Old art style vs New art style

[Baark0]

Quote

This. Honestly, thats worth thread by itself. Though I normally am optimistic, with every weird looking cinematic I get more of the feeling that Don't Starve is "over". The game has already peeked and though they COULD probably reach new heights again, they are moving away from that currently. I honestly don't know why - is it a problem of budget? An issue with new artists not being able to capture the detailed style? Does this choice of design seriously appeal to some audience more than the old creepy style?? Would someone mind to make a thread about that topic? That is really something I would like to hear the devs view at. Otherwise, if this design trend keeps going, I'll eventually resort to mainly playing singleplayer DS to get what I originally bought DST for..

From the vent thread. Personally I liked the old scribble/sketch art style since it felt unique to DS, while the newer version looks like it could be from some paper mario game. Not that I think it's bad, it just isn't as appealing to me as the older style.

[Waoling]

The paper outline was so 2020 now in 2022 we have paper-like skin instead and I love that ecstatic, actually the new art style has a lot of things paper textures is this mean we getting an origami character?

Also isn't it just the thread I make a few weeks ago?

[Mr Giggio]

I was talking with my friends few days ago bout this 
Looks like despite the insanity filter things are gettin less creepy and idk how to feel 

cuz look,

at the same time we are nostalgic about it and we want more of what we came here to enjoy in the first place, i do understand it is a concern for Klei that DST has a welcomin enviroment [?] so dunno man 

[jan Mele]

How many of these threads do we need

[Szczuku]

The old artstyle was much better than the new one. 

New artstyle is making dst look less unique as if Klei is trying to appeal to wider audience by babying their game akin to that pointless 'infinite growth' dream that companies and game devs seem to have.

[Faintly Macabre]

I'm looking at the original Don't Starve trailer and comparing it to the Wolfgang Refresh short...

Y'all need to take off the rose-tinted goggles. It's certainly grown and changed but it's not that different.

And lol, with the cut-out paper look the original animation looks more like Paper Mario than current stuff does.

[minespatch]

6 minutes ago, Faintly Macabre said:

Y'all need to take off the rose-tinted goggles. It's certainly grown and changed but it's not that different.

I think people want scratchier art similar to Eric Gorey

 

[Waoling]

1 minute ago, minespatch said:

I think people want scratchier art similar to Eric Gorey

 

DST Adam family style!

[minespatch]

6 minutes ago, Waoling said:

DST Adam family style!

Charles Addams is not Eric Gorey.

[Waoling]

Just now, minespatch said:

Charles Addams is not Eric Gorey.

They got the same vibe.

[Ornge]

People be forgetting this video exists 

 

[Waoling]

1 minute ago, Ornge said:

People be forgetting this video exists 

 

It's the new style, they just have more time making this than the other one.

[Faintly Macabre]

Don't get me wrong: there's been a very distinct evolution in the animation style, and I'd even say I like the original trailer more than more recent stuff. But people are talking like all the old style elements are just dead and gone, and I'm not seeing that at all.

Reminder that the original Don't Starve released 9 years ago. It'd be highly unusual if the style hadn't changed at all. And what change there has been I am 99.9% sure has nothing to do with a shift towards "mass appeal".

[minespatch]

10 minutes ago, Waoling said:

It's the new style, they just have more time making this than the other one.

This was made around the same time period as the New Reign cinematic. It's not at face value. They brought this out of the Klei Vault for a "experiment".

[user1464576869]

DS had a very strong look in the earliest days when all of it seemed to stem from one artist's way of expression. It did pretty well in trying to uphold that visually for a while, though I'd argue a tired old statement that writing got infantilized rapidly. But trying to mimic non-industry-standard (not in a unprofessional way unfit for industry standards of course but specifically that it isn't bland cookie-cutter is what I mean there) expressions is a very ambitious wish, it's like body language, people do things different.

I wouldn't be too worried though. This is just a big guess, but judging by the characteristics of it, the latest couple of cinematic works seems like outsourced work from newer people, from interns perhaps. DS artstyle has had a very apparent amount of various fingerprints on it, all trying to achieve that original look in their own way, I wouldn't be surprised if it keeps going back and forth on this in phases.

[LiamAshvinn001]

First I hated it, but once you think about it its a nice evolution. Do I prefer the old one? Absolutely. Should Klei change back to the old style permanently? No. The new one is absolutely awesome with the special effects. Look at Wolfgang and Wanda short. Its absolutely insane. The reason some shorts like the Nintendo Trailer was so weird looking is purely because they didnt have more time compared to the other stuff. Though im sure well see another old style short.

[loopuleasa]

old sketch style might take more time to make production wise

if I am to choose between old style versus 2x more animated shorts and art updates, I would choose more of the latter

[CremeLover]

It is quite a significant change since the early days

Spoiler

Original Trailer

Forgotten Knowledge

The old style has sketchy outlines, sometimes outright scribbles for outlines, whereas the newer has defined and stylized outlines to make them look more sketchy, and have the hair and other details filled with scribbles.

The white outline is gone in some of the new cartoons, but others do have the outline, yet they do retain the new defined outlines filled with scribbles

Spoiler

Axiom Visus

A New Reign

In some of the old ones, you can even see the guidelines for the head and the eyes in some of the frames, like someone forgot to delete them.

Spoiler

Original Trailer

A New Reign

Also some of the drawings in some of the scenes are oddly pixelated, like they were not using a vector's program to animate for some odd reason.

Old drawings were make to look like a sketch moving, whereas new ones tend to look more like a scribbled animation using a wrinkled paper texture.

