Top 10 WORST Animation Art Tropes (And I Draw Them All) || SPEEDPAINT + COMMENTARY 

10:30 There actually _is_ a reason for this one besides "laziness". In 2D animated works, the backgrounds are usually painted by a different team than character animation. Since TV productions are especially limited on time and money, everyone's work is simplified as much as possible -- which for character animators is a clean flatly-colored style that's relatively easy to keep on-model, while for background illustrators it's a quick and not-very-refined painted style. As a result there's almost always some stylistic discrepancy between the characters and the background of a scene. Making matters even worse is that even though both teams work off the same concept art and storyboards, they often don't have direct access to the other team's work. To use the screenshot at 10:40 as an example, the backgrounds team likely couldn't just look at the character animation team's work to match the stuffed animals in the background to the one Steven interacts with; depending on how tight the production timeline is they might not have seen it until after the final cut of the episode was locked in.

I hate when I see a nerdy, lanky, socially awkward guy character that I like a lot suddenly become an "attractive" man with abs and a chiseled jaw line and NO GLASSES THE REST WOULD BE ALMOST OK IF YOU JUST KEEP THE GLASSES PLEASEEEEEE (The one exception to this trope I've seen is Milo from Atlantis: The Lost Empire who stayed his nerdy lanky self throughout the movie and *still* got the girl in the end I love him he is best boy)

one of my biggest gripes is how sometimes a male animal will look like a normal animal but the female one will have an accentuated waist, boobs, unrealistically long eyelashes and maybe in some cases even make up

I think the more egregious variant of the "Child looks exactly like parent" trope is when you have an interracial/inter-species couple and the children then look exactly like one parent and not a fusion of both. ie: In Treasure Planet, a Dog man marries a Cat girl and then their sons look like dogs while their daughters look like cats.

The unieye on Sonic doesnt really annoy me because, well Sonic, Amy, Tails, theyre animals yes, but they are also ALIENS. So i just think that their species evolved differently to us and thats it. Makes it so simple really.

Two of my nitpicks are: - A character shoves a minuscule crumb of bread into their mouth, but their cheeks swell like they have just eaten a whole Bic Mac and they even chew with difficulty. - A character like Donald Duck, who only wears a t-shirt, but when he is naked he covers his crotch instead.

As a Sonic fan I respect your opinion about the eyes. Even though I don’t agree with you, I personally think it’s fun to have different views on something we both love. Art! It gives us a way to see different sides of the coin. I enjoyed the video all the same. ❤️🎨🖌️

The conjoined eyes come from rubberhose style and how they'd draw animal characters (check out 1930s mickey mouse) and it happened to stick with Sonic to this day. I personally think its a cool design that survived to modern day, but i totally get why people would find it rather creepy lmao

The "interactable item" looking different is usually because the background is drawn in one style while the animation is drawn in another style so the the item is drawn in the animation style because it will be animated. I learned about it way back in the Tom and Jerry days, with cell animation it was basically a necessity. It was a fun thing to notice for an animation fan like myself as a kid. Fun video! I'd love to see more silly videos like this in the future especially if they give you a break from more serious videos.

8:51 THANK YOU! Unless them looking like one their parents is an important plot point (like Harry Potter looking so much like James that Snape is unable to see Lilly in him and it adds to his mistreatment of Harry) I HATE this trope. Genetics is fascinating and I like it when a child looks like a blend of their parents.

On 4. South Park actually did a joke where a police sketch artist sketched the kids and showed them to their parents, it was hyper realistic, and the parents agreed they looked like their kids, but that they see horribly drawn 🤣🤣🤣 6. I’ve seen kids who look just like a single,e parent, it’s freaky!! >_> 7. JUSTICE JAW CELESTIA IS QUEEN! AND I WISH TO SEE MORE OF HER!!!

