you're right about the colors, but what bothers me more is the fact that in a lot of shows the characters just look like static model sheet PNGs half the time. It's like they're either afraid to go off-model for 3 milliseconds or they just never thought about drawing the characters from more than 4 angles.
I seen some modern cartoon characters that look absolutely awful from a front facing view. Like tilly & cricket from big city greens look so bizarre when viewed from the front.
I think cause most likely cartoons these days use a “puppet” method where they use different parts for them to move. Stop motion but in digital 2d basically. Which is why most of them never fuckin go off model ever. Especially shit like Teen Titans Go and Rick and Morty. They do draw in some frames sometimes but thats more complex movements. People probably never take the risk cos budget.
@@corpsdice2910 cos budget or cos lazy? Having more exaggerated poses might mean more than just chill feel good cartoons which is what the creators of these shows aim for instead of being entertaining.
It's very fun making OC's with bright colors but my problem here is not that they have many colors. It's that they're not shaded correctly. You can have as many colors on a character as you want but if they're standing in full darkness, their outfits should be darker. The same can be applied to colored lighting. You can't stick a character in bright red and blue in a cave without light and expect their outfits to be just as bright.
i mean steven universe does that super well lol, when there's lighting they really go all in. in the second episode everything turns red, in the first season finale everything turns green, etc. this example in the video is a show which i assume was pretty cheap lol, and that's usually more a question of time and resources than it is a question of not knowing color theory and shit lol
I've been craving for an animation style like Gargoyles or Spawn the animated series for so long now its not even funny, now all we got is this type of art style every where
Everything now is so round and a color palette over-saturated. I crave for that art style we tried to copy from the animes back in the 90s. Yu Yu Hakusho, Black Jack... Or americans shows like Batman TAS or Courage The Cowardly Dog
I think why they don’t is because it’s more expensive. It’s a bit harder to animate. With big western companies not really caring about animation a ton we get stuff like this. It’s a.so why many shows aren’t hand drawn in western animation anymore either, they tend to use a mix of animation tweening/puppet and hand drawn. Now there are hand drawn western shows but even those that are hand drawn aren’t as well animated as they were from the early 2000s and 90s. My guess is these shows are produced with smaller budgets and less time. That combined with the lack of merchandising and these shows don’t really pay for themselves so they cheap out
I don't necessarily think this particular aesthetic is always bad (I personally like the pastels in Steven Universe), but it's so heavily oversaturated the industry that it's become tiresome to look at. The thin outlines with no tapering plus a lack of shading makes these 2D characters somehow look even flatter than they already are.
Exactly! It's not that the artstyle is bad, I just see it used a lot, and it can be especially noticable in cartoons like Paranormal park or the Gen 5 mlp shorts. I know that it's supposed to be so that the characters can be animated more fluidly, but creators like Vivziepop and Gooseworx prove that you can animate characters fluidly without them looking incredibly round.
@@randomnpc7773 I think post most is for a younger audience, and that style is much easier to animate in smaller studios. You can't just make a design full of details and expect it to be easy to animate!
I agree. I love simple designs. I don't like it when everyone follows the same formula though. That's the main issue nowadays. Everyone follows the same formula.
what is tumblr art? is it just people who upload their art on tumblr? I don't understand. after what the guy in the video said it just sounds like a steven universe art style
Something I cannot stress enough as an artist is the importance of shapes in a character design. Is your character more uptight or strict? Triangles and sharp edges are your friend. Are they more laid back and neutral? Rectangles, squares if you’re leaning towards a more childish personality. Is your character soft and quiet? Circles, cylinders, and ovals. I see so much of the same soft and squishy character design and it feels so soulless; a character design should have actual *character* in it
I will admit these kinds of cartoons have their place, as do every cartoons , however they everywhere now it seems, they are like the indie games of cartoons, good in small doses but too much will leave you bitter and questioning why you aren't spending time on something with a better style
@@blueblaze27 I would say that’s because the people who used tumblr and had that artstyle grew up and got jobs in the animation industry, and also that they moved to twitter when nsfw was banned. But then again I don’t use tumblr so I wouldn’t know.
I'm a Tumblr artist too, and I've never seen this kind of art on my feed. So I don't even have an opinion other than, I don't understand the hate. I just don't understand all this hate for this style! If the artist likes to draw in this style why should we care, this is their style they chose to follow. The best thing is to just ignore it and see an art that you like.
@@blueblaze27 Definitely anyone who hates Tumblr ART in general is not looking in the right place! The amount of arts with dark, cold or warm colors that I've ever seen! Everyone acts like art on Tumblr is worse than Deviantart! What is ridiculous!! Compared to Deviantart, Tumblr has more variety of styles for every artist! To say THAT THIS is the only style Tumblr artists know how to do is a generalization and almost prejudiced!
@@dwellerintheden7973 I'm glad NSFW got banned, everyone also acts like there's only sex art on the platform, it seems like everyone who hates the site has only seen the bad side and just can't believe there's a good one!
Not only that colors represent a characters personality to. If you have a character with water powers you'd wanna give them blue to represent their personality and powers. Why on earth would you give a character with water powers red? Not only you can also use cold and warm colors to represent a character. Warm colors like red,yellow, and orange and cool colors like blue,green and purple.
tumblr art style: 1. obnoxious colors 2. overly simplified and feminized design (even for male characters) 3. apparent fear of any sharp edges 4. fetish for what i can only describe as "ambiguously brown" characters
Amphibia was probably one of the better looking shows that came out in the 2010s and 2020s. The colors were mostly earthy besides sprig, and they looked good together. The art style too was a bit more unique than most shows that came out around that time, but it wasn't ugly ever.
@@ahmadmalaki8364 amphibia's character designs are actually really good and complex in my opinion! This is coming from someone who makes character designs themselves
@@ahmadmalaki8364I can agree with that. Again I’m not hating on Amphibia but I have no interest on watching it, yes I’m an adult and it’s a kids show but it feels like more adults watched it, and the designs are a bit uncanny and it’s completely different than the Disney shows I grew up watching like Kim Possible and Phineas and Ferb.
I think at certain times art styles get popular. Just like you had those then this is what we have til a new thing comes along and people greenlighting are more willing to branch out. I heard it wouldn't be profitable to make kids shows like that now and that's why we got things like teen titans go. It's not like there aren't options either. Lots of non tumbler style art came out for mature audiences.
I hate art rules as much as the next person but the easiest way to ace a design is to look at a color wheel. You have about 3 types of way to do colors for a basic design (complementary, tertiary, or basically different shades) and after that all you need to do is simplify
It's not just art rules dude, this is color rules in general. It works for clothes, interior design, and character design. There's a reason you don't see a bunch of bright pastels used for walls in houses.
it comes and goes. in the 2000s, everything was flat and simplified like foster, powerpuff girls, samurai jack, dexter's lab, all of butch hartman's cartoons.. you can already see some of it slowly changing, although rn there aren't many cartoons being made lmao
Character designs for cartoons (with simple art styles) should be recognizable as a color pallet, for example: Yellow white blue black If you were to look at this color pallet on a piece of paper it would immediately remind you of Homer Simpson
Exactly! If you add too many details to a design it will be too crowded! The best thing for an animation is to make a simple but recognizable design! If the character designs on this show were too detailed it would be too complicated for them to animate!
As tumbler looking as something like Steven Universe is I can safely say that the coloring in that show looked really nice especially with the backgrounds. Art style isn't always an indicator of quality but it has a big part to play when it comes to hooking a viewer, so in all fairness this is more appealing to kids where as Arcane or Castlevania is targeted to young adults
Uhm, back in the 80's we had THUNDERCATS? Did you ever watch the opening? How about GI Joe? He-Man? Transformers? Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? All huge commercial hits... with KIDS!! And then we got BATMAN THE ANIMATED SERIES!!! GARGOYLES!! ANIMANIACS!! These were MEGAHITS with multiple age groups! And let's not forget the more modern megahit: "Avatar: The Last Airbender", which held enormous acclaim and still does! This modern cheap and lazy style panders to the LOWEST common denominator, and the shrinking audience for Western cartoons, while anime EXPLODES in popularity proves that TALENT IS REQUIRED AFTER ALL!!
@@Alondro77 Not saying kids shows can't have harder looking art styles just that kids are more prone to soft round things, more so young girls though not always. Besides there are adult shows with simpler art styles, it just depends on what the show is going for and the personal taste of the audience.
The deal is that Steven was one of the first ones to use CalArts, just as the Amazing world of Gumball, hence they were original, but now since almost everyshow uses it (including My little pony) it has started to look empty and cookiecut
The CalArts college ruined a lot of potential in artists as a school. People who went there brag about how the regression looks "better" than their old art when placed side by side. It's genuinely sad to see how their art mutated into the obnoxious jelly bean looking rot of hollyshit.
I’m not sure it’s even CalArts at this point. I think it’s Adventure Time and Steven Universe’s fault at this point because of how big they got. All the noodly armed characters were spawned from Adventure Time and everything else just reminds me of Steven Universe.
@@fbimom4205 that and Gumball. CalArts desperate to emulate that success in their students via teaching specific art styles is kinda scummy. Like trying to flood Hollywood with animators with only ONE style isn't very wise. It's stunting talent... Which fits the stagnation theme Hollywood itself loves to employ considering the low creativity they enforce.
@@AmaryInkawult Gumball is kind of ehh. Since the show itself uses a variety of different art styles for other characters. However I do know what you mean, with the Watterson’s designs.
