History Main / DoingItFortHeart

*** This trope is one of the reasons why certain VAs normally based in LA (or, more rarely, NYC) are willing to work with Creator/{{Funimation}} (which is located in Fort Worth, Texas) in the first place, being that it's a Right-To-Work State, thus cheaper prices and in general a more open environment compared to LA and NYC (one of the advantages is that you can actually call up the company doing the casting auditions and have your name put on a list. Then, on audition day you go there and take your shot in person).

* [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] by Creator/TomScott in his video [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUF4afxMpQk The Greatest Title Sequence I've Ever Seen]]. He talks about the biannual HilariousOuttakes clip show It'll Be All Right on the Night, and how each title sequence used surprisingly ambitious visual effects and editing to cue in each episode. In particular, he discusses All Right on the Night's Cockup Trip, which had such subtle details in its intro, [[ItMakesSenseInContext a spinning compass]] that it blew him away.

'''Important Note:''' This only applies when creators '''''openly state''''' they prioritize art over profit. No matter how impressive something might be production-wise, a behind-the-scenes factoid or a visual effect is not proof on its own that the creator or production team is Doing It for the Art. This page is not intended for SugarWiki/GushingAboutShowsYouLike. If you are looking for pages to gush about impressive facets of production regardless of motive, please post it on either SugarWiki/DevelopmentHeaven or SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome instead. If you were sent here by an example that better fits either of those pages, please correct the link to one of these and move it to the work’s YMMV page if it was on the trivia page.

When dealing with media, sometimes it is difficult to overcome the feeling that, however much you may love a TV show, movie, video game, etc., the only reason it exists is to make money. Sure, it might have great writing, acting, animation, etc., but when it comes right down to it, it got produced because someone wearing a fancy suit thought a bunch of [[ExecutiveMeddling other guys wearing fancy suits could make money off of it]]. This feeling is even more overbearing when you consider all the media that you ''don't'' like--and likewise can only come up with the profit margin being the reason why anyone produced those horrible things.

But sometimes, there are shows which transcend the profit motive. It's not necessarily the case that they're good shows, but someone obviously cared a ''lot'' about it and put their absolute all in. Why put that much effort into it, when you know simply from the brand name alone a product is going to make massive moolah, bother working at all, why not just phone it in and take a long nap?

The answer to this is simple. [[StarvingArtist Not all of us need money to justify effort.]] A lot of people are honestly just [[TitleDrop Doing It for the Art]].

This motivation spreads across all genres of known media — its main hallmarks are when the creator of a work is clearly putting far more effort into the project than necessary. Indeed, sometimes the amount of work being put in is a little creepy. Sure, it's a great vision and all, but does anybody need ''that'' much detail? It should be noted that this only really makes sense when applied to pop culture. The definition of this is that a work is better than one could reasonably expect, whereas one expects commitment and seriousness from culture such as literary fiction or art cinema, defined by being done for its own sweet sake, that is never expected or intended to make money. Saying [[Creator/JamesJoyce Joyce]] went to more trouble than he needed to in the composition of ''Literature/{{Ulysses}}'', for example, is missing the point of that kind of endeavor.

This often applies to niche media, since oftentimes with more popular works the creators must work with the general expectation that they need to create something better than sliced bread. Yet it also crops up more obviously in media where we generally have a set of diminished expectations — want to know why the Western Animation section is so huge? Because the AnimationAgeGhetto makes the really good ones stand out more.

Compare and contrast with AwesomeDearBoy, MoneyDearBoy, OneForTheMoneyOneForTheArt, and SoMyKidsCanWatch. Contrast with PanderingToTheBase, PropagandaPiece, ContractualObligationProject, and CreatorsApathy. See also SeriousBusiness, DevelopersForesight, EasterEgg, TheProducerThinksOfEverything, ShownTheirWork, WrittenForMyKids, and CreatorChosenCasting.

'''As with ShownTheirWork try to keep this from becoming SugarWiki/GushingAboutShowsYouLike.'''

* ''Manga/VinlandSaga''. Not only did the author make it because it was always his dream to create a kickass Shonen series, but he also had a deep fascination with the Vikings and wanted to make something that portrayed them as they were, more than just [[AlwaysChaoticEvil killers and thugs]]. He even went on a trip to Iceland to research Viking Culture in greater detail, to give his artwork that authentic tinge, and it shows.

* Most anything involving [[Creator/YoshitoshiABe Yoshitoshi ABe]] qualifies. ''Anime/SerialExperimentsLain'' and ''Anime/{{Texhnolyze}}'' don't seem to be commercially inspired, despite their success -- and shows like ''Anime/HaibaneRenmei'' and ''Anime/NieaUnder7'' are clearly works of love.

* The love and effort Creator/EiichiroOda pours into each ''Manga/OnePiece'' chapter is astounding. With all the little details in both the art and storytelling, it's easy to see that he loves writing manga.

** And if this [[http://hetalia.livejournal.com/12282701.html recent Q&A blog post]] is anything to go by, he's also notably open in letting his fans have their way with his work, including scanlations.

* Animation-wise, the ''entire'' {{anime}} genre is this, compared with WesternAnimation in the U.S. and Canada: while in the former countries, traditional animation is a dying breed and CGI animation is becoming more and more common, Japanese animators are notorious for sticking to their guns and still using traditional animation. There's a few Japanese CGI films and series, but most of the time they're experimental works and never intended for being used for replacing traditional animation as a whole.
** In Japan, CGI animation is normally restricted for animating non-living stuff, like vehicles, ships, robots, etc. And sometimes, some animation studios like Creator/{{Sunrise}} are notorious for ''never using'' CGI in some series, like ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'', when the [=titular=] machines are always being traditionally animated and never being rendered in CGI, with some few exceptions.
** On the other hand, Creator/StudioNue (the owners of the ''Anime/{{Macross}}'' franchise) are notorious for using CGI for many of their later series, like ''Anime/MacrossFrontier'', ''Anime/GenesisOfAquarion'' and ''Anime/AquarionEvol'', but only for the robots.
** Yet other studios TakeAThirdOption, by going full CGI but ''making'' it look hand-drawn. It's easy and cheap to entirely use CGI that clearly looks computer-rendered, and often not of good quality, but when Japanese studios do it, there is a strong tendency to mimic the hand-drawn look that makes anime so unique (which is ''not'' easy). An example would be the AnimatedAdaptation of ''Manga/ArpeggioOfBlueSteel'', which is entirely done with CGI, but apart from the unusual fluidity of movements looks as hand-drawn as other works, just a little cleaner.
** That's not to say studios don't embrace what [=3DCG=] has to offer. Take for example Sanzigen Animation; right down to the studio name,[[note]]Sanzigen = San Jigen (Third Dimension)[[/note]] they're committed to making series in fully rendered 3D, with video game cutscene quality.
** Making a CG show look hand-drawn is sort of standard for anime, but bringing characters into fully 3D space takes arguably a lot more effort. ''Stand by me Doraemon'', the only ''Manga/{{Doraemon}}'' film to use a 3D style, goes above and beyond to look almost Creator/{{Pixar}}-like in quality and attention to detail, in addition to having a plot that tugs at any ''Doraemon'' fan's heartstrings. It all paid off, becoming the highest-grossing film of the franchise to date (and for a franchise as popular as ''Doraemon'' in its home country, that says a lot).
** The season 2 opener for ''Anime/OsomatsuSan'' has the brothers try out different animation genres and techniques to figure out the best way to become a "proper" series. Jyushimatsu is the only one to come back rendered in CG-- but rather than make a cheap model and barely animate it, the team uses film quality, high framerate, expertly rendered, smooth CG to make his gag work. And they didn't even cel shade him to match style! Did they have to put that much in for a 1-minute gag? No, but if he had to exhibit the technique as "proper", they needed to make it live up to the title.