I mostly agree - Although it's tough to hear the Sonic criticism as a huge fan (and fan-artist), you have a point. His eyes can cause a lot of confusion, even official Sonic media doesn't know what they're doing with them sometimes... They're controversial, but so iconic to Sonic that I can't imagine removing them from his game design entirely. I do agree with your wife on the animal one being a bit nitpicky, lol. Especially in fantasy settings. But I get where you're coming from, and i respect your opinion. :)

2 tropes that I really dislike are: 1- when characters have asymmetrical designs and when they face another direction their design gets flipped (specially when it comes to hair). I know it helps with recognizing silhouette but I don't care. 2- cc chests no matter how loose and/or thick the clothing is. That's simply not how a fabric works on a woman's chest and seeing women (or worse: girls) drawn like this in animated shows/movies that were supposed to be for children just makes me uncomfortable since I was a child even when famous paintings with nude women didn't.

I feel bullied by the Sonic one, as a Sonic fan

As a Sonic fan, I've stared at Sonic characters for so long that I don't find them weird looking. Even the way they wink looks normal to me.

Duchess Celestia : “When a character looks so much like one of their parents that they’re practically identical.” Me looking exactly like my mom : 🧍

1) I agree with this. It's SO over hated that *I* have begun to hate it. 2) THIS. I've never liked this and it's made me VERY uncomfortable every time I've seen this. Like- my brain doesn't fully process what I'm looking at. How does this work??? How did this come to be?? Was it a single eye that malfunctioned during mitosis?? 3) This can work with certain art styles, but... usually, no. 4) I've... never seen this. Have I just been living under a rock? 5) Never thought about this, never will. This just feels OVERLY picky to me. Unless the mouse is way larger than a dog, for example. 6) Gosh... I've never seen this either! 7) Yaoi art style?? I mean- yaoi art style? I mean- 8) Reminds me of... what was the show called again? High Guardian Herb? No- Spice. The interactable objects are clear. I mean... this can be used effectively and ineffectively, depending on the execution. 9) What...? This EXISTS?! 10) Ah yes, when you take of your (presumably prescription) glasses, you instantly become 10x prettier! ... NO!! I agree with your point fullheartedly.

I personally agree with your list. These tropes appeared so much in the 2000s and 2010s which were the eras of animation I grew up with. I have noticed a few newer shows improve on these tropes. One of my favorites being The Owl House!

I'd love to see a makeover scene where the character in question is considered hotter. Not by how they look now compared to before. But by how much better they feel about themselves now compared to before. Especially if their now isn't conventionally attractive or better if it's less conventionally attractive than before. Like maybe wearing a hoodie and sweatpants makes them feel more confident in themselves and that confidence makes them more attractive.

actually the family resemblance thing is real. a lot of the men in my family look *very* similar at the same ages, even on different sides of my family. i look especially identical to my mom's father, i literally thought it was me when i first saw a picture of him at my age and i was very confused. it also crushed any wondering if i was adopted or not.

Sees Sonic: Oh no...my CHILDHOOD. 😭 I can already tell how good this video is going to be.

You’re absolutely valid for these takes and while i personally disagree on some of these, I don’t hold that against you personally or anything. I personally adore the massive chins for muscled boyos (I find it charming tho maybe it’s more nostalgia for the Bruce Tim arts of Batman: the animated series, Superman: TAS and Justice League) and I love Sonic’s Uni-eye. It’s just a vibe. One trope I’ve always disliked in animation is the overly realistic animations for cartoony characters. It’s a reason I could never get into shows like Ren and Stimpy. Something about the way that show in particular animates freaks me out.

"The Donald Duck"; a character who normally doesn't wear pants for some unknown reason needs to cower up when his shirt comes off. Closely related to "the Moomin", who normally has no clothes, but for some reason feel the need to use swimwear or a towel 😅 no hate, just confusion and brain tilting.

4:42 I respect your opinion regardless of what I’m about to say, but the human characters in Sonic (or any other cartoon for that matter) has never been seen with the connected eyes. From what I’ve watched at least. I’m also pretty sure Sonic is suppose to be an alien as well as an anthro. 5:21 I appreciate this point and I’ll also add that most Sonic characters are anthropomorphic animals which already breaks the laws of logic and things that make sense. Heck, cartoons are the DEFINITION of not making sense with exaggerated character designs and expressions. You could argue animals shouldn’t have giant hands, eyes, and feet like most western (and sometimes anime) animals do. Not everyone has to like this art style by any means. We all have our opinions and should respect them. I just wanted to make a point.