For my art style, I've settled on a look reminiscent of 2000s cartoons that had very geometric looking characters (Danny Phantom, Billy and Mandy, Fairly OddParents, ect.). I wanted my style to be simple but not too simple, and that look has always been my preferred look in terms of character design, with sharp edges and thick outlines and such. While I don't outright hate this "Tumblr Art" look, I can't say I like it at all, either.
Same here. In my art style I like to use a balance between rounded and sharp edges in my character designs. Someone told me once that my art style is reminiscent of old Warner Bros but somewhat sharper.
I cant stand these comments where someone talks about not liking x thing and some masturbatory bitch is like “well I’MMM not like that! IIII do it differently!” Like I GET IT
While I wouldn't say tumblr art and shows with the same artstyle are *that* horrible, I CAN FULLY AGREE that the artstyle is tiring and empty, I would wish artists and studios would try more diverse artstyles as the tumblr artstyle gets very monotonous fr. ;v;
Looking at these makes me a bit more confident in my own ability to draw and color my characters, knowing I’m not making garish color palette choices like that bright blue, orange, purple and magenta looking guy that looks like a box of Crayola rip-off crayons threw up on.
That's literally just what people look like and dress like (also even though I really don't care if colors are correlated or not, orange and purple are opposites sooooooo......)
I have a dislike for those puppet noses. Why are their noses so orange? The only time my nose turns even close to that is when I scratch some skin off.
I’m noticing that some of these Tumblr character designs are just straight up caricatures of people behind the show. Why study character design when you can just make a rough sketch of the storyboard artist? Bonus points if you let said artist voice the character despite having zero VA training!
I think the best example of characters that have bright colors but are still nice to look at would definitely be the original Scooby Doo gang, they all have vibrant colors but you can watch the cartoon without your eyes bleeding. Freddie has a white sweater and bright red ascot but the softness of the blue shirt and jeans balances it out. Velma has the bright orange sweater and socks but her dark red skirt balances it out. Shaggy has the neon green shirt but the brown pants balances it out. Daphne has the purple dress and green scarf but the pink petty coat, tights, and headband-guess what-balances it out. Modern shows don’t know how to utilize bright colors in a way were the characters are still vibrant but not eye-popping. It also makes for much more iconic color schemes. They just don’t know how the color wheel, balance, or hues should work together.
Saturated Color can work on a few things but with some cartoons you show like Deadman Paranormal Park yeah it does not work when the color do not match with the others where it just clashes with each other
@@ak9k472 If you've seen the original pilot Dead end and the web comic after it Deadendia, then you can tell Paranormal Park was the better of the three unfortunately
i feel like artists for cartoons are forgetting the importance of colors and how to match them to your show. there’s a way to make your art bright and colorful WITHOUT making it look messy. my favorite example is my little pony. it has a cute and colorful look while still looking neat and put together. depending on what show you’re writing, you need to have your colors fit with that. it’s not always about the colors, it’s also about the shade and hue and where the colors are placed that really makes or breaks the look of your cartoon. for example, gravity falls has a dull and calm look to it, but also has intense colors when it needs to. this fits the camping and the mystery vibes very well. or how sailor moon has a colorful and pastel look to it to match the girl world where they lived. basically, make your colors match your show, it doesn’t need to be colorful for it to look good.
i think the main problem i have with shows like dead end is my eyes get bored because they don’t mix it up. two other shows with a “tumblr art style” are gumball and bluey. but, i still find myself interested because they also incorporate these beautifully drawn scenes, special non-puppet animation, animation/style changes, and more. they actually keep my eyes interested in what’s happening instead of getting bored despite the fact things are happening. puppet animation isn’t bad at all, and i’m so happy animation studios are finding ways to still make 2d animation- just easier. HOWEVER, if the puppet is rather simple and/or the style is and nothing changes, it gets boring after a while. especially when the animation is simple, too. some puppets can stretch to give the animation a sort of flair, but again, we don’t really see that in dead end. it’s simple. the movements are simple. the scenery is simple. i never felt a connection to the characters or the show because of that, if the story wasn’t enough.
The thing is, Dead end had a chance to look good. Look at the storyboard of Phantom of the theme park. The characters actually feel like they have volume and form, unlike the flat-looking models in the show.
Like what? Out of context this brings up so many questions. Are they baking cookies? Are they using this idea as a “aesthetic” or something? Are they drinking the vanilla extract? I don’t even want to go down that rabbit hole of a website but honestly I think it could be all three at once.
@@Salem_Witch_Trial_Logic tumblr added a poll feature so people made a lot of poll games with it. One of the poll games was making a cake and all the choices were ingredients of a cake, but for some reason there were way too many people choosing the vanilla extract option, and thats how the meme was born. People added vanilla extract everywhere on their polls and everyone would always choose vanilla extract.
I'm a self taught artist, I have my anime styles and my cartoon styles, I can easily switch to what style I want to draw. Also, what I've noticed that's most lacking is shading and lighting, it makes everything look so dull and flat, and the colors of the characters makes them look like they are not even part of the background, they stand out too much. For fun and experimenting, I took some screenshots from Steven Universe and the She-ra reboot, and gave them shading and lighting, it did came out much nicer and more lively, I also lowered the saturation a bit.
This is actually a good point, I notice a lot of shows don't add shading to make things simpler, faster, cheaper, whatever, and it leaves everything really flat unless there's really harsh lighting in a scene. I mean I get it, depending on how you shade, shading an animation is annoying as fuck, but still, it can make the whole show look way less appealing :/
My bigger issue with animated western shows today is general animation quality. It’s gone down a lot as the number of hand drawn cartoons isn’t as high as it used to be. I just don’t like the look of tweened animation even when it’s combined with hand drawn frames. TV animation should be hand drawn, even if it’s more limited. If Japanese animation studios can hand draw their animation for the vast majority of their show than western studios hiring Korean studios can as well. I also do have an issue with the oversimplified character designs where everyone has the same face. Now I’m not asking for super detailed characters as that will lead to the opposite issue if them being difficult to animate thus leading to stiffer animation and a more difficult production schedule. I just want what we got in some 90s and lots of early 2000s shows.
Japan is also doing incredible things with merged media formats. Just look at "Beastars", "One Punch Man", "Chainsaw Man", and "Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War" for how advanced their techniques are becoming. The animation for those shows rivals the best Western animated films! And then there was the latest season of "Demon Slayer"... Western animation should commit seppuku in shame, for it will NEVER approach the jaw-dropping animation in the final fight of that arc.
The animators are so exploited and I heard that Japan is even worse with all those amazing animators actually suffering, with insane work schedules and miniscule amounts of sleep under desks thrown in. Not saying it's always like that, but they don't have the concept of death from overworking over there for no reason.
tbh as someone who watched all dead end paranormal park episodes i fucking agree that barney is an ass to look at, literally on the first episode it took me like what a day to watch the entire episode because i didnt like looking at barney. on a unrelated note im pretty sure the show got cancelled too.
At first I thought you were nitpicking about something really trivial, but really thinking about it, I think you could have gone deeper into this topic. I think you could have gone into how that blue haired character's design doesn't communicate anything about his personality.
Although I actually quite enjoy this kind of art style, I understand where you're coming from. I have a very similar distain for the "Gears of War Art Style" popular in the late 2000s/early 2010s (everything looked lifeless, and I swear too many games had that style at the time). It gets pretty exhausting when everything looks the exact same.
I watched your entire review of ‘I am not Starfire’ and as a suggestion you could review another one of Mariko Tamaki’s graphic novels. This one is called This one Summer.
I don’t really see why everyone’s so pressed. Art styles will come and go and everyone always remembers the past through the rose tinted glasses of nostalgia. I understand tiring over something new. The current state of mascot horror has me tired. But it doesn’t mean that art has no merit simply because of a weaker aspect. I personally enjoy the art in these shows for what they are. Im lucky because art does not deter me from a show and or it’s story. There will be weaknesses and strong suits in any piece of media. I personally see little issue because I know it isn’t soulless. The art feels like something you might see someone post online, and that’s okay. It’ll change, life comes and goes. Cartoons are not being ruined, art is just changing, as it always does.
@@Otval_bashkyhow pretentious and presumptuous of you to say. You literally don't get to say that as an objective fact. Any attempt is just you flounderously saying pithy words
@@Otval_bashky its true! its because old calarts used to teach better fundamentals and show you cool shit like UPA stuff and stuff from the "dark age" of animation (which isn't even bad) because they knew that the old style of digital animation was a bit primitive, so to compensate on that they learned how to transfer the UPA stylings into vector graphics and to use limited animation.
I think in this case the "Tumblr art" style is referring to the styles of shows that are extremely popular on Tumblr and that for some reason people there are worryingly obsessed with them.
Good God, that dude's color scheme is ALL OVER THE PLACE!!! I agree with you!! Pic colors that compliment the skin tone, and DON'T give the viewers headaches looking at these CLASHY color schemes!! Clashy colors are the reason why shows like Problem Solverz were a literal eyesore.
I'm an artist, but have no concept on character design. I just like to draw whatever looks nice. Tbh, I don't see a problem with this art style. I mean, the blue hair is distracting and I hate the noses, but other than that I think it's fine. And idk about other people but for me the reboot for She-ra and High Guardian Spice actually had some nice character designs/art style (and I'm only talking about the designs and not the stories themselves)
Seeing shows like these make me miss shows that had an anime style to it like the 2003 Teen Titans or shows that just had a very unique style to it, like Invader Zim or Super Robot Monkey Team Hyper Force Go.