But sometimes, there are shows which transcend the profit motive. It's not necessarily the case that they're good shows, but someone obviously cared a ''lot'' about it and put their absolute all in. There are details which, frankly, make no sense for the [[StrictlyFormula genre formula]]. Why bother having [[WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague a superhero show that has accurate Nazi war equipment]]? Why write a book set in a fantasy universe with accurate descriptions of Medieval fashion? Why include hours of speech in [[{{Conlang}} made-up languages]]? Why devote hours of expensive CGI work [[Film/TheSocialNetwork to making the twin brothers in a corporate drama look identical]]? Why, when you know simply from the brand name alone a product is going to make massive moolah, bother working at all, why not just phone it in and take a long nap?

* ''Series/BabylonFive'' (The [[Creator/JMichaelStraczynski creator]] of the show also wrote 4/5ths of the 110 scripts and took the job of executive producer just so he could get the creative control he wanted. There's also [[http://jmsnews.com/ over 10,000 posted public comments]] from the five year run of the show.)
** It went so far that he let Warner Brothers give him a percent of the net rather than the gross. UsefulNotes/HollywoodAccounting at it's best, he's not upset despite the 'billion dollars' it's made for WB with him seeing almost nothing off DVD sales.
** With season 3, he became the first person in the history of American TV to write a full-length season single-handed. And then did it again with season 4.
** And because he wanted to flesh out everything beforehand, he took what had to be an unprecedented step of CrazyPrepared by giving every character a "trap-door" in case anyone had to be written out due to RealLifeWritesThePlot, so that every exit made sense within the story instead of [[AssPull having to make it up as the show went along.]]
*** Which turned out to not only have been CrazyPrepared but ProperlyParanoid, since the actress playing Talia Winters got written off the show when she felt her character wasn't getting enough airtime.
** JMS put so much thought into how [[SpaceFighter Starfuries]] would work (placement of thrusters for maximum maneuverability, the pilot stands to lower his center of gravity, et cetera) that JPL, who were big fans of the show, asked if they could use his basic design to build vehicles for construction in space. JMS said they could, on the condition that they're called Starfuries.
** He had the storyline so thoroughly plotted out ahead of time that he refused to let actors ad-lib their lines, for fear it might cause discontinuity, or wreck a bit of {{Foreshadowing}}, etc.

* Dan Povenmire of ''Phineas and Ferb'' is perfectly happy with his work being uploaded for free on video sites. He even reads the comments on the videos on Website/YouTube and responds to some of them. The episodes continue to be created in HD, despite them never being aired this way, and it really says a lot when he talks about how Disney doesn't market them as such because they think the kids don't care and the adults won't buy it.

* Creator/MarkWaid's ''ComicBook/KingdomCome'' is oozing with DC comic book lore, symbolism and biblical references among other things.
* Creator/AlanMoore's ''ComicBook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'' is just dripping with cultural references. Actually, most of what Alan Moore does belongs here--''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' was originally just supposed to be an integration of newly acquired trademarks into the DC Universe, but Moore just didn't know when to quit[[note]]there ''may'' have also been a certain amount of "we just spent money to acquire these guys and you want to ''kill half of them off'' in a one-shot series?" on the part of DC Editorial[[/note]].
* Creator/NeilGaiman's ''ComicBook/TheSandman''. It introduces multiple new characters with their own backstories and speech patterns practically every arc as well as tying them into later stories. It's dripping with symbolism, historical and mythological references (a lot of which most readers wouldn't notice). That's just the writing. The art is equally full of things that they didn't NEED to do but did anyway.
* The cover for the third issue of ''ComicBook/JLAAvengers''. They could have simply put a generic cover with a dozen characters doing something vaguely heroic, but instead decided to draw every character who had, to that date, been a member of either team, no matter for how short, including staff, reservist and honorary members. [[http://cdn.ifanboy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/JLAAvengersCover3.jpg EVERY! ONE! OF! THEM!]] Creator/KurtBusiek meticulously researched the history of both teams to compile [[http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/forums/showthread.php?t=22335 a list of 208 characters]] for George Perez to draw, making a beautiful piece of art and every geek in comicdom happy.
** Creator/GeorgePerez does this ''all the time.'' For ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'', Marv Wolfman told him to draw a cover with Lex Luthor, Joker, Brainiac, and maybe a few others if he felt like it. When Wolfman got Perez's cover, he discovered Perez drew ''every goddamn villain he could think of.'' Perez REALLY likes what he does apparently.
* The 2013 run of ComicBook/YoungAvengers written by Creator/KieronGillen has become famous for innovative layout design by artist Creator/JamieMcKelvie, especially [[http://all-the-young-avengers-feels.tumblr.com/post/52744200708/young-avengers-layout-appreciation-post-heres the double-page spread for each issue]]. Gillen himself has joked that the main reason for their collaborations is mainly to show off Jamie's art.
* When Fabian Nicieza was writing ''Nomad'' (a ComicBook/CaptainAmerica spinoff that ran from 1992 to 1994), he wanted it to be more mature than your average Marvel comic book. Not only that, but he said straight out that he wished to sell Nomad to the same audience that read ''ComicBook/TheSandman''.
* The AlternativeComics publisher Fantagraphics can certainly qualify, releasing over 100 titles a year ranging from more popular examples like ''ComicBook/LoveAndRockets'' to more esoteric examples like ”Abstract Comics: The Anthology”. All edited and released by a staff of ''Twenty.'' And they’ve managed to stay in business since 1976. For example, when they faced a cash shortage due to co-founder Kim Thompson having DiedDuringProduction, their Website/{{Kickstarter}} campaign to make back the money to release the titles was funded in '''FOUR DAYS''' because they just built up that much goodwill in the comic community over the years.
* ComicBook/UltimateMarvel: The main thing of the Ultimate Marvel, from day one to its very end, was to take creative risks and try things that would never be attempted in the prime universe. Some of those attempts were lauded successes, such as ComicBook/TheUltimates (The Avengers as a state-sponsored group), others were largely failures such as ComicBook/{{Ultimatum}} (a KillEmAll event, even killing for good all the X-Men's sacred cows), but the risks have always been taken.

* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' creator Creator/BillWatterson insisted on doing the inking himself, and many of the {{Sunday strip}}s were done ''in watercolors''. Also, he stopped the comic's run once he ran out of ideas, to stop it from becoming a FranchiseZombie. And official merchandise is [[http://platypuscomix.com/otherpeople/watterson.html extremely rare]][[note]]As you may have reckoned, those ubiquitous "peeing Calvin" decals are in no way sanctioned by the rights holders.[[/note]]; Watterson was open to producing an animated series at one point but ultimately decided against it because he couldn't get used to the idea of Calvin or Hobbes having a voice, as it would inevitably fail to match the voices readers had imagined for them.\\\

* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' and all related books that were written by Creator/JRRTolkien. It's no exaggeration to say that the saga represents his total life's work [[note]] Well, slightly, considering that Tolkien also was the youngest ever professor at the University of Leeds, was a Professor at Oxford (twice), spoke twelve languages, and wrote the best Modern English translation of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" and an academic critique of ''Beowulf'' which completely transformed perception of Old English literature[[/note]]. It's just that detailed. And to think that the entire world, complete with intricate mythology, fleshed-out characters, and delightful poetry served one purpose: to serve as a backdrop for the out-of-whole-cloth-created languages that the English professor had constructed. Boggles the mind, it does.
** The original publishers count as well, deserving credit for backing a work of genius even though they thought they might lose money on it. (The first print run, 3,500 copies, sold out within six weeks.)
* L.E. Modesitt's ''Literature/SagaOfRecluce '' fantasy series also uses highly detailed and accurate descriptions of mundane activities such as woodworking and blacksmithing. Such details are used as metaphors for and illustrations of both character development and the mechanics of magic in his world.
* Creator/GustaveFlaubert wrote only three completed novels during his life due to being the perfectionist's perfectionist. Besides his famously agonizing search for ''le mot juste'' -- 'the correct word', or the exact word(s) needed to produce the effect he wanted in any given scene -- he went and scrupulously checked every fact (down to attending medical examinations to ensure his medical histories were correct).
* Similar to the examples above, ''Literature/{{Dune}}'' contains a sprawling universe adorned with myriad details and complicated histories, economics, and ecology. Creator/FrankHerbert loved to [[ShownTheirWork show his work]].
* Many ScienceFiction writers do this. There are stories of [[Creator/RobertAHeinLein Heinlein]] sitting at his kitchen table with a slide rule, pencil and graph paper trying to work out how fast his spaceships would be moving and how much fuel they would need.
* Luigi Serafini's enigmatic ''Literature/CodexSeraphinianus''. Twenty-some years agone and still nobody can figure out the language. Great art though.