What's funny is the conjoined eyes is not only a sonic thing sonic do that but another childhood franchise I loved Club Penguin does that too. It's to a slightly lesser degree yet it still does it

i find the single eye thing to only be uncomfortable when you think on it too hard, but as a sonic fan i think theyre VERY fun to draw. it brings a unique level of expression to the face on sonic characters. i concede that the single eye looks bad on any character that isnt a talking animal. like the human nose under the single eye.... very odd

“The character can’t go from lanky to super buff in live action….” Captain America.

I remember having that problem with animal size when I was watching Rango. How can they have the Hawk and Rattlesnake be their natural big height, but have the other animals all be the same height? The movie is great, but that just bothered me a bit when watching it.

One of my biggest pet-peeves in Western cartoon is when any animal or non-human characters just run around naked. Like... Sure they have fur but... Wha-? It gets even worse when side characters who are also non-human show up and DO wear clothes, by that only the main character is naked and I'm not okay with it.

9:07 Me and my siblings are all examples of this. We each look identical to the parent of our same gender. (Ie. My brothers look like their dads and i look like my mom to the point where we cant tell old pictures of us apart) its unnerving. Also me & my mom got our nails done and this lady (who didnt work there) asked if we were mother and daughter 😭💀💀😭

You forgot one, characters Suspiciously getting taller when they get shredded. (Even when they're adults)

I think the square chins came from the animation budget issues - they're really simple to draw, and the savings stack with each frame.

5:33 I'm actually a huge fan of this anyone else?? I love it when it's this over exaggerated

10:40 That's less of an art style choice and more of a not wanting to put too much detail into something you're gonna have to draw moving around later thing... which in that case, just make the entire pile simplified, saves time and makes things look less out of place.

I personally *_despise_* when shows do fake pixel art, where it's the same cartoon style but the decided to go for cubism and call it pixels.

8:53 Welp, I guess I'm a bad animation trope then cause I legit look EXACTLY my like my mom when she was my age, just more chub 💀

8:01 me When Anthropomorphic animals are too humanoid in character (personality) world-making and designs (When I first made this was talking about when they regardless of gender have grossly over the top humanoid designs)😳😥😨😤😤

Oh my god I hate the glow up ones so much, not just bc it's stupid but also it feels disgusting in a way too. And I also hate the parents looking way too identical to their children (I see this one way too many times and it drives me INSANE.)

When it comes to animation, the very first idea of it was "how far can we push it's limits?" Therefore absolutely discarding anatomy in the process. That's why rubberhose cartoon characters had limbs that could bend in unnatural ways, mold their bodies into whatever the animation calls for and exaggerate both the characters and the environment around them. Almost like they're made out of the ink they were drawn with, that probably wasn't intentional (making them canonically out of ink i mean) but it's a nice idea. But i get why the exaggerated movements can look creepy or unsettling, especially when applied to human characters that usually have normal anatomy- i don't like that trope either lol Oh and fun fact, a lot of people who make psychological horror use that very same trope to *intentionally* make their art creepy and unsettling! Like for example, The Mandela Catalogue. They stretch the facial and body features of a human looking character to freak out the brain. Interesting stuff.

My pet peeve is when Anthro Animal characters will have the main character not wear pants or clothes, then the female or other animal characters will randomly be fully dressed. Thus, making the MC look very naked which can be uncomfortable.

OMG THE FAMILY RESEMBLANCE THING THOUGH LIKE, SOMEONE'S GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GRANDPA LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE THEM I SEE IT ALL THE TIME

“Bean-heads are considered lazy” meanwhile circle-heads exist without the same complaints

As a Sonic fan? I'm in the same boat, Idk what it is, but it just feels wrong to me and I try to actively avoid drawing it lol

Having a prop stand out from the background isn't really to have the viewer to focus on it- it's just an animation thing. A flat colored character picking up an object with similar lines & shading to the background would look off. It's also just easier on the animators all around

I genuinely totally agree with everything you just said, but for the conjoined eyes, sonic is the ONLY exception. It's actually the only animated show that has these types of eyes and just can't be changed for trademark reasons--- YOU SAW WHAT HAPPENED IN THE FIRST SONIC LIVE ACTION-

What about if Mordecai was a Cassowary? That's a bigger bird than a raccoon by far.