@Bianca F. The comics were more adult oriented. The show is more kid friendly and most of the characters are not assholes as they were in the comic. Really feels like different characters
@@Nutmeg-Barney's boyfriend, yeah. I read about that too. Maybe because I'm not a gay man, but I didn't think that was a good idea to put in the story. I hope had Paranormal Park not been cancelled, that plotline wouldn't be part of the show.
I like the cartoony aesthetic, and I do think vibrant colors help emphasize the childlike art style, but as someone who has zero fashion sense, even I am wondering what in the hell these artists are doing with their color palettes.
Genuine question but did you manually saturate the screenshots??? I watched dead end too and your screenshots are heavily saturated compared to what you actually see in the shows, the color are much more mild and desaturated
I think it was more out of pocket. He had to bring up something as bad and simple as family guy to show how low the bar really was for these shows making bad character designs.
It's rather annoying that this has become the norm nowadays. It seems as though everyone wanted to copy Steven Universe, but Steven Universe's art style doesn't work for everything.
Dead end pilot came out 11 years ago on RUclips. TV networks also tend to rehash art styles to make it easier to animate as well so I wouldn’t put too much blame on the creators. Look at the difference between the Stephen universe pilot and the show. Or the new Ben 10 show where the creator expressed how he wanted it to look more like anime and less like well you know.
Yeah, I remember first seeing Dana Terrace's beta designs for TOH and they look literally nothing alike to the official show style. Studios don't wanna spend a bunch of money on shows they want to pump out for easy money
Basically, your issue with this is that the Color Pallet is a mess. These people do not understand Color Theory. The only complimentary colors on the MC is their blue hair and orange jacket. The purple plum shirt and magenta pants are too distracting for what they were actually going for. And the green and pink buttons as well as the green earrings are rather unnecessary. What they could do to remedy this is to use either white or gray. Make their pants white and their shirt gray (or you can switch them). The earrings can be silver or gold to compliment the orange jacket! Edit: Just learned this MC has Fire Abilities. The color pallet should be Red as a base.
@@multi-tasker1389 it's a different story if someone irl chose the same outfit every day with color combination looking like an eyesore, plus irl has the benefit of shading. Plus, cartoons are known for saying a lot more in colors and shapes. Regardless if how it's they're dressed or not it can be pretty distracting if not used well and can either make or break a viewer's opinion over a character.
I get not liking the art style of shows (DE's isn't my favorite but it's certainly not the worst) but why are people just simplifying their criticisms into a term that doesn't even apply? 'CalArts' style has been used as a complaint on shows where the creator didn't go to CalArts (even though the original use of the term was for a much different style) and both 'CalArts' and 'Tumblr' styles have been used as complaints on shows with wildly varying styles. I think it'd be much more helpful if people (not necessarily Jack cause he did specify color on Barney) just explained exactly what they didn't like about individual styles instead of lumping them all together. Plus Tumblr has such a wide array of art styles which makes calling it a style and pinning it to one set of style characteristics even less accurate. These designs are easier to animate than something like Swat Kats' style (fuck I miss that show); simpler and cheaper means more studios are going to prefer that style. This is not an issue with Tumblr artists, CalArts graduates, or whatever actual artists, though some will just draw in that style because they think it's cool and not because they want to saturate media with similar styles (or...Steven Universe like I saw a lot of people saying. Seriously why did that get pinned on SU when Gravity Falls came out before it? Or does it get a pass just cause it was a good show?). This is an issue with studios trying to save some money because they don't care about animation (with the exception being TAWOG since by having so many different animation styles there had to be a care for it somewhere). I just wanted to give my two cents.
HOW ARE YOU THE ONLY ONE WHO UNDERSTANDS ME HERE??? Seriously, I HATE this ridiculous and bigoted hate with Tumblr and Calarts!! I honestly don't see anything wrong with these styles!! People who come don't seem to understand either and just hate for the sake of hating!
Now I like paranormal park but I can agree this art style is getting repetitive, like I actually put off watching this show for a while cause I thought it was gonna be something like velma thank god i was wrong
same, the art style was a big turn off (especially on the main character) but at some point I gave it a go and ended up finishing the show in like in a day or two
To be fair Dead End Paranormal Park is a show where the most of the main character are stated or implied to queer in some way. With louder more vibrant clothing style are a big aspect of queer culture. To me at least it makes sense for the show to subtly reflect that though it's character designs.
I remember when I was in art class and I was going off my anime like art I was constantly told by the teachers not to draw like that, that I need to learn the basics and get my own style instead of just copying a anime style and doing it poorly. I really think that needs to be said for this Tumblr art style that’s prevalent in animation right now. because it just looks like a bunch of amateurs being given the reins of something they don’t understand.
It's meh. I'm just glad that it didn't get popular enough to be with Steven Universe and the Owl House and the like. Imagine the fan base, and imagine the hatedom.
A lot of cartoons I’ve noticed have these tumblr styles. They always have the blush and red/brown noses, chunky/noodly bodies, and there’s always someone wearing a hijab. I agree that these art styles in cartoons are just getting repetitive and boring at this point, and it doesn’t help that it looks so fugly.
what i especially hate about these art styles is the complete lack of shading like seriously you can barely tell that there are shadows and also the obnoxiously ugly designs like bruh
@@MaverickhunterXZero eh hem. tumblr is a hellsite thats unprofitable due to the insanity of its users. twitter is a hellsite thats unprofitable to to the insanity of its owners.
As an artist who uses a lot of bizarre colors on his characters, I fully agree. Even when you want to break the rules, there are still rules that have to be adhered to. Total artistic chaos is just unpleasant to look at. My biggest gripe is just how ugly, lazy, and obnoxiously chunky all of these designs are, as though everything must be modeled to resemble a baby's teething toy. It's grotesque. I hate it.
What you said about the art style resembling a baby's teething toy is so damn accurate 😂 I've always hated this style from being a very young kid, it's lacks life and the crappy flash animation/drag animation makes it sooooo much worse. Its like the writers/designers never seen sharp lines on a character before. This is what I loved the early 90s 2000s shows for like Ren and Stimpy, The Fairly Odd parents, Danny Phantom, Total Drama ect. They are all very unique and not overly cutesy, which gets so annoying after the 50 millionth Steven Universe Gumball copycat. Sorry this was long, lol.
@@Dustieraccoon Gumball made the art style work because of the contrasting art styles throughout the show. The Watterson family had soft, rounded edges but characters like the teacher had sharp ones. There was so much mayhem with the styles that it all worked together flawlessly. The issue here is that there was an actual "method to the madness" behind it all that made it work, which it seems the modern Tumblr-taught artists have no way of comprehending.
@fractiouslemon completely agree, and I love gumball because of how wacky it is! I should have actually been more specific, because I was referring to his and Darwin's face and mouth in particular, but its such an old show and it was one of the first to do that style so it gets the pass. I loved Miss Simion's design it was hilarious, and the 3D models combined with the photo-realistic backgrounds was just fantastic to watch.
Cleveland's character design is just *simple* a yellow shirt and jeans are basic. It's not "smart" design, it's simple. They don't say anything about his character. His clothes don't have to, but that's what you see in the other kid's design. It has personality. Plenty of people in the real world dress in bright colors, clashing patterns, and push "what's normal". To me, it's not so colorful and in your face that it's tacky. But I do know what you mean
I think the main problem is not that a character has colored hair, but more that it doesn't suit their character design. A good example of when it’s well done is Amity Bligh, not only the color green/purple tells something about the personality of the character, but it also suits her design. Why not go even further with the Inklings of Splatoon with it colorful anarchy battle or it's story mode where each has a distinct color. Also, I recommend the video *"GOOD vs BAD Character Design: Tips and Tricks!"* which explains what makes a good character design.
Design, but the colors... You don't need too many shiny colors in just a character. Entrapta barely has, and works. But Glimmer and She-Ra has way too much.
@@calipurnioelreydelodio7141 I believe the maximum colors used on a character should be 3 mostly because too much of one colors is boring. So I'd add two more just to make the design memorable and break up the colors.
@@calipurnioelreydelodio7141 Never saw any issue with the colors of the characters. Glimmer and She Ra especially had a very specific color scheme and stuck to it. Adora was red, black, with white highlights whilst She Ra was white and gold. And Glimmer was shades of purple and pink with very simple easily discernable shapes. That's pretty good in my book.
Tumblr art styles are also super safe and demands that everything be “cushy” and soft. We’re never going to get anything harsh, sharp, and jagged again like Ed, Edd, and Eddy. Oh. And I HATE tumblr nose. 😑
It super fun to make bright and colorful characters but PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PICK 3 COLORS AND STICK TO THEM (and use the 25/50/75 color rule) it works for a reason!
I heard the show itself was pretty good. (No Avatar the last air bender but good) it’s just the art style that’s throwing me off. Yea it’s for a younger audience and younger audiences like a lot of color but… like you said, it feels like a Tumblr show. It gives me High Guardian Spice vibes and it sucks because it’s made be writers who actually care about their work.
I am curious on what your opinion is on the character designs in Disney's strange world. Personally I hate it. The humans designs gross me out and it's hard for me to explain why.
