i always loved the environments in this show (during the early seasons that is), theyre so charming, the way everything looks kinda archaic and cobbled together yet very cozy, and it all has a nautical theme tying it together, none of it really feels all too modern even for the era it came out in and it all looks like people live in that world and brought it together over time
spongebob's house is my favorite, i especially love his kitchen
>During the early seasons that is
Regardless of what you think of the show today it still does maintain that cozy nautical look
no, not really
yes the old enviornments are there, but the new ones they create are often vastly different, theyre way more often clean and contemporary and even when they try and emulate the old style they don't get creative with objects as much like having stuff made from trash or items that would get lost at sea, they just put metal panels and similar textures on walls and things
I haven't paid attention much to backgrounds, since I've always considered myself more of a character animation autist. I'm probably one of the few people on this board who likes post-season 10's animation.
I think the animation in the newer seasons is very skilled on it's own, but aside from it not being a style of comedy I enjoy, I think even over the top animation like this has it's place, and the show just doesn't use it well
When everything is constantly moving so much all the time, it's wasted movement, motion for the sake of motion, everything is extreme but not in a way that evokes anything
We can't feel a character getting super angry, like, face going mad, last straw, ready to explode- when he's been moving and emoting in such a way thruout the whole episode. We can't compare mild anger to EXTREME FUMING ANGER or mild laughter to EXTREME MANIC LAUGHER because everything is animated so much and so needlessly that it meshes together
Even good expression humor needs moments of calmness for the funny face to hit. Before, the occasional funny face was comedic because it was sudden and sparse, fit the emotion or thing a character was currently feeling or doing and was used to exemplify it to another level
And now a lot of the time the faces don't express anything at all, they dont display the characters feeling or tone, they're just faces to take up screentime, they're the equivilant of a joke told again and again and again, funny because it's sudden and random but loses the appeal when it'd constant
If someone showed me these animations alone, as part of a test of some kind, I'd say they're damn impressive, it's clear theyre difficult to do and require a lot of work and talnet, but within the cartoon there's just no point in their existence, and ironically it makes most viewers appreciate them less because they're happening constantly and in your face
Especially when the animation is a crutch to otherwise lacking comedy or writing, it's not comparable to a slapstick cartoon in my opinion, like people often say, because there's no good use of timing or breaks, things just go crazy to go crazy
I think these expressions don't work because they're trying to disguise the humor of writer-driven episodes. I'm pretty sure this approach works better on Patrick Show, since that's an artist-driven show.
Maybe you're right, I haven't watched the Patrick show, is it more oriented towards that sort of comedy? Because Spongebob certainly isn't, it's always been a very down to earth show with a simple charming mix of cartoony humor and verbal gags
>is it more oriented towards that sort of comedy?
Very much so, to the point where its upside-down world is the whole point. It's supposed to be the antithesis to Nu-SpongeBob, that way artists still have freedom to do whatever.
>It's supposed to be the antithesis to Nu-SpongeBob, that way artists still have freedom to do whatever.
its such a shame people who wanna create something fundamentally different like this arent more encouraged to make a more cartoon, instead of just forcing their vastly opposing style into an old show and keeping it alive for no reason
i mean, it's not spongebob anymore, why even maintain the presence that it is? let the old die gracefully and do new things!
i guess brand recognition is all soulless execs care about, what a shame
its why for every original idea we have a dozen or so remakes, reboots and rehashes of the same shit over n over again
If it's "brand recognition" they want, there's no reason history can't rewrite itself.
>there's no reason history can't rewrite itself.
youre right
but
you didn't have to put it so depressingly
I've got depression myself, so it happens :p
It mean it makes sense. Every homosexual these days is completely afraid to fail on their own so can't fail if I have a gold floor of a support. Spongebob has been around since the late 90's and is still here so of course these pussies are gonna milk every single aspect the original just glossed over because it didn't matter.
I've got so many ideas that failing on my own is no big deal. If a kind of show I wanna pitch doesn't work, then I'd have to accept that.
The artists who work on nu-spongebob are just glad they found a job that isn't going away anytime soon, legacy of the SquarePants be damned. If one of them gained a conscience and quit, someone else would take their place. They're all to blame.
