, plus it’s become iconic for both the series and Japanese manga as a whole to push the readers imagination and their art as far as they can go.
"As much as I get the inappropriate use of onomatopoeia" The... what......?
@ watch the video she explains it
@@Bepiswawa Yeah. Especially in later parts, the low rumble sounds associated with **MENACING** could easily be confused for some Stand power charging up.
Side note, Star Platinum: The World's time stop sounds cooler than The World's
You really spat facts in this video. THANK YOU! I especially agree with the alien one! It's too often that they don't get their own features.
Whenever I do sexual dimorphism, it's always super minor. An extra pair of horns, shorter fins, different colors, etc. It's almost never monster male, human female.
Now THAT'S the version of that trope I prefer, realistic dimorphism, like how Pokémon does with some of their monsters (Unfezant, Hippowdon, Pyroar, Meowstic, etc.)
Or if i do bird based stuff: super colourful guys, and big women since idk birds are like that. Edit: like cardinals and peacocks mostly
I mainly do it by slight difference in muscle mass, slight difference in amount of fats, slight difference in height.
I like doing the bird method:
COLORS
How i like it if you are gonna mkae 1 hot make the other hot too gonna make 1 a monster make both monsters gonna make 1 a ho monster make both a hot monster
Yeah the sexual dimorphism is STRONG. I vividly remember seeing the character design for a wolf shifter and the male was the hairiest bastard. He was fierce, hulking, and and looked like he can and will snap me in half over his knee.
And the woman wolf shifter was just… a human woman with fur lingerie. She had glowing eyes, a full face of makeup(why?) and her nails were slightly longer to look like claws. Wow.
I've seen cuter and prettier feminine wolves from Animal Crossing. Skye, Freya, Audie, Whitney, and Vivian are just as popular as some of the male wolves (Fang, Wolfgang, Dobie).
This also reminded me of Venom in the first movie
And even in fantasy armor design you can see the difference between how people draw male armor, and female armor.
Got a shawty wearing METAL PANTIES and a METAL BRA and fucking METAL HEELS TO BATTLE.
@@alessandram.3289 They really ruined the chance to make a buff she-Venom😒
Thank you for showing actual examples instead of making barely related sketches or drawings, genuinely makes the video more entertaining
The sexual-dimorphism bother/ me too. A common example I find annoying is dwarfs. Because they are always described as a strong and durable race and basically walking bricks but most people draw dwarven women with relatively narrow shoulders and to make up for that really wide hips and I kind of didn’t like that because to me the naturally high strength of dwarfs always implied a lot of muscle mass which correlates with high testosterone: long story short in the book I am writing dwarvish women have beards ( though they style them differently to the men and non-binary dwarfs) and are also built like absolute units
HAIRY WOMEN LETS GOOOOOOOO
OML 100% THIS
in one of the first DND campaign i ever played my character was a dwarven woman and the dm would describe her as having a beard/stubble and being openly proud about it
it always annoyed me when the other players tried """girlyfying""" her ((wanting to shave her beard per exemple))
Yeah you'd think that the whole 'both have beards' thing would stick around after tolkien, the father of this type of fantasy, made it. Though its also stated that other races get confused on which one is male, and female due to it, with it being a thing only dwarves are able to differentiate. It is partly the same with elves, as they are incapable of growing beards, have youthful faces due to imortality, and have long hair for their bowstrings, so the males end up looking like girls a lot. Though due to their higher stature, its easier to tell which is which.
Yeah!! And stories like dungeon meshi prove that even in a “stricter” anime art style that can be achieved!! I ADORE dungeon meshi designs they are so diverse and ACTUALLY THOUGHT OUT!!
I love it when people design female dwarves with beards
THE ALIEN ONE HAS ALWAYS BEEN MY BIGGEST PET PEEVE
I love aliens so much I love them to bits, but part of what makes them so fun is imagining how DIFFERENT they are. I can not STAAANDDD aliens that look just like people and my one exception to that formula is Irkens because I love Invader Zim and they're bug-like enough for me to love them. Besides, I can infuse my headcanons onto them anyway.
YESSS! Have you seen Alex Ries alien designs?
@bluesteno64 I have now and they look AMAZING. That is exactly what I want to see.
@ YES‼️‼️‼️‼️ So glad you took a look
And also check out 'Serina, the world of birds' Technically the species in Serina aren't 'aliens' (it's a speculative evolution) but it really shows you how different an intelligent and sapient species can be from a human.
@ if we talking Spec evo projects… The Future Is Wild, All Tomorrows….
I have no idea why you popped up in my recommendations, but I'm glad you did.
When I draw Aliens I make them different shapes. Sizes. Colors. Some lack legs or arms. You want a memorable aliens? Scrap human features. Just…..let your brain spew random ideas. It works for me. Thanks bubbs!
