The SU Style of Animation 

i find it funny how steven and connie are sometimes normal height but then they're also literal gremlins sometimes lmao

I guess you can call it The “Uneven Steven”

Film theory: what is Steven’s height? *oh wait*

Garnet: 8ft tall Also garnet:6ft in the next scene

The animators of Ren & Stimpy refused to draw the same face twice, and it leant an unnerving and very unique look to the show which was perfect for its tone and themes.

going off model wouldnt be that big of a problem if they just followed rules - like "this character must never be shorter than x character" or "x character should always have this shape head" etc etc still would be annoying, but at least itd have better consistency

You guys remember Chowder? It’s hilariously off model every now and then because it’s meant too. Sometimes they make Endive bigger than she needs to be to emphasize how huge she is, same goes for most of the characters when they emphasize one aspect of the character.

As a person who LOVES Steven Universe, I’ve been bothered by the inconsistencies for a while. At the moment, they seem to have skipped that, but as the show began you could clearly see the differences. I am still bothered that Peridot and Lapis keeps shrinking... Like, what the hell?

When I saw that insane animation from Battle of Heart and Mind I thought 'Holy shit they actually tried new angles AND ANIMATION.' Till I realized James Baxter did it. Not mad about that, James is a god.

I love Steven Universe, but NOTHING is above criticism. I have the same complaints about the consistency of the character models. I would like my characters to STAY the same size throughout. Heck, it's a meme about the 'amazing shrinking Peridot', who seems to get smaller and smaller each episode.

As an SU fan, I agree with you. Another thing to add; they toy around with characters badly. As an example; yellow diamond. This is because rebecca and one of her other workers changed how she acted, From afar, this show looks amazing. But if you look closer.. boy oh boy.

As an actual fan of SU, I am SO with you on this!

SPOILERS. in Change Your Mind (the most recent episode of SU), i couldn't stop watching the scene where the two stevens fuse to create normal steven, because they brought in a former animator from the Disney renaissance era (James Baxter) to animate it. It was just so fluid and amazingly done, i spent almost 20 minuets watching it over and over and just admiring it. This was the type of animation the show really needed. (Damn almost 100 likes tf)

I miss the days when "artistic choices" were actually deliberately made to convey a certain look or feeling in a specific shot, rather than just being made to make production quick and easy while not paying attention to when something should and shouldn't be consistent with the character sheets.

consistency is everything. They teach you this in art school junior year.

Ren and Stimpy is the only show I can think of that uses the constant off model drawings to it’s advantage, but probably because it’s done intentionally.

In a span of 15 seconds Amethyst hair in front eyes Then amethyst hair out of face Then amythest hair on face again but in a different way *WTF*

As much as I like Steven Universe, I'll admit you're not wrong. The constant off-model animation really bugs me at times.

I wanted to make a show where the art style is very inconsistent. But that’s mostly because the machine for making the show is broken and the main characters have to fix it. So each and every episode has a different style, from a cartoony one to the anime one

Don't let this distract you from the fact that Yoshi still committed Tax Fraud.

I feel like Steven Universe teaches a lot of odd, not very good techniques for animation, including disregarding being on-model. People respect this show, and emulate it, and try to copy it, and it teaches them real bad practices.

She has artistic freedom, but we also have the freedom to criticise her style and choices.

Have you seen the steven fusing animation? It was more consistent and had more frames than the entire show

There's also the fact that the SU animation budget is allegedly IN THE MILLIONS. There's no excuse here.

Sugar: *ARTISTIC FREEDOM* Also Sugar: *makes everyone a midget*

Wow, immediately your more respectful about SU than Lily orchard

Man SU is expensive but somehow the Animation style looks cheap

Ravioli ravioli don't lewd the dragon loli

Honestly, if the characters had at least some consistencies like height or specific shapes then it wouldn't be 10x as bad.

buy my emojis, i have a litter of puppies to feed

considering Stephen Hillenberg was able to keep SpongeBob consistently on model in "Help Wanted" without model sheets... Rebecca doesn't have an excuse, it's just a poor cover up for laziness, and honestly an insult to animators who put effort into their cartoons.

I’m not mad, just disappointed. Best way to describe this.