>The artists who work on nu-spongebob are just glad they found a job
Frick, I'd work on the Sponge too. Nu-R&S is soulless garbage in comparison.
I'd work on any cartoon where people would actually want to see my boards for once. No one gives a shit about bland storyboards for Baby Shark.
I think they're cute, tbh. Industry anons are awesome!
>storyboards for Baby Shark.
NIGHTMARE PHRASE
DOO DOO DOO DOO DOO DOO
>that artstyle
kek, it really is the stock style for when a piece of media gets pulled out the ass with no thought or love put into it, like the fricking shitty premade seasoning mix of visual styles
>pic rel
ok but thats obviously from a newgrounds fan animation or something
Newgroundsers work on the show now, so kinda?
>He doesn't know
Lol no it's not, it's from a recent episode of the show
that's just a rat fink parody
They are trying to fish for the next big meme face and it's not working. Pretty embarrassing tbh
It reminds me of that era of Loony Tunes, where they focused much more on smaller, more subtle micro movements to communicate jokes. That line of thinking for animation is completely ignored entirely by modern spongebob. Nothing is subtle, nothing is small, even when it would be funnier if it was expressed that way. Every joke, every movement has to be as bouncy and exaggerated. There's clear technical skill being expressed and it's a shame because it's not nearly as funny as the early seasons. I dunno, I know it's a kids show but it didn't used to feel like it nearly as much.
That's because Spongebob was never a "kids show", it was a family show for all ages, like Tom n Gary or something
Now it's more akin to a kid's show
The concept of target audiences is lost on modern media and so is identity, eventhing needs to be samey slop for the lowst common denominator audience and the only two groups are "children. all of them. every single one without accounting for age, gender, personality, culture or interests" and "adults. specifically ones who smoke weed every day"
Ren & Stimpy was a spiritual successor, and I'd consider it to be a lost art when you compare it to cartoons coming out in the current decade.
this is gonna anger e-kiddies but i dont care: kids brains are fried now, constant screens and overstimulation from a young age made them mentally incapable of appreciating or understanding something subtle, they cannot watch, comprehend or even stand something if it doesnt move at the speeds of a coked up fly with ADHD
I was fortunate enough to grow up on Ren & Stimpy, and all I cared about was how fluid Carbunkle's animation was compared to every other cartoon.
>grow up on Ren & Stimpy
lol R&S was one of those shows that felt like it was made for adults first n foremost but ended up on the childrens channel somehow, maybe it just couldnt make it to adult TV or maybe the network believes "well durr there's no swearing so dis be for kids"
felt the same about rocko's
its weird how we had this era in the mid to early 2000s where it really felt like cartoonists who understood kids were finally making stuff they love again, before that all went to shit
seems like "tries to pass as childrens cartoons but is actually for adults" stuff also used to feature things like violence and crass humor, whereas now its mainly relationship drama and whining about exes and your self esteem
i guess thats because the creators used to be crude social outcast men whereas now theyre social butterfly bully women
Too bad all the Boomers/Gen Xers made Zoomers edgy, so it's inevitable that cartoons will get their edge back.
>made Zoomers edgy
lol lmao
gen-Z aren't edgy in the slightest they're only "acceptable-edgy" insofar as society approves of
Then what does that make Millennials? I know they were some of the earliest Cinemaphileners/Newgroundsers, but I also know a lot of them tend to write R&M-tier stuff.
have you ever viewed the world outisde of concepts of group identity and memespeak?
no singular group that makes up the entire current generation can ever be edgy and rebellious because most people are by definition normal and thus conformative, but if you wanna talk generations, i'd argue gen X and older millenials made some of the edgiest media i know of
but i dont think its a generational thing, i think its an era thing, they were around when rebellion was, of course not truly incentivised, but at least not so heavily punished, and creativity was on the rise
kids now are simply living in the world where theyre not inspired to create
>have you ever viewed the world outisde of concepts of group identity and memespeak?