When the Netflix She-Ra came out my friend was gushing over the new designs (and she did not care about the original cartoon she just loves what Tumblr TELLS her to love). I said 'What is with the raccoon face? Every single character looks like they are constantly blushing but they aren't?' and she defended it without even allowing a single moment of agreeing MAYBE it looked a bit odd. I wasn't even slamming the designs just that odd choice and she took it like it was an assault. XD
My guy this comment does NOT make you sound good. Seems like you don't like your friend very much since you sound extremely judgemental of them over something so small.
@@reallyjojoify 'my friend was not prepared for an epic debate when she wanted to talk about how cool a new show was, that'll show her!! XD' bro's a write off
She-reees are extremely fragile, defensive and will attack at the smallest thing. The show and fandom is the personification of a house of cards; One stiff wind of criticism and down it goes. I wouldn't be surprised if one of them sniffed out this comment just to shit on you over this. They can't even fathom the showrunner just uses them to prop herself up when she's trying to pitch a project.
The character design wouldn’t be that bad if they just pick a good colour scheme to go with, instead of using a dart board with random colours no one uses.
The red nose feature is actually a real life skin flaw just as freckles, acne marks and vitiligo (although having a red nose rarely happens), which the Tumblr art style is known for incorporating.
@@CarbonatedToast55 No problem. I want to share this. Did you know that one of my teachers in Fine art school once prohibited his students to use this character style, just as some art teachers banned students from using anime style. If one student made any character design that followed the "Tumblr" art style, they were instantly given a failing grade and are even kicked out of the classroom.
@@GatlingPea32 Ugh that's so rough I'm sorry that happened. My art teacher in high school told me to my face she would fail me if I didn't stop drawing in anime style. Wasn't even drawing actual anime characters, just the style >.
I think what the main issue is is A. The lack of color consistency And B. The lack of distinct shapes. Also maybe shading, that too. It definitely has that generic tumblr artist feel ( I’ve seen some amazing tumblr artist tho, but most of those accounts belong to professional artist lol ) in both the shape language and color. The lack of distinct or sharp shapes are very off, mixed with the random color choices that seem almost thrown together, and it creates this weird, off balanced and rather uninteresting blob of a character design. Like as concept art it’s… fine. But I think they should play around more with the designs, and really figure out what they want from the character. Make something that’ll fit “their” character, not “a” character. If that makes sense
I enjoyed the plot of this Paranormal Park show, but yeah… the MC has a bad design. I wish they at least colored his hair to be warmer-toned like the rest of his clothes.
@@sailorstar3148 it definitely doesn’t! I liked this show a lot, from what I remember, the characters were entertaining and while most of it was light-hearted, it still had more serious moments. Too bad Netflix cancelled it…
you're right about the colors, but what bothers me more is the fact that in a lot of shows the characters just look like static model sheet PNGs half the time. It's like they're either afraid to go off-model for 3 milliseconds or they just never thought about drawing the characters from more than 4 angles.
I seen some modern cartoon characters that look absolutely awful from a front facing view. Like tilly & cricket from big city greens look so bizarre when viewed from the front.
I think cause most likely cartoons these days use a “puppet” method where they use different parts for them to move. Stop motion but in digital 2d basically. Which is why most of them never fuckin go off model ever. Especially shit like Teen Titans Go and Rick and Morty. They do draw in some frames sometimes but thats more complex movements. People probably never take the risk cos budget.
@@nompuehuenu reminds me of when lamar abrams purposefully drew lapis with giant hair when the fans complained about it's size.
@@nompuehuenu most Steven Universe characters literally are shape shifters, but I get what you mean lol
@@corpsdice2910 cos budget or cos lazy?
Having more exaggerated poses might mean more than just chill feel good cartoons which is what the creators of these shows aim for instead of being entertaining.
It's very fun making OC's with bright colors but my problem here is not that they have many colors. It's that they're not shaded correctly. You can have as many colors on a character as you want but if they're standing in full darkness, their outfits should be darker. The same can be applied to colored lighting. You can't stick a character in bright red and blue in a cave without light and expect their outfits to be just as bright.
I just noticed it when looking at 0:36, it feels like they're just standing Infront of a picture background
i mean steven universe does that super well lol, when there's lighting they really go all in. in the second episode everything turns red, in the first season finale everything turns green, etc. this example in the video is a show which i assume was pretty cheap lol, and that's usually more a question of time and resources than it is a question of not knowing color theory and shit lol
Yeah.
.. like, they dont feel like their are in that scenario they are trying to show at all-😂😂
Also, the colors aren't put together well. No one would style an outfit like that in real life
@@olivianwokolo3254 that image is edited.
I've been craving for an animation style like Gargoyles or Spawn the animated series for so long now its not even funny, now all we got is this type of art style every where
You made me want to watch Gargoyles, thx 😆
Everything now is so round and a color palette over-saturated.
I crave for that art style we tried to copy from the animes back in the 90s.
Yu Yu Hakusho, Black Jack... Or americans shows like Batman TAS or Courage The Cowardly Dog
I think why they don’t is because it’s more expensive. It’s a bit harder to animate. With big western companies not really caring about animation a ton we get stuff like this. It’s a.so why many shows aren’t hand drawn in western animation anymore either, they tend to use a mix of animation tweening/puppet and hand drawn. Now there are hand drawn western shows but even those that are hand drawn aren’t as well animated as they were from the early 2000s and 90s. My guess is these shows are produced with smaller budgets and less time. That combined with the lack of merchandising and these shows don’t really pay for themselves so they cheap out
@@calipurnioelreydelodio7141 hell even a relatively simplistic art style like Spectacular Spiderman would be cool to see more of
Go watch primal. That might scratch your itch for dark and complexly drawn cartoon.
I wish we get more shows with a 2000 or 90s art style
We have that, but most of them arent as popular cus nowadays people just want conventionally attractive character designs.
I swear if studios cash in on laziest Art like "Gatcha Life", I'm throwing away my phone and switching to Flip phones
I would kill to have a show done in the style of classic superhero cartoons like X-men or Batman the animated series
I hope more shows in the future will have more different and interesting art styles.
@@Uta_Chandra.H How the fuck did you manage to insert gacha into this conversation. Bro seeing the words "gacha life" Is like a punch in the face
Cleveland has yellow because “yellow is mellow.” That’s his personality
*was
That's pretty clever ngl
I don't necessarily think this particular aesthetic is always bad (I personally like the pastels in Steven Universe), but it's so heavily oversaturated the industry that it's become tiresome to look at. The thin outlines with no tapering plus a lack of shading makes these 2D characters somehow look even flatter than they already are.
It's not bad, It's just that there's so goddamn much of it it's hard to find other things.
Exactly! It's not that the artstyle is bad, I just see it used a lot, and it can be especially noticable in cartoons like Paranormal park or the Gen 5 mlp shorts. I know that it's supposed to be so that the characters can be animated more fluidly, but creators like Vivziepop and Gooseworx prove that you can animate characters fluidly without them looking incredibly round.
@@randomnpc7773 I think post most is for a younger audience, and that style is much easier to animate in smaller studios. You can't just make a design full of details and expect it to be easy to animate!
I guess I understand why Bill Cipher destroyed his flat world with flat dreams 🤔
I agree. I love simple designs. I don't like it when everyone follows the same formula though. That's the main issue nowadays. Everyone follows the same formula.
At least Steven Universe knew how to use color theory...
Yeah, I cannot get over how beautiful the colors in Steven Universe was
The things that Steven Universe were NEVER gonna get caught slipping on: Background Art, Songs, and Color Theory usage.
i don’t even like steven universe but never once did it hurt my eyes to look at. it was actually pretty good with its colors and backgrounds.
Steven Universe's backgrounds are great, especially the gem structures left on earth. They look amazing.
Literally you can say all you want about the writing but they never once slept on the background art and colors
Tumblr art is the visual equivalent of talking a lot to say absolutely nothing.
Just like Tumblr users
There are artist that actually produce good art on tumblr
Just like college papers and lectures
@@sompret
damn got a 2.0 last semester champ?
what is tumblr art? is it just people who upload their art on tumblr? I don't understand. after what the guy in the video said it just sounds like a steven universe art style
Something I cannot stress enough as an artist is the importance of shapes in a character design. Is your character more uptight or strict? Triangles and sharp edges are your friend. Are they more laid back and neutral? Rectangles, squares if you’re leaning towards a more childish personality. Is your character soft and quiet? Circles, cylinders, and ovals. I see so much of the same soft and squishy character design and it feels so soulless; a character design should have actual *character* in it
To me I think your limiting character designs thinking like that how about doing the opposite with the shapes
@@xxkankala1671 yeah for example jack horner is really round on his face, but he is a dangerous and unredeemable villain.
@@caimbra5195 you could say the circless represents how childish he is
@@guynamedrick4419 that works too i've read that his small head also represents that he grew but his mentality stayed small.
for me i would say these wouldn't really matter since some characters personality isnt usually associated with looks
I will admit these kinds of cartoons have their place, as do every cartoons , however they everywhere now it seems, they are like the indie games of cartoons, good in small doses but too much will leave you bitter and questioning why you aren't spending time on something with a better style
As an artist who uses Tumblr I, too, am sick of this kind of style.
i haven't actually seen a lot of tumblr art style drawings on tumblr itself weirdly enough, maybe i'm not looking in the right places.
@@blueblaze27 I would say that’s because the people who used tumblr and had that artstyle grew up and got jobs in the animation industry, and also that they moved to twitter when nsfw was banned. But then again I don’t use tumblr so I wouldn’t know.