If I were to make a show, I would have intentional errors ie. colour changes, size changes, face swaps. However they would only last one or two frames and would happen once or twice per episode. It would mainly be a homage to all the errors in transformers G1 and how terrible/funny they are

Seeing as how Steven Universe wants to take itself seriously, there's no excuse for these errors.

I like how Peridot has slowly gotten shorter throughout the show.

A very well put together and researched video with consistent points to back it up. The frequent off model inconsistencies of characters mixed with the usually lacklustre shots/framing really drags the show down. I was hoping it would get better because l started noticing inconsistencies within the same episode I'd be watching. I still really enjoy but a lot of people have stopped watching or decided against it because of this. Also wow a critique video on SU that doesn't insult the show or it's fans, haven't seen that since Robobuddies.

Man, the attitudes of these "professional" artists reminds me of the plethora of kids on an art website I used to frequent who would get super defensive if you gave them the slightest criticism. Which is dumb because the website was literally built around a rating system, but NOPE anything less than 5/5 meant you were "hate rating".

One of the people that worked on Steven universe made their own show and I can say the consistency is definitely better

characters should only go off model for a visual joke other wise they should be consistent

I thought this was talking about how overused the SU style was for other artists. O o p s .

Artistic Freedom: Laziest form of art.

3:30 Just an error there, you compared a storyboard to key frames, those are not the same. Storyboards are sketches to adapt the script into visuals and key frames are done by the animator after the storyboard have been approved and turned into the animatic for the timing. The problem with the Steven Universe is that they model the key frames on the storyboard instead of the character sheets. Storyboards can be a bit off model and it isn't too much a big deal (depending of your boss, I had one director who was very touchy about that), not the same with key frames. See some Disney and Dreamwork storyboards, they can be very sketchy and sometime they're not even with the final design of the characters. But yeah, Steven Universe animation is not very good.

Can’t wait for the tumblr response to this based on just the title. Kinda like this comment…

[insert tumblr going absolutely apeshit on you for even suggesting that SU isn't ideal]

Anime has more “Artistic Freedom” than American Animation.

As an avid fan of SU I agree with this 100%. The show itself, the characters, plot, scenery, music etc. is amazing and some shots are beautiful. Unfortunately I feel like everything has become rather disjointed; it just feels like trying to read 7 different hand writings on an essay that should have been typed out in Times New Roman in the first place. I think the general aesthetic of SU is lovely but it's been haphazardly and flippantly stitched together, which honestly sucks because otherwise it's great. It just means that by the end of the episode the only thing hooking me is the plot, and the concept of the aesthetic, rather than the aesthetic itself. As contrast, an amazing short animated series with consistency and a lovely stylistic choice is Over the Garden Wall. As comparison, the characters are on model and stylistically the same. This means the story feels cohesive, and not like I'm in an alternate dimension every shot of every episode. I can focus on the story and the beauty of the show. Its a harsh truth; they are professional animators, and they should know better. And as someone who loves the show, it hurts.

It is an enjoyable show, Only when watching actually plot filled and interesting episodes, which are rare. Don't get me wrong Tumblr, I really enjoy SU but I don't obsess over it because of the poor animation and *way* too many filler episodes. *tumblr is going to kill me for this send help*

i honestly never really noticed it and just thought everyone always looked cute and loved when they looked a bit off haha i was just enjoying the show rip my bad i guess people pay attention to different things when they watch stuff and thats why some aren't bothered by it as much as others are even after the issues you bring up are valid and have been pointed out

I love Steven Universe to death, but MY GOD the show needs some artistic consistency.

maybe.. maybe the long hiatuses are used by the crew to remove any consistancy.

Animators: So how tall should we make Steven and Connie? Rebecca Sugar: Y e s

I think we can all agree that “Mindful Education” (despite being poorly written) is the only good episode in terms of storyboarding. Although it was due to an experienced story-board being hired.

I honestly don’t really care about the inconsistencies. It doesn’t distract me from the plot. But I agree about it being unprofessional.

