Here's something about the calarts thing that is quite apparent yet almost never seems to be brought up: the series that seems to get hit with the flak the hardest and most often, SU, is the series that deviates from this "calarts" standard the most.
Common aspects/complaints of the calarts elaborated are noodle limbs, neon colors, extremely "shapey" designs usually with round edges, non expressive eyes, bean mouth, etc. SU has very little of this.
From a design perspective, SU is pretty much Rebecca Sugar's art style simplified for animation, and it especially shows in the episodes she boards. The designs follow certain philosophy for each character. It is surprisingly fleshy, in that characters with decidedly unrealistic builds still operate as if they were flesh and blood. Their skin, limbs, digits, etcetera are effected by pressure, impact. If a character touches their face in distress, it will show in the indents and facial structure. Eyes are expressive, ther are facial expressions beyond "silly meme face" and "normal 3 emotions." The bean mouth isn't even there most of time, almost only when characters are doing the big smile or in promotional material. The mouths are usually expressing and teeth will be drawn differently depending on the tone. There are no noodle limbs, even with characters like Pearl who are intentionally stick thin. Characters have defined elbows, biceps, thighs, fat, musculature, etc. In some scenes they appear a bit "tubey" but still with definition and joints, as opposed to something AT, GF, RS.
Funny enough the show that probably gets the least of this hate is the one most egregious...Gumball. The solid neon, the meme face pasted on, the recycled expressions, the eyes, the shapey designs. It looks like a modern ad. It only makes up for this with the "special" characters animated differently, but every character within the normal style follows it closely.
Common aspects/complaints of the calarts elaborated are noodle limbs, neon colors, extremely "shapey" designs usually with round edges, non expressive eyes, bean mouth, etc. SU has very little of this.
From a design perspective, SU is pretty much Rebecca Sugar's art style simplified for animation, and it especially shows in the episodes she boards. The designs follow certain philosophy for each character. It is surprisingly fleshy, in that characters with decidedly unrealistic builds still operate as if they were flesh and blood. Their skin, limbs, digits, etcetera are effected by pressure, impact. If a character touches their face in distress, it will show in the indents and facial structure. Eyes are expressive, ther are facial expressions beyond "silly meme face" and "normal 3 emotions." The bean mouth isn't even there most of time, almost only when characters are doing the big smile or in promotional material. The mouths are usually expressing and teeth will be drawn differently depending on the tone. There are no noodle limbs, even with characters like Pearl who are intentionally stick thin. Characters have defined elbows, biceps, thighs, fat, musculature, etc. In some scenes they appear a bit "tubey" but still with definition and joints, as opposed to something AT, GF, RS.
Funny enough the show that probably gets the least of this hate is the one most egregious...Gumball. The solid neon, the meme face pasted on, the recycled expressions, the eyes, the shapey designs. It looks like a modern ad. It only makes up for this with the "special" characters animated differently, but every character within the normal style follows it closely.