I'm a Tumblr artist too, and I've never seen this kind of art on my feed. So I don't even have an opinion other than, I don't understand the hate. I just don't understand all this hate for this style! If the artist likes to draw in this style why should we care, this is their style they chose to follow. The best thing is to just ignore it and see an art that you like.
@@blueblaze27 Definitely anyone who hates Tumblr ART in general is not looking in the right place! The amount of arts with dark, cold or warm colors that I've ever seen! Everyone acts like art on Tumblr is worse than Deviantart! What is ridiculous!! Compared to Deviantart, Tumblr has more variety of styles for every artist! To say THAT THIS is the only style Tumblr artists know how to do is a generalization and almost prejudiced!
@@dwellerintheden7973 I'm glad NSFW got banned, everyone also acts like there's only sex art on the platform, it seems like everyone who hates the site has only seen the bad side and just can't believe there's a good one!
Not only that colors represent a characters personality to. If you have a character with water powers you'd wanna give them blue to represent their personality and powers. Why on earth would you give a character with water powers red? Not only you can also use cold and warm colors to represent a character. Warm colors like red,yellow, and orange and cool colors like blue,green and purple.
Well blue fire exists but usually it's not used
@@yulee3266 Well in that case yeah blue can be used
What about fire powers, red hair and blue clothes?
And Hades of Hercule's disney Film, 1994?
@@magicalronin That works but it depends on what shade your using to be honest.
tumblr art style:
1. obnoxious colors
2. overly simplified and feminized design (even for male characters)
3. apparent fear of any sharp edges
4. fetish for what i can only describe as "ambiguously brown" characters
Not to mention Sexual Identities as a Personality.
Round nose too.
Can't forget about bean mouth, and black outline
Thats pokemon
yea I get the first three points, but wtf does the fourth means?? Like really, idk much abt it and whatever this is makes me confuse..
Amphibia was probably one of the better looking shows that came out in the 2010s and 2020s. The colors were mostly earthy besides sprig, and they looked good together. The art style too was a bit more unique than most shows that came out around that time, but it wasn't ugly ever.
@@ahmadmalaki8364 amphibia's character designs are actually really good and complex in my opinion! This is coming from someone who makes character designs themselves
While I don’t hate Amphibia the art style was so simplistic it made me not want to watch it before I discovered how great the writing was
@@Andyatl2002 Yes. despite the art style, the ending nearly made me cry. the story and the writing is beautiful. definitely worth it
@@ahmadmalaki8364I can agree with that. Again I’m not hating on Amphibia but I have no interest on watching it, yes I’m an adult and it’s a kids show but it feels like more adults watched it, and the designs are a bit uncanny and it’s completely different than the Disney shows I grew up watching like Kim Possible and Phineas and Ferb.
@@JonathanGaeta have you ever watched gravity falls? if so, you'd probably like it
I miss the days we had cooler art styles from cartoons like Huntik, Swat Kats, TMNT 2003, etc. Glad I grew up watching those.
I'm glad to see some Huntik appreciation.
I think at certain times art styles get popular. Just like you had those then this is what we have til a new thing comes along and people greenlighting are more willing to branch out. I heard it wouldn't be profitable to make kids shows like that now and that's why we got things like teen titans go.
It's not like there aren't options either. Lots of non tumbler style art came out for mature audiences.
tmnt 2003? what about the 2012 3d series?
@@fyran6453 we are discussing 2d art not 3d, whole different ball game
There are cartoons today that have cool artstyles.
I hate art rules as much as the next person but the easiest way to ace a design is to look at a color wheel. You have about 3 types of way to do colors for a basic design (complementary, tertiary, or basically different shades) and after that all you need to do is simplify
It's not just art rules dude, this is color rules in general. It works for clothes, interior design, and character design.
There's a reason you don't see a bunch of bright pastels used for walls in houses.
@@nickelakon5369 yeah it's just color theory pretty much an everything rule
so you don't hate rules lol
Miss old school Cartoon Network where cartoons had their own unique design. Now everything looks bubbly
it comes and goes. in the 2000s, everything was flat and simplified like foster, powerpuff girls, samurai jack, dexter's lab, all of butch hartman's cartoons.. you can already see some of it slowly changing, although rn there aren't many cartoons being made lmao
Disney too especially during the Renaissance area and the early 2000s with Disney channel
Not every...
Character designs for cartoons (with simple art styles) should be recognizable as a color pallet, for example:
Yellow
white
blue
black
If you were to look at this color pallet on a piece of paper it would immediately remind you of Homer Simpson
I thought it was minions
No I didn't get reminded of anything
I thought of the flag of the Russian Empire
Exactly! If you add too many details to a design it will be too crowded! The best thing for an animation is to make a simple but recognizable design! If the character designs on this show were too detailed it would be too complicated for them to animate!
@@laraprisma6381 Hazbin Hotel be like (the desings are absurdly complicated)
I've seen so much of the tumblr artstyle lately and it's torture fr
I feel like every ten to 15 years a certain style "sticks" in the industry. It'll change soon enough and thank God when it does
It seems like the trigger style is next
I bet the Into The Spider-verse type art style is up next
@@tiamystic hopefully
@@drawingwinxstyle9193 I think they’re referring to Studio Trigger
@@n908qd7 like shows like kill la kill and gurren Laggan
Tumblr art is somehow more soulless then corporate art.🐱
No way! It's pretty soulless but so much... No way!
Nay. It's the progenitor of the corporate style found in things like Facebook.
Maybe because the soul gets ripped out? Rather than not having a soul to begin with?
Okay but why the cat emoji
I recommend Jonny Quest: The Real Adventures. Season 2's animation is divine.
As tumbler looking as something like Steven Universe is I can safely say that the coloring in that show looked really nice especially with the backgrounds. Art style isn't always an indicator of quality but it has a big part to play when it comes to hooking a viewer, so in all fairness this is more appealing to kids where as Arcane or Castlevania is targeted to young adults
That is true. Plenty of good cartoons with the bad art style and a bad shows good art style.
Uhm, back in the 80's we had THUNDERCATS? Did you ever watch the opening? How about GI Joe? He-Man? Transformers? Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? All huge commercial hits... with KIDS!!
And then we got BATMAN THE ANIMATED SERIES!!! GARGOYLES!! ANIMANIACS!! These were MEGAHITS with multiple age groups!
And let's not forget the more modern megahit: "Avatar: The Last Airbender", which held enormous acclaim and still does!
This modern cheap and lazy style panders to the LOWEST common denominator, and the shrinking audience for Western cartoons, while anime EXPLODES in popularity proves that TALENT IS REQUIRED AFTER ALL!!
@@Alondro77 these are kids cartoons not 'for all ages' cartoons like you listed.
@@Alondro77 Not saying kids shows can't have harder looking art styles just that kids are more prone to soft round things, more so young girls though not always.
Besides there are adult shows with simpler art styles, it just depends on what the show is going for and the personal taste of the audience.
The deal is that Steven was one of the first ones to use CalArts, just as the Amazing world of Gumball, hence they were original, but now since almost everyshow uses it (including My little pony) it has started to look empty and cookiecut
The CalArts college ruined a lot of potential in artists as a school. People who went there brag about how the regression looks "better" than their old art when placed side by side. It's genuinely sad to see how their art mutated into the obnoxious jelly bean looking rot of hollyshit.
I’m not sure it’s even CalArts at this point. I think it’s Adventure Time and Steven Universe’s fault at this point because of how big they got. All the noodly armed characters were spawned from Adventure Time and everything else just reminds me of Steven Universe.
@@fbimom4205 that and Gumball. CalArts desperate to emulate that success in their students via teaching specific art styles is kinda scummy. Like trying to flood Hollywood with animators with only ONE style isn't very wise. It's stunting talent... Which fits the stagnation theme Hollywood itself loves to employ considering the low creativity they enforce.
@@AmaryInkawult Gumball is kind of ehh. Since the show itself uses a variety of different art styles for other characters. However I do know what you mean, with the Watterson’s designs.
@@AmaryInkawult I get what you’re saying, I just wouldn’t use gumball as an example
CalArts can save time but because it's extremely simple that it starts looking boring but colors and tone can change it
For my art style, I've settled on a look reminiscent of 2000s cartoons that had very geometric looking characters (Danny Phantom, Billy and Mandy, Fairly OddParents, ect.). I wanted my style to be simple but not too simple, and that look has always been my preferred look in terms of character design, with sharp edges and thick outlines and such.
While I don't outright hate this "Tumblr Art" look, I can't say I like it at all, either.
This type of artstyle is why I'm sort of upset when people call mine cartoony...
@@chrispambo1539 What look are you going for?
Same here. In my art style I like to use a balance between rounded and sharp edges in my character designs. Someone told me once that my art style is reminiscent of old Warner Bros but somewhat sharper.
I cant stand these comments where someone talks about not liking x thing and some masturbatory bitch is like “well I’MMM not like that! IIII do it differently!” Like I GET IT
I agree with that. Though how I draw my characters (and in general), I try and do give it a sharp-yet-cartoony look.
While I wouldn't say tumblr art and shows with the same artstyle are *that* horrible, I CAN FULLY AGREE that the artstyle is tiring and empty, I would wish artists and studios would try more diverse artstyles as the tumblr artstyle gets very monotonous fr. ;v;
They obviously don't teach proper color theory in art classes anymore.