* Tom Siddell sprinkles ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'' with surprisingly accurate references to subjects like mythology and Medieval western martial arts, though it's unclear how many are simply [[AuthorAppeal subjects he was already interested in]]. However, it is known that Tom researched lock picking specifically for the comic. He even bought a set of lockpicks, because he wanted to depict it accurately, even though the subject has only come up on [[http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=49 two]] [[http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=411 pages]].
* When ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' began, it followed the standard four-panel black-and-white format of newspaper comics, complete with the triple-sized, full-color strip on Sundays. As the years went by, Pete Abrams began using color a lot more frequently, as well as often doing several strips each week that were double, triple, or even quadruple the normal size. All while sticking to a daily update schedule. Compare a week's worth of strips from [[http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/weekly/970927 early in the series]] to a week of strips from the [[http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/weekly/041204 "That Which Redeems" arc]].

* ''Webcomic/{{Lackadaisy}}'' creator Tracy Butler did not ''have'' to maintain the accuracy of the architecture, clothes, and phrase choices of the 20s, but chose to, and is sticking to it.
* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' as well. Just take one look at the comic, from the amount of detail in the backgrounds to the thought put into even the most minor characters, and it becomes pretty clear that the Foglios have been working up to this their entire lives.
* Howard Taylor, in over twenty years[[note]]Starting June 2000, to [[GrandFinale its conclusion in July 2020]][[/note]], never missed a single day of ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'', for any reason. Whenever technical issues threatened to break this record ([[http://howardtayler.livejournal.com/219448.html including an explosion at the data center that houses the comic]]), he used stopgap measures such as putting it in the blog, just so us loyal readers could get our daily dose of Schlock from SOMEWHERE on time.
* ''Webcomic/FreakAngels'', a webcomic produced by acclaimed comic writer Creator/WarrenEllis and drawn and inked by Paul Duffield. They turn out six full-color, elaborately detailed pages (which can consist of anywhere between three and six panels each), all at once, ''every week''. The only time they take a break from their schedule besides holidays is to let Duffield have a brief rest from the strain of producing that much quality artwork on a regular basis (and such breaks are only for a week).

* ''Webcomic/PowerpuffGirlsDoujinshi'' and its related comic ''Webcomic/GrimTalesFromDownBelow''. ESPECIALLY the latter.
* ''Webcomic/MSPaintAdventures''. Creator/AndrewHussie updates almost every day, including holidays (holidays often have ''larger'' updates). [[BlatantLies He famously once said that he was going to take a break]]...only to post ''eighty'' pages. Andrew is so obsessed with [[KudzuPlot his story]] that he can recap most of the material from memory without rereading.
** [[http://www.formspring.me/mspadventures/q/182810348053629836 Hussie himself once said]] that to most people, even if they make no money from it, stuff like this is a job to them, whereas for him ''MSPA'' is a ''lifestyle'', and he spends the majority of every day working on it; even though most of it is planning, that's still a ridiculous amount of dedication.
* Dan Shive of ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'' puts extra effort into certain aspects of making strips. He makes sure the [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2011-03-09 composition]] of the scenes he puts his characters in are realistic even if its only for [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2011-03-09 one panel]]. He researches things for the comic like [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2008-02-27 obscure facts]] about UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. He even ensures that when a character exposits seemingly meaningless MagiBabble as part of [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2011-08-01 a montage]], everything he says actually has a basis in something real InUniverse.
* For ''Webcomic/KatushaGirlSoldierOfTheGreatPatrioticWar,'' writer and artist Wayne Vansant made multiple trips to Ukraine and interviewed dozens of people who were there in World War II. The equipment and settings are accurately drawn, and the battles and atrocities shown are (or are based upon) real events.
* ''Webcomic/{{Xkcd}}'':
** [[https://xkcd.com/1110/ 1110: Click and Drag]] is, simply put, a single webcomic frame with the dimensions of 165888 x 65536 pixels and the populated size (disregarding fillers) of around one gigapixel. You explore it by, duh, clicking and dragging.
** [[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1190:_Time 1190: Time]], a graphic story updated once per hour over the course of four months. (The author's site only contained the latest image, but numerous fan-made browsers were created.)
** [[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1446:_Landing 1446: Landing]], a shorter variant of the former, updated every five minutes over 12 hours during the Rosetta landing, in real time.

* The film used to shoot the faux ''Film/{{Grindhouse}}'' trailer ''WebVideo/TheVelociPastor'' was scratched manually in a black room. Then it was [[http://roberthood.net/blog/index.php/2011/03/06/velocipastor-is-this-a-movie-you-want-to-see/ baked in an oven]].

* ''WebVideo/BrainScratchCommentaries'' are a group of people that do commentaries over numerous video games. Each member always records their game footage off a video card or capture device to get the best quality out of their videos and to have their footage look legit when playing off the actual video game console rather than using emulators or shaky cameras. The only time the crew uses emulators is when they can't get a physical copy of the game or their recording glitches out.
* ''WebVideo/ManAtArms'' is a show where a Hollywood blacksmith makes replicas of various fictional swords. In an early episode, he imported over a thousand dollars worth of material from Argentina so he could make [[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender Sokka's Space Sword]] out of [[ThunderboltIron actual meteorites]].

* A lot of web critics and abridged series creators, [[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Linkara]], [[WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment Spoony]], WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd, [[WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries Little Kuriboh]], Creator/TeamFourStar, Creator/{{hbi2k}}, and most of the team at [[Website/ThatGuyWithTheGlasses TGWTG.com]] (to name a few) do not earn much (if anything) for their work. Yet they still do it. Religiously. And they work their asses off to do it. These guys have done reviews or made episodes when they were sick or broke and have still kept at it.

* Ted Turner proposed ''[[WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers Captain Planet]]'' as a serious effort to help the environment. Can't fault his motive, if nothing else. It's just that this trope is no match for the faults of a CluelessAesop or SpaceWhaleAesop. Done with good intentions, but written with all the quality and nuance of political propaganda, rather than a serious discussion of real problems.
* While ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' may not have astounding animation or horribly intricate detail, if you compare it to, say, the average Disney Channel sitcom, you'll see a ''massive'' difference in effort. ''Phineas and Ferb'' is built on OnceAnEpisode, yet almost every piece of that has been averted or subverted. ''Phineas and Ferb'' makes obscure socio-cultural references in full knowledge that their primary demographic won't grasp them.
** Dan Povenmire is even perfectly happy with his work being uploaded for free on video sites. He even reads the comments on the videos on Website/YouTube and responds to some of them. The episodes continue to be created in HD, despite them never being aired this way, and it really says a lot when he talks about how Disney doesn't market them as such because they think the kids don't care and the adults won't buy it.