6:28 This doesn’t bother me thaaat much. Sure, it’s lazy, but at least those characters are closely related so it’s at least slightly explainable. What bothers me much more is if ROMANTIC PARTNERS look almost the same! That just makes me uncomfortable!

8:50 One that pisses me of to ab unrealistic point is were the parents look like siblings, ive seen it happen in shows that focus on the kids and just make the entire family look like them but its just sooo weird

3:55 why can’t people just agree that things can be both ways! the bean head can be cute, but people can also be tired of seeing it because how simple and overused it is, you can feel both ways I feel both ways, so why do people have to fight about it? Why can’t they either agree to disagree or agree that it can be both? Dammit people! Will we ever learn!

About the one element drawn differently than the resto of the background because the character is going to interacti with it, I think it's an issue of technical tools. No idea how it works now with digital animation, but with traditional animation mobile objects are usuall drawn on differen sheets, often even by different artists, than non-mobile elements. The brackground can be only one drawing, but if in that background there is an object that will do something on scene, that object needs to be drawn doing its thing separately than the background.

10:56 Sometimes this happens because the background is one painted image, and so to make the object interactive for the characters, they have to draw that object on a different layer. And in some cases where the background and characters are drawn in different styles, the have to draw the object in the same style as the characters so the object doesn't look weird in their hands. This is why sometimes the object looks out of place among the other objects in the background.

One thing that kinda bothers me is when it comes to anthro animals, the world isn't consistent with the dress code. Sometimes males will wear no clothes or just a shirt whereas females always have a full outfit. Gumball actually poked fun at this in an episode where they acknowledge that the universe's dress code makes no sense. And I love Ducktales, but I think some of those birds should be wearing pants. At least with Bluey, most characters don't wear clothes unless they have some sort of profession, like being a doctor or working at a store. Also, another thing, drawing animal characters without tails is something that bothers me as well.

8:41 that happened to me in beastars, like one theme is haru being small and weak, but then they show a parrot at the same high as other animals and a squirrel with a realistic size

I was stalking ur RU-vid and then you uploaded 😭😭😭 todays my lucky day

I'll be real, I don't have the eye for art like artists do (actually had a situation a few days ago were I couldn't identify an image was AI art even though there was an obvious tell) and I don't have many strong opinions on art (except for the standard AI art bad). but this channel that I randomly stumbled upon is cool because I don't feel insulted for not understanding an art trope and you explain it in a way that's easy to understand. good video

I LOVE GIANT CHINS YOU FIEND

One that always bugs me is how in animal focused animation you make the male have like a bigger/thicker muzzle and make them look larger/thicker with smaller, 'hard' eyes where the female is small, petite and has a smaller/thinner muzzle/snout with bigger 'cuter' eyes. Half the time they don't even look like the same species.

My biggest art pet peeve. Is when the eyes stay open and then the pupils close up with a "U" shape or. ">

6:46 Actually I can relate to this one but in a different way with superhero shows. One of the main reasons I disliked the art style of superhero comic books like Marvel and DC was because I always found it ugly how they frequently went for a realistic art style, because for me it clashed a lot with how some of their characters featured highly colored and stylized designs. In particular I remember not understading why people initially hated Spectacular Spider-Man's art style because one of the things I loved about it was the fact that Peter didn't have a realistic face. I always found it incredibly jarring and ugly to see Spider-Man take his very expressive mask off only to be drawn with a realistic manly face, it just felt ugly. I have a similar gripe with Metroid Prime. Apparently the fandom loves how Samus' face looks in Prime 1 and praise it a lot, but for me I just find her extremly ugly and I prefer a more ''anime'' looking Samus by a large margin. It's not even about conventional beauty, I just find her realistic face incredibly ugly when her power suit has such a stylized design, it feels ''off''. (And of course I felt that the Switch remaster just made it even worse by making that realistic face HD)

3:26 oh god... not the *_bean heads_* It works for people with squishy faces, but *_why does every cartoon network character have to have a bean head these days!?_*

My little pony (mainly one of the older series) did that "mini-me" thing and it bothered me when I was younger. They didn't even have names, they were just called "baby [insert mother's name here]"

About the kid looking identical to one of their parents - what about their parents looking like siblings?