Its a theory not fact
@@xxkankala1671 radio
@@sudzii363 active
@@axo3940 imagine dragon song!!
woahohoho-oh woahohoho-oh
Looking at these makes me a bit more confident in my own ability to draw and color my characters, knowing I’m not making garish color palette choices like that bright blue, orange, purple and magenta looking guy that looks like a box of Crayola rip-off crayons threw up on.
That's literally just what people look like and dress like (also even though I really don't care if colors are correlated or not, orange and purple are opposites sooooooo......)
@@multi-tasker1389they are saying ALL the colors together
I find the art style bothersome too. And I think most people who aren't part of Tumblr dislike it too. Particularly the noses.
I have a dislike for those puppet noses. Why are their noses so orange? The only time my nose turns even close to that is when I scratch some skin off.
@@Stickman_Productions it's an ugly art style. And the closest I have seen are symptoms of alcoholism.
I think most people who touch grass probably don’t care about stylistic trends in children’s animation
@@theofthe2299 too bad because I live in a desert
For real, the red noses make them all look like they got punched in the nose or have a cold…
I’m noticing that some of these Tumblr character designs are just straight up caricatures of people behind the show. Why study character design when you can just make a rough sketch of the storyboard artist? Bonus points if you let said artist voice the character despite having zero VA training!
glares at Professor Caraway
@@mayorstudland2929even with that dude i still prefer his character design compared to most of the shit in this video…
Man child
The blue haired dude from the thumbnail looks like if Alph from Pikmin 3 became a Steven Universe oc
his name is Barney
I think the best example of characters that have bright colors but are still nice to look at would definitely be the original Scooby Doo gang, they all have vibrant colors but you can watch the cartoon without your eyes bleeding. Freddie has a white sweater and bright red ascot but the softness of the blue shirt and jeans balances it out. Velma has the bright orange sweater and socks but her dark red skirt balances it out. Shaggy has the neon green shirt but the brown pants balances it out. Daphne has the purple dress and green scarf but the pink petty coat, tights, and headband-guess what-balances it out. Modern shows don’t know how to utilize bright colors in a way were the characters are still vibrant but not eye-popping. It also makes for much more iconic color schemes. They just don’t know how the color wheel, balance, or hues should work together.
Saturated Color can work on a few things but with some cartoons you show like Deadman Paranormal Park yeah it does not work when the color do not match with the others where it just clashes with each other
Would you believe me when I say the cartoon hangover pilot and the webcomic it's based on was worse at the colors?
@@Saltedroastedcaramel depends
@@Saltedroastedcaramel can you name a few you know
@@ak9k472 If you've seen the original pilot Dead end and the web comic after it Deadendia, then you can tell Paranormal Park was the better of the three unfortunately
@@Saltedroastedcaramel wait are you serious?
i feel like artists for cartoons are forgetting the importance of colors and how to match them to your show. there’s a way to make your art bright and colorful WITHOUT making it look messy. my favorite example is my little pony. it has a cute and colorful look while still looking neat and put together. depending on what show you’re writing, you need to have your colors fit with that. it’s not always about the colors, it’s also about the shade and hue and where the colors are placed that really makes or breaks the look of your cartoon. for example, gravity falls has a dull and calm look to it, but also has intense colors when it needs to. this fits the camping and the mystery vibes very well. or how sailor moon has a colorful and pastel look to it to match the girl world where they lived. basically, make your colors match your show, it doesn’t need to be colorful for it to look good.
i think the main problem i have with shows like dead end is my eyes get bored because they don’t mix it up.
two other shows with a “tumblr art style” are gumball and bluey. but, i still find myself interested because they also incorporate these beautifully drawn scenes, special non-puppet animation, animation/style changes, and more. they actually keep my eyes interested in what’s happening instead of getting bored despite the fact things are happening.
puppet animation isn’t bad at all, and i’m so happy animation studios are finding ways to still make 2d animation- just easier. HOWEVER, if the puppet is rather simple and/or the style is and nothing changes, it gets boring after a while. especially when the animation is simple, too. some puppets can stretch to give the animation a sort of flair, but again, we don’t really see that in dead end. it’s simple. the movements are simple. the scenery is simple. i never felt a connection to the characters or the show because of that, if the story wasn’t enough.
The thing is, Dead end had a chance to look good. Look at the storyboard of Phantom of the theme park. The characters actually feel like they have volume and form, unlike the flat-looking models in the show.
Tawog was actually one of the best shows I've watched. So expressive while having a simple art style
@@coffeemetro truly! its an amazing show and it’s so visually interesting. ^^
I like gumball but I don't think every cartoon has to look the same.
They’re trying too hard to be quirky.
Y'all acting like people enjoying childish color schemes is deep
@@electricay It’s not that deep yeah but, it gets exhausting after seeing the same art style over and over again 😭
This is Literally just how people dress and look
@@multi-tasker1389 Not everyone dresses like this, tf are you on?
@@multi-tasker1389 I've never seen somebody dress like that.
People on youtube: ranting about whatever the hell about tumblr that upsets them
People on tumblr: "vanilla extract"
Facts
People not knowing that Tumblr is still thriving: "huh?"
honestly tumblr is like a whole new ecosystem disconnected from the rest of the internet
Like what? Out of context this brings up so many questions. Are they baking cookies? Are they using this idea as a “aesthetic” or something? Are they drinking the vanilla extract?
I don’t even want to go down that rabbit hole of a website but honestly I think it could be all three at once.
@@Salem_Witch_Trial_Logic tumblr added a poll feature so people made a lot of poll games with it. One of the poll games was making a cake and all the choices were ingredients of a cake, but for some reason there were way too many people choosing the vanilla extract option, and thats how the meme was born. People added vanilla extract everywhere on their polls and everyone would always choose vanilla extract.
I'm a self taught artist, I have my anime styles and my cartoon styles, I can easily switch to what style I want to draw.
Also, what I've noticed that's most lacking is shading and lighting, it makes everything look so dull and flat, and the colors of the characters makes them look like they are not even part of the background, they stand out too much.
For fun and experimenting, I took some screenshots from Steven Universe and the She-ra reboot, and gave them shading and lighting, it did came out much nicer and more lively, I also lowered the saturation a bit.
This is actually a good point, I notice a lot of shows don't add shading to make things simpler, faster, cheaper, whatever, and it leaves everything really flat unless there's really harsh lighting in a scene. I mean I get it, depending on how you shade, shading an animation is annoying as fuck, but still, it can make the whole show look way less appealing :/
That's a point I like! And I must admit that there is not even a problem with this kind of style!
Primary colors and a few good ones that stick out and compliment each other are essential!
I'm tired of everyone being composed of jelly bean circles and looking like sesame street rejects from Wish.
My bigger issue with animated western shows today is general animation quality. It’s gone down a lot as the number of hand drawn cartoons isn’t as high as it used to be. I just don’t like the look of tweened animation even when it’s combined with hand drawn frames. TV animation should be hand drawn, even if it’s more limited. If Japanese animation studios can hand draw their animation for the vast majority of their show than western studios hiring Korean studios can as well.
I also do have an issue with the oversimplified character designs where everyone has the same face. Now I’m not asking for super detailed characters as that will lead to the opposite issue if them being difficult to animate thus leading to stiffer animation and a more difficult production schedule. I just want what we got in some 90s and lots of early 2000s shows.
Japan is also doing incredible things with merged media formats. Just look at "Beastars", "One Punch Man", "Chainsaw Man", and "Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War" for how advanced their techniques are becoming. The animation for those shows rivals the best Western animated films!
And then there was the latest season of "Demon Slayer"... Western animation should commit seppuku in shame, for it will NEVER approach the jaw-dropping animation in the final fight of that arc.
@@Alondro77 I think this one [ruclips.net/video/yNHezIH6tjo/видео.html] could give some anime a run for their money imo.
@@Alondro77what about spider verse?
helluva boss and villanous don't count in drawing variety? They will be bad series but they don't use tumblr style
The animators are so exploited and I heard that Japan is even worse with all those amazing animators actually suffering, with insane work schedules and miniscule amounts of sleep under desks thrown in. Not saying it's always like that, but they don't have the concept of death from overworking over there for no reason.
You know that scene from Gravity Falls where the gnome just vomits a rainbow? I assume this is how tumblr artist view the color wheel.
tbh as someone who watched all dead end paranormal park episodes i fucking agree that barney is an ass to look at, literally on the first episode it took me like what a day to watch the entire episode because i didnt like looking at barney. on a unrelated note im pretty sure the show got cancelled too.
yeah didn't like barney's design either. Out of everyone on the show I thought he looked the worst in that art style
At first I thought you were nitpicking about something really trivial, but really thinking about it, I think you could have gone deeper into this topic.
I think you could have gone into how that blue haired character's design doesn't communicate anything about his personality.
Once upon a time, the only reason you gave a character a reddish nose was to indicate that they were a drunk.
Although I actually quite enjoy this kind of art style, I understand where you're coming from. I have a very similar distain for the "Gears of War Art Style" popular in the late 2000s/early 2010s (everything looked lifeless, and I swear too many games had that style at the time). It gets pretty exhausting when everything looks the exact same.
..do you eternally live in opposite-day land?
they all say these designs are "simple" and yet its so hard to focus on smh
I watched your entire review of ‘I am not Starfire’ and as a suggestion you could review another one of Mariko Tamaki’s graphic novels. This one is called This one Summer.
Dead end is like a okay show it’s the tumblr art that makes me wanna throw my shoe at the TV
I don’t really see why everyone’s so pressed. Art styles will come and go and everyone always remembers the past through the rose tinted glasses of nostalgia. I understand tiring over something new. The current state of mascot horror has me tired. But it doesn’t mean that art has no merit simply because of a weaker aspect. I personally enjoy the art in these shows for what they are. Im lucky because art does not deter me from a show and or it’s story. There will be weaknesses and strong suits in any piece of media. I personally see little issue because I know it isn’t soulless. The art feels like something you might see someone post online, and that’s okay. It’ll change, life comes and goes. Cartoons are not being ruined, art is just changing, as it always does.
Technology evolved, art style is degraded
@@Otval_bashkyhow pretentious and presumptuous of you to say. You literally don't get to say that as an objective fact. Any attempt is just you flounderously saying pithy words
@@musicalsaber6433 2000s cartoons have better art style with aged technologies
@@Otval_bashky its true! its because old calarts used to teach better fundamentals and show you cool shit like UPA stuff and stuff from the "dark age" of animation (which isn't even bad) because they knew that the old style of digital animation was a bit primitive, so to compensate on that they learned how to transfer the UPA stylings into vector graphics and to use limited animation.
@musicalsaber6433 why did bro start talking Shakespearean 💀
Jack, man, I love you but not everything you don't like is 'tumblr art'.
It's more looks Messy Bubblism thing
I think in this case the "Tumblr art" style is referring to the styles of shows that are extremely popular on Tumblr and that for some reason people there are worryingly obsessed with them.
Neon colors burn my eyes💀
Look away, they sense fear.
@@sailorstar3148 i must run I shall pass from the cringe Tumblr cartoons
Good God, that dude's color scheme is ALL OVER THE PLACE!!! I agree with you!! Pic colors that compliment the skin tone, and DON'T give the viewers headaches looking at these CLASHY color schemes!! Clashy colors are the reason why shows like Problem Solverz were a literal eyesore.
How is that clashy, orange and purple are opposite colors and opposite colors are complimentary iirc
I'm an artist, but have no concept on character design. I just like to draw whatever looks nice. Tbh, I don't see a problem with this art style. I mean, the blue hair is distracting and I hate the noses, but other than that I think it's fine. And idk about other people but for me the reboot for She-ra and High Guardian Spice actually had some nice character designs/art style (and I'm only talking about the designs and not the stories themselves)
The colour scheme for a character's clothing is supposed to describe the character or give a vibe on what that character is all about.
@@ttjtheoriginal3468 i half agree mostly because you’re based it all in stereotypes
@@ttjtheoriginal3468 if that was how people worked I'd be emo and cheerful at the same time
Seeing shows like these make me miss shows that had an anime style to it like the 2003 Teen Titans or shows that just had a very unique style to it, like Invader Zim or Super Robot Monkey Team Hyper Force Go.
Some of the stories are pretty good. Paranormal park has less than stellar art style (in my opinion) but I focused more on the story.
I really like how Norma represents autism especially
I heard the MCs love interest is HIV positive and still decided to sleep with the MC without telling him (in the webcomic). Sounds pretty disgusting.
@Bianca F. The comics were more adult oriented. The show is more kid friendly and most of the characters are not assholes as they were in the comic. Really feels like different characters
@@Nutmeg-Barney's boyfriend, yeah. I read about that too. Maybe because I'm not a gay man, but I didn't think that was a good idea to put in the story. I hope had Paranormal Park not been cancelled, that plotline wouldn't be part of the show.
Same
I like the cartoony aesthetic, and I do think vibrant colors help emphasize the childlike art style, but as someone who has zero fashion sense, even I am wondering what in the hell these artists are doing with their color palettes.
Genuine question but did you manually saturate the screenshots??? I watched dead end too and your screenshots are heavily saturated compared to what you actually see in the shows, the color are much more mild and desaturated
Probably
Maybe it’s ur tv screen or it’s settings who knows
I miss how spiky and stylised cartoons used to look like in the 2000's.
i agree with you but pls. bringing in family guy as a "better show" is not ur best move or take ☠️
I think it was more out of pocket. He had to bring up something as bad and simple as family guy to show how low the bar really was for these shows making bad character designs.
As someone who uses tumblr I hardly ever see this kind of art style on my page do was honestly confused at first when I saw this video.
I love dead end paranormal but I honestly dislike the over saturated colors, your right on this.
Blue-haired dude looks like original characters I drew when i was 13 with the mindset of "I'LL GIVE THIS CHARACTER EVERY COLOR I LIKE!!"
It's rather annoying that this has become the norm nowadays. It seems as though everyone wanted to copy Steven Universe, but Steven Universe's art style doesn't work for everything.
the designs from dead end was from a person who worked on su if I'm correct
so this makes a little more of sense
@@friendlyrusset That's quite true.
Steven Universe and its consequences in animation industries
Dead end pilot came out 11 years ago on RUclips. TV networks also tend to rehash art styles to make it easier to animate as well so I wouldn’t put too much blame on the creators. Look at the difference between the Stephen universe pilot and the show. Or the new Ben 10 show where the creator expressed how he wanted it to look more like anime and less like well you know.
Yeah, I remember first seeing Dana Terrace's beta designs for TOH and they look literally nothing alike to the official show style. Studios don't wanna spend a bunch of money on shows they want to pump out for easy money
I hate this modern art
No sense of style , uniqueness or challenge.
I don't even think the calarts/tumblr artstyle is particularly easy to animate, i think the artists just want to hurt people's eyes.
Basically, your issue with this is that the Color Pallet is a mess. These people do not understand Color Theory.
The only complimentary colors on the MC is their blue hair and orange jacket. The purple plum shirt and magenta pants are too distracting for what they were actually going for.
And the green and pink buttons as well as the green earrings are rather unnecessary. What they could do to remedy this is to use either white or gray. Make their pants white and their shirt gray (or you can switch them). The earrings can be silver or gold to compliment the orange jacket!
Edit: Just learned this MC has Fire Abilities. The color pallet should be Red as a base.
This dude is powerless
Also you do realize this is just how people dress and look right
@@multi-tasker1389 it's a different story if someone irl chose the same outfit every day with color combination looking like an eyesore, plus irl has the benefit of shading. Plus, cartoons are known for saying a lot more in colors and shapes. Regardless if how it's they're dressed or not it can be pretty distracting if not used well and can either make or break a viewer's opinion over a character.
@@dontmindme431 color combinations and character design are almost definitely 100x more thought out than my outfit choices
I get not liking the art style of shows (DE's isn't my favorite but it's certainly not the worst) but why are people just simplifying their criticisms into a term that doesn't even apply? 'CalArts' style has been used as a complaint on shows where the creator didn't go to CalArts (even though the original use of the term was for a much different style) and both 'CalArts' and 'Tumblr' styles have been used as complaints on shows with wildly varying styles. I think it'd be much more helpful if people (not necessarily Jack cause he did specify color on Barney) just explained exactly what they didn't like about individual styles instead of lumping them all together. Plus Tumblr has such a wide array of art styles which makes calling it a style and pinning it to one set of style characteristics even less accurate.
These designs are easier to animate than something like Swat Kats' style (fuck I miss that show); simpler and cheaper means more studios are going to prefer that style. This is not an issue with Tumblr artists, CalArts graduates, or whatever actual artists, though some will just draw in that style because they think it's cool and not because they want to saturate media with similar styles (or...Steven Universe like I saw a lot of people saying. Seriously why did that get pinned on SU when Gravity Falls came out before it? Or does it get a pass just cause it was a good show?). This is an issue with studios trying to save some money because they don't care about animation (with the exception being TAWOG since by having so many different animation styles there had to be a care for it somewhere).
I just wanted to give my two cents.
HOW ARE YOU THE ONLY ONE WHO UNDERSTANDS ME HERE???
Seriously, I HATE this ridiculous and bigoted hate with Tumblr and Calarts!! I honestly don't see anything wrong with these styles!! People who come don't seem to understand either and just hate for the sake of hating!
@@laraprisma6381 Probably because I'm an animator myself lol
TAWOG?
@@appleandaria6947 The Amazing World of Gumball
late response, but i'm glad someone in these comments has my same opinion!
Now I like paranormal park but I can agree this art style is getting repetitive, like I actually put off watching this show for a while cause I thought it was gonna be something like velma thank god i was wrong
same, the art style was a big turn off (especially on the main character) but at some point I gave it a go and ended up finishing the show in like in a day or two
To be fair Dead End Paranormal Park is a show where the most of the main character are stated or implied to queer in some way. With louder more vibrant clothing style are a big aspect of queer culture. To me at least it makes sense for the show to subtly reflect that though it's character designs.
I personally think Deltarune and Steven Universe does this way better than Dead End.
I remember when I was in art class and I was going off my anime like art I was constantly told by the teachers not to draw like that, that I need to learn the basics and get my own style instead of just copying a anime style and doing it poorly.
I really think that needs to be said for this Tumblr art style that’s prevalent in animation right now. because it just looks like a bunch of amateurs being given the reins of something they don’t understand.
dead end is amazing 💀
It's meh. I'm just glad that it didn't get popular enough to be with Steven Universe and the Owl House and the like. Imagine the fan base, and imagine the hatedom.
A lot of cartoons I’ve noticed have these tumblr styles. They always have the blush and red/brown noses, chunky/noodly bodies, and there’s always someone wearing a hijab. I agree that these art styles in cartoons are just getting repetitive and boring at this point, and it doesn’t help that it looks so fugly.
what i especially hate about these art styles is the complete lack of shading like seriously you can barely tell that there are shadows and also the obnoxiously ugly designs like bruh
No man this isn't tumblr art, this is twitter art😭
What's the difference anymore?
@@MaverickhunterXZero eh hem.
tumblr is a hellsite thats unprofitable due to the insanity of its users.
twitter is a hellsite thats unprofitable to to the insanity of its owners.
As an artist who uses a lot of bizarre colors on his characters, I fully agree. Even when you want to break the rules, there are still rules that have to be adhered to. Total artistic chaos is just unpleasant to look at. My biggest gripe is just how ugly, lazy, and obnoxiously chunky all of these designs are, as though everything must be modeled to resemble a baby's teething toy. It's grotesque. I hate it.
What you said about the art style resembling a baby's teething toy is so damn accurate 😂 I've always hated this style from being a very young kid, it's lacks life and the crappy flash animation/drag animation makes it sooooo much worse. Its like the writers/designers never seen sharp lines on a character before.
This is what I loved the early 90s 2000s shows for like Ren and Stimpy, The Fairly Odd parents, Danny Phantom, Total Drama ect. They are all very unique and not overly cutesy, which gets so annoying after the 50 millionth Steven Universe Gumball copycat. Sorry this was long, lol.
@@Dustieraccoon Gumball made the art style work because of the contrasting art styles throughout the show. The Watterson family had soft, rounded edges but characters like the teacher had sharp ones. There was so much mayhem with the styles that it all worked together flawlessly. The issue here is that there was an actual "method to the madness" behind it all that made it work, which it seems the modern Tumblr-taught artists have no way of comprehending.
@fractiouslemon completely agree, and I love gumball because of how wacky it is! I should have actually been more specific, because I was referring to his and Darwin's face and mouth in particular, but its such an old show and it was one of the first to do that style so it gets the pass. I loved Miss Simion's design it was hilarious, and the 3D models combined with the photo-realistic backgrounds was just fantastic to watch.
I hate the red noses it’s like they got a cold, allergy or, drunk. The noses turned me off of this cartoon even before watching it.
When they make the nose red and blobby
Cleveland's character design is just *simple* a yellow shirt and jeans are basic. It's not "smart" design, it's simple. They don't say anything about his character. His clothes don't have to, but that's what you see in the other kid's design. It has personality. Plenty of people in the real world dress in bright colors, clashing patterns, and push "what's normal".
To me, it's not so colorful and in your face that it's tacky. But I do know what you mean
This belongs in the award for angeriest videos in yt
He loves being angry I like watching it
Ah yes, there is only one art style on all of Tumblr
I mean I don’t hate this art style but I can definitely see why others do.
I think the main problem is not that a character has colored hair, but more that it doesn't suit their character design. A good example of when it’s well done is Amity Bligh, not only the color green/purple tells something about the personality of the character, but it also suits her design. Why not go even further with the Inklings of Splatoon with it colorful anarchy battle or it's story mode where each has a distinct color.
Also, I recommend the video *"GOOD vs BAD Character Design: Tips and Tricks!"* which explains what makes a good character design.
0:31 why is his nose a tomato 🥺
1:21 when u press the random button in avatar makers game
I think you need to take a break, man.
I guess
Woulda been faster to say "Im allergic to fun and post up on weird issues because im a manlett"
I’m 6’3 with a 6.5” penis and I agree with everything stated in the video
@@GopherpilledTunneler I'm 6' with a 6" penis and i don't agree with anything stated in the video. you wanna meet up
@@JacobVonRokerLOL
Generally, you can like what you like, but that character design is, in my opinion at least, generally awful.
Manlet is a sexist term
Damn, I actually really like She Ra's art, though.
Design, but the colors... You don't need too many shiny colors in just a character.
Entrapta barely has, and works. But Glimmer and She-Ra has way too much.
@@calipurnioelreydelodio7141 I believe the maximum colors used on a character should be 3 mostly because too much of one colors is boring. So I'd add two more just to make the design memorable and break up the colors.
@@calipurnioelreydelodio7141 Never saw any issue with the colors of the characters. Glimmer and She Ra especially had a very specific color scheme and stuck to it. Adora was red, black, with white highlights whilst She Ra was white and gold. And Glimmer was shades of purple and pink with very simple easily discernable shapes. That's pretty good in my book.
@@atlasroyale5294 That's pretty good in *YOUR* book.
Your, not ours.. That's the small difference.
@@calipurnioelreydelodio7141 Okay? If you don't personally like it is one thing, but I'd argue the whole gripe about the color schemes is wrong.
she ra isnt actually a good example of this, the designs are really good in that show
I actually really like she ra's and catra's design imo
Tumblr art styles are also super safe and demands that everything be “cushy” and soft. We’re never going to get anything harsh, sharp, and jagged again like Ed, Edd, and Eddy.
Oh. And I HATE tumblr nose. 😑
It super fun to make bright and colorful characters but PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PICK 3 COLORS AND STICK TO THEM (and use the 25/50/75 color rule) it works for a reason!
I think its very limited to use that instead of trying new things then looking like every thing else
@@xxkankala1671
Fair but still, but if I were making a cartoon I'd want the colors to mesh well together
I heard the show itself was pretty good. (No Avatar the last air bender but good) it’s just the art style that’s throwing me off. Yea it’s for a younger audience and younger audiences like a lot of color but… like you said, it feels like a Tumblr show. It gives me High Guardian Spice vibes and it sucks because it’s made be writers who actually care about their work.
This gives me hope for me coloring my drawings when I have self-doubts about it.
I am curious on what your opinion is on the character designs in Disney's strange world. Personally I hate it. The humans designs gross me out and it's hard for me to explain why.
their noses are so big.
I think the slime creature looks great
and “legend” the dog, is just a goofy ass dog with three legs. i mean there’s not much to say about him, other than being in the movie, and a dog.
@@ssesssusman9417 yeah I prefer perrito from puss in boots more. He's a little sweetie.
When the Netflix She-Ra came out my friend was gushing over the new designs (and she did not care about the original cartoon she just loves what Tumblr TELLS her to love). I said 'What is with the raccoon face? Every single character looks like they are constantly blushing but they aren't?' and she defended it without even allowing a single moment of agreeing MAYBE it looked a bit odd. I wasn't even slamming the designs just that odd choice and she took it like it was an assault. XD
Some people judt preffer different stuff from you.
why would anyone care about the original cartoon when it was a barely animated toy commercial where every character looked like every other character
My guy this comment does NOT make you sound good. Seems like you don't like your friend very much since you sound extremely judgemental of them over something so small.
@@reallyjojoify
'my friend was not prepared for an epic debate when she wanted to talk about how cool a new show was, that'll show her!! XD'
bro's a write off
She-reees are extremely fragile, defensive and will attack at the smallest thing. The show and fandom is the personification of a house of cards; One stiff wind of criticism and down it goes. I wouldn't be surprised if one of them sniffed out this comment just to shit on you over this.
They can't even fathom the showrunner just uses them to prop herself up when she's trying to pitch a project.
The character design wouldn’t be that bad if they just pick a good colour scheme to go with, instead of using a dart board with random colours no one uses.
Thats actually a very bad agreement if you don’t want characters to look the same
@@xxkankala1671 WE-……………………………………. Yea you right.
Dude, that's not even far off of how I'd dress naturally
I must have been drunk when writing this, because this makes no sense even to me.
I was always curious what is up with the red nose style, it's popular on Tumblr art and I just want to know where that started and why lol
In the official dead end comics he says he has a Muppet nose or something like that soooo yeah
The red nose feature is actually a real life skin flaw just as freckles, acne marks and vitiligo (although having a red nose rarely happens), which the Tumblr art style is known for incorporating.
@@GatlingPea32 That makes a lot of sense! Thank you for the explanation
@@CarbonatedToast55
No problem. I want to share this. Did you know that one of my teachers in Fine art school once prohibited his students to use this character style, just as some art teachers banned students from using anime style. If one student made any character design that followed the "Tumblr" art style, they were instantly given a failing grade and are even kicked out of the classroom.
@@GatlingPea32 Ugh that's so rough I'm sorry that happened. My art teacher in high school told me to my face she would fail me if I didn't stop drawing in anime style. Wasn't even drawing actual anime characters, just the style >.
I think what the main issue is is
A. The lack of color consistency
And B. The lack of distinct shapes.
Also maybe shading, that too.
It definitely has that generic tumblr artist feel ( I’ve seen some amazing tumblr artist tho, but most of those accounts belong to professional artist lol ) in both the shape language and color. The lack of distinct or sharp shapes are very off, mixed with the random color choices that seem almost thrown together, and it creates this weird, off balanced and rather uninteresting blob of a character design.
Like as concept art it’s… fine. But I think they should play around more with the designs, and really figure out what they want from the character. Make something that’ll fit “their” character, not “a” character. If that makes sense
I enjoyed the plot of this Paranormal Park show, but yeah… the MC has a bad design. I wish they at least colored his hair to be warmer-toned like the rest of his clothes.
But a bad character design doesn’t always mean bad show right?
@@sailorstar3148 it definitely doesn’t! I liked this show a lot, from what I remember, the characters were entertaining and while most of it was light-hearted, it still had more serious moments. Too bad Netflix cancelled it…
@@Currentlyprocrastinating37 Netflix, canceling their own show again 😒
I think its a good design it really tells you who is the main character
@@Currentlyprocrastinating37 since when was it canceled? I thought it was gonna get a third season.