Did anyone else find a lot of Omniverse’s character and alien designs goofy?
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I quite enjoy watching Omniverse and I will not deny that there is a lot of effort put into the art, and I love how the artstyle allows for great character expression and smooth animation. I still think that the classic artstyle is the best artstyle in every way and suits the series more, but Omniverse is good as well.
However, what stood out to me was the alien redesigns. A lot of them just looked so goofy and hard to take seriously. With OS and even in Alien Force/Ultimate Alien, they were designed with a sense of “realism” and were so much more believable as actual alien beings despite being such diverse and crazy concepts on paper (aside from exceptions like Fasttrack and Rath). Omniverse stylised their aliens too much, giving many aliens a huge chin and/or buff bodies. It works for some I guess, but most of them look silly. Its good how they are now less humanoid which was a problem with some UAF designs, but the proportions are sometimes exaggerated. For instance, how does Four Arms even manage to support his large body mass on legs which look like sticks? Why is Alien X’s chin bigger than the rest of his head? And the clothing isn’t as well
implemented as the OS clothing, usually with a green belt with an Omnitrix slapped onto the alien.Shocksquatch is a good example of what I’m taking about here:
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/ben10/images/8/85/HU_(996c).png/revision/latest?cb=20190412113935This is what he looked like in his debut in the Heroes United Crossover.
This is what he looked like in Omniverse. Can’t help but feel that they overdid the electric theme here to the point of even giving him a lightning shaped crest on his head, and he looks more like a buff guy in a fur suit here. The Heroes United one looks far more believable as an actual alien being which resembles a yeti.
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@KineceleranGirl Well, where do I start? Stinkfly is for some reason fat, same goes for Big Chill, and Four Arms upper body looks to big for his small feet. And Shocksquatch doesnt even look like himself. Eatle looks too weird. But some designs I do like, like Clockwork, Humungousaur and Swampfire. And Heatblast doesnt really change at all during the show. But I have to say: Most of the Omniverse designs are too goofy for their own good, and we have the that stupid DJW to thank for that.
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Cartoon Network labeled Shocksquatch as a brand new alien for Omniverse. Back when they were advertising for the then-new Ben 10 show. Yes I do watch a lot of the Ben 10 promos recorded off tv that gets posted on youtube.
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@Mortie-10 Some of the redesigns were fine because they didn’t overstylise the aliens. Aliens like NRG and Clockwork are made more detailed in Omniverse which is nice, and Omniverse Ripjaws is infinitely better than the UAF catfish Ripjaws imo.
The Big Chill design turns him from an elegant yet creepy moth-like alien into a body builder who skipped leg day. Wildmutt has a massive chin for some reason and a dog collar of all things. Of all the new aliens in Omniverse, only Feedback and Gravattack looked convincing for me.
I respect DJWs artistic ability and his style of drawing is good by all means (it works very well in the 2003 Teen Titans), but I just don’t think that his alien designs work for Ben 10. Nobody beats Tom Perkins and the other original series artists in that regard, and honestly I would’ve liked to see some of Perkins’ non canon alien designs which imo look far better than many of the canon alien designs which we got.
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@KineceleranGirl Yup. I can agree that the designs look too goofy. I do think the art style is good. It just doesn't fit well into Ben 10, and the alien designs are a good example that proves that. Omniverse also tends to have an issue with being too goofy and comedic in general. Many moments that should've been handled pretty seriously are often played off in a comedic manner, which pretty much ruins them.
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I like Omniverse’s artstyle in general and the background art in particular is superb although I prefer the Classic’s artstyle. But yeah the aliens can sometimes look ridiculous and not in a good way. As a young kid I remember seeing Big Chill for the first time in Omniverse and being horrified at what they’d done to his appearance, especially since that he was aesthetically the best looking alien from UAF imo and then they turned him into a bodybuilder. The stylisation works on some designs admittedly well though.
@KineceleranGirl I love all of Perkins’ aliens as well but a few of them are probably too freaky even for Ben 10.
