Thin-Line Animation

7 Following

"You'll also notice that the designs of many of these characters is much more simpler than ones of the past. They do this 'cause it gives way to faster animation, while also allowing more time to focus on color, backgrounds, and of course, the story."

— The Nostalgia Critic, Are Kids Shows Better NOW Than Ever?

Thin-line animation is a stylistic trend that has emerged in The New '10s based around thinner lines, rounder shapes and noodle-like appendages than seen in standard animation, all while still being distinctively Western.

This style may have emerged for a number of different reasons. The emergence of anime and their influences on Western cartoonists have made them focused less on detail. Different coloring techniques with digital art may have removed the need for thicker lines, and thus it only remains when it's a stylistic choice. The need for quicker, cheaper animation after the economic downturn may also have driven the desire for more cheap, yet still pleasing animation styles. It also may have been due to the widespread adoption of High Definition (HD) televisions — before HD, small features such as thin lines in an image tended to flicker and/or disappear depending on their angle and motion; HD allowed the freedom for this new, previously unattainable style. Finally, many Western cartoonists are striving to achieve a modern art style that is distinctly American without being just another Disney clone or overly influenced by foreign elements such as the aformentioned anime.

It is also known as the "CalArts Style", a pejorative term originally coined by The Ren & Stimpy Show creator John Kricfalusi in a post on his blog John K. Stuff which alleged that certain animated films and many animators in The '90s who graduated from the California Institute of the Arts heavily copied Disney's animation and art style,^note coincidentally, CalArts was indeed founded by Walt Disney and his brother which has since morphed into any animated work from the 21st century that uses this style that one considers "samey-looking", despite similar art styles being the norm since the infancy of the medium itself. However, the term tends to be used more specifically for works that not only have thin lines and round shapes, but also bean-shaped heads, bean-shaped mouths and dome-shaped teeth, so works that have the former but not the latter don’t tend to get labeled as such (to the point where another common pejorative for the style is "beanmouth"). As such, please do not include examples of shows that simply have thin outlines — they also need rounded/noodle-like styles to qualify.

Thin-line animation is actually Older Than Television, since many cartoon shorts during The Silent Age of Animation (particularly those made by Disney and Max and Dave Fleischer) featured rounded ball-and-noodle art-styles and thin outlines. However, it was often done out of necessity since the simplistic designs made things easier on the animators at the time.

Compare Puni Plush and Animesque, contrast with Thick-Line Animation. See also Tooth Strip, Sphere Eyes, Black Bead Eyes, Black Dot Pupils.

Examples