Check out work like Wayne Barloe and Alex Ries! I ONE HUNDRED PERCENT AGREEEEE
I like to uses spore or an evolution timeline whenever I make creatures to make em less human like before I draw the creature :]
@@bluesteno64 I’ll have to check them out. Thnx for the suggestion! I also like checking Ben10 aliens. Their proportions are so wacky and alien. Which is what I LOVE in a alien design
This is false, the most iconic aliens of all times are humanoid
@@rommdan2716 well we all have opinions. But doesn’t mean they’re right. XD
One of the reasons I love Wander Over Yonder so much is how creative the alien designs are by completely throwing realism out the window. You might think the only solution to the "They're just like us, but blue" trope would be to meticulously worldbuild realistic aliens, but woy is over here with:
- a guy with a shark head and tanned oily man body
- a sentient sandwich
- servants with crystal ball heads and powdered wigs who carry around the sentient sandwich on a little platter
- a tin can telephone where each end is its own person like catdog (appeared for half a second as part of a joke but still stuck with me)
- a flying black perfectly cut cube of pure darkness and misery
- a banana with a giant mustache it uses like hands
It's *extremely* entertaining
I believe Craig McCracken worked on it (and that's why it gives Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends vibes since he made that show). I never saw WOY but your description makes it seem like either show's characters would blend in perfectly with the other and that's what makes it funnier about Craig's involvement
OMG THE CUBE!!! He was my favorite character
He was just so sad and just wanted to live a normal life after he gave up his life of villainy, but kept getting fucked over
Yeah, but they threw it off by creating that green lady? Forgot her name D:
dr screwball jones mentioned
@@dawiqi lord dominator, she gets a pass though shes such a great villian
17:20
Holy shit! This is Star wars to the max! Holy shit!
Like a galaxy of some of the coolest looking alien designs put on film and we get humans from here to beyond.
Like fucking 3 characters that actually look like aliens are Ahsoka, grievous, and Yoda. Not counting Darth maul because he's just a human with horns.
But thank you this drives me up the wall!
I'm actually rather fond of non-sound onomatopeia when used in moderation. It can be used for emphasis or to preserve pacing when a lot of less significant movements happen in quick succession.
Example:
Panel 1: _character B is looking at his phone_
Panel 2: _character A asks something about what character B is looking at_
Panel 3: _character B absentmindedly responds, without lifting his gaze to look at character A_
Panel 4: _character A gets a mischevious look on his face_
Panel 5: _almost a fullbody shot - character A has pushed himself into character B's personal space, leaning over to look at his phone. one of his hands is interacting with character B with a little "poke" or "shove" spelled next to it, the other is pulling character B's phone away from him to read it_
Here it's important that the "cut" is immediate and surprising. The small movement of character A's other hand adds to the scene enough to be worth emphasizing, but giving it its own panel would mess up the pacing. Sure, it can mess with the tone of more serious scenes, but for more humorous moments it can work.
And yeah, it's dumb when the effect is already obvious from the panel itself (like "blush") but I don't think a long stare is obvious unless you dedicate multiple panels to it or at the very least add a "..." above the character's head.
Sure, straight up writing "stare" is a little awkward in English, but I like what the Finnish translation of Kijitora Neko no Koume-san did by both shortening and stretching the word tuijottaa/tuijotus into _"tuiiiijjjjjjj"._ It adds both a sense of time and murerous intensity that would be hard to convey without the text
This is a great point/perspective. Personally, I've even used "STARE" in my own stuff. I should've been more specific in saying I don't like it when it's not actually being used to elevate a moment. Like if "stare" is being used for comedy or to indicate intensity or silence or something, that's great! Thanks for this comment :)
(also in case anyone cares, I imagined character A as Rodimus and character B as Drift from MTMTE)
@@bubbs6969 Thanks :) And yeah, the way the comic in your example images was definitely redundant and pretty distracting. I'd be annoyed reading that too
@@bubbs6969 I was about to point out how this can be used for comedic effect! One of my favorite uses of this is a blink and you'll miss it moment from Into the Spider-Verse when Miles throws a bagel at a guy and the word "bagel" appears above his head when it hits him.
I’ve started to appreciate non-sound onomatopoeia a lot since it can be pretty comedic but also at times I think it can be useful in other ways if done right
I agree with all of these, especially the anthropomorphic one about having boobs is so true! As you mentioned birds are the only ones that make actual sense and even then it's not really boobs, its just that they literally have a larger chest to hold in more air during flight- like literally, I'm in vet school and I had to do so much damn research on birds lungs/rib cage structure- birds have some of the most effective lungs in all of nature, and like there are sooo many other ways to distinguish the difference between male and female species, like colours, markings, vocals!
Bird lungs are SO cool!!!!
@@bubbs6969 IKR birds are such a crazy species from an evolution stand point its insane :)
@@LittleFerretBoi477 especially compared to other flying animals. Even their closest relatives had wings more similar to bats than birds.