Nope, because I barely go out and talk to people. It's especially hard when you live in a rural area, but I hope that'll change once I live in a city.
oh good lord buddy
No worries, I'm still young. I may be in a tight scrape now, but I'll eventually be better off soon.
anon, everyone falls for the "im gonna move to da big city and magically make connections!" thing
if you couldn't do it in the countryside, it won't happen, don't do that to yourself unless you already have an established career plan or some kinda concrete course of action that neccesiates you being in the city
Sooooooorta. I've met Edward Kay, who's based (heh) in Toronto.
thats the extent of your plan?
That's only part of it, since I hope to show him some ideas of my own for cartoons. If he's on board, then it seems I'm set.
Post some of your work lol
These are some doodles I've made while using Procreate. I'm still struggling with bodies, but I think I'm getting the hang of cartooning so far.
Practice real anatomy and fundamentals before simplifying. Learn character design, archetypes, facial expressions, body language, fashion, proportion, storytelling. Make a portfolio that is market viable and solves the problem of a company
Anon you sound incredibly dumb
Nah, just Naive. (And a bit young.)
>t. early 20s
>kids now are simply living in the world where theyre not inspired to create
All art has been reframed as "content"
All beauty is presented as something that can and should be mass produced and marketed, defined by clean sterility and emptyness
All effort or skill is shunned, portrayed as evil and unfair to those who cannot or refuse to hone theirs
And all their natural desire to create is beaten out of them, if not through the aforementioned threat of failure, then through fear that what they make will be disagreeable or problematic
Is it any wonder they can't make, only consume? It's not their fault they're like this, but it sure as hell is their responsibility to break out of it
season 12 has sovl
(You)
kinda unrelated but I felt the same with MLAATR's backgrounds, I think the art from the show is still the best part of it. art deco is a blessing
The same people who did background art on MLAATR also did work on Mission Hill. (You can especially tell whenever palettes on characters change.)
this elegant futuristic look is beautiful
i just adore when a show knows exactly what visual motifs and aesthetics its built on and utilizes it
im so bored of cartoons that have no aesthetic or theme, stuff is just kinda there
Flapjack was great at that
Carbunkle animated the christmas special, if I'm not mistaken.
Yeah, I don't know why modern backgrounds feel a bit lacking when compared to even shows from the mid-2000's. It can't be the switch to digital tools because Invader ZIM was done 100% in Photoshop and they're spectacular.
I look at stuff like Owl House or Amphibia and I SEE they want to a style for it... They are technically proficient. If an art student drew them, I would give them good marks. But then they'll use basic one or two-point perspective, use one of the default brushes to ink it, drench the whole thing in ugly gradients with black tints, and have really lame composition to boot. TOH is dreadful with using the line tool and often mirroring backgrounds by copying and pasting them to make it symmetrical.
Dana says Hieronymus Bosch was one of her inspirations for TOH, and yet, the backgrounds look like they COULD belong to Amphibia who has an entirely different set of inspirations. It's like they have the technical skill to do a background that works for a production, but lack the talent to actually make it good.
A common problem with artists who want to get into cartoon work is that they believe the only skill needed is to draw good.
A show's visual style involves EVERYTHING, things the average viewer doesn't even know they see, but subconsciously feels, and it's a hard thing to learn. This is only an issue because, as been said before, artists now don't really look to the knowladge of their elders, and the industry straight up discourages older industry masters from teaching the new blood. This isn't just me theorizing, either, this has been said by many people within the industry, new and old, that even giving advice or criticism from the perspective of someone older and more successful is seen as bullying, everything is taken in a negative tone, nobody wants to hear it and even if they do they'll never get it because there's this sickly 'wholesome' air that's being fostered and it's downright destructive to young artists' skills and improvement.
To everyone ITT: Learn from your elders, don't copy them, don't idolize them, but learn from them. Great things are built on the shoulders of giants.
>learn from them
I've been trying to learn from Bakshi and Crumb, which means I'm on the right track.
good taste anon
Aw, thanks! I know my cartoon history 😉
speaking of Bakshi I love the backgrounds in his movies, especially Ian Miller's work in Wizards
>pic rel
Everything you said is true. In college, there was 1 REALLY GOOD professor who was known to give criticism. And it gave me a lot of imposter syndrome during my first month in a class with her. But then I realized that she was the only teacher that wanted to see real improvement, instead of just letting students continue to make the same mistakes.
