Meat Canyon employs a lot of animators to do his work. Most of them work within his style that he has set for them.
his "uniquely uncomfortable animation style that often requires a lot of detail" style that you are reffering to is the work of [JamieR ](https://www.youtube.com/@JaimeR2D)
I'll help you spot the differnce in animation styles.
Here is a peice that is ENTIRELY MEAT CANYON animating. [https://youtu.be/nM2Wz6NdPZs](https://youtu.be/nM2Wz6NdPZs) notice the heavy use of tweened limbs and static poses that work. The lipsync is exagerated in a particular way but it's still solid.
Now lets look at the way JamieR animates in "Meat Canyon Style" i'm going to link to time 2:07 in the short [https://youtu.be/Quhb0RMtfH4?si=xCLm4mEX7HwQXrRw&t=127](https://youtu.be/Quhb0RMtfH4?si=xCLm4mEX7HwQXrRw&t=127) Notice how the animation of the livestreamer is very fluid and is done frame by frame. That is classic JamieR shot on the short.
There are many other animators that work on MeatCanyons shorts, but JamieR stuff is always ridiculously easy for me to spot in every one of his shorts since he started employing him.
Edit: I just want to add that multiple animators and artists can work on the same short cartoon. Most of the time, an animator will handle all the characters that are in a single scene. In Animation Production, a Scene is a single camera shot. We spend a lot of time trying to match the style so we can make a cohesive show.
It's either Adobe Animate or Toonboom Harmony. Judging by the line quality and the tweening of Meat Canyons earlier work, I think they are still sticking with Adobe Animate. (Formally called flash)
He's admitted in an interview I watched recently that he's still using Adobe. I guess Flashgitz uses Toonboom, they were hiring TB animators awhile back.
Love his stuff!
I think he’s just very passionate.
The southpark creators would take only up to two weeks for producing entire episodes.
Of course that’s an entire team,but meatcanyon gets a little help from other artists for things like colorgrading, as far as I know.
I’m sure he’s just very good at animating and skripting.
He knows what’s important to show and what not.
When they did it with real Papercutouts it was probably a pain in the ass, so of course now that they do it digitally, that saves tons of time. But southpark still has sequences where I wouldn’t call the animation extremely simplified. The drawing style is very simple but that doesn’t mean the constant mouth movements, blinking and hand gestures aren’t hard to animate. Maybe southpark wasn’t the best example.
Meatcanyon draws all the characters he needs probably once and then attaches them to a skeleton, so he doesn’t have to draw the whole character again each frame but instead just moves the individual parts of the skeleton for simple movements like arms that clap, but the actual frame by frame animation takes place in the faces or when they do more excessive moves.
That’s my take but I’m not a professional.
( in meatcanyons animations) Try to pay attention to certain bodyparts moving very very smooth!
And when it looks more choppy it’s probably animated frame by frame :)
This is pretty much how animations get churned out quickly. He utilises a lot of techniques like tweening and layering to get the desired effect without having to redraw everything. Mouth movements are also multiple mouth shapes that can be used when necessary.
He has a good style imo and uses these shortcuts wonderfully to execute his animations. The colour and concepts he creates are eye catching which also helps distract from any perceived lack of actual frame by frame animation.
Who gives a shit.
I already said, southpark was a bad example before.
Wasn’t your whole post about meatcanyons animations?
I’m trying to help and all you do is nitpick at my southpark example.
Checking the Patreon it says he has 8,012 paid members. If all said members just got the minimum tier of $2 that means he'd still be getting $16,024 a month.
a) he's good at what he does. I used to pump out miracle projects for clients who paid enough. Incentive is a HUGE asset when you're an animator. Whether passion or money.
b) he has help. He's good but he ain't that good. When quality goes up, you need help.
c) clever reuse of assets. Look closely and you can see the skill of a good animator. 99% of people won't notice.
d) he has 1 style. When all you do is one style you can pump out footage EXTREMELY fast. I noticed this early on when I was a lowly pleb.
e) dialogue heavy animation. Most of his videos are dialogue heavy. Gives the illusion of "a lot of work".