One of my pet peeves in the anthro community is giving anthro non-mammal animals breasts. Like…those are mammary glands? Meaning they’re only found in mammals?
i mean, if we talking about evolution, human breasts were not evolved to look how they are for a functional purpose at all? just look at how less developed other mammal's breasts are, the main reason human breasts are so full is for attraction, because we evolved to do the deed looking at each other, otherwise women with smaller breasts wouldn't be able to produce milk, which isn't the case at all.
12:12
"Hug"
IS THAT WHAT THAT IS!? THANK YOU COMIC FOR CLARIFYING! I WOULD'VE NEVER KNOWN.
Type.
I agree with these! In the body diversity/same body syndrome, I had this problem for awhile too, I have been expanding my range drawing bigger characters, muscular characters and what not and it's been great! I love being able to represent more and more body types
8:52 This is how I feel when people dramatically change their "favorite" characters' personalities in fanfics and AUs lol
REAL like how’s it your favorite then? because they are hot?L
Like one post said (I forgot where I've read it), that's not the same character anymore, that's an OC committing identity fraud!
real like I love au and fanfics but only using it to change a whole entire character to make you like them more is silly
THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THANK YOU
It’s probably just cause that’s how they think they are. People can be blind sighted with characters they like. They want them to be like themselves.
I personally don’t write fanfiction. For multiple reasons, but one being that I’d just wanna write characters like myself, which wouldn’t work
HELP I'M GOING TO CRY BECAUSE YOUR SHIRT SAYS BOOBS IN MORSE CODE 😭
When I said to myself "I'm going to learn Morse code even though I'm probably never going to need it" I was being serious
Sexual dimorphism is so real
Ofc there’s differences between male and female animals, but female animals don’t just wear makeup or have boobs do they?
Yeah, just look at female hyenas...
@@jellylemonade1655 Or female selazzle. On her own she seems just like a sexualized furry pokemon, but shes actually bigger and the superior one of the salandits :>
Like look at seahorses man, the MEN carry the babies
I think the complaint is more that the female ones are usually meant to be normal and the dudes are given the most absurd things possible. Rarely does it make it the other way around.
I like how female Wobbuffet just has lipstick, kinda funny
Something that sexual dimorphism reminds me of, is fantasy armor. Like you see male characters covered from head to toe, and then there’s female characters with thighs exposed, which considering the huge artery there isn’t exactly practical, and not to mention those foresaken metallic undergarments 😭😭 AHHHH AND THE HEALS. imagine having to swing a claymore WITH HEELS on uneven ground 😭😭
(Edit: male fantasy armor is just as bad if not worse since it doesn’t even get acknowledged properly 💀 I’m well aware of that!!! The point that I’m trying to make here is why female fantasy armor gets more acknowledgment for its crappy designs, which is blatant sexualization. Some Male fantasy armor sexualizes too don’t get me wrong!! And you’d probably fall off your horse with how big those shoulder pieces are 💀 but they’re not with their thighs in the open with metal thongs and high heels (though six pack chest plates are a thing there too lol). Its more how they’re impractical ahhh 😭😭😭)
Respect to any warrior who fights in fucking heels. Carmilla from Castlevania is one of them I believe
Or the metallic thongs and breast-shaped chest plate 💀
Like you have to get that SPECIFICALLY MADE for your size, cuz I can't imagine there's a "one size fits all" option for freaking metal 🤡
@@Ha-neulieyep, and breast shaped chestplates don't even make sense and there's a reason why they're not historically accurate, you do NOT want an intentional divet in the middle of your chest as it'll cause blows to be directed toward the center of your chest and your heart, which will cause internal damage and can get weapons caught on your armor. A chest piece built more like a pyramid though, will easily redirect glancing blows off to the side and make it easier to avoid getting your armor pieced by a particularly strong sword thrust. Breast armor, unfortunately, kills the user in real life, though if artists wanna do it intentionally anyway them eh, i just think there's more subtle ways to do it without breaking your girl's ribs lol
My favourite heals are apples
It's not like the male armour is practical in those artworks though.
You're not going to do much fighting covered in several inches of thick metal, with oversized ornamentations and poorly thought out articulation.
As in, people complain that the female armour is impractical, but in reality both are impractical, which shows that they don't actually care about the practicality of the armour - they are complaining about something else.
