History ArtEvolution / WesternAnimation

* WesternAnimation/BugsBunny, WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck and most other ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' characters have had a lot of character ArtEvolution through the years! Bugs was a red-nosed bunny, about 1 meter tall, for an example.
** Many of the directors underwent their own, individual art evolution as well.
*** Creator/FrankTashlin kept his PieEyed designs into the late 1930s; notably, his WesternAnimation/PorkyPig kept the large pie eyes even after Creator/BobClampett revised his design. He left in 1938 and came back in 1943, this time using highly stylized, angular character designs (as well as using Porky's revised character model).
*** Creator/ChuckJones' earliest cartoons (1938-1942) used a more {{Disneyesque}} style with beautiful, realistic backgrounds; this came under fire by Leon Schlesinger because Jones' cartoons were more expensive to produce as a result. He switched to a more experimental style with hyper-stylized backgrounds by mid-1942. His style changed further gradually, and by the mid-to-late-50s, he developed his trademark style as it's known today. This style carried over to his ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' shorts.
*** Creator/RobertMcKimson initially used a rather loose style featuring smaller eyes and noticeably chubbier designs than the other directors (which was especially noticeable on Bugs and Sylvester). In the early 1950s (and especially after the studio came back from its temporary shutdown in 1953), many of his designs were revised, around the same time that the art styles between directors began to homogenize.

** ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'' had a major jump at the beginning of season two, with the introduction of the [[MidSeasonUpgrade "transmetals"]] the robotic appearances looked better then ever. ''WesternAnimation/BeastMachines'' featured some amazing and lush explosion effects as well as a decent range of emotion from at least one character that ''did not have a face''.
*** Just in ''Beast Wars'', the CGI evolved a great deal through its three season run, as the bare and flat plains with occasional rock formations gave way to lush jungles, deep forests and underwater environments. Even non-robotic characters were way ahead of previously featured organics in terms of visual appeal: Just compare the great looking Cyber Raptors from season 3 to Dinobot's original beast-mode that had visible "seams" where his body parts met, with a terribly segmented tail, and constantly deformed in awkward ways when he moved. Or the saber-toothed cat from season two to the tiger model from the first season, which also tended to look like separate body parts stuck together. None, however, evolved as much as the butterfly -- although the outdated model did appear at later points, even when the better version had already been featured.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': Despite being made by the same producers behind ''The Simpsons'', whose animation had been perfected in the course of over a decade, ''Futurama'' started out looking alarmingly similar to the early days of its sister show. [[https://morbotron.com/gif/S01E01/40222/42641/ Fry's distorted, squished face when he says, "Michelle! Baby!" in the pilot episode]] is a good example. Luckily, the staff were able to get this under control in just a few episodes. Later seasons would up the artistic ante by having more detailed environments and more complex scenes, especially in the [[UnCanceled post-Fox era]] when the show switched to Platform/HighDefinition and took on more [[{{Dramedy}} serious]] [[DarkerAndEdgier situations]].

* Animation as a whole slowly went through this phase from UsefulNotes/TheSilentAgeOfAnimation to UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation. Early cartoons were very crudely made--they were very stiff, rigid and mechanical in appearance and movement, had no construction, no line of action, lots of symmetry (which made them look flat) and body parts piled onto each other, rather than being directly connected by form. This began changing when Creator/WaltDisney began forming and refining TheTwelvePrinciplesOfAnimation, as well as animators like Creator/FredMoore altering WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse's design to become more pearlike and organic, allowing it not only to be three-dimensional, but also to be more pliable and organic than the earlier, rigid designs from shorts like ''WesternAnimation/PlaneCrazy'' and ''WesternAnimation/SteamboatWillie''. Disney immediately adapted this to its other characters, and everyone else in the animation industry copied this immediately, sending classic rubberhose animation to its grave within a few years.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': Despite being made by the same producers behind ''The Simpsons'', whose animation had been perfected in the course of over a decade, ''Futurama'' started out looking alarmingly similar to the early days of its sister show. [[https://morbotron.com/gif/S01E01/40222/42641/ Fry's distorted, squished face when he says, "Michelle! Baby!" in the pilot episode]] is a good example. Luckily, the staff were able to get this under control in just a few episodes. Later seasons would up the artistic ante by having more detailed environments and more complex scenes, especially in the [[UnCanceled post-Fox era]] when the show switched to UsefulNotes/HighDefinition and took on more [[{{Dramedy}} serious]] [[DarkerAndEdgier situations]].

* ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes'': Season 1 used UsefulNotes/ToonBoom, albeit somewhat on a low budget (hence the frequent assumption it's UsefulNotes/AdobeFlash), but in the final 6 episodes, the series changed for a lighter color palette (Lucius and Beezy become a lighter shade of red) and introduced some more detailed facial expressions. Season 2 saw a switchover to Flash, which increased the usage of detailed faces (including many very grotesque ones) and maintained the palette change. The animation also became more detailed in other aspects, such as character design and backgrounds, while character movement became less bouncy and energetic in favour of having smoothness and detail. Compare the [[http://adorablyrotten.tumblr.com/post/81238083148/chineseshell-jimmy-two-shoes-opening-12x Season 1 intro]] with [[http://adorablyrotten.tumblr.com/post/81238781435/chineseshell-chineseshell-jimmy-two-shoes Season 2's]].

* ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'' changed its animation from digital ink to UsefulNotes/AdobeFlash in Season 5 on. Season 8 also saw a radical redesign where the characters change their appearances to look younger and more Chibi-like to better suit a younger audience.

** In the later Hanna and Barbera shorts, around the time Fred Quincy stepped down and the duo doubled as producers, their designs were simplified and made cuter, as well as utilizing less detailed backgrounds. Some of their last shorts began to resemble [[Creator/HannaBarbera their post-MGM work]].

* Franchise/FelixTheCat has gone through several redesigns as the franchise ran its course. His early design was almost foxlike in appearance, with a big snout and corners that could poke out the eye of a tiger. By 1924, animator Bill Nolan redesigned Felix into his more familiar rubber hosed form in order to make him cuter looking and easier to animate. The design used in the Joe Oriolo cartoons and almost all Felix works afterward (save for ''WesternAnimation/TheTwistedTalesOfFelixTheCat'' which reuses the Bill Nolan design) is a slicker take on Felix's classic rubberhose appearance, giving him longer legs and stylizing him more.

* ''Franchise/FelixTheCat'' has gone through several redesigns as the franchise ran its course. His early design was almost foxlike in appearance, with a big snout and corners that could poke out the eye of a tiger. By 1924, animator Bill Nolan redesigned Felix into his more familiar rubber hosed form in order to make him cuter looking and easier to animate. The design used in the Joe Oriolo cartoons and almost all Felix works afterward (save for ''WesternAnimation/TheTwistedTalesOfFelixTheCat'' which reuses the Bill Nolan design) is a slicker take on Felix's classic rubberhose appearance, giving him longer legs and stylizing him more.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' started using digital animation on and off over the course of the third season's run, before permanently switching with "Keen on Keane" late that season. The animation is noticeably not very good when zoomed in for the first few episodes that used digital coloring, but by the next season opener, "Monstra-City", the animation is a lot cleaner.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'' had this as well.

* Early '60s shorts of the Hungarian adult cartoon series ''Animation/{{Gustavus}}'' had a very UPA-inspired, angular look with lots of edges, thick lines, different-colored backdrops and a bouncy animation style. Characters were simple, stylized and Gusztáv was straight-up cutesy, with a head bigger than his torso and huge eyes, which clashed with the occasional adult themes and BlackComedy. Art and animation style and quality fluctuated a lot through the years, leading to Gusztáv adopting more realistic proportions (though still keeping the noodle-thin limbs), small beady eyes, and his world became more depressive looking, with mostly the same grey-blue-turquoise backdrops, thin, uneven lines and less lively animation.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' subtly but noticeably steps up the animation at the beginning of each new season. Overall, the early series was much rougher, and tended to make use of recycled poses and animation clips; as the series went on, they did away with most recycled animation and refined the character designs, making characters like the titular Brothers more unique alongside their CharacterDevelopment, and even utilizing more dramatic, emotional expressions and gestures evocative of anime and action cartoons.

** In all of Princess Luna's appearances after the pilot, including the PensieveFlashback in the Season 4 premiere, her model is radically different from that seen in [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness her debut]] after being depowered from Nightmare Moon form. WordOfGod originally described this discrepancy as being due to Luna having lost most of her power after being purified by the Elements of Harmony and needing time to build back up to normal; some later comic arcs set during her and Celestia's early foalhood also depict her as having her appearance from the premiere.

** Occurred constantly during the last 3rd of the second ''[[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' series. After 5 seasons of consistent designs, the series' art style was dramatically changed for its season 6 retool, which resulted in simpler, more angular designs, and a less subtle color palette. Then, after the series was retooled ''again'' for it season 7, most of the regular characters were redesigned to look more like their [[Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles movie]] counterparts--most notably, the turtles' eyes now had visible irises, even when they wore their masks--and the color palette became somewhat more dark. Afterwards, for the GrandFinale movie ''WesternAnimation/TurtlesForever'', the art style was tweaked yet again, with the turtles returning to their season 6 models (albeit lightly modified) and with several other characters--particularly Splinter and Hun--getting slightly more complex shading.