9:00 I wish Goku *atleast* had the hairstlye difference with his father. I typically when making a character's parent copy Eye and Skin for one child and the Hair and Nose for the other (I rarely draw ears so it goes to whoever) then I do the inverse from the other parent, if it's a single child, it's einie menie miny moe.

10:13 A trope I also hated in animation and even in real life were butt chins that came along with the chiseled jaw. I am so sorry to all of y'all but they just looked like someone didn't listen to their parents when running around the house and slipped and fell square on that one table corner they were always warning about. I lived for so long thinking "How could anyone find that attractive?? This must be a nation-wide comedic gag" I refused to believe it was a beauty staple 😭I'm sorry

I LOVE the giant "justice chin" 😂 maybe bc I mostly watch comedy anime and they're always the funniest

A Bugs Life is the most egregious example of animal proportions imo. There are many examples but primarily, the ants should be way smaller than every other character in the film. I may not care for the movie ANTZ, but it at least got the bug size scale on point with the wasps being giants compared to the ants.

I agree with the transformation one is the most annoying (additionally, overweight characters being chibi , I hate it). The family resemblance is more "it would be more interesting if they actually blended the two together" then any annoyance. After that its either, "ok, you do you, I'm neutral about it." Or "I never noticed that, neat." Lol. The one I never seen in my life is the portrait made too realistically. I thought you were talking about when a chibi version of the character breaks the fourth wall to have an inner monologue or a 4th wall break, so i thought i had to throw hands (jk).

4:50 As a Sonic fan, my Sonic OC has separate eyes because cyclopsism is odd out of Sonic context, and I can't draw it without it looking cursed for the life of me.

ngl the bulging trope is soo funny in your pretty cute style

lol I agree with most of them, a personal one for me is when the hair in real life would cover one eye or partly both eyes but the eyes in art or animation are fully showing over the hair and i'm like, no stop it lol one other one is when a cat is drawn to have the claws out all the time, its not realist and I don't like it, however other not realistic animal traits in art or animation don't tend to bother me. Neither of these stop me from liking the art or animation though

I like conjoined eyes only in Cars. Idk it just looks neat as a windshield and not as two squares.

12:33 There is exactly one irl example I've seen of someone undergoing the "classic makeover" (ie taking off his glasses) and instantly looking like a model. But his glasses had some utterly ridiculous magnification. Might actually be something interesting to try in a story

7:29 There’s literally a real life Peter griffin who doesn’t look uncanny ISTG look it up

13:59 In my case, it feels like your views are either correct, hilarious, or both. Mostly both.

The justice jaw celestial looks like lord farquad

The thing with the parents and children looking identical someone else talked about it too 🙃

10:00 By god... the sheer geometrical squareness of Steve (Minecraft)'s chin... There isn't a man manlier.

I 100% agree with the family resemblence one it triggers me when ever i see it but what triggers me even more is when the characters look egsactly the same in flashbacks especaly when U hav a 4 year old version of them have the exact same hair style.

Idk why but the glow up trope just seems primed for accidental racism

One of mine is when an old person is automatically small like a child. Like, I saw it in frieren , and I was like " no ? That's not how it's work ????" Yeah you get smaller, but you don't get THAT SMALL .

"No, I reject that mouse"😂

The only one that broke me is the heart beating out of chest one, that's like... so peak dude 😭 I respect your opinion however, Docked Grass Sell Esters

i hate when babies sometimes have weirdly large heads

10:40 They’ve been doing this since Tom and Jerry, it’s not a new thing

9:12 I actually have a comment on this one. People say I look SO MUCH like my mom that I could be her twin if I was older😅

I absolutely lost my mind at the 'hero chin' xD Could not stop laughing, and then took a long hard look at how many of my own characters possess the chin or the jawline, lol.