The one time I can truly excuse trope 4 is with demonic entities that embody concepts more than being natural organisms. The hulking monstrosity war demon works just as well as the sultry seductive demon when they are not played as "regular people from the infernal realm"
The otomotapia thing is a very interesting topic to me. I think they do it often in Asian languages because they are much more symbolic. Usually stuff like "stare" in your panel is not a translation of the literal word for stare. like Japanese the word for stare is jittomiru but they also have an otomotopia that you can use to describe someone staring: "jiiii", and it looks like this: ジー. That's what they're likely doing in these panels and it heightens the immersion because they're used symbolically. They're usually drawn and inked as part of the image as well and not part of the lettering. Incorporating symbology into visual works is what visual art is all about and I love the way that Asian comics so seamlessly blend language and imagery in their art. It's the same as when you draw the little excitement triangles above your character sometimes, or any of the symbolic visual shorthands for an emotion we use like having a lightbulb pop up over a character's head. They're also way more common in comedic situations, it's similar to the way that in manga characters will suddenly be drawn in a chibi style for a punchline. Manga artists often change the level of abstraction to express a different mood, and as we know from Scott McCloud, "words are the ultimate abstraction". Very advanced stuff!
But since English doesn't have many words like that it makes translating it awkward. It's not that it's a "bad translation" it's just hard no matter what you do. The other options are to leave it untranslated and leave out important context, or leave the image as-is and give the translation as a footnote in the gutter which is what I see in most fan translations. It isn't always important for context, but sometimes it is, and as a translator you can't just pick and choose what to translate based on whether you think it's important enough. You have to make a plan and stick to your own rules.
i remembered getting a book on learning manga onomatopoeia when i was in middle school i believe, and from what i understand it's basically just an issue on the translation end. there are associated sounds in japanese and korean, but since there's no english equivalent the translators just...give up? at that point either remove it entirely or just don't translate it at all, i'd rather have "jii...." than "stare..." anyday because at least it's a noise and not a damn word cosplaying as a sound effect.
In most of the physical manga I have, the onomatopoeia is just subtitled in the borders
I noticed that in anime adaptations characters would make a specific whining sound when staring at something while in the English translation of the manga there is an onomatopoeia saying “stare” in the same scene. So I think you’re right that there is a specific sound tied to an action that doesn’t translate very well to English.
Greatest Estate Developer did a funny twist on trope 4 by giving the orc men slim bodies and pretty boy faces. I'm not sure if it was intentional, but it really seemed like they were directly making fun of this trope by making them look like that.
I've been working on a fantasy world that primarily focuses on extinct animals (dinosaurs and shit) and when I decided to add humans to this world, I knew I didn't want them to just be hot people running around in the jungle, so I purposely looked to one of the first times I drew humans and accidentally gave them fuckin' weasel teeth and clawed rat or possum toes and added even more features from there, a bit of fur around their necks and the ears of an African elephant (albeit, scaled down to the ear proportions of humans) to make them feel fantastical and whimsical
Sounds like the thing Moomintroll turned into in the Magician's hat
I absolutely love that
"weasel teeth" LOL
I think you'd like the Zeno Clash series. A big part of the inspiration for the creatures is lesser known prehistoric animals, like the Entelodont and Deinotherium. There are "humans" but the concept of a "human" doesn't exist in Zenozoik-- there barely seems to be a notion of species and subspecies. Or even currency. There's not even a law, despite there being a big city and mechanisms.
The city, called Halstedom, is like its citizens' clothing: Decked out in semblances of covering, with whatever the people thought looked nice or would get the job done for still fulfill the purpose of a home.
Fascinating and colorful world.
Wiush you good luck on your fantasy world!
19:30
Humans aren't particularly fast, but the endurance is immense. We can run for very long distances compared to many other animals
Correct! I love reading up on how humans would literally just power walk behind stronger and faster prey until they were too exhausted to fight and then they became dinner. A little sad for the critters that became dinner, of course, but still fascinating! My point was more in terms of hypothetical peak body shape, humans aren't necessarily the best possible, so I find it silly that advanced alien species always tend to be shaped the same, lol.
We're also far stronger than our skeletal system can support. If we used anywhere close to what the actual limits of our strength are rather than the limited to safe levels we normally do, we'd be constantly tearing our bodies apart!
Exactly! Humans are persistence predators, which means we don't need to outrun our prey-we just outwalk them.
@@bubbs6969 Go back, we must be CRABS!
To add on, humans are THE BEST warm climate persistance hunters. Most persistance hunters rely on cooler climates to keep good stamina, but humans sweat to get around the heat instead. (There are better persistance hunters in cold climates, like wolves, but humans out-compete in warm climates.)
I have never seen your videos before, this is the first video I've seen from you and I'm absolutely in love with your persona, the design and your style is so pretty 😭
The worst example of the boobles animals having boobs is venues de Milo from tmnt the next mutation. Not only do turtles not have breasts but they do have a hard chest plate called a plastron wich is rigid and bone like. This would mean that her plastron formed the shape of boobs and it just makes me uncomfortable. It feels so sexualy driven because all the. Boys have the same flat plastron
yeah that always confused me who in their freaking mind thought it was smart to give a mutant turtle breasts look I know she's a girl turtle but you do much more than give her boobs
Poor girl has tumors, she needs a doctor or vet or otherwise qualified medical professional
It's just really weird pyramiding. Poor care from her version of Splinter. Very sad
the plastron is not "bone like" it is bone, it is part of their skeleton. their entire shell is part of their skeleton.