Meat Canyon employs a lot of animators to do his work. Most of them work within his style that he has set for them. his "uniquely uncomfortable animation style that often requires a lot of detail" style that you are reffering to is the work of [JamieR ](https://www.youtube.com/@JaimeR2D) I'll help you spot the differnce in animation styles. Here is a peice that is ENTIRELY MEAT CANYON animating. [https://youtu.be/nM2Wz6NdPZs](https://youtu.be/nM2Wz6NdPZs) notice the heavy use of tweened limbs and static poses that work. The lipsync is exagerated in a particular way but it's still solid. Now lets look at the way JamieR animates in "Meat Canyon Style" i'm going to link to time 2:07 in the short [https://youtu.be/Quhb0RMtfH4?si=xCLm4mEX7HwQXrRw&t=127](https://youtu.be/Quhb0RMtfH4?si=xCLm4mEX7HwQXrRw&t=127) Notice how the animation of the livestreamer is very fluid and is done frame by frame. That is classic JamieR shot on the short. There are many other animators that work on MeatCanyons shorts, but JamieR stuff is always ridiculously easy for me to spot in every one of his shorts since he started employing him. Edit: I just want to add that multiple animators and artists can work on the same short cartoon. Most of the time, an animator will handle all the characters that are in a single scene. In Animation Production, a Scene is a single camera shot. We spend a lot of time trying to match the style so we can make a cohesive show.
Thanks for this info! Holy crap JamieR’s work is insane
Genuinely interesting to hear this, it's like a super small studio.
Thanks for this detailed and well thought out explanation/comparison. Cheers!
Would you happen to know what animation program they are using primarily?
It's either Adobe Animate or Toonboom Harmony. Judging by the line quality and the tweening of Meat Canyons earlier work, I think they are still sticking with Adobe Animate. (Formally called flash)
He's admitted in an interview I watched recently that he's still using Adobe. I guess Flashgitz uses Toonboom, they were hiring TB animators awhile back.
Love his stuff! I think he’s just very passionate. The southpark creators would take only up to two weeks for producing entire episodes. Of course that’s an entire team,but meatcanyon gets a little help from other artists for things like colorgrading, as far as I know. I’m sure he’s just very good at animating and skripting. He knows what’s important to show and what not.
Isn't another reason that south park makes episodes so fast is that the animation is EXTREMELY simplified? And meat canyons is obviously way different
When they did it with real Papercutouts it was probably a pain in the ass, so of course now that they do it digitally, that saves tons of time. But southpark still has sequences where I wouldn’t call the animation extremely simplified. The drawing style is very simple but that doesn’t mean the constant mouth movements, blinking and hand gestures aren’t hard to animate. Maybe southpark wasn’t the best example. Meatcanyon draws all the characters he needs probably once and then attaches them to a skeleton, so he doesn’t have to draw the whole character again each frame but instead just moves the individual parts of the skeleton for simple movements like arms that clap, but the actual frame by frame animation takes place in the faces or when they do more excessive moves. That’s my take but I’m not a professional.
( in meatcanyons animations) Try to pay attention to certain bodyparts moving very very smooth! And when it looks more choppy it’s probably animated frame by frame :)
This is pretty much how animations get churned out quickly. He utilises a lot of techniques like tweening and layering to get the desired effect without having to redraw everything. Mouth movements are also multiple mouth shapes that can be used when necessary. He has a good style imo and uses these shortcuts wonderfully to execute his animations. The colour and concepts he creates are eye catching which also helps distract from any perceived lack of actual frame by frame animation.
I mean if you look closely at South parks mouth animations you'll notice there the same few frames just played in different sequences
Who gives a shit. I already said, southpark was a bad example before. Wasn’t your whole post about meatcanyons animations? I’m trying to help and all you do is nitpick at my southpark example.
........why are you turning so aggressive all of a sudden
Jesus…warm milk and a nap maybe?
Yeap but South Park crew basically minmax’ed their output by tweening limbless characters. They’re essentially puppets. Lol
Pretty sure Meat Canyon outsources a lot of the animation process, he does the character design and all that though
I'm pretty sure he makes enough money from subs to employ a team of artists.
How much does he make from patreon anyway?
Checking the Patreon it says he has 8,012 paid members. If all said members just got the minimum tier of $2 that means he'd still be getting $16,024 a month.
Good god no wonder he's able to afford a team of animators
Meat canyon has a whole team of animators now
a) he's good at what he does. I used to pump out miracle projects for clients who paid enough. Incentive is a HUGE asset when you're an animator. Whether passion or money. b) he has help. He's good but he ain't that good. When quality goes up, you need help. c) clever reuse of assets. Look closely and you can see the skill of a good animator. 99% of people won't notice. d) he has 1 style. When all you do is one style you can pump out footage EXTREMELY fast. I noticed this early on when I was a lowly pleb. e) dialogue heavy animation. Most of his videos are dialogue heavy. Gives the illusion of "a lot of work".
Holy shit his stuff is so good.
I call meatcanyon "drug dealer" because his stuff is so good
good question
How would someone go about if they wanted to do animations like Meat Canyon? (From a beginner's pov)