"I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed." Excruciating words to hear. Lol *gets the megaphone*

Being a Steven Universe fan I actually agree

Love how hazbin hotel (a RU-vid series [not RU-vid red, just normal free RU-vid]) has better animation that Steven Universe (a show on a fully funded television program) ☕️☕️

i can't wait to read a bunch of mad 10-14 SU fans screaming in the comment section!

the fact that anime rn is way more professionally animated than shows here is kinda hilarious bc anime typically dont have a giant budget(the whole reason they do the "cheek mouth" thing is that for some studios it's way too costly to try to animate normal mouths, not a style choice) and SU is said to have like $1,000,000 in the budget lol

According to Ian Jones Quartey, a former storyboard artist of Steven Universe and creator of OK KO, Steven Universe goes off-model because he thinks it's "funny" when characters go off model and to let staff art style be shown. That has to be one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard. The first thing for a show creator and staff do to is stay on model, even Johnny Test and Teen Titans Go know the concept. This makes them look unprofessional, sloppy and lazy staff that they can't even get the height right. If he wants the staff art to be shown, then they can do it online, not on a cartoon show. Like for goodness sake, it's their job to be on-model of the character and they aren't doing what's it required!

Saying it's a stylistic choice is the equivilent of someone saying "ITS MY STYLE" when criticizing anything in someones art

Let’s be honest, the animation got lazier after the first season, and gets even lazier every season

I agree with everything except the storyboard part. They're not meant to be pretty, unless you're going to present them to a client who doesn't know shit about the process of making an animation and would think this is how the final product will look like, many artists consider polishing storyboards to be a waste of time. It's the quality of the shot that matters at this stage, not the quality of the drawing (see Miraculous Ladybug storyboards for example).

i absolutely LOVE SU, but i have to agree. its very distracting at times.

Artistic freedom shouldn't matter in a professional animation that is viewed by millions. It is a show that should have a consistant, appealing style. Artistic freedom could be shown through new characters that are introduced or interesting background, color, or lighting choices. It's distracting to see a really cute Pearl with a wide nose and sweet face in later seasons versus an awkward Pearl with small eyes, a giant yaoi hand and long, thin nose in the first season.

I fucking love Steven universe and its actually one of my favorite shows, so I always take criticism with a grain of salt because most of the people are so quick to jump on the hate train that they cant appreciate the show for what it is. However, I wholeheartedly agree with you and think they need to change if they want to be taken seriously.

Stylistic choice is "Hey, let's make Hugo the biggest character in any SF game he's in to emphasise his HUGENESS No model sheets screams of stylistic indifference

Lapis changes frequently as many have noticed lol

Funny , an hour ago i was like "Miss Zizi hasnt uploaded nothing in months " and then this pops up, cool.

While I agree that SU has some bad art faux pas (It's gotten better), I wish people would stop using the balanced breakfast example. That scene was clearly pushed was off model intentionally for comedic effect, and it's really effective.

Ok, I'm not a critic or anything of that sort, but, let's compare Rebecca Sugars animation to, say, Vivziepop, an animator here on youtube. Viv's art style is consistent with both her art, comics, and her animation. And here's Rebecca Sugar with a HUGE animation budget and dozens of professional animators, and well, just... Look at it.

I love how Yellow Pearl used to be as tall as Yellow Diamond's knee but now she's like barely taller than her foot lol

In SU Every single thing is in a fuked up shape and become taller smaller fatter thiner or even different

*I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed*

Remember when this fandom bullied a girl to suicide because she used "artistic freedom"

That face in the thumbnail killed me

I don't think the SU animation is terrible, there are some really great scenes... when the characters are on model. I can agree that these characters go off model way too much, I can understand doing it for comedic effect but that's rarely the case for SU, most of the time they're off model just because there's no supervision over the artists. When the fans can clearly tell which episodes were drawn by which artist, it's sort of a problem. a lot of the characters (peridot, lapis, steven, connie, etc) all seem to be getting shorter, for example. I try not to let it bother me too much bc 1) I know next to nothing about animation and 2) I enjoy su for the story (even though that has it's issues as well), but even as a casual fan, the animation errors are unfortunately very noticeable.

as a huge steven universe fan,,, i completely agree with you lmaooo i love the show so much but oh geez the inconsistencies

*says Skullgirls once* *FALLS OUT IF CHAIR*

There is 666 comments. All this hate is summoning Satan

Honestly. You're so right though. It's...really scary tbh, I just don't know why they can't even keep the same height for the main characters- the crystal gems. Sometimes in the original show Steven is like the height of my lamp and then all the sudden he's twice as tall. Most of the time I didn't notice this until watching videos addressing these things.

The only SU styled show that I like is gumball. but still, Almost every character is in a different style.