A lot of older artists aren't gonna speak their mind, and younger artists need to understand that criticism isn't gonna kill you. It's more like pruning a plant, it'll grow better with it than without it.
Most people agree that the art was by FAR the best part of MLAATR, as badly as I want to frick Jenny she really wasn't that great of a character.
Vexus easily mogs Jenny, especially when it comes to her body.
Why is the pic so sexual?
That is a vegana
and a penis
gee i wonder why a show with themes of teenage life and puberty would have subtle sexual imagery and symbolism
its almost as if shows are about things on a level more deep than just written plot
I'm very interested in the art of animation backgrounds but they're very hard to find
Look into the names of background artists who worked on your favorite cartoons. Chances are, they have blogs posted somewhere.
>mfw I want to see the backgrounds of old cartoons like Tom and Jerry when they had to be more inventive with faking camera moves with changing perspectives to make up for lack of animation tech
>mfw all the background artists are dead
>mfw all the background artists are dead
Luckily they inspired countless people who would go on to make hella influential cartoons. Bob Clampett, for instance, inspired John K. (He even gave John K his blessing to create The New Adventures of Beany and Cecil.)
I'm thinking of animation directors in general btw, but I think you get my point.
the industry just doesn't push newcomers to learn from the old anymore, and for the old to teach the new, quite like it used to
Huh, I've always been under the impression that it was the case. I've grown up on some of the very last cartoons to have soul, so it's entirely possible to go back to the 90s/00s in terms of creativity.
you guys wanna see a downgrade in background art? look at arthur in fact of course
The show became soulless as time went on.
>giant UN flag hanging off the wall
Kek, getting them started early eh?
SU may have been absolute visual ass, but there were some very talented people working on it that just couldn't save the show no matter how hard they'd try
Most of the backgrounds were made by Rebecca's brother, Steven Sugar, and it's downright beautiful and has a clear visual theme that's nicer and more coherent and visually appealing than the rest of the show, making the characters stand out like a sore thumb in them
Blame the outsourced animation more than anything else, since you can tell a LOT of corners were cut on that front.
>Blame the outsourced animation
lol imagine being a storyboard run cartoon, most of the people working for you only have one job, and they can't even finish it
that whole crew was so lazy they make actual passionate artists look bad, they singlehandedly fit the sterotype of the sensitive and entitled cartoonist who doodles one picture and goes "MAAAAN THIS IS SOO HAAAAWD I DESERVE MOAR MONIEZ"
Lame, they should try working at a Canuck studio and see if they could survive more than a day. Unlike a burger studio, they do animation in-house as well.
What's a storyboard run cartoon?
a show that doesn't have a script and is written inline with the visuals via storyboard
amazing practice, ideal for an episodic comedic show! not so great for a show with an overarching plot that tries to be all deep n soup-or-cereal all the time like SU
Wait WHAT? You're telling me Steven Universe doesn't have a FRICKING SCRIPT?
You didn't know? The whole thing's production was a mess! Most of the confused writing was a result of "writers" passive agressively pulling the story in whatever direction they wanted and ol Rebecca failing to wrangle em
Kek ok brother, this confirms you're taking the piss
Could've kept the joke going longer and fooled more people if it weren't for this
>Could've kept the joke going longer and fooled more people if it weren't for this
What? It's no joke, I'm dead set on being a cartoonist.
Dammit, are you doing the "funnee board weirdo that draws bad and thinks he's gonna get into the industry" skit? We already have like 3-4 of those on this board, find another gimmick
I take it you want "polished" work? Frick, then I'm going to have to share some old shit.
Anything by Genndy
Genndy is a great artist and I love his work! Especially the character art, but while we're on the topic of backgrounds, the one's in his shows are perfect- beautiful, stylistically consistent and thematically fitting. Just amazing. I wanna frick the elf.
one thing i like cartoons doing is setting the environment apart from the characters, like how he does here with the colors, it mostly being one tone and quite dim and less saturated
it's something you gonna know how to do well, do it wrong and it makes it feel like a greenscreen or a stage instead
I've been trying to do the opposite, but only because I suck at drawing backgrounds.