** And, going further than the intricate net of [[CatchPhrase Catch Phrases]], [[ContinuityNod Continuity Nods]], [[RunningGag Running Gags]] and such, we get the music. If you look at the lyrics, you see a beautiful mesh of rhyme schemes, alliteration, internal rhymes, tasteful repetition, and probably half the list of literary devices your high-school English teacher taught you. There are artists/bands whose lyrics aren't this well thought out.
* In addition to doing his ''ComicBook/GoldDigger'' animation singlehandedly, series author Fred Perry also does a number of sketches and shorts using licensed music such as "Stacy's Mom", "[[Series/LazyTown You Are a Pirate]]", and the intro to ''VideoGame/GuardianHeroes''. He actually got the rights to use it officially.
* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', one of the writers actually made use of their math degree to [[http://www.geekosystem.com/futurama-prisoner-of-benda-theory/ create and prove a brand new mathematical theorem]] just for sake of the episode's body-swapping plot. Doing it for the art? Nay, this is Doing It For The Math!
* ''WesternAnimation/MoralOrel'' could have easily just been a straight-up TakeThat to religion in general and Christianity in particular. Instead, it turned out to be a smartly-written comedy that explored various aspects of religious faith, and by its third season had developed into a deep character {{dramedy}} in order to better explore these themes.
* ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuest''. One of the animators working on "Shadow of the Condor" was a UsefulNotes/WorldWarI airplane buff, and the Fokker Dr.1 and Spad are gorgeously drawn.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheWackyWorldOfTexAvery'' creator Brody Dowler described it as a "homage to the brilliant, hilarious and groundbreaking animator Creator/TexAvery and the wonderful squash-and-stretch cartoons of his era". While they certainly got the squash-and-stretch elements down, the humor left a great deal to be desired.
* During TheEighties, most cartoons were 30-minute toy ads, and it was virtually unthinkable to go about it otherwise. Robert Mandell deliberately misfiled the memo and blew out as many stops as he could afford. Broadway actors as his voice talent, a truckload of Del Ray sci-fi authors as writers, Toyko Movie Shinsa doing the animation, arena rock bands for the soundtrack, some of the ''earliest'' attempts to weld CGI and cel animation...and throwing the lot into a SpaceWestern that looks like the bastard offspring of a time-traveling Series/{{Firefly}} and the Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse. The end result is a one-season wonder called ''[[WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGalaxyRangers Galaxy Rangers]]''.

* Creator/HannaBarbera was still able to make beautifully drawn cartoons, thanks to Ed Benedict's brilliant character designs and colorful backgrounds despite a low budget.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'' creator Creator/JohnKricfalusi. He turned down the offer he got from Creator/DreamWorksAnimation to pitch a movie, due to the ridiculous way they treated him and attempted to manipulate his ideas. He was also so insistent on keeping the original content of his cartoons in, he purposefully slowed down production of ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'' so the censors would have less time to go over them. It worked but ultimately got him fired. (Needless to say, the Spumco staff is generally DoingItForTheArt — after John K was kicked out, the majority of the crew left alongside him). The unbelievably high quality of Spumco productions (with John K's rule to never draw the same expression twice) is not unheard of either — especially that all of it is done for TV. However, [[http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2006/03/beautiful-people-9-yeesh-and-spumcos.html as evidenced by this blog post of John K's]], it's also quite evident the economic thinking is not absent.
* Every shot of ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks'' has detail unheard of even for anime. Thus, only 4 seasons have been produced in 9 years.
* The same can be said for ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'', though the detail isn't nearly the same. What also deserves mentioning is that while most shows have a significant staff of writers, ''every episode but one'' was written by creator Jackson Publick and/or Doc Hammer.
** Another example from ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers''; Publick and Hammer, during the long hiatus between seasons one and two had worked out exactly how to open the show, seeing as [[spoiler:Both Hank and Dean were dead]]. A montage, set to the song "Everybody's Free" by Aquagen and Rozalla. The problem was, to license it would cost a seventh of the budget--not for that episode, the ''entire second season.'' To which the creators said "WorthIt."
* The Franchise/{{DCAU}} team has always had high expectations of themselves, but they really outdid themselves in ''[[WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Justice League Unlimited]]''. They animated nearly every single hero and villain in the DC Universe, most of whom are not well known and very few of whom even have lines. But the lengths they did to are even better illustrated in the episode "The Savage Time", where for no reason whatsoever, they have very accurately drawn Tiger Tanks. How many people watching the show are even going to notice the tanks? How many can even tell that they actually did the research? ''They'' can, and apparently, that's all that mattered.
** It wasn't just the Tigers in "The Savage Time"; though the detail's not great, the soldiers Jon Stewart is with are carrying appropriate weapons (M1 Garand, Thompson SMG, M1918 [=BAR=]), and Savage's car in the movie is similarly under-detailed, but unmistakably a closed-top Mercedes-Benz 700k. The German soldiers carry [=MP40s=] at one point. The fire rate for weapons are off, certainly, and no one reloads, but RuleOfCool factors into that. Plus, they put some effort into it; I mean, how many people pay attention to a ''freaking staff car?''
** To emphasize how [[DarkerAndEdgier edgy and dark]] ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' is, the animators painted on black paper instead of white paper. The result? A truly atmospheric show that threatened to put the AnimationAgeGhetto in the naughty corner.
* While outside of the DCAU, ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'' demonstrates the same attention to detail as the DCAU producers, writers, and animators. Every single episode is jam-packed with references big and small to the DCU's history either in the form of characters who vanished after [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks the Silver Age]] (or in at least one case, only appeared in a single issue!) or storylines or even panels. An episode featuring the first full appearance of Franchise/{{Superman}} is chock full of these, referencing everything from {{Superdickery}} to the Creator/ChristopherReeve films to ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'' to ''ComicBook/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns''. It's this clear love of the character and the DCU that has made a show that could have been a disaster into a show that is widely adored by comic fans.
* For ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', the creators flew all over the world to find inspiration and art references for architecture and landscaping, studied martial arts in order to create realistic combat sequences, and hired someone with a [=PhD=] so that all the Classical Chinese ideographs seen in the series would be accurate. They also hired consultants for these things.
** The background posters that Sokka walked past one episode were seen for less than ten seconds, yet they still included a realistic poster for a theatre company (foreshadowing for another episode) and a poster for a town meeting about air quality (referencing the industrialized Fire Nation) and all the gambling being done on the streets. All in archaic Chinese.
** Constellations that are seen in the sky of [[Recap/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheWaterbendingMaster "The Waterbending Master"]] are the same as those seen a season later on a star map in [[Recap/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheDesert "The Desert"]]. You'd need to be UsefulNotes/NeilDeGrasseTyson (or a very [[http://atla-annotated.tumblr.com/post/20827907799/the-night-sky-in-the-episode-the-waterbending detail-oriented fan]]) to notice.
* The creators of ''[[WesternAnimation/ReBoot ReBoot]]'' had a lot of risk involved with their project. They predated the ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory1'' Creator/{{Pixar}} CGI revolution by a full year. It was an untested medium and the equipment to do it was not cheap. On top of that all the voice-acting, writing, directing and music was done in the same studio, instead of being farmed out to different companies like most shows. The results were a really tight story with great voice acting and animation that was groundbreaking.
* The artists who worked on ''WesternAnimation/MightyOrbots'', produced in the 1980s, actually studied classical and Japanese animation in order to be the best they could be. Notable mainly because of the AnimationAgeGhetto. When you could get away with stuff like ''WesternAnimation/PacMan'', ''[[WesternAnimation/ChallengeOfTheGoBots GoBots]]'', or ''[[WesternAnimation/CareBears1980s The Care Bears]]'', studying classic film for inspiration is, well, a little ''weird''.

* ''WesternAnimation/ObanStarRacers'' was Savin Yeatman-Eiffel's child on every conceviable level. Concerned that working for an existing studio would not give him the creative control he needed, he founded his own independent animation studio, spent years raising funds and figuring out the desired art and animation style, spent even longer to secure the music, sound, and voice talent he desired, and even wrote the scripts for all 26 episodes himself ''in several languages''. The end result is an incredibly polished childrens' action/adventure animated series that's regarded as a CultClassic.
* Although it is easy (and not unusual) to simply dismiss any ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' product as MerchandiseDriven, some works, such as ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'' or ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'', are well-liked for their appreciation of the mythos and written with the PeripheryDemographic in mind. And there's the live-action movie above for a different implementation of this trope.
** ''Transformers'' has so many incentives to suck--it's MerchandiseDriven, [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids for small children]], and about robots that transform into cars. But sometimes, just sometimes, it's funny and engaging and a bit meaningful, and there's no other reason than that the creators, against all odds, care about what they do. Sometimes.