Not even the boys have appropriate plastrons, they are usually pecified/abified. The main exception I've seen of this is the nick series, complete with their plastrons extending past the clavicle like real turtles.
Fun fact, if you want accurate dimorphism, the boys' plastrons should be concave.
On the alien point, Superman always pissed me off because of how... normal he looks?
I feel like it would be really fun to have a Superman reboot where he's just... the entire opposite of a human. His co-workers keep refering to him as Clark Kent btw.
LITERALLY OMG😭😭😭😭😭
Martian Manhunter, you are thinking about Martian Manhunter
@rommdan2716 I'm an uncultured swine I see, thank you for this information
That would be so funny if his human disguise is still glasses
@crybaby6845 that is exactly what I was imagining lol
Your art style is very reminiscent of LavenderTowne's. It's very nostalgic for me, in a way. I like it. Happy holidays to you and yours, if you celebrate!
Thank you!! Very nice compliment, love Lavendertowne. Also, same to you. Wishing you safe and happy holidays! ❤️
Science fiction completing ignoring biology while worshipping the ground that robotics walks on has always irked me.
9:37 I learned not long ago that japanese has alot of ideophones that arent onamotapeia. Like fuwa fuwa for something that's soft and fluffy. Obviously, a pillow doesnt make a fuwa fuwa sound. That's about the extent of my knowledge on the topic so application rules are completely beyond me.
Yes! I feel like they’re used to represent a sound which would be used in animation. Like kira kira for sparkly things. Sparkles don’t make sounds irl but can in very cartoony universes
Like "choo choo" for kissing, like how we say smooch. Even though we don't really say choo or smooch when kissing. I guess smooch is at least an onomatopoeia, but I always thought it was a weird one.
Hello, i love your art style, and this video actually convinced me to not Cut myself tonight, and I'm just starting to get into art and this video is extremely helpful and wonderful so thank you so much for the video ❤❤❤
That's very heavy. I am so sorry you're dealing with thoughts like that, but I am also glad I could give you a distraction. I hope you can build up a good support system if you don't have one already and get through what you are going through. Remember that you matter, and that you deserve kindness, even if it only comes from yourself. Hang in there, champ.
@bubbs6969
Wow...thank you so much, and I'm very glad to have recently found you as a creator, and I'll try to build a support system since I don't have one yet...
Abd just thank you so much 😊.... I'm feeling a little better now, and I hope you have an amazing evening, I know that at least for a while I can refrain from cutting with people like you in the world
@@ZERO__YT__ZERO Keep hanging in there and continue on your art journey, it is worth it!
@ thank you SOOOOO much!
I absolutely appreciate it!
When you mentioned same body syndrome, I immediately thought of Winx Club cuz ive been rewatching it lately, and when the image popped out I can't help but laugh 😂
For animation the same body syndrome is probably just a budget issue. You can make one stock puppet asset, and then you can create multiple different characters by just changing the colors and clothes, very cheaply and quickly.
0:10 IM IN LOVE WITH YOU. [the stardew valley music]
REAL
SAME
A już myślałam, że to Sumcomment. Może to nawet i lepiej...
I came here for the art stuff, then you started nerding out about science and I instantly developed a crush. Why must I be like this?
Anyway, I'm commenting for the algorithm. Your content is really fun, and I think more people should see it!
I relate to the aliens one so much it's unreal. Like, the possibilities are endless in a vast universe of different planets and ecosystems, so why on Earth would I want this far-off intelligent species be just like me? It kills the fantastical vibe they're meant to give immensely. I feel the same way about deity designs I see as well-A majority of the time they're just people with long robes and glowy long hair, maybe a few extra arms or eyes, but still distinctly human... which can be cool don't get me wrong, but it does suck because there could be so much more done with the concept!
Gods/deities I feel are meant to be incomprehensible beings that we are not meant to understand, so their appearance matching said unknowns would be such a treat. Of course, this all comes down to the intention of the artist as well! While I have my own tastes, others have their own as well, and that's totally cool :] great video!
The point about gods/deities is a really interesting point! This one, I can kind of better understand from a narrative standpoint why humans and gods look alike since in most mythology and religions, deities make humans in their image. However, I also am more inclined to enjoy the Unknowable Cosmic Entity type better. 😁
@@bubbs6969 I like that thought a ton! I think it can also possibly be a great comfort for humans in different mythologies to worship a being that they are able to perceive in a way that makes sense to them and doesn't make their heads explode if that makes sense. Monster-y designs just scratch a special itch in the brain 100% and I'll never have enough of them
I think it is best to seek r/speculativeevolution for inspiration.
