The old art style is better than the new art style

[Marco Polo]

You've just posted a comparison between two totally different animators. Of course it's going to look different.

Modern animation is still drawn with pen and paper. Only a few skilled animators use flash to animate and none of them worked on this movie.

The character models have changed and the pool of animators employed have different skills. Things are naturally going to look different, no matter the manner in which the final touches are done.

The problem has never been that the new animation looks "different". The problem is that it looks like sh*t.

[Vice]

Yeah, the new style looks like ass. It's basically just a glossier version of Uchiyama's style.

Also I still don't get how critical people are on Maeda, his episodes are usually the best animated of any. Dragon Ball episodes 139/146 and DBZ episodes 28/64 are some of my favorite episodes because of the superior animation.

[DarkPrince_92]

Modern animation is still drawn with pen and paper. Only a few skilled animators use flash to animate and none of them worked on this movie.

The character models have changed and the pool of animators employed have different skills. Things are naturally going to look different, no matter the manner in which the final touches are done.

I know they still do it by pen and paper, but the clean up process is digital instead of painted cels.

[JulieYBM]

Also I still don't get how critical people are on Maeda, his episodes are usually the best animated of any. Dragon Ball episodes 139/146 and DBZ episodes 28/64 are some of my favorite episodes because of the superior animation.

On-model is not synonymous with 'good animation'. The outsourced episodes always had better animation due to the skills of their animators being higher and more attuned to movement.

[Vice]

On-model is not synonymous with 'good animation'. The outsourced episodes always had better animation due to the skills of their animators being higher and more attuned to movement.

Okay, whatever. Those episodes are still great whether we're talking about being on-model or animation quality.

[Attitudefan]

Spoiler:

Looks identical to Last House work. It looks flat and the eyes look too wide for the face, exactly how Last House drew their characters in the Freeza arc and beyond.

Spoiler:

EDIT: I swear there is a shot of Vegeta in the Cell arc where he has that exact same close up and face in a Last House episode. It looks identical to me in my mind's eye.

[B]

I know they still do it by pen and paper, but the clean up process is digital instead of painted cels.

... He says with an Ultimate Blast cutscene gif for an avatar! The fact that everything is done digitally now is hardly the reason these recent outings look subpar.

[bleed0range]

I rrally don't think anyone's lost their touch with animating. I think the distaste comes from the fact that the newer stuff is produced digitally which in a way removes some of the more earthy details that make it feel like a drawing on paper come to life. As a long time collector of db cels I can tell you that the paint colors look different and brighter on real life on the cels but look different when photgraphed. The lack of hi def detail on the old cels hides inconsitencies and blemishes and alters the colors of thr cel slightly. In a way being imperfect actually improved the look of scenes. For example air brushing is more obviously air brushed on a cel in person but looks different in style when on film. It looks more natural. Digital animation cannnot seem to replicate the air brush technique welll. The differences ate mostlt because it's just diigtal animation now and it has different end results even if utilizing the same people.

As for the animation style however. It does use that glossy shading that gt used which I hate... and I do prefer the older rounder style from the end of db to earlt dbz.

[Kakarot88]

I think the new style makes them look too shiny and too lean. These people looked way more jacked in the anime than the new movie and promos...I think Vegeta looks way less broad shouldered in even Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans that came with one of the video games.

[TheMightyOzaru]

Old is definitely better... Most of the time.

[TheAldella]

The new animation looks better than anything Last House produced for Z past the Saiyan saga to me XD

[JulieYBM]

I rrally don't think anyone's lost their touch with animating. I think the distaste comes from the fact that the newer stuff is produced digitally which in a way removes some of the more earthy details that make it feel like a drawing on paper come to life. As a long time collector of db cels I can tell you that the paint colors look different and brighter on real life on the cels but look different when photgraphed. The lack of hi def detail on the old cels hides inconsitencies and blemishes and alters the colors of thr cel slightly. In a way being imperfect actually improved the look of scenes. For example air brushing is more obviously air brushed on a cel in person but looks different in style when on film. It looks more natural. Digital animation cannnot seem to replicate the air brush technique welll. The differences ate mostlt because it's just diigtal animation now and it has different end results even if utilizing the same people.

As for the animation style however. It does use that glossy shading that gt used which I hate... and I do prefer the older rounder style from the end of db to earlt dbz.

Nobody is talking about the colors here. The coloring is not the issue. The drawings themselves are and the manner in which the drawings are produced has not changed. You could strip away the coloring and ink, but Vegeta would still look different than he did in an older production.

According to Yamamuro Battle of Gods was the first time he had been able to draw key animation for Dragon Ball in about ten years. That would match his working on the Openings for Dragon Ball Z 2 and Dragon Ball Z 3 Openings. In essence, he's been off the frontlines for a while and I think that's played into his designing tastes. By his own admission he's been trying to combine Toriyama's modern style with his Majin Boo arc style, which has produced some iffy results. Toei has been moving away from creativity towards homogenizing all of their productions lately and I think that's begun to hurt their productions. The Tate Naoki portions of the 2008 special is the closest we've gotten to breaking away from Yamamuro thanks to his drawings being so difficult to correct.

[Marco Polo]

Actually the coloring is definitely part of the issue.

The glossy shading used for the skin in the new art style is incredibly ugly and non realistic.

[jjgp1112]

Spoiler:

Looks identical to Last House work. It looks flat and the eyes look too wide for the face, exactly how Last House drew their characters in the Freeza arc and beyond.

Spoiler:

EDIT: I swear there is a shot of Vegeta in the Cell arc where he has that exact same close up and face in a Last House episode. It looks identical to me in my mind's eye.

...huh? Those don't look even remotely similar.

[Ajay]

A few less highlights, slightly more contrast, bit of grain and some different colouring and it's not looking too bad, I don't think (but then I made this so I'm biased )



Skin could potentially be lighter

EDIT: I guess since we're asking for feedback, I'd be interested hear thoughts on mine then.

[hleV]

The new artstyle is quite horrible compared to the old one (when done in quality, either by Toriyama himself or gifted artists).

[jjgp1112]

I think the lack of grain also contributes to the more "plastic" look. With a variety of Gimp techniques, I added grain to that Vegeta pic:



What do you think?

[InfernalVegito]

That definitely looks better. I can't really pinpoint why though. The shading is just darker and looks..uh more stable(?) for the lack of a better word. The glossy and overly plastic look of the new animation always makes me think the lines are too squiggly. And the bright spots where light is reflected are too white, almost as the eye. It just looks cheap and not good.

[Black_Anime_Fan]

Old animation is definitely better, except for Last House (anything past the Freeza arc) or Studio Live.

[TheGmGoken]

Spoiler:

The bottem one looks like GT animation mix with Z art style. Looks much better