* The Parthenon sculptures. Most temple sculptures were only carved in full detail on the front because the back would never be seen; however, the Parthenon sculptures were carved in full detail, front and back. Chances are no-one saw that for thousands of years.
* The Pantheon, a temple, and later church, in Rome. The dome, aside from being a ''perfect'' hemisphere with a diameter of 43.3m (142 feet), implies an imaginary, second hemisphere, the pole of which touches the floor ''exactly''. Given the size of this space, a considerable margin of error would have been considered acceptable, but the architect, Apollodorus of Damascus, wanted it to be ''perfect''. And this in 126 AD.
** The art critic and historian Robert Hughes notes in his book ''Rome'' that the Pantheon would never be built today: no one would insure it, no one would even propose it, because no one would think that you could make something like that safely out of poured concrete. And they'd be dead wrong: Thanks to a unique and brilliant design, the Pantheon has stood for nearly nineteen hundred years, and shows no signs of collapse.
* Similarly, Antoni Gaudi designed his [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagrada_Familia Sagrada Familia]] in ridiculous detail, carefully outlining each decoration, even the ones ''no human would ever see after the construction is complete'' (like little dove figures in small niches at 100 m altitude). When asked about that, Gaudi replied: "Well, of course, these are for the angels to see." Now, there's a man who did it for the art. And Gaudi is not the only one doing it for the art when it comes to the Sagrada Familia. Gaudi started working on the church in 1883. It is currently about 50% complete. It has been largely funded by voluntary donations. It will, hopefully, be finished in 2026--in time for the centennial of Gaudi's death.

* Averted by many early great masters of Western art, who did most of their work, now hanging in major museums, for commission. Though even then, they hardly phoned it in. Michelangelo was initially not enthused about the Sistine Chapel commission and if he had done a simple ceiling fresco, he could have gone to his more fulfilling work in sculpture; instead, he decided to go overboard.
* Creator/NoahAntwiler did a game review back in 2007 on [[VideoGame/ETTheExtraTerrestrial a horrible E.T. Atari game]] ''right after'' having his wisdom teeth taken out (2 operations) and while stoned out of his mind on Vicodin just because the fans begged him to. That's dedication to your art. And after his "Health update" v-log...to think he's been keeping up with everything as well as he has been -- getting through ''WebVideo/{{Kickassia}}'', going to conventions, putting on heavy costumes, practically melting under hot lights -- with a heart condition that ''makes him feel like he's dying'' if he overtaxes himself.

* Website/{{Google}} [[http://www.google.com/logos/ Doodles]]; sure, the site's text can just be the same every single day, but numerous artists take upon them to draw something to relate to various countries' events, celebrity birthdays and such.

* The Disney Imagineers put excruciating amounts of detail into the designs of rides, gift shops, and just the ambient scenery at [[Ride/DisneyThemeParks the theme parks]] (at least much as they can achieve with the budgets they are given). Many of the "authentic-looking" props in period-specific areas like Frontierland and Main Street, USA are actually authentic antiques, not replicas. "No one will ever see it" is not considered a good enough excuse to skimp. The policy is to create something that Walt Disney would approve of, and he was such a stickler that he would rather indefinitely postpone the opening of an attraction than let it open before it was perfect.
** A really great example of this is ''Franchise/TheHauntedMansion''. The hearse drawn by invisible horses? Real (though, despite popular urban legend, it's ''not'' Brigham Young's hearse). The stretching pictures? Actual paintings, they spend ''weeks'' on one animatronic in the attic before scrapping it for something else completely when they didn't like how it looked.

* The designer interviews for the Franchise/{{Transformers}} toylines are always fascinating because everyone involved [[RunningTheAsylum seems to love the source material and working on it]]. The engineers even love just coming up with designs, [[WhatCouldHaveBeen even ones that might never be seen]], such as a [[Franchise/TransformersGeneration1 Soundwave whose minions leap out of his chest in sequence and transform in mid-air]] or [[WesternAnimation/BeastWars Rhinox]] as a [[BigBudgetBeefUp voyager, just because he could use the extra mass and design budget]], or a line of [[ShownTheirWork real-life military vehicles at 1:24th scale]], which would result in toys the size of computer towers that would cost over 60 dollars apiece. And, in defiance of rising petroleum costs and geometrically increasing complexity, [[InflationNegation a Transformer purchased in 2011 costs about the same as it did in 1996.]]

* Creator/DiscotekMedia has licensed many older anime [[NoExportForYou that may have otherwise never seen the light of day.]] Among many other things, they also managed to find the TMS dub of ''Anime/MagicKnightRayearth'', which was thought to have been [[MissingEpisode lost]], and include it on the Blu-Ray release of the series.
* Charles Lauzirika is a sci-fi fanboy who was put in charge of [[Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox 20th Century Fox]]'s DVD production team and has created some of the most well-known DVD sets and film documentaries of all time. Notably, during the production of the ''Franchise/{{Alien}} Anthology'', he not only fought to get the uncut version of his ''Film/{{Alien 3}}'' documentary "Wreckage And Rage" released (which required an epic amount of wrangling with Fox executives for close to a decade), but he also went back to the "workprint" edition of the film that was constructed for the ''Alien Quadrilogy'' release in 2003, assembled every member of the supporting cast whose voices couldn't be picked up on the temp track, and had them re-record all of their lines. He also served as the producer of ''Film/BladeRunner: The Final Cut'', in which he brought Creator/HarrisonFord's son in to replicate his father's dialogue for voiceovers that were hard to hear, and had Joanna Cassidy reshoot her famous run through the glass windows so continuity errors from the original film could be corrected.

* The reason why video releases for Creator/TheCriterionCollection command premium prices is because each film's restoration and/or transfer is supervised by some of the best film engineers in the industry, and it allows for the company to produce carefully-curated sets for prestige films. Compared to "barebones" video release, each Criterion edition often includes a full-color booklet that features essays or remarks from the director discussing the historical or cultural significance of their work, long-form video documentaries that are often praised by fans for their thoroughness, and (for older films) featurettes focusing on the restoration techniques used to bring said films up to the highest digital quality.

* Musical numbers in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' contain elaborate instrumentation and rhymes, as well as a handful of {{Genius Bonus}}es that only make sense to one well-versed in musical terminology. For instance, how many eight-year-olds are going to recognize the {{Foreshadowing}} at the end of "BBBFF"?

* The team of ''{{WesternAnimation/Gargoyles}}'' went to insane lengths to make the show as realistic as possible. Greg Weisman keeps up an ongoing blog to close up every possible plot hole (and every question, if it does not ask for spoilers, will be answered), and has done so for ''15 years now''. The foreign language is accurate, the historical people are accurate, the magic is consistent, the gargoyles have ([[HollywoodScience by the standards of Hollywood]]) a believable biology rather than just being magic, and every single character is complex to unbelievable levels.
* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars''. The amount of work put into this series really shows how much the crew cared about it, even just observing from the surface. But when you start noticing and then paying attention to such trivial things like posters on the walls of clone barracks or clubs, the elaborate details on spaceships, bugs crawling around on branches, ''garbage'' thrown away on the lower streets of Coruscant, and dozens of other tiny-little background details the creators have sneaked in - despite the fact that most viewers probably wouldn't register any of it on the first time viewing - it becomes mind-blowing! Then consider that all of this is made in CGI, with a relatively low-budget when the series was only starting. And when their budget and technological assets increased as the series progressed, they did even more with it.
** Going even further, they had assets to use from Lucasfilm's archives. For instance, during the production of Season 3 episode "Wookiee Hunt", the crew had a meeting with Peter Mayhew to make sure they got Chewbacca's appearance (while working within the art style), characterization and body language accurately.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Director David Silverman personally animated the hallucination sequences for [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E9ElViajeMisteriosoDeNuestroJomer "El Viaje Misterioso De Nuestro Jomer"]] as he was worried the overseas animators would not provide the specific, highly surreal look that he wanted. It paid off as the results are considered the episode's SignatureScene.

* Like the ''Film/{{Transformers}}'' live-action film, a lot of the CGI in ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' was done to fit in the shots instead of making the shots to fit the CGI. Beyond that, the amount of detail that goes into everything -- from [[SceneryPorn backgrounds]], to [[FutureSlang slang]], to [[ChekhovsGun minor plot points that don't become important until six episodes later]] is simply amazing. This was Creator/JossWhedon and Creator/TimMinear's baby. [[ScrewedByTheNetwork And it was killed after fourteen episodes]].
* ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003''. They employ people whose job it is to cut the corners off of paper to make them into the series' distinctive octagonal shape.
** When they realized they were running out of music budget for the series finale, Ron Moore, the other producers and composer Bear [=McCreary=] himself pitched in to pay for the orchestra.

