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Anyone got an idea for a cartoon arstyle, that's…

1. NOT copying the anime artstyle – clearly and distinctly Western-looking
2. Just as visually-appealing as the anime artstyle
3. Has its own unique charm to it
4. Better than previous Western artstyles, while still not shying away from its roots in respect
5. Can be enjoyed by any and every audience or demographic
6. Is flexible, meaning it can have versions that are:
a) Are best suited to fit cartoons that are primarily comedic in tone (we probably already have these)
b) Are best suited for ones that are primarily action-oriented in tone
c) Are best suited for ones that are primarily dramatic and emotional in tone
d) Are best suited for ones that are primarily horrific in tone
e) Are like a 'jack-of-all-trades' artstyle, fitting any sort-of genre they're put in, to be used by shows that blend genres; the all-terrain artstyle
7. Has versions that are both easy to draw for beginners, and take more skill to draw for more advanced talented artists looking to create something beautiful, as well as everything in between

…Like, I want the West to create an artstyle that is essentially our answer to the anime artstyle and so far we've created nothing worthy of this title. Anyone got any ideas?

1. It’s not anime inspired(?)
2. It’s visually appealing
3. unique
4. Better than previous western styles
5. Can be enjoyed by many
6. Flexible
7. Good for drawing

"Can be enjoyed by any and every audience or demographic"
Eh… I think it's virtually impossible to create a style that appeals to absolutely everyone, not even the anime style can accomplish that, since, well, humans have extremely different likes and dislikes, it's basically impossible to create something that everyone will enjoy.

What we can do it's trying to broaden the demographic as much as possible.

But anyways, about the style, I like Disney's 2d style in their old films, it's fluid, it looks pleasing to the eye, and it's not very anime-ish. Though it is kind of complicated, design wise.

Another good cartoon style is Rubber Hose, the one that Cuphead was inspired, it's simple, yet charming, and the wackiness of it makes very malleable as well.

Maybe create an art style that is some sort of mix of both worlds, having the charming simplicity of Rubber Hose, and also the elegance and fluidity of Disney's. Who knows, they might balance out the characteristics depending on what kind of show they want to make.

But well, what I do know, I'm just a clueless user who likes cartoons and doesn't really know anything about art.

1. Clearly Western, to the point of being called the "Hanna Barbera style" by some.
2. Visually appealing like most colorful styles are.
3. Is quite unique and readily recognizable from the lot.
4. "Better" is subjective, but this is clearly better than the average CalArts, while still looking pretty close to the original.
5. Can be enjoyed by anyone.
6. Flexible enough to not only have unique-looking characters inside the cartoon itself, but also to inspire its own fanart style.
7. Very easy to draw and even animate.

Do note the deliberate image choice being the PPG reboot, however.

You see, there are 2 problems with your idea:

1) As implied by Patrick and then me, Western animation does have art styles that meet all your points, even though you said no such thing exists yet. And;

2) As you can deduce with my example (and maybe Patrick's depending on your point of view), this does very little to fix any problems currently facing Western animation. TT:GO! meets at least 5 out of your 7 points, as well.

I do not think Western animation needs an art style "to combat CalArts" or "to be the answer to anime". It just needs good cartoons, and I can think of at least 5 or 6 of those being CalArts or pretty close to CalArts, which may seem like a lot, but I can think of dozens of anime that copy/paste their style for the same reasons; a lot of them being slice-of-life late-night moe anime, for some reason. So, you actually got it pretty cheap in this regard.

And no, immediately discard the possibility of anything resembling old Disney animations being a thing for a cartoon show again. You ever wondered why Disney movies look much better than their cartoon show counterparts..? Yes, animation of that quality is tremendously hard and expensive.

I miss when cartoons were talked about for what they did, not what they looked like.

This might sound stereotypical of me, but I kind of blame the whole anime craze for that. People have become so utterly infatuated with the kawaii-desu cute anime artstyle that they're starting to become disgusted with any artstyle that isn't said artstyle, and now it's reached the point where people aren't even willing to give shows like Steven Universe or OK:KO a chance because of it. That and the reboots, which, while bad on their own, really shouldn't cause people to lash out on innocent shows like Gravity Falls or Adventure Time like they do.

