REBELS vs CLONES: Which Has Better Animation?

The clones.

 

I'm hopeful for the future of Rebels, particularly in the field of animation, but I'm in the "Clones" camp right now.

Part of it I believe has to do with the texture style they're using. In TCW, everything was pretty gritty, with textures being composed seemingly of brushstrokes at times, which on rare occasions went to the detriment of appearance in my personal view, but overall was wonderfully efficient at creating a sense of detail.

Rebels in general seems to be less pronounced in terms of texture detail. I mean, I can look and see the level of detail they put into many of the textures (which can be quite a bit actually) but when viewing the show in general all detail seems to wash out into a simple, single-colored texture, or at least it feels like that. The shadows and lighting also seem to be done a bit softer in Rebels, as opposed to the contrast (and thus seeming realism) one could get from TCW.


Now, I'm fairly certain that some of the possibilities you mentioned for a perceived decline in quality are probably indeed true, but I think they also went a slightly different route in order to mark a departure from one series to the other. The blandness in particular would be to denote the period of the Empire and the lack of indulgence or luxury, the sterility of things like stormtroopers and gray panels. Hence the wild craziness of color and shape with the rebellious Sabine.

Sometimes those changes seem to work, other times they don't seem to work quite as well. I'm bored of Lothal for instance, but at least it and its fields are done quite beautifully, if a bit different in style than it would've been for TCW.

 

Clone wars. I just thought the animation was more serious and dark for the most part! Rebels, and I'm not bashing the show by any means, seems way colorfully gauged towards younglings! Which isn't a bad thing, cause it helps us break in the new generation of Star Wars fans!!

 

When does rebels go to coruscant? Why not include a poll? I'd vote for clone wars. Rebels looks cheap and terribly designed. Good thing it has a great story.

 

Indeed, a poll would be helpful. @Trevor I forgot if you guys have to do that or the author can add it later.

 

Interesting, I had never noticed that. And you are correct, I just took a screencap from the Disney XD viewer from when he's getting harassed:



And Maketh for comparison:




That's actually pretty funny... they just did a color-swap essentially. To me that points to rushed production and cutting corners more than it does budgeting issues, I think. This is an old trick they did back in the days with the Mortal Kombat ninjas... even Mario and Luigi I think originally.

Makes me hopeful for the future then, as perhaps Disney will give them more time to do their thing after a successful first season. Oh and, on a somewhat humerous note, I found a version of that first image entitled "Faketh Tua".

 

No worries, I'll watch the series again at some point. I had a similar feeling with Mustafar. They tease it in the penultimate episode, and reference it in the final episode, but then its just a background object to prevent them from having to create a new world.

 

I like Rebels but I really miss TCW animation. I also miss the longer story arcs. The animation style makes males way too long in the torso and too blocky.

 

Well, biased too much, yes, but CW is superior in everything. Rebels aren't total failure, it is watchable but compared to the Clone Wars,
it could've been a lot more. That is the strongest weapon and advantage of animated shows vs live acting - you can do anything. Clone Wars showed a pretty much expanded universe of the Star Wars and it was entertaining adventure. Rebels is to me like a re-hash of New Hope, but on only one planet (OK, there were like three and asteroid actually ).

 

Rebels could be so much better than it is... and this is coming from someone who really likes Rebels.

I haven't watched much of TCW, but from what I have, I surmise this...

TCW has far, and I mean FAR superior quality of animation. I understand Rebels is a different style, but even for what it's trying to be, it does at times feel cheap.

Rebels is way more tonally consistent. It's cheesy, but in a controlled way. The storytelling is much more airtight. I feel the writing has improved from TCW, and given that we've only seen season 1, and there are some great people in command, it should only get better.

That said, I just don't understand how this is a promising evolution of Star Wars television from a creative standpoint. It feels like a regression. Bias aside, given the fact that I enjoy the post-Revenge of the Sith era to the Clone War Era, I still think TCW, in it's later seasons, was simply a better show.

 

Clone Wars did have way better animation and better story. Also, they have never shown Coruscant.

 

the Disney animation are too cute and rounded. The clone wars were square and had edge. The laser swords are too thin. The mickey mouse style animation just doesn't fit with the theme of the series. If done correctly there should be much death, the clone wars had an incredibly dark theme and if done properly rebels should have a dark theme as well.

 

As a massive Clone Wars fan, this isn't even a contest. BUT, if you look carefully, until they updated the animation for when Darth Maul returned, the animation, notably the feet on ground, somewhat plastic-like colors, is noticeable. Really, it's just because it was newer animation that came and the show is older, but Rebels does benefit having simpler animation by having more fluid motion. That's the best part of Rebels animation so far -fluidity, it's just as great and if not a little better than the last episodes of TCW

 

What are you talking about? Coruscant hasn't appeared once in Rebels so far.

 

Although I am literally going to start watching Rebels tonight (I just realised that disney XD was available on roku) - and have only been watching the CWs for about a month now (binge watching though) - based on stills of Rebels, I feel it looks too "cartoon-y" whereas the CWs has a more 3D-ish CG look about it. I've been hearing much excitement and overall love for Rebels in the SW podcasts I listen to, so I'm finally jumping on the bandwagon to see what the fuss is all about. It's going to have to be pretty awesome to beat the CWs in my mind, but then again many people seem to love Rebels. So time will tell with me. I do wish Rebels had a more serious look like the CWs does. (but if the stories are great, it's not a big deal, but more of an annoyance)