** With season 3, he [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome became the first person in the history of American TV to write a full-length season single-handed]]. [[UpToEleven And then did it again with season 4]].

* When Andrew Robinson was cast as Garak in ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', he actually wrote a detailed back-story for his character, and presented his "character bible" to the series' producers. Apart from some elements that went counter to the previously-written Cardassian history, the producers approved Robinson's efforts, which became part of Garak's character. Many of his notes which didn't make the series proper, went into the Expanded Universe novel "A Stitch in Time".
* The ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' episode "[[{{Recap/StarTrekEnterpriseS03E08Twilight}} Twilight]]" features a 'blink-and-you'll-miss-it' opening scene of the Earth being blown up. Originally it was simply going to be the Earth blowing up like planets in ''Franchise/StarWars'', one minute it's there, next minute, fireball. The effects supervisors just weren't happy with that and so they came in on their days off and re-did it to the final product. Now, you actually see the oceans boil and fault lines actually crack, as if the Earth spontaneously combusts into dust. When asked who authorized the extra work and why, they said they did it for free. Just because.

* ''Series/TheMuppetShow'' always had Creator/JimHenson and company going that extra mile for the series, but the Creator/HarryBelafonte episode really counts; Belafonte insisted on an especially meaningful closing number and Henson was game. The end result is the number, "Turn The World Around," which features specially-built Muppets based on actual tribal masks. It's a profoundly moving, spiritual performance that Henson always felt was the finest of the series. In fact, Henson liked the song so much that when he passed away in 1990, his family requested that Belafonte perform the song again at Henson's funeral.

* ''Frank Herbert's Children of Literature/{{Dune}}'' has the song "Inama Nushif", which is sung entirely in the Fremen language.
-->''"Unreal. Brian [Tyler] actually '''searched through Herbert's books and deciphered enough of the fictional Fremen language''' to write this powerful song. A song that drives my favorite moment of the film."''--[[http://www.briantyler.com/Site/Children_of_Dune.html Director Greg Yaitanes]].
* The lead actors of ''Series/{{Emergency}}'', Randy Mantooth and Kevin Tighe, went through the paramedic training of the Los Angeles County Fire Department at the time in order to accurately portray their roles. Had they not skipped the final exam, they would've been fully-certified paramedics.

* ''Series/YesMinister'': Creator/NigelHawthorne, who played Sir Humphrey, was required to perform some of the most convoluted SesquipedalianLoquaciousness ever brought to screen, big or small. However, in spite of being forced to perform lines like: "The relationship, which I might tentatively venture to aver has been not without some degree of reciprocal utility, and perhaps even occasional gratification, is emerging a point of irreversible bifurcation and, to be brief, is in the propinquity of its ultimate regrettable termination.", he never once resorted to using a cue card, but insisted on actually learning his lines. The writers were shocked and awed.
* The first season of ''Series/RuPaulsDragRace [[ForeignRemake UK]]'' was noted by many fans to have a much less tense atmosphere than the original American series. This is because the UK show airs on Creator/TheBBC, which forbids game shows from giving cash prizes. The winner's only prize is a trip to Los Angeles to film a spin-off webseries similar to ''Alyssa's Secret''. Since not as much was on stake, the queens were able to just enjoy each other's company and showcase their talent on TV rather the fights and cutthroat attitudes that have come to define the US version.

* One of the notable aspects of ''Pinball/BigGuns'' is how its backbox is noticeably taller than those of most other pinball games. Why? Because artist Creator/PythonAnghelo insisted he needed the extra height to accommodate his castle artwork.

[[folder: Music Videos]]

* Take a look at a card from the ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'' CCG. Then another. And another. Chances are, you'll see familiar monsters popping up in the artwork of each other's cards, or spell or trap cards that might not even apply to them. Look at enough of them, and you'll notice a pattern...a pattern that tells a story...a story that is much deeper and involved than you'd ever expect from a mere card game. [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page The card game's wiki]] does its darndest to chronicle these stories, which includes knights falling into corruption (or salvation), CyberneticsEatYourSoul, survival in an AlternateUniverse, and a battle for control of Hell itself.
* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering''.
** Forget the elaborate WorldBuilding. Forget the year of playtesting put into ''each'' of the quarterly sets. Forget that nearly every set has a unique identity without resorting to cheap gimmicks. The true sign that Magic is Done For The Art is the official [[http://www.wizards.com/Magic/ web site]]. The "Daily MTG" section ''alone'' is around half a million words a year of behind the scenes insight, pointing out Easter eggs, AllThereInTheManual, strategic advice, tournament coverage, and previews of upcoming releases, with little if any Phoning It In.
** ''Two'' full expansion sets were nothing but over-the-top cheesy humor -- ''Unglued'' and ''Unhinged'' -- were done [[ItAmusedMe strictly because the developers wanted to do something silly]]. It doesn't help that the main impetus behind both was Creator/PhilFoglio.

* ''VisualNovel/CorpseParty'' is this. Team [=GrisGris=] was pretty much four people making a horror game with the RPG Maker 98. The game had loads of characters, notes and multiple endings, leading to it gaining so much popularity that it not only got a remake by the now much larger team, full with voice actors and all, it also spawned an anime, a manga series and multiple pre- and sequels.
* ''VisualNovel/HotelDuskRoom215'':
** It was in development for almost 2 years, just so developer Cing could make the comic book style character animations, which were done frame by frame.
** ''VisualNovel/LastWindow'' was being developed while Cing was facing bankruptcy. While the game was being translated for an EU release, Cing ''did'' file for bankruptcy. The game is [[EvenBetterSequel arguably even better]] than the first

* Creator/RoosterTeeth--before they even begin to write a series, they study and pull apart the game they use, sometimes for months beforehand, as they did with ''Machinima/RedVsBlue: Reconstruction'' and ''Videogame/{{Halo 3}}''.
* ''Halo'' fan Phillip Kang worked on his machinima film, ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyUdWe90svs&feature=player_embedded Halo: Eye of the Storm]]'' for ''two years'' before finally releasing it, with each shot taking approximately 5 hours to capture, due to having to replay the same campaign stage over and over to try and make each shot as perfect as it could be, due to not being able to control the AI.

[[folder:Advertising]]
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ve4M4UsJQo This]] Honda commercial, CG, right? It could've been, but why not [[http://www.snopes.com/photos/advertisements/hondacog.asp do it for the art instead]]?
* Creator/{{HBO}}'s iconic [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1NKoMNy5bY 80s movie opener]]; so much so, there was even [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agS6ZXBrcng a short documentary]] produced about it. All of the effects in the logo probably could've been achieved with [=CGI=], but instead, Liberty Studios--the company behind the logo--went all out with making it using practical effects. The entire city landscape was an actual model that was 10 feet wide and 30 feet long, with so much stunning attention to detail that it took over three months to fully construct, and during the making, smoke was pumped through in order to give it the appearance of a three-dimensional environment. The music that scores the opener was produced with a 65-piece orchestra. The [=HBO=] logo was made with brass, and the laser effects were achieved with light and camera tricks. Other than some superimposition effects for the family at the beginning as well as the ending title cards, practically no computer effects were used to create the opening. No wonder it's such a favorite of many!
* That [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbYWhdLO43Q Squatty Potty]] commercial with the baby unicorn pooping ice cream could have very easily gotten by with CGI, but the creators decided to go all-out with a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7l7MXfYWahU full puppet]] instead.
[[/folder]]

* The music of ''Anime/CowboyBebop'', rather than going for the [[JapanesePopMusic J-Pop]] music that's the norm for such {{anime}}, elected to go for classic jazz performed by composer Music/YokoKanno and her band Music/TheSeatbelts. If you really want to be impressed, consider the fact that Jazz is not a popular art form in Japan (though Tokyo does currently have a fast-growing jazz scene, well worth checking out).
** The anime film ''Anime/{{Metropolis}}'', based off an Creator/OsamuTezuka manga (which was itself based loosely off [[Film/{{Metropolis}} a film]] by Creator/FritzLang), uses the same music with a very similar impact.
** Music/YokoKanno already had some OST fame for a very different sound that was and continued to be in demand for sci-fi works, or TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture settings like Cowboy Bebop. Music/TheSeatbelts was something she was doing for the art, and Anime/CowboyBebop distinguished itself by choosing that style.
* ''Anime/BirdyTheMighty''. Especially the Decode series, which produced two series of stylish, fluid animation and engaging, sympathetic characters despite poor sales.
* ''Manga/GunsmithCats'' actually sent its entire animation studio to Chicago to make sure they got the setting right, and instead of using [[BangBangBANG stock gun noises]] they used recordings of each gun being used that they made themselves.
* The half-hour film ''Anime/VoicesOfADistantStar'' was created almost entirely by Creator/MakotoShinkai. The only thing he didn't do by himself was the voice acting on the commercial release.