I never understand the whole "anime art style" phrase given that all anime look different from one another, jsut like cartoons

What should really be asked is why cartoons are given an exception to this while all anime gets lumped together as one art style when that isn't true in the slightest

That aside, no Bill, the anime craze isn't what caused that (hell there were tons of people that hated the "anime art style" when it was popular)

It's because animation here in the states just looks the same nowadays. Shows like Clarence, Steven Universe, Ok KO, for example. though are great shows, all have this very lazy, samey rounded feel to them art style and character design wise. Compare that to say, the early Powerpuff Girls, Samurai Jack, Foster's Home, Billy & Mandy and the like, which all had a very unique ,distinctive, and dynamic art style and design to them. People aren't getting disgusted with cartoons nowadays because they aren't "kawaii-desu art style", people are getting disgusted because there's a general lack of variety anymore.

hate to be harsh but maybe instead of focusing on your anime hate boner maybe try actually paying attention to what people are actually saying and have been saying about the state of the American animation industry for the past several years. The answer to this problem isn't "create a unique art style for all western animation", it's "create more shows with unique art styles and animation"

you basically described disney bill.

or this

or make it super rough and edgy

I do agree that the whole controversy seems a little more style over substance. But i do think that a show's art style is very much an important aspect. Whether it be a cartoon or an anime, if an art style clashes with the theme or tone of the show/game/movie etc etc it can be a little jarring.

@Bill
I disagree with the idea that an anime inspired art style is somehow a bad thing. Like is the issue that its uninspired? That's not a problem exclusive to anime, lots of media throughout the years have rip offed non-anime art-styles before. But something can take elements from other styles and change them around. People do it all the time, why is there a problem when it comes to eastern styles? Is it that you feel like its over saturated? Is this a subjective feeling or is there actual data to back this up.

And what exactly do you picture when you think anime? How much anime have you ever actually viewed? Because to lump it all into one art style is simply inaccurate. Not all anime looks the same, like not even remotely.

You are going about this the wrong way. Creating a "one-size fits all" artstyle that suitably fits all genres of cartoons and pleases everybody is impossible. Even if you were successful, you would still run into the same problems that CalArts gets criticized for, all of your western animation would come out looking samey and derivative. We should be pushing for more distinctive and individualist artstyles.

If you want a real anime example then look towards the works of Akira Toriyama or Hirohiko Araki. Both of them have really distinctive artstyle, their character designs are instantly recognizable. That is the type of content we should be pushing for here in the west.

And of course the artstyle is only one half of the equation. The actual quality of the animation is just as important, if not more so. You could have an aesthetically pleasing artstyle and beautiful character design but if the animation is not up to snuff then it isn't worth anymore then still images. This is a problem that a lot anime runs into since elaborate character designs are more difficult to animate.

You have to think about that trade off, do you want simple designs that are easier to animate or complicated design that could end up looking stiff?

To me the art style makes up a small amount of the shows quality, and its more the actual story behind it. I've seen eye-meltingly gorgeous artwork in a show amount to literally nothing because the writing is so bad. And i've seen bizarre and nonsensical style produce some of the best storytelling around.

Like, Im old enough that Batman the Animated Series was a thing with new episodes actually coming out. That, the justice leauge, superman, all those shows were considered some of the best cartoons. But, they also had a laziness to them i've seen few people bring up. All of Bruce TImm's male characters had the exact same body and face model, along with all of his female characters. The same barrel chest, small legs, square jaw, look, which would get a lot of other artist ass-blasted for a copy-and-paste artstyle. But he got away with it because of the stories and characters being presented through that artstyle.

Then there's one-piece, the show that looks like Rubber-Hose animation didn't fall out of fashion and one whose designs are laughably silly. The story of One Piece is absolutely fantastic, and i've managed to personally feel a lot for the characters journey and struggles in spite of the artwork. In my opinion, it is an anime version of what people do to western shows, which is look at the artstyle and turn their noses to it despite what quality is actually there in the writing.

I could go on and on but to me, the entire CALARTS school of thought is fundamentally flawed. Cartoons are seeing better writing now then they have a long time. And I think that should be encouraged, and not shamed because a bunch of people want some 90's era animation again. Which, let's be honest, we all know that's what it's really about. It's an evolution whose lines can be directly traced to the "things suck now, back then they were better" nostalgia school of thought.

THANK YOU

FUCKING THANK YOU

Look, I def agree that the whole "bean-mouth" style (i don't really like using calarts to describe this artstyle) is a little tiresome, but a lot of shows that use these are honestly very good and worth checking out. People just tend to ignore them because of styles like this, which is a dang shame.

Guys, non-beanmouth shows do exist, you just need to look for 'em.