About dst animations art style

[Szczuku]

When you compare RWYS trailer's and Don't Starve Tales' art styles you can clearly see some differences. I figured why not make a thread about art styles.

Now some key elements: 

-Tone of the background

Spoiler

Simply compare the ways the scarecrow looks. Either way I'm happier with both backgrounds than the times when background consisted mostly of brown evergreens

-Paperly texture and outlines

Spoiler

Musical and recent RoT trailers don't feature outlines, while musical also ditched the paperly texture. As you can see on the third photo, paperly texture became much more easy to notice, lost it's yellow hue and outlines became thicker (while they were still present in new trailers)

It's obvious that art style changes depending on what is being animated. It wouldn't make sense to give an animation about farming a dark, gray and depressing background. ...I mean it would if the animation showed troubles related to farming rather than survivors cooperating but that'd be a bad advertisement.

When it comes to paperly texture that's entirely up to Klei.

Discuss

[Harrowick]

Personally, I really love the tales art style, fits the whole hopeless atmosphere of the constant, but overall I'd say artstyle doesn't really matter all that much. It's fun to see the crew in different animation styles, and allows each of the artists at Klei to have fun with how they draw the characters. I'm sure it'd be a lot more boring/time consuming if they had to teach every single animator to stick to one style like glue. 

[W0l0l0]

Obviously Wigfrid's imagination in her cinematic is the best style. 

(in all seriousness all of them are good, I think Klei like experimenting with this sort of thing, which is great) 

[Queron81]

I don't care about the art style.

[ZTheNecromancer]

31 minutes ago, Lumberlocke said:

Personally, I really love the tales art style, fits the whole hopeless atmosphere of the constant, but overall I'd say artstyle doesn't really matter all that much. It's fun to see the crew in different animation styles, and allows each of the artists at Klei to have fun with how they draw the characters. I'm sure it'd be a lot more boring/time consuming if they had to teach every single animator to stick to one style like glue. 

Couldn't of said it better,

This, this is what people forget about when they say they prefer x short's style. (E.x a certain group of people prefer the older messier style over the newer ones.). It's technically the same artstyle but with a few differences between artists, I don't know why people would be picky about the artstyle if it's practically the same. (But people will complain about everything!). Apparently if every aspect is not the same down to every last detail they'll nitpick about it! 

Sorry, after seeing posts from the Inevitable thread not looking the exact same as the first short I'm still fuming. (Edit: Scratch that part about just the Inevitable thread, it's all over the place.)

[NSAiswatchingus]

I hadn't thought about it until now, but how each player plays the game probably has an influence on how they perceive each art style "fitting" the game's atmosphere. 

If every play session is a rigorous struggle for survival then the darker themes probably make sense. 

If you someone plays a longterm world consistently and survival has become less of an issue then the brighter themes are probably appealing. 

Who knows though! Just a thought. 

[Mike23Ua]

45 minutes ago, Queron81 said:

I don't care about the art style.

This! I care less what the art style is, I just want more story and more lore and more animated short cinematic things.

[wons]

i liked "Ds Tale" style the most, but i don't mind seeing different art styles honestly

[Superwolfkid]

this might be a bit off task and though I do admire the grim and gray artstyle of A new Reign's style(and older ones),  I honestly quite appreciate the colorful and cheerful themes that the new trailers have been giving us, They kind of show life and "hope" in this prison we call the Constant, like the Fish and birds soaring across the sea in the "SSS trailer" The Deerclops skeleton in the "FK" trailer even the spiders behavior in Wurt's trailer and the beautiful lakeside view when Woodie fights the tree guard in his rework trailer. Its a whole growing and evolving world where it kind of makes you want to live there despite the fact that it's literally a prison that the survivors are trapped in, suffering and dying time after time. Its especially sweet to see them have fun together like in the newest trailer "RWYS."

[Wendy C.]

I just want consistency. 
If you do something like Wilson's short, and then do a 180 degree turn to.. Woodie's... That upsets me. 
I prefer the Old Style because it fits the setting the best. The DS Tales style is a nice compromise between old and new, but I would much prefer it if they consistently stuck to the old style. 

[CaptainChaotica]

2 hours ago, Wendy C. said:

I just want consistency. 
If you do something like Wilson's short, and then do a 180 degree turn to.. Woodie's... That upsets me. 

THIS!  It was Woodie's short that bugged me the most.  RWYS is also colourful, but since it's about growing colourful plants, a colourful look makes a hair more sense.  But Woodie's short...!  Well, I also strongly disliked how his short told us NOTHING AT ALL ABOUT THE CHARACTER, and then when you add the silly happy air to _that_...  It was just...wow.  Jarring.

The newer stuff feels a bit cutesier and more like it's aimed at a younger (little kid) audience, or something.  I dunno.  I don't want things to always be EXACTLY like Wilson's old short, but less saturated in general and with the thicker/messier lines, is my style. And maybe not so much on the wacky-hijinks comedy.

As for paperly vs. not I like the paper there but subtle, and I guess I like _small_ outlines as compared to huge ones or none.  But those are small quibbles. The main thing is that it not be too cutesy.

...Notorious

[minespatch]

To me, it's up to the devs since they convey the final product.

[DaZoul]

I like all of em animations. I actually like that stuff is not consistent, background and design helps set the tone of the animation. Woodie's was pretty jolly, so was the Reap What You Sow, Wigfrid's was a bit dead, like her performance life, if you get what I mean, while the cinematic part of her animation had design looking epic.

[Russian_Philin]

Personally, I like everything... except for that video you all know (Woodie's short film). He's really bad.
I'm more, of course, attached to the old style, because the grayness is very suitable for the atmosphere of the game. I like the way it looks, the way it inflames the atmosphere of the world itself. This is all perfectly visible in the latest short film. It's just amazing for me in every way.
On the other hand, I don't mind the new style. There's something about him. He's kind of nice or fancy. It creates a very different tone for the atmosphere of the world and the survival of the characters.
And I just imagine that the old art style is Maxwell's reign and the new art style is Charlie's reign, so that's why there are changes.

[Pine G]

8 hours ago, DaZoul said:

Wigfrid's was a bit dead, like her performance life, if you get what I mean, 

Heheh, good one. 

----

I enjoy both the original grim and sketchy style and the new, much more cheerful and soft one. I think they work well for different situations, like the lighthearted mood in the Reap What You Dow short and the gloomy scenery in the Inevitable Tales short. I don't mind the inconsistent artstyle when it means more versatility.