* ''Manga/{{ARIA}}''. The detail that goes into the buildings, geography, and events is truly staggering. Also, the anime production team traveled to Venice every time they started a new season--even for the ''one episode {{OVA}}!'' And if that weren't enough, there's also a large amount of high-quality music by names like Eri Kawai, Senoo and Music/ChoroClub.
* ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'': The {{Omake}} from the compiled volumes show just how much work Creator/KenAkamatsu put into the [[SceneryPorn backgrounds]] alone, even enormous hand-drawn crowd scenes. This includes creating a fully-rendered CG tower for the Kyoto arc, even though it only appears a few times in the extreme background. And the surprisingly good Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit for the spells, complete with accurate mythological references. The bonus material includes many a WallOfText explaining the languages and mythological beings that are mentioned. There's also a metric buttload of {{Shout Out}}s, including cameos by various anime and VideoGame characters in the aforementioned background scenes. He's very thorough, way more so than was necessary.
* The manga version of ''Manga/{{Genshiken}}'' features very intricate and detailed backgrounds, and references to real media to go with the {{otaku}} theme of the series. Example: "The Champ of Fighters" = ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters'':
* Say what you will about the pacing, but 110 OVA episodes of ''Anime/LegendOfGalacticHeroes'' would not be possible without the enthusiasm (read: obsession) of the original novelist, Yoshiki Tanaka.
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7a7C4a2nfk&feature=related This]] video demonstrates the amount of detail the animators of ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'' went through in order to ensure that every detail of their fictional Ikebukuro would mimic almost every aspect of its RealLife counterpart.

* For the ''Film/{{Pokemon}}'' movies, the director Kunihiko Yuyama travels the world in order to capture the feel of the {{Fantasy Counterpart Culture}}s Ash and co. will visit. For ''Anime/PokemonHeroes''' Altomare, the director visited Venice. In ''Anime/PokemonLucarioAndTheMysteryOfMew'', he toured castles in Germany. For ''Anime/PokemonTheRiseOfDarkrai'', he visited Barcelona, Spain. For ''Anime/PokemonGiratinaAndTheSkyWarrior'', he visited the fjords of Norway. For ''Anime/PokemonArceusAndTheJewelOfLife'', he visited temples in Greece. For ''Anime/PokemonZoroarkMasterOfIllusions'', he visited [[AndZoidberg the Netherlands]].
* In the infamous [[GroundhogDayLoop Endless Eight]] episodes of the second season of ''[[LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya]]'', each episode is animated from scratch, despite the plot and dialogue of each being nearly identical. The voice actors even claim that they did eight recordings.
** The first season was packed with work done simply for the artistry. Including valid C++ code, SQL commands used in a way that no one can understand anyway, [[SceneryPorn photo accurate recreations of the setting]], and tiny details hinting toward coming ([[AnachronicOrder that is to say previous]]) episodes.
** Also, the novels. There's no other reason (well, except AuthorAppeal) to put [[ViewersAreGeniuses explanations and diagrams of college-level math]].
** The start-up of the old Windows 95 computer in alternate-world Nagato's classroom during the ''Disappearance'' movie as well. They could have simply made it a generic affair, but it was done accurately from start to finish, correct opening sound, GUI and all included.

** When Oshii set out to do ''Anime/TheSkyCrawlers'', he and his crew traveled to Ireland and Poland where the movie is set to photograph not only the scenery or buildings but also radiators, electric sockets and window frames to get everything to look authentic.

* Creator/KatsuhiroOtomo. ''Manga/{{Akira}}'' is obsessively, painstakingly detailed like you wouldn't believe, and is known as ''the'' epic manga for a reason. The film is this way too.

* Joshua Seth came out of voice acting retirement to reprise Tai in ''Anime/DigimonAdventureTri''.
* Composer and songwriter Music/YukiKajiura spent ten days in Peru as she prepared to write the music for ''Anime/ElCazadorDeLaBruja''.
* ''Anime/SoundOfTheSky'' takes place in the fictional town of Seize, which is [[http://infinitemirai.wordpress.com/2012/02/25/cuenca-spain-home-of-sora-no-woto/ shot by shot]] the [[RealPlaceBackground real Spanish town of Cuenca.]] Also, to voice a German-speaking character in the show, they [[SurprisinglyGoodForeignLanguage used a voice actress who was raised in Austria and spoke fluent German.]]

* It may be a huge victim of SeinfeldIsUnfunny, but the effort that went into making ''Anime/ScienceNinjaTeamGatchaman'' has to be seen to be [[http://www.battleoftheplanets.net/whatwas.html to be believed.]]

* ''Anime/RedLine'': It took seven years of hand-drawn animation to make this movie.
* For the anime adaptation of ''Manga/KeepYourHandsOffEizouken'', Creator/ScienceSARU didn't have legal permission to use footage from ''Anime/FutureBoyConan'' in the first episode. They got around this by painstakingly recreating scenes from ''Conan'' from scratch; not only did they trace the scenes frame by frame and recolor them, but they even recreated the music and sound effects.
* ''Manga/BladeOfTheImmortal'' mangaka Creator/HiroakiSamura personally redrew many pages so that the English-language release could be presented in the left-to-right English reading order without "flipping" the pages (i.e. mirroring them horizontally, a then-common practice which tends to cause BadExportForYou, especially with text). The series ultimately ran for ''30 volumes'' this way.
* The dubs of ''Anime/AceAttorney'' and ''Anime/SakuraWarsTheAnimation'' had their ADR directors and scriptwriters do optional research playing the games.

* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' became known ([[ArtEvolution later on, at least]]) for the high degree of realism and accuracy in its occasional depiction of dinosaurs. Creator/BillWatterson also insisted on doing the inking himself, and many of the {{Sunday strip}}s were done ''in watercolors''. Also, he stopped the comic's run once he ran out of ideas, to stop it from becoming a FranchiseZombie. And official merchandise is [[http://platypuscomix.com/otherpeople/watterson.html extremely rare]][[note]]As you may have reckoned, those ubiquitous "peeing Calvin" decals are in no way sanctioned by the rights holders.[[/note]]; Watterson was open to producing an animated series at one point but ultimately decided against it because he couldn't get used to the idea of Calvin or Hobbes having a voice, as it would inevitably fail to match the voices readers had imagined for them.\\\

* Creator/PamelaAnderson loved the premise of the video for Music/{{Miserable}} and wanted to be in it so bad that she actually did it for free, telling them to just pay her hair and makeup person instead.

* ''VisualNovel/CorpseParty'' is this. Team [=GrisGris=] was pretty much four people making a horror game with the RPG Maker 98. The game had loads of characters, notes and multiple endings, leading to it gaining so much popularity that it not only got a remake by the now much larger team, full with voice actors and all, it also spawned an anime, a manga series and multiple pre- and sequels.
* ''VisualNovel/HotelDuskRoom215'':
** It was in development for almost 2 years, just so developer Cing could make the comic book style character animations, which were done frame by frame.
** ''VisualNovel/LastWindow'' was being developed while Cing was facing bankruptcy. While the game was being translated for an EU release, Cing ''did'' file for bankruptcy. The game is [[EvenBetterSequel arguably even better]] than the first
* ''VisualNovel/KatawaShoujo'' is a VisualNovel done entirely by a worldwide group of amateurs being distributed for free, simply because the developers wanted to turn an idea and characters (a game where all the potential love interests were disabled schoolgirls) from an {{omake}} page from a {{doujinshi}} into reality. What's even more staggering is the project was birthed on Website/FourChan, yet the subject matter is handled with much more care, respect and dignity than many a VerySpecialEpisode cares to afford.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', one of the writers actually [[http://www.geekosystem.com/futurama-prisoner-of-benda-theory/ created and proved a brand new mathematical theorem]] just for the episode. Now that is doing the research on a whole new level, [[DoingItForTheArt just for the art of it]].
* ''WesternAnimation/MoralOrel'' could have easily just been a straight-up TakeThat to religion in general and Christianity in particular. It turned out to be a smartly written, insanely dark character drama by the 3rd season. Same goes for the creator's other show, ''WesternAnimation/MaryShelleysFrankenhole'', which uses people's photographs folded into puppets so they could be as accurate as possible.