Don't Starve decided to go with a very stylized look, and decided to use a ton of animations, pretty much having one each update and these two things do not mix very well. I do prefer the old style, but if Klei really wants to push these things once per month, and specially if they have new artist coming in or are moving staff from their other game's art department, I think what we have is an acceptable compromise. I believe it would be a neat touch if Klei managed to bring the old style back fully for special events, such as the Wilson rework (for old time's sake) or the ending of the saga of what Klei has planned after the "Setting the Stage" even update chain, but it might be a bit too much for every single one.

Plus, even the new animations have differences among themselves, some using a white outline while others don't, and others having no bloom whereas others have some slight bloom to them (like, why doesn't the Eye of the Storm video has a slight blue bloom?)

It kinda sucks, but animating actual scribbles is more challenging than it looks, and if Klei brings a new hired/intern artist or someone from another department, giving them extra time to adapt to the DS style AND animate on it on a tight schedule can be a bit overwhelming.

Personally, I'm more concerned with the ingame assets than the animations themselves, since there are some that look out of place in contrast to the rest of the game,

Small mention to backgrounds, that have remained pretty consistent and the artist difference is more noticeable.

Spoiler

Eye of the Storm

The Incredible Strongman

The Monster Marsh

A New Reign

 

[Just-guy]

12 hours ago, Szczuku said:

The old artstyle was much better than the new one. 

New artstyle is making dst look less unique as if Klei is trying to appeal to wider audience by babying their game akin to that pointless 'infinite growth' dream that companies and game devs seem to have.

I think it's not the case of changing the artstyle but rather the just the production of the trailers, the characters have stayed on model over the years hich doesn't happen when there is an artstyle change, and due to having to release one new animated trailer every few months there isn't much time to add more detailed things.

Also, how is it "babying" the game? The only noticeable change I see it's a more saturated and bright color palet

[Szczuku]

59 minutes ago, Just-guy said:

I think it's not the case of changing the artstyle but rather the just the production of the trailers, the characters have stayed on model over the years hich doesn't happen when there is an artstyle change, and due to having to release one new animated trailer every few months there isn't much time to add more detailed things.

Also, how is it "babying" the game? The only noticeable change I see it's a more saturated and bright color palet

Babying the game? Alright maybe not so much, although it is slowly creeping its way in with brigther colors, smiling spiders and annoyingly cheery farming music that plays whenever you look at a vegetable.

Trailers. Bad. I'd say that this change in artstyle has been happening for at least 3 years now and it shows. The devs saw how much they can get away with. I mean, in the switch trailer the survivors are straight up potrayed as if they're on an adventure. In Wx-78's cinamatic (and mind you character animations probably have more time put into them than update videos) non-memory segments are animated almost exactly like regular update animations. Sketchy lines, gone; outlines, gone; darker colors, gone. The main menu art style is also looking weirder and weirder every update. Deteriorating.

As much as I enjoy an animation every update if I could choose between quality and quantity I'd obviously choose quality because without it we get stuff like EotS update where the 'big reveal' was completely overlooked by everyone as Alter was just flat colors. I mean that RoT's 'big finale' was so pathetic that I haven't seen anyone talk seriously about dst lore since. Compare Alter and CC to Metheus and AF in terms of community's excitement for lore. And also compare animated Alter to animated Fuelweaver.

I don't see any benefits to what Klei is doing with artstyle and lore of dst other than 'more children interested in game, more money in pocket'.

I understand that teams change and not everyone can perfectly copy oryginal artstyle but come on, Minecraft is older than dst and yet its cubes haven't turned into spheres yet.

[YouKnowWho]

40 minutes ago, Szczuku said:

I understand that teams change and not everyone can perfectly copy oryginal artstyle but come on, Minecraft is older than dst and yet its cubes haven't turned into spheres yet.

Minecraft also has a team of around 600 people who can all scrupulously file down every little imperfection. You do know Klei is still a relativity small studio, yeah? Not everything a company does is some kind of scrupulous attempt to rip you off because they’re money-grubbing cheapskates, they’re just artists who, thanks to time restraints or funding issues, are limited in terms of what they can feasibly accomplish. 

I thought you were better than this, man.

[Masked Koopa]

2 minutes ago, YouKnowWho said:

Minecraft also has a team of around 600 people who can all scrupulously file down every little imperfection.You do know Klei is still a little indie studio, yeah? Not everything a company does is some kind of scrupulous attempt to rip you off because they’re money grubbing cheapskates, they’re just artists who, thanks to time restraints or funding issues, are limited in terms of what they can feasibly accomplish. 

I thought you were better than this, man.

They are not indie my dude. Majority shares are owned by tencent. 

[Notecja]

9 minutes ago, Masked Koopa said:

They are not indie my dude. Majority shares are owned by tencent. 

still doesn't mean unlimited human power... I simply cannot imagine all that job to be done by one person. What worse, it looks like tencent keeps Klei tight on deadlines, so it can mean they don't have any extra time to polish things... Just hurry hurry...

[YouKnowWho]

13 minutes ago, Masked Koopa said:

They are not indie my dude. Majority shares are owned by tencent. 

I always just associate the word "indie" with a small team. The terminology's wrong, I'll admit, but I think my point stands

[GrapeVruit]

When looking at the most recent animated short, while not as sketchy compared to the old art style, to me it still retains that hopeless and eerie feeling that I felt when looking at the older trailers. It's most likely due to the more faded out and monochromatic colors as well as the music they use in the animation. The use of the violin and piano make it seem a lot more somber.