I agree with some of these being odd tropes that don't need to be used as much as they do. However I personally don't agree with you're trope 8. There is a very simple explanation as to why the items of interest stand out compared to the other objects around it. the other objects are drawn as part of the background which were done by other artists. the object of interest is then later added with the rest of the animation so the style will be different.

the one eye and bulging shit has to be done well,if youre using an anime style dont use the one eye or the bulging heart/eyes,they work if they are cartoon (monicas gang does it well). sonic works well because they are cartoon little guys,its just mickey if his fur was blue instead of black

I actually agree with most of your opinions, the only one I don’t care about is the bulging things, honestly it’s probably just a personal preference for you

Now look, I love the whole eye thing in Sonic. But I still want an explanation for how that works, but I just accepted that I might never get one.

I love hearing your nitpicky opinions and I agreed with most of the list tbh. These videos are always so much fun ♥

The extra weight = extra height trope does have a bit of fatphobia attached to it, because it means that they can draw almost the same person with slightly wider proportions but don't have to truly draw the rolls. The extra height balances the weight gain.

i wonder what realistic portraits look like to the characters themselves. because to the cartoon character the cartoon is realism. idk i just wonder…

I also agree with your third trope. I find it creepy when the eyes pop out of their head or when their heart nearly escapes their bodies.

Children looking like little clones of their parents is lazy and all, yes, yes, but it's nothing compared to the "how to show they're a married couple? make them look like siblings!" trope..

I've been mistaken for my mom a few times especially if I put on glasses. Granted it's usually from the back or from far away but it's happened XD

Adding to the family resemblance thing: when the designs of the children look too "calculated", especially if its this "Standart" family model with mother, father, daughter and son. Often times, if the parents are visually distinct, the daughter will look exactly like the mother while the son will look exactly like the dad. Alternatively, the daughter might get everything from the father and the son might get everything from the mother. There's little to no combining of traits going on, and recessive genes are completely out of consideration. Sometimes mixing two pieces of information (like "light hair" and "dark hair") will combine into a third thing ("middle" hair? No idea how to say it), the child doesn't always just have to have the exact same color as either of their parents. Mildly annoys me

I think the conjoined eyes do suck, but I also think your reaction to it is due to you seeing the spheres on people's heads usually, the connected eyes have frightening implications on the underlying structure of their face

Beansheads - beanheads are hated not because they are simple but because they became justification for overall simplification of western animation. "Animation is haaard and beanheads are away to save money and whatnot" while some people remember the 80s and 90s and animations that were done then. I'm one of them, btw. :P Also, compared to anime... Wait, what? Sorry, there is no comparision, even tthough modern anime isn't as detailed as it used to be, character-wise, 'cause backgrounds are more stunning than ever.) Your brain might be too logical for this stuff. I have similar issues excerpt for big dogs - would love dogs to be as huge as horses :P) and I had it since I can remember, unless there's in-story explanation for this: like mutation, shrinking etc. I have a story of a girl who has an overgrown German Shepherd because of toxic mutation of his ancestors :P As for parent resemblance - it is possible but the similarities come out (obviously) in later age. However, if you compared the photo of a mother while being young to the daughter's at the same age - similarity can be almost 100%. It's more the resemblance despite the age gap rather than resemblance itself, imho. As for the objects - it is irritating but it was impossible to not distinguish it in ye olde' days, as the animated stuff was on cell and background was on paper. However - you are right - it has no justification with computer animation. As for weight: Totally Spies did it right. Clover was fat in one episode from overeating cookies but she was the same height as the rest of the team (them being the exact height tthough and clones of each other, is another matter :P) As for live actors getting fat - they did itt in Friends and they even have a fat body suit. They have preggo suits and whatnot. Butt in recent era CGI has replaced creativity, so... Yup... No more movie magic. :P The worse crime in movies and tv is that they try to uglify an obviously beautiful actress (99% it's the actress). It's such a slap on the face to all people who are uglier by nature and making them beautiful is far more difficult. :/

I’m okay with children that look very similar to their parents, but when both parents look so similar that they could pass as being related, that seems less believable to me. Like Milhouse’s parents from the Simpsons. Edit: the big chin one got me laughing. First thing that came to mind was the Crimson Chin from Fairly Odd Parents. 😂 And the one where the object has to move/be interacted with is drawn more vibrant/prominently than everything else in the background image - I used to DESPISE that in older looney tunes and Hannah Barbara cartoons because it was too easy to predict a lot of gags if you just paid attention to how the scenes were drawn.