* This mindset is the reason why ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy''[='=] was the final Western production to have its animation be hand-inked and hand-painted, managing to hold out for years after fellow shows and films had abandoned celluoid (only switching because the overseas animation studio finally put their foot down). On top of that, creator Danny Antonucci is credited as the writer and director nearly every episode, with he and his crew have managing to come up with over 130 episodes worth of stories and gags with a [[MinimalistCast cast of only 12 characters]].

* ''WesternAnimation/ObanStarRacers'' came about solely because Savin Yeatman-Eiffel wanted to make it. Deciding working for another company would not give him the creative control he needed, he founded his own independent animation studio, spent years raising funds and years more perfecting the animation in cooperation with Japanese studios. Yeatman-Eiffel worked hard to secure the best talent available (including Music/YokoKanno and Taku Iwasaki for the soundtrack, and French sound engineer Jerome Wiciak for sound effects--a dozen tracks were created simply for the Whizzing Arrow's engine noises), wrote the scripts for all 26 episodes ''in several languages'' and worked personally with the voice actors, and years were spent polishing the show to a mirror shine. The result is a children's series of extremely high quality, combining a story of exceptional depth and consistency with excellent characterization, a great soundtrack, and consistently breathtaking animation.

* ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy''[='=]s animation drawing up until the last season was hand-inked and hand-painted, and even then, Danny Antonucci and his staff would always try to give it that hand-drawn look. Not to mention Mr. Antonucci had a hand in writing and directing nearly every episode, and he and his crew have managed to come up with all kinds of different stories and gags with such a MinimalistCast. And the crew would always tell the kind of stories they wanted to tell and ended it the way they wanted to.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Director David Silverman personally animated the hallucination sequences for [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E9ElViajeMisteriosoDeNuestroJomer "El Viaje Misterioso De Nuestro Jomer"]] as he was worried the overseas animators would not provide the specific, highly surreal look that he wanted. It paid off as the results are considered the episode's SignatureScene

The answer to this is simple. [[StarvingArtist Not all of us need money to justify effort]]. A lot of people are honestly just [[TitleDrop Doing It for the Art]].

This motivation spreads across all genres of known media -- its main hallmarks are when the creator of a work is clearly putting far more effort into the project than necessary. Indeed, sometimes the amount of work being put in is a little creepy. Sure, it's a great vision and all, but does anybody need ''that'' much detail? It should be noted that this only really makes sense when applied to pop culture. The definition of this is that a work is better than one could reasonably expect, whereas one expects commitment and seriousness from culture such as literary fiction or art cinema, defined by being done for its own sweet sake, that is never expected or intended to make money. Saying [[Creator/JamesJoyce Joyce]] went to more trouble than he needed to in the composition of ''Literature/{{Ulysses}}'', for example, is missing the point of that kind of endeavor.

This often applies to niche media, since oftentimes with more popular works the creators must work with the general expectation that they need to create something better than sliced bread. Yet it also crops up more obviously in media where we generally have a set of diminished expectations--want to know why the Western Animation section is so huge? Because the AnimationAgeGhetto makes the really good ones stand out more.

Now consider that Administrivia/TropesAreTools. Doing It for the Art does ''not'' equal quality work. If it did, then this page would have been put in the SugarWiki/SugarWiki a ''long'' time ago. Some examples here are of people who genuinely tried, but just weren't talented enough -- SturgeonsLaw still applies, regardless of the creator's motives. (In which case this would be some kind of consolation, as in, "That movie sucked, but at least they cared") Conversely, doing it for money does ''not'' equal lack of quality. Indeed, [[MagnumOpusDissonance some writers' hackwork is preferred to what they regarded as important stuff]], sometimes because doing it for money was the only way they let down their pretensions. Also, if somebody lets their success get to their head to the point where their "vision" hurts the quality of their work, it can quickly slide into a ProtectionFromEditors situation. However, the romantic ideal represented by this motivation can lead to a backlash against creators who are perceived to be doing something solely (or even partially) for reward, possibly by people who assume that doing something for money means you don't put your effort into it for artistic reasons as well.

Compare and contrast with AwesomeDearBoy, MoneyDearBoy, OneForTheMoneyOneForTheArt, and SoMyKidsCanWatch. Contrast with PanderingToTheBase, PropagandaPiece, ContractualObligationProject, and CreatorsApathy. See also SeriousBusiness, DevelopersForesight, EasterEgg, TheProducerThinksOfEverything, ShownTheirWork, and WrittenForMyKids.

[[caption-width-right:346:No sale, bud.]]

* The creators of ''[[WesternAnimation/ReBoot ReBoot]]'' had a lot of risk involved with their project. They predated the ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory'' Creator/{{Pixar}} CGI revolution by a full year. It was an untested medium and the equipment to do it was not cheap. On top of that all the voice-acting, writing, directing and music was done in the same studio, instead of being farmed out to different companies like most shows. The results were a really tight story with great voice acting and animation that was groundbreaking.

* ''WesternAnimation/ObanStarRacers'' came about solely because Savin Yeatman-Eiffel wanted to make it. Deciding working for another company would not give him the creative control he needed, he founded his independent own animation studio, spent years raising funds and years more perfecting the animation in cooperation with Japanese studios. Yeatman-Eiffel worked hard to secure the best talent available (including Music/YokoKanno and Taku Iwasaki for the soundtrack, and French sound engineer Jerome Wiciak for sound effects--a dozen tracks were created simply for the Whizzing Arrow's engine noises), wrote the scripts for all 26 episodes ''in several languages'' and worked personally with the voice actors, and years were spent polishing the show to a mirror shine. The result is a children's series of extremely high quality, combining a story of exceptional depth and consistency with excellent characterization, a great soundtrack, and consistently breathtaking animation.

* The AlternativeComics publisher Fantagraphics can certainly qualify, releasing over 100 titles a year ranging from more popular examples like ''ComicBook/LoveAndRockets'' to more esoteric examples like ”Abstract Comics: The Anthology”. All edited and released by a staff of ''Twenty.'' And they’ve managed to stay in business since 1976. For example, when they faced a cash shortage due to co-founder Kim Thompson’s AuthorExistenceFailure, their Website/{{Kickstarter}} campaign to make back the money to release the titles was funded in '''FOUR DAYS''' because they just built up that much goodwill in the comic community over the years.

-->''"The truth is, we make this cartoon for ourselves," said Marsh. "We don’t make it for children; we just don't exclude them, which is something that [[Creator/PixarRegulars John Lasseter]] once said. When you get to writing the jokes and finalizing the content, you just want to make sure you don’t do anything that's going to make you cringe as a parent or that’s going to alienate the younger viewers."''

* In the days before the release of ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUsPartII'', Jason Schreier of Kotaku [[https://kotaku.com/as-naughty-dog-crunches-on-the-last-of-us-ii-developer-1842289962 wrote an article]] that touched on the darker side of this trope. Developer Naughty Dog had a habit of perfectionism and only hiring the best, most driven people to make their games as good as could be, which meant they'd be willing to put up with twelve-hour-plus workdays and coming in sick to work on the game. They were never asked to work overtime week after week until they were hospitalized because they'd do it anyway. Some employees found it impossible to do it for the art in the extreme crunch, to the point that most game animators refuse to work with Naughty Dog at all.