@DerpDerp3001 I love David bajda's "serina, the world of birds", especially the alien design of tribbets, like the antlear. Super cool and unique sapient species, that doesn't look at all human.
I dunno, the gods actually make perfect sense, because for all of human history gods actually WERE just "a magical dude in the sky", with a slight riff on it that sometimes the magical dude has an animal head.
I okay if the alien have SOME humans features, But i hate when them look human or worse totally human, I looking at you Superman!
Same here. As I said in the video, I just wish people would do it with INTENTION more often, lol. Like, goats have horns for a purpose, and it's not just for looks, so why does your humanoid aliens have horns?
But what if I WANT to draw humanoid aliens, what do we do then?!
Literally fang and kaizo from boboiboy lol
@@SafiyyaSaffiya211 pretty random but when I was small I used to think that fang and kaizo are humans just like the main cast (was just a casual watcher so ye I got some things wrong lol) and i was surprised that they actually weren't (looked up fang boboiboy in Google aaaand boom), also a pretty rare sight to see boboiboy on a non-malaysian youtube video
@@rommdan2716 then draw them???? ????
The only things I'm gonna say about trope 2 are these: Toriel, Amy Rose, Sayori.
Edit: About trope 1, you can also give your characters completely different bodies that *contrast* their personalities too! Just to make things interesting.
For instance, I have two OCs who are supossedly best friends; One is a very tall, mature girl who has a very straight posture that makes her look confident, but despite that, she's extremely shy, reserved and scaredy, while the other's a shortstack skinnier than a twig with the personality of a goddamn chihuahua, you know what i'm talking about. She WILL beat you up given the chance.
Your design philosophy is PERFECT, I love that concept
Contrast can be great like that. I've got a few like those too! I've got a tall, white haired goth girl named Sammy. Almost 1,97. In her stories she gets a metal claw and a preference for maces. But Sammy follows the Shaggy Rogers School Of Surviving Monsters: Get scared and book it out of there.
Although she has a balance to learn: Sammy can have a short fuse sometimes, and thus the anger can be turned around to make her go against the monster more. The trick then is to not let anger get the better of her, either.
Omfg how even tf people s3x74l1z3 Amy Rose and Sayori THEY'RE LITERALLY KIDS, at least Toriel is adult (it doesn't make me stop hating the nsfw arts DON'T you DARE worry) BUT AMY ROSE AND SAYORI??? Amy is like 12 (before sega going bye bye and removing every sth ages...) and Sayori...I'm unsure how old she is but she's MOST likely an teenage
LEAVE THEM ALONE YOU DAMN CREEPSSSSSS
Not to flaunt but ive got an alien oc and i pove her because her human form is a very pretty girly girl but in her true alien form she's a gooey weird bug and her exoskeleton opens hp and her insides change colors and textures to she can shift forms :D I was kind of weirded out by the whole "man meets and falls in love with a sexy alien thing" i heard of in old movies and i tought it would be nice if i had a girl alien and boy be friends instead
Gross! Weird! I love it!!! >:)
Sexy alien things are literal angels.
slayyyy
I love seeing reasons and well thought out things about how some creatures shapeshift [not that it's bad] but sometimes it's not taken into account as much and it's just some poof of smoke yk
example I have of my own, I have a character made of magic and tech, which uses nature to sculpt their bodies into other animals but have to be near nature for it to happen, and underneath it they still have tech [I blew up their original form teehee so they need tech]
She sounds cool, I love weird bug aliens and being gooey or very squishy in her true form gives her a reasonable explanation as to why she can shift into a human form in the first place so awesome! Also, ew, gooey alien, keep that design! We don't get enough friendly gooey alien critters
Unfortunately my one alien character falls into trope 5
At least I'm *somewhat* taking his environment into account. He's a frog-like humanoid who lives in a very marsh-like planet, but he still looks very human because the creator is a lazy bum
9:07 Id like to bring an honourable mention of how Jojo's Bizarre Adventure uses this, one of the most recognisable parts of its style is the way it uses the "menacing" ( ゴ ) letter alot. While this does fall under the trope you are describing in being onomatopoeia for a non sound, its become such a notable part of Araki's style, that ive even seen multiple fans get it tatooed on themselves and merch sold of it. I feel like this just goes to say they are not always a bad thing, and sometimes leaning into the tropes can make something better, and even be a distinct mark of an artist. At the end of the day, its all personal taste.
Love the video
Tbh about trope #6, some birds have vaguely boob-like structures on their chests. The only issue is that these structures are found on male birds, not female birds.
