History Main / OffModel

* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Relics", [[spoiler:Scotty requests the holodeck recreate the bridge of the Enterprise, "no bloody A, B, C or D." When the holodeck door open, several fans stated that the production company didn't reproduce the bridge exactly as on the old show. Turns out they actually used a static picture of an empty bridge (from "This Side of Paradise") for the initial shot. [[FridgeBrilliance Maybe the holodeck archives are working off incomplete data?]]]]
** Also in "Yesterday's Enterprise", [[spoiler:after the timeline is fixed, Geordi sits down with Guinan while still wearing the uniform from the alternate universe.]]
** Similarly, in the Enterprise series finale "These Are The Voyages..." The premise is a plot point set in a TNG story arc, with Frakes and Sirtis reprising their roles as Riker and Troi. The problem is Troi's long lost her accent, and had her hair dyed red, and Riker has gotten more rotund, which is silly, and we're left to assume they changed so much for one plot point and then went back to normal in regular TNG.

** At the end of episode 5, Wolffy is seen without his nose as he's bitten by a piranha.

* ''Animation/PleasantGoatAndBigBigWolf'': At the end of episode 5, Wolffy is seen without his nose as he's bitten by a piranha.

See also UncannyValley, the result when it gets ''too'' far out of hand, and SpecialEffectFailure, which is a similar trope, but for live action ''and'' animation. Contrast AnimationBump, wherein the animation suddenly becomes much ''better'' than usual and BodyHorror where an appearance similar to being off model is done intentionally and for horror. For animation studios who are notorious for this, see Creator/{{AKOM}}, Creator/ToeiAnimation, Creator/{{GONZO}}, Creator/StudioShaft, Creator/{{Sunrise}}, Creator/StudioDEEN, Creator/{{Actas}}, Creator/WangFilmProductions, Creator/{{Diomedea}}, and Creator/{{Saerom}}. For a studio whose supporters and critics often argue about whether their animation is this, see Creator/KennedyCartoons.

* [[OffModel/AnimatedFilms Film — Animated]]
* [[OffModel/LiveActionFilms Film — Live-Action]]

* ''Fanfic/PrincessTrixieSparkle'' features various artists, leading to inconsistencies between scenes. The most blatant occurs in episode 10: one scene depicts Celestia as pink-maned but with a blue SkunkStripe in her mane, but the following scene depicts her with her current rainbow mane.

*** The TARDIS exterior has ''always'' been an issue – there has never been an accurate replica of the [=McKenzie-Trench-designed=] Mark II Metropolitan Police Box used for a TARDIS prop in the entire six decade history of the show. The 2007 episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E10Blink Blink]]" lampshades this, with a character pointing out that the "windows are the wrong size". The most accurate TARDIS prop ever used was actually in the non-canon [[Film/DrWhoAndTheDaleks Peter Cushing Dalek movies]].

*** In the flashback minisode "The Night of the Doctor" featuring the 8th Doctor, when we get a brief glimpse of the TARDIS in space, the model used is actually that of the then contemporary 11th Doctor's TARDIS (the most noticeable giveaway being the presence of the St John Ambulance seal).

** The TARDIS exterior also varied between model and prop and fluctuated from story to story. The "Police Telephone" plaque and the St. Johns Ambulance seal appeared, disappeared, and switched sides, and the plaque changed colors and even wording. The lamp on the top was missing in at least one episode. (Some of the interior and exterior variations are documented [[https://thedoctorwhosite.co.uk/tardis/ here]].) In the new series, the differences between the prop and the CG versions appearing in the titles are consistently embarrassing, with coloring, weathering and damage, and the shape and size of the lamp being visibly different between the titles and the "real" TARDIS often seen immediately before and after in the actual episode.

*** Also somewhat averted in that the TARDIS exterior is ''supposed'' to change shape, but is just stuck in the shape of a police box. The 2007 episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E10Blink Blink]]" outright states that the TARDIS is an inaccurate, caricatured police box – and the Doctors themselves acknowledge that it changes over time in the 2017 episode "[[Recap/DoctorWho2017CSTwiceUponATime Twice Upon A Time]]". Certain parts of the expanded universe have referred to this as "chameleon drift".
** In fact the TARDIS has ''always'' been an issue – there has never been an accurate replