3 ms·

I can see this being true, but it won't be because it's good, it will just be because companies lower their production standards in the interest of saving money

I can see this being true, but it won't be because it's good, it will just be because companies lower their production standards in the interest of saving money. There were (maybe still) lots of really crappy CG animated shows that came out as soon as the tech allowed (20 years ago). The bits I saw were much worse than anything drawn, but they were for kids shows that nobody really cared about the quality of.

shadowgovt 4y ago
Hanna-Barbera's style was specifically built to separate heads and bodies for animation re-use. In addition to the infinite scrolling backgrounds. This let them crack the nut on TV animation before Disney. Kricfalusi (of Ren and Stumpy fame) famously bad-mouthed Tartskovsky's style as lazy and cheap looking. But while it took an army ages to make one season of Ren & Stumpy, Cartoon Network got dozens of episodes of three shows. ... And ultimately, the story, characters, and writing can matter more than the art.
- Melting_Harps 4y ago
  > ... And ultimately, the story, characters, and writing can matter more than the art. That is a highly subjective conclusion, and worth consideration. I still remember watching Ren And Stimpy as a kid when it aired, and later Invader Zim and have a way of recalling the skits/gags in a way that I can only due to those shows hook was the art: mainly because how remarkable it looked for it's time. Ren and Stimpy was something like a cross-between Dali and Goya surrealism (specifically the grotesque works when they did close-ups) that to this day stand up; I recall they sold the rights and it was on some other channel when I was in university on cable tv and it looked like a badly made knock-off as a cash grab so after the short lived nostalgia you realized how bad it was because they didn't take the time to do it like in the 90s. The same can be said about the Nick era plot/art of Vasquez's work with Invader Zim, the art was so unique and it looked like the harshness in his comics and the plots were always weaving between dark and light in such a way that one questions who this show was really written for; the later Netflix stuff (while more advanced in it's appearance) suffered so much, and I felt the sane way about the comics and kind of dissapointed by his claim to only ever agree to do more Invader Zim work if it could explore the darker side more as he did when Nick canceled syndication. The Moofy was such a whimsical take on the dark foreshadowing of the way media and short lived celebrity would define the coming decades with social media. And then there were the early Rick and Morty eps which contradict this where both the art is mediocre and generic, and even the characters are clear back to the future rip-offs but the plot and story and execution is so well done that it doesn't need a huge art budget (the Unity episode specifically).
- JoeAltmaier 4y ago
  True it it's way. I remember that Bugs Bunny became vanilla and humorless in the 60s as they began to do tired jokes and explained them in dialog, and no character was much different from any other. Somebody decided to make it palatable to 4-year-olds? I don't know. But never mind the perfect art; it was unflavored gelatin cartoon pablum.
- dagmx 4y ago
  John K is such a jackass in general though about anything that didn’t come from him. I was mentored by several people who worked under him for Ren and Stimpy, and I’ve never met anyone who’s said a nice thing about working with him. His blog is also one of the more toxic fixtures of the animation industry, leading to tons of people who look up to his style of critique in much the same way many engineers looked up to Linus’s early aggressive rants (but worse). He’s the proginator of the derogatory “Calarts bean mouth” description that so many wannabe artists throw around without thought, and led to so many death threats and harassing of brilliant artists. That’s not even mentioning his rampant sexual abuse allegations and dating underage girls. John K made some great content but man is he a blight on the industry as a whole, since Ren and Stimpy finished. Meanwhile since you mentioned Genndy, who I’ve had the pleasure to work with directly, he’s an artistic genius and just great to work with. Genndy and Craig McCracken pushed an art style that defined multiple generations of cartoons, and Genndy pushed forms more than most people I know of. A lot of the more fun stylization in CGI is thanks to Genndy pushing Sony hard. The first hotel Transylvania is mind blowing if you analyze the animation, and a huge part of that is Genndy drawing over frames to show the extreme silhouettes that he wants. Technology was then developed to allow artists to fit those forms repeatedly and reliably. That’s had knock on effects to other CG films, even ones from Disney and Pixar who analyzed how much he pushed forms. Not to mention he created three of the best shows: Dexters Lab, Samurai Jack and Primal. primal is a master class in story telling and cinematography. Anyway long rant to say, man I dislike John K but Genndy is awesome.
  - shadowgovt 4y ago
    The most delicious vengeance I think Tartakovsky got was outstripping his critic in both popularity and revenue.

shadowgovt 4y ago

Hanna-Barbera's style was specifically built to separate heads and bodies for animation re-use. In addition to the infinite scrolling backgrounds. This let them crack the nut on TV animation before Disney. Kricfalusi (of Ren and Stumpy fame) famously bad-mouthed Tartskovsky's style as lazy and cheap looking. But while it took an army ages to make one season of Ren & Stumpy, Cartoon Network got dozens of episodes of three shows. ... And ultimately, the story, characters, and writing can matter more than the art.

Melting_Harps 4y ago
> ... And ultimately, the story, characters, and writing can matter more than the art. That is a highly subjective conclusion, and worth consideration. I still remember watching Ren And Stimpy as a kid when it aired, and later Invader Zim and have a way of recalling the skits/gags in a way that I can only due to those shows hook was the art: mainly because how remarkable it looked for it's time. Ren and Stimpy was something like a cross-between Dali and Goya surrealism (specifically the grotesque works when they did close-ups) that to this day stand up; I recall they sold the rights and it was on some other channel when I was in university on cable tv and it looked like a badly made knock-off as a cash grab so after the short lived nostalgia you realized how bad it was because they didn't take the time to do it like in the 90s. The same can be said about the Nick era plot/art of Vasquez's work with Invader Zim, the art was so unique and it looked like the harshness in his comics and the plots were always weaving between dark and light in such a way that one questions who this show was really written for; the later Netflix stuff (while more advanced in it's appearance) suffered so much, and I felt the sane way about the comics and kind of dissapointed by his claim to only ever agree to do more Invader Zim work if it could explore the darker side more as he did when Nick canceled syndication. The Moofy was such a whimsical take on the dark foreshadowing of the way media and short lived celebrity would define the coming decades with social media. And then there were the early Rick and Morty eps which contradict this where both the art is mediocre and generic, and even the characters are clear back to the future rip-offs but the plot and story and execution is so well done that it doesn't need a huge art budget (the Unity episode specifically).
JoeAltmaier 4y ago
True it it's way. I remember that Bugs Bunny became vanilla and humorless in the 60s as they began to do tired jokes and explained them in dialog, and no character was much different from any other. Somebody decided to make it palatable to 4-year-olds? I don't know. But never mind the perfect art; it was unflavored gelatin cartoon pablum.
dagmx 4y ago
John K is such a jackass in general though about anything that didn’t come from him. I was mentored by several people who worked under him for Ren and Stimpy, and I’ve never met anyone who’s said a nice thing about working with him. His blog is also one of the more toxic fixtures of the animation industry, leading to tons of people who look up to his style of critique in much the same way many engineers looked up to Linus’s early aggressive rants (but worse). He’s the proginator of the derogatory “Calarts bean mouth” description that so many wannabe artists throw around without thought, and led to so many death threats and harassing of brilliant artists. That’s not even mentioning his rampant sexual abuse allegations and dating underage girls. John K made some great content but man is he a blight on the industry as a whole, since Ren and Stimpy finished. Meanwhile since you mentioned Genndy, who I’ve had the pleasure to work with directly, he’s an artistic genius and just great to work with. Genndy and Craig McCracken pushed an art style that defined multiple generations of cartoons, and Genndy pushed forms more than most people I know of. A lot of the more fun stylization in CGI is thanks to Genndy pushing Sony hard. The first hotel Transylvania is mind blowing if you analyze the animation, and a huge part of that is Genndy drawing over frames to show the extreme silhouettes that he wants. Technology was then developed to allow artists to fit those forms repeatedly and reliably. That’s had knock on effects to other CG films, even ones from Disney and Pixar who analyzed how much he pushed forms. Not to mention he created three of the best shows: Dexters Lab, Samurai Jack and Primal. primal is a master class in story telling and cinematography. Anyway long rant to say, man I dislike John K but Genndy is awesome.
- shadowgovt 4y ago
  The most delicious vengeance I think Tartakovsky got was outstripping his critic in both popularity and revenue.