>I've been trying to do the opposite
what do you mean? blend the characters into the background?
Nah, I meant to make my backgrounds completely abstract so my characters stick out more. I'm not exactly good at "realism."
I hope those 2 will be feature in season 2
>have some of the most pretty and impressive looking backgrounds in modern animation
>stick pic rel into them
kek
I completely forgot about the mess that was this shows' visuals
I don't care what justification they wanna give for this, it just plain looks bad
We fricking have eyes
that show felt like a fricking school project, lol, a buncha catty fricks arguing with one another till the end while a couple of people behind the scenes do all the work and get none of the credit
>a buncha catty fricks arguing with one another till the end while a couple of people behind the scenes do all the work and get none of the credit
Believe it or not, kid, but that's how the vast majority of human civilization works
idiot
Jay Bondy and crew gave Invader Zim such an incredible depth and theme that even the Florpus pales in comparison. You can find more on his portfolio website.
That attention to detail is enough to make me cum.
that show was always great with its visuals, the while world felt either alien (heh) or filthy and cold, with lots of angles making everything seem just a little fricky and the main characters to feel small
florpus didnt understand this, they just threw a buncha purple together and called it a day
thats not to say i didnt like the background visuals of that movie, alone they looked fine, but as its been said about many things many times itt- it didnt work within the context it was used in
The only returning talent were the voice actors and it shows. But it's like asking if Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts is worth it. Without it, there wouldn't be another entry in the franchise. With it, the visuals are just wrong.
Backseat Drivers has better action scenes for a comedy show than something like The Owl House or Amphibia's finale have despite them being adventure shows.
I know the show cost an arm and a leg, but it's insane how even with outsourcing to Korea, we were still able to pump out these amazing sequences like it was effortless. Now we hire guest animators for select scenes and it still doesn't look good or feel tense.
>I know the show cost an arm and a leg
to be fair some of that is because of some really unfortunate accidents and miscommunications that resulted in several occasions where CGI was unnecessarily used that resulted in the show going massively overbudget and was probably the biggest factor in the show getting canned
Cgi?
nta but yeah remember 'room with a moose'?
that bit with the nuts wasn't supposed to be CGI but someone thought it was and ordered it, kek idk how that happens
tho tbf, it certainly lended itself to some comedic effect
what i always loved about that show is how they used frickups for comedy
like when there was a scene in one episode where the layering gets fricked up, and one guy accidentally gets put too high up in the shot, when he's actually supposed to be close to the camera and lower down- making him look like a giant- so they just said 'frick it, i guess there's just a giant in this scene for no reason' and added giant footsteps when he walks by
i think a sign of a great artist is one who gets handed their lot of lemons and goes "alright, where do we go from here with this?" instead of saying NO or crying and throwing a fit that it's all ruined now
>i think a sign of a great artist is one who gets handed their lot of lemons and goes "alright, where do we go from here with this?" instead of saying NO or crying and throwing a fit that it's all ruined now
Anyone has more instances of show creators being cheeky like this? I feel like it's a dying art, showrunners have it was too easy now that hey can practically do anything so they just moan until they get their way
I wonder if there some high res Invader Zim backgrounds kicking about somewhere?
I expect the originals no longer exist unless Nick archives production assets from their shows.
very soulful
I feel like his house would smell like my grandparents house
good thread
When you really take the time to analyze SpongeBob's kitchen, you come to see how ingenious the set design philosophy is. The barrel cupboard? The surfboard table? The SAND BUCKET SINK?? I never noticed these as a kid
ikr, i love design like that
is there a name for it? idk if 'cluttered' is the right word but it's so comfy and homely
also nice cosplay
I WENT TO COLLEGE
What degree did Sheldon receive?
>Thread about comfy cartoon backgrounds
>Nobody mentions My Gym Partner's a Monkey
I like Kaz Aizawa a lot
https://blooming-concepts.tumblr.com/tagged/Kaz%20Aizawa
Too bad his website is not available anymore but he worked in a lot of cartoons i grew up watching, he is now lead background design on Moon Girl series i believe