Edit: but those "boobs" don't produce any kind of milk, it's purely for display
Of all the avatar youtubers I've seen, this channel matches the expressions to the voiceover the best
And boy howdy do I regret committing to it because it takes ages to edit 🥲🥲
Huge same to everything you said about sexual dimorphism! It’s sooooo boring to see all women of every race look the same just with different color palettes. If you wanna distinguish gender of a fantasy species, at least be interesting about it! Look at the imps from the Hazbin/Helluva verse. They have noticeable differences that aren’t “male big, female small”, namely natural hair color and horn patterns. (Bonus points for being easy for casual trans rep because it’s obvious without needing to explicitly say a character is trans)
i hate the male big female small trope. like it doesn't even make sense for lots of animals or all humans. hell lots of female animals in nature KILL their mate and are much bigger😊
@@ki.44524 yeah like tarantula and hyenas : D
@ki.44524 Lionesses too!
I also love that their imps have different types of horns or body size. Like one can look like a human with horns but another will look more like a possum or another will look like a twig (In comparison, for example, imp from s1e8, Moxxie and Stolas' buttler)
For trope three I can understand why it’s really weird, I read a good amount of manga so the “stare” thing is kinda just ingrained into my brain as normal.
20:29 could you imagine if, in DBZ instead of being humanoid they leaned heavy into the monkey aspect of Saiyans, I think that would be cool as hell honestly. If anyone has seen Legend- a dragonball tale on RUclips, that Goku design after he goes super is *chef’s kiss* beautiful. Mix it with the great ape form and I’d have a new addition. (I know that in dragonball there was no such thing as saiyans being aliens and that was just something added in Z but it’s a fun thought)
Actually sat down for trope six to think over my anthro characters. Some of them, a majority of the sea dwelling ones are questionable, I’m referring to merfolk. There is a dragon in my story who pretends to be one of the merfolk to eat humans and I have come to the conclusion that while he absolutely does not need to have breasts (he is capable of creating an illusion of being a beautiful mermaid) however he absolutely *would* have them anyway as a way to lure humans to him. I’m 50/50 on making the merfolk more mammalian or fishlike but the dragon himself is absolutely using breasts as a trap.
RUclips hid this for 9 seconds im offended
real
Hid it from me for 53 minutes
56😭
A hour 😭
2 hours 😢
I absolutely love how you gave such a comprehensive breakdown of evolution and then ended it with "So WHY do we end up with SPACE ELVES?!" 🤣🤣🤣❤️❤️❤️
i immediately thought of that one korra milkbending drawing for the second one
I love how you leave your voice over bloopers in. It catches me off guard and makes me laugh every time.
Glad you enjoy it. I don't keep all of them, but I feel it's a bit silly to pretend I have 0 flubs the whole time, lol.
@@bubbs6969 I've seen a few people who put their outtakes at the end of their videos. Not all, but a few.
6:42 my biggest peeve is when they give naturally skinny characters unnaturally large breasts. Breasts are proportionate to the rest of the body, the only exception being with plastic surgery and health issues.
Edit: I'm talking about breasts the size of large 30 lb watermelons on a 108 lb 5'6" woman when I say unnatural. Obviously there are very large breasts out there, but most of the time these people are drawing these characters with large breasts for the male gaze, not for representation.
I mean skinny woman have had really big chests it's just uncommon 😭
@@LilMissForgotten-nx4kf I mean unrealistically large* breasts lol. Like, borderline hentai xD
Second that, I was born with an unatrually large chest, and it is uncommon
@@CAve_CreAture Let’s take into account gigantomastia exists. It’s a condition that causes boobs to grow INSANELY large plus there are documented cases of it happening to women. This condition can be treated with breast reduction surgery.
@@SodaCider641 maybe that's what I had, since doctors saw me and immediately paid up. Thanks for sharing this, I'll definitely look into it ^^
First time viewer here! I use Morse code to talk to my friends for fun (we even have A group of OCs where we each designed a monster based on a certain sense like touch or sight & had them communicate in Morse code) so when I saw the dashed lines on your art persona? avatar? (sorry٫ im not sure what the right word is) I immediately knew it was Morse code. I think its so cool to include that you included that as a character design element!!! (also٫ as a sapphic: nice)
long story short: cool Morse code message on your avatar's(?) shirt :D
In Japanese there are lots of onomatopoeia just for non-sounds (such as stare) and it’s really an extra flavoring on top of the narration.
I think having sounds for non-sounds to express tone is what makes comics as a medium magical! Same thing could be said about italic, bold, and underlined characters in a book.
One gripe I have with the Rito is that all the females are really colorful (for seemly no other reason but to make them look more feminine) while the males are generally muted when with birds it's typically the other way around.
I do see this, but, there are actually a lot of bird species where the females are more vibrant, which happens for a variety of reasons! Electus parrots are a fantastic example (and I just Googled it to make sure that I was right about how to spell that lol). But, I do agree the reason might be to make them prettier than any actual zoology inspired ideas, haha.