What's more funny is that the episode "Mindful Education" and the Pink Steve fusion at the end of "Battle of Heart and Mind" had an amazingly done and *consistent* animation that was just beauty for the eyes to witness! ... Funny thing is that they had to get external help for those... A storyboarder guest from Trigger Studios and James Baxter himself. Its just so sad that there has to be a guest animator for the show to look at least *descent*.

2:04 Ay those avocados aren’t symmetrical.

I never liked Steven Universe. Steven's voice alone is enough to make me want to set something on fire. Also, the fanbase acts like someone built Auschwitz on their Minecraft server when people make any negative comments about the show and that's funny.

To be honest, I came into this thinking I was going to click off within a minute or two because it would be another mad person ranting at how "a show like this could get so popular" but you made a very compelling argument! The reason Rebecca Sugar gave is something along the lines of what a young fanfiction writer would give for killing off a character so their OC could be with the hot protagonist. It's just sloppy and I totally agree with you.

4:07 I am so happy you included Obituary. It really needs more recognition. Great video!

The problem with this show is doesn't know what it want's to be! Is it a Action show or a Comedy show? Don't get me wrong it can work both, but you need to structure some ideas that can work on not, and not only that some of this storyboard's are good at telling comedy rather than action, and you can see that fight scene in SU, they are lazy, boring, flat and a lot of inconsistencies, there's not even weight to the character's! Great video as always Miss Zi-Zi! ^^

The only thing I love about SU's artstyle is the very sparkly- very creative, nice to the eye, background

I really enjoy the story of Steven Universe but I completely agree that the style is inconsistent and it bugs me

I feel like Steven Universe could have really benefitted from a Kill la Kill-esque style, but sadly we’re stuck with this terrible animation quality that, frankly, makes the show difficult to watch

Yeah having a style is great and all but when it's done poorly with minimal effort, then that's the issue. The whole arguments for this is just wanting to promote lazy ideas and technique for the sake of having it out. In the wise words of shigeru miyamoto - "A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad."

I’m late to the party, but to be fair, 3:36 those aren’t storyboards, those are layouts. It’s true that animators copy what they see, but it is also an animators job to keep the characters consistently on model. If you look at some storyboards for other shows, they can look like shit all they want, it’s a matter of the *artistic direction* and references they receive. I’m not here to defend the show, believe me, it looks like trash, but, yeah.

I actually think this is SVA’s fault. I’ve taken SVA’s animation courses, and I was taught that “the motion is all that matters” and it “doesn’t matter if it’s off model or the anatomy is off.” And I was like, “I think it does!” Yeah it’s definitely SVA. Rebecca sugar has been brainwashed by them.

ok one thing about storyboards, it's supposed to indicate composition, action and storytelling. whether things are on model or not is up to the lead animators. which they don't do, because ms Sugar says no and encourages/pushes different styles and inconsistencies. do not blame the artists. because a storyboard is drawn poorly doesnt mean the show will look poorly too. please for the love of god look at storyboards from other shows. it is how its done.. do not blame the artists. blame the direction.

I never noticed that the art style changes in SU until I found your video Edit: or the proportions

the character design even changed DURING an episode, i believe it was message received at the very end

Something that many people don’t know is that this isn’t necessarily just the storyboarders fault, it also depends a lot on which studio animates it, Steven Universe is animated by 2 different studios: Rough Drafts and Sunmin. The first on is the one that tends to go off model and even have shots that look worse than the actual storyboard, this studio is responsible for episodes like Laser Cannon or Same old World, the other studio (Sunmin) on the other hand, is the one were they do follow the model sheets and outline instructions and the one that tends to be more off model, this studio is responsible for episodes like Mr. Greg, Mindful Education or the second half of Reunited. There are many storyboarders who are criticized for their style , although there are episodes were their characters looks great but in others bad, so its not a coincidence, its the studio that animates the episode, here’s an example of how much the storyboarders style is affected depending on the studio: modestmondays.tumblr.com/post/160098938975/alonetogether-made-a-small-comparison-chart

Characters being the wrong size? Bruh. Araki has been smoking that shit since he wrote Jojo's part 4. Koichi has been 3' tall forever, and Hazamada might as well be a shape shifter. Mf'r slides from 5'11" to 2'10".

> dragon maids are better than rocks finally, a good and valid opinion

Why did the words "south park" make me so happy? -i think i'm watching the show too much-