>>122313396RWBY is a show about 4 high school girls, Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang, each with their own distinct colors and personalities living in a world called Remnant and going to an academy to become Huntsmen and Huntresses. these Huntsmen and Huntresses are essentially bounty hunters, working to take down baddies and fight against the Grimm, an animalistic mysterious species characterized by black skin and white pieces of bone sparsely covering their bodies.
the early volumes are characterized by poor dialogue animation, light comedy, and intense fight scenes made by a man named Monty Oum, who is a legend known for his works like Dead Fantasy and Haloid.
the reason it looks the way it does is primarily because of art-style choices (trying to mimic anime) and the results of the animation engine they used back then (Poser, which isn't really meant for full-scale animation). nowadays, they've switched to Maya, which looks more like pic related (screenshot from the show)
they did apparently steal some assets. some of the cast's hair in the early volumes is eerily similar to other known models. modern day RoosterTeeth (the company behind the project) has been known to steal ideas, although this doesn't really happen in the main work today.
hope that answers your question