** The series was never very solid to begin with, but it somehow improved vastly. Initially, Meatwad's shape would vary constantly, before settling in on its more meaty roundness at some point in the middle of the first season. The biggest evolution was the vast improvement in lip syncing, where the first episodes typically had the characters' mouths move in the same one or two animations for all dialogue, they now move faster and more accurately to the words. Later episodes also saw animation breakthroughs such as Carl running (complete with [[FanDisservice jiggling!]]) and loads more realistic animation and poses for real people and the Aqua Teens.

* The ''Franchise/Ben10'' franchise had changed in looks between [[WesternAnimation/Ben10 the original series]] and its sequels to look less cartoonish. For example, ''[[WesternAnimation/Ben10UltimateAlien Ultimate Alien]]'', which brought back the 10-year-old Ben in one episode, had slight changes in detail to him and the aliens he used. [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig-zagged]], now they have shifted 3 times. ''[[WesternAnimation/Ben10Omniverse Omniverse]]'''s artstyle is back to being cartoonish, but utilizes much more simple character designs and colors, creating a much more colorful and fluid show.

* ''WesternAnimation/BlazeAndTheMonsterMachines'' had a ''major'' design and animation change partially into its third season. The backgrounds become vibrant and more detailed, such as visible asphalt on the streets, better lighting and shading on the buildings, and the trees are different. The vehicles are now animated with ray-tracing, and their tires have visible lead. The animals are also radically redesigned from their original cartoonish appearance to a more realistic appearance, while still keeping the truck features, while becoming even further realistic in the fifth season. The buildings in Axle City are also constructed with more shading and detailing so they no longer appear as just a photorealistic image in background shots.

** The attention to detail in the backgrounds and objects improved over time. In one of the commentaries, the writers noticed how the pancakes in one scene are so crudely drawn that it looks more like a beehive or a stack of huge Honeycombs cereal. The food in the more recent episodes look more like real food now.

* ''WesternAnimation/FinalSpace'': The show gets a specific example when it comes to [[Characters/FinalSpaceTheLordCommandersForces the Lord Commander]]. His eyes originally looked an infernal yellow-and-red whenever they [[GlowingEyesOfDoom glowed]], but two seasons later, it's now more of a golden-yellow.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Metalocalypse}}'' was fairly consistent in style in the first two seasons with lines getting smoother, motion becoming less stilted and clunky, and much better coloring and effects over time. Season 3 was a huge shift from the first two. Thanks to an increased budget, the characters now have pretty full range of motion compared to the first two seasons, where most of the action involved the band members standing around and talking.

** Body and head shapes become much more diverse in later seasons. Originally, the only real differences between ponies are their colors and their mane- and tailstyles, plus muzzle differences between mares and stallions, and ''maybe'' eye shape; every character had the same body shape. Now, there are fat ponies and thin ponies, tall ponies and short ponies, and facial differences are much more prominent. In some cases, there are even differences in the ears, particularly with Saffron Masala and Coriander Cumin in "Spice Up Your Life".

** Character design has become more complex. While most kids still use the same basic model, there are now many more unique character designs. As for adult characters, you can easily tell which characters debuted in early seasons compared to those who showed up later. For example Officer Barbrady from the first season is much more simple and cartoony than the detailed and realistic Officer Yates, who debuted in Season 8.

* ''WesternAnimation/UncleGrandpa'' tweaked its art style a bit in the second part of season 3, adding shading to the new intro, backgrounds and title cards, and the UG-RV is now rendered in CGI. The characters remained unchanged.

** Character animation is a lot smoother, likely through MotionCapture that replaces the hand-animated style of the previous seasons that evoked StopMotion animation with jerkier movements and more static poses. Gravity feels more consistent with their acrobatics and there is more personality in their martial arts style. This is in conjunction with slicker camera movements that is more willing to move and [[TheOner hold on the action]].

*** "A Very Crappy Christmas": One of the subplots features the kids making a cartoon about Christmas. They base the characters on themselves and do all the animation in construction paper. The joke is that [[RealitySubtext the entire process is similar to how Trey and Matt first created the South Park characters to begin with]], and the few scenes shown in the episode are lifted directly from their animated short "The Spirit of Christmas - Jesus vs. Frosty". Because the short is completely unaltered it ends up looking like a crude cartoon compared to the episode it appears in.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars''. The series began with very high quality 3D CGI animation and a visually appealing art style and character designs, especially for an AllCGICartoon on a strict TV budget. However, the art style and animation, while visually appealing, initially made the characters look slightly like mannequins and, outside of the fight scenes, move kind of stiffly. The second half of the first season and especially the second season onwards improved upon the facial expressions as well as the character movement and the second half of the third season featured a Jedi costume switch from ([[NoFlowInCGI easily animated]]) body armor and gauntlets to the tunics they are seen wearing in the theatrical films.

* The first and second seasons of ''WesternAnimationAllGrownUp'' had the animation and coloring changes. Many of the characters were also re-designed as a result.