As a Digital Circus fan artist, I have to say trope 2 REALLY stands out for other’s art of the female characters of TADC, especially Pomni and Ragatha. Poor Pomni has no boob meat and Ragatha literally has a bit of stuffing on her, but like, WHY ARE THEY DRAWN SO BIG I DONT GET IT 😭
I’ve been searching for someone talking about Same Body Syndrome forever! Also couldn’t help but notice the Cult Of The Lamb background music lol
New sub! :D
I will say, the original Sailor Moon, made the "same body type" a plot point. They used Sailor Venus as a body double for Sailor Moon.
So if you do "same body syndrome", make it a plot point, like body double/body guards or long lost siblings. Etc
I’m adding your ears to my art style i love them so much (Great video btw)
Trope 2, that’s something that as a relatively young artist i love, i feel like so many people forget how much story telling you can do with designs and body shapes. Imperfections, exaggerations, anything is on the table! And i think you did a great job covering that.
Ps: loved all the scientific things, im a sucker for science myself and i think your persona has a really cool design!
The fact the shirt says boobs in Morse code is kind of funny and idk why.
As I personally understand ,they made aliens looks more like humans for a love line to be not that weird
Ya people like beings with human traits
For the third one, in Japanese they have extra onomatopoeias. For example kira means that something is shiny/sparkly, if a character’s skirt is sparkly they would write kira kira. It might be the same in Korean so that would explain the extra onomatopoeias
These are all so true. Even the just opinion ones are so relatable! Especially the sexual dimorphism in non-human species, since it's just... Why is the female orc, who is supposed to be big and bulky, thinner than a stick? And why does she have makeup???
COTL soundtrack as bg music is actually a really good idea, good thinking!
Why do I love "art tropes I hate" videos so much
Cos you're a hater. (affectionate)
more biologically realistic alien species are so silly augurhghr
YES😭😭😭😭 Expedition by Wayne Barloe is a big inspiration for my alien art
I love drawing different body types; it gives each character a unique silhouette! I’m also a cartoonist, so my shapes can be a tad exaggerated🤣 but it’s fun!
Love this video, I’ll have to look at more of your channel!❤️
Totally agree with you on the original star wars having crazy species in it. Lizard men, gray aliens, giant slugs, three eyes goat men, hammer head shaped flat worm people. There’s a reason that when people see a setting with a bunch of wacky, non humanoid races, they sometimes call it a creature cantina
First video i see from you and i already love you. You're so respectful and understanding it's crazy 😭🙏
I agree with all of these.
I do plan on eventually (I MEAN EVENTUALLY) making a comic, so thanks for helping.
15:20 me who made my elven characters non-sexually dimorphic and almost nearly indistinguishable for one another: 😁😁😁
twink elf moment
Femboys, or tomboys?
Flawless. I’m a big fan of this for elves (ethereal androgyny) and dwarves (densely bearded masculinity) 😂
That's the joke with most elves.
im a little late to this discussion, but i just wanted to say that how passionately you discuss everything is so inspirational. a lot of the problems you listed are just things that are fundamentally wrong with human beings mentally but just portrayed in art form, like the entire bustification idea. it could be discussed forever and ever the way people will do that for their own selfish reasons but i digress. again, i really love the way you put the energy into some of these subjects, even if they’re just personal opinions. it’s incredibly entertaining and the way you push creativity in character design kinda makes me rethink some things 😭 im not the best with words so i hope i got my point across properly, just saying i love this video 🫶
Half of these problems are caused by serious down baddedness 😔
I know 😔 rip
@@ChristineSG19 I feel like they are more interested in the man than the women, judging by who usually get those unusual bodies.
@@justice8718 Indeed, also people just judge women more.
as someone with a small chest I feel you. i’ve felt disgusting or unwanted most of my life because I don’t see myself in fanart I like or how small chested women are often pushed aside or made fun of in favor of their bigger chested counterparts.
I am working on my own alien characters and there are different types for different biomes. my biology nerd loves to do research on different adaptations for different biomes. they all descended from a single type and due to millions of years of evolution their body’s have adapted in very specific ways to their environment they are humanoid(ish) but please I need my alien x human ships (ships are what keeps me making characters). Even if they are humanoid I love thinking about the best way for them do adapt for whatever environment i’m putting them in.
(And on a completely separate note i’m in love with the Architect’s / Persecutors from Subnatica.)
Dude, you are aware your alien doesn't have to look humanoid at ALL to ship them with a human character? You could ship a litteral insect looking alien with a human, and there are no moral problems with that. Any non-human sapient being is a person.
My guy, no offense but you have better things to worry about if you’re comparing yourself to cartoon drawings…
@@jazzymare Bro 😭🙏
This was my second video and I loved your opinion. It made total sense to me and I'll be following from here in in. Keep doing what you love, it's great! 😊 😊😊😊😊
Turns out I like listening to you talk too. I'll be coming back and binge watching your videos when doing work, drawing, eating, play ur vids in the background when I play games. Thanks for being nice to listen to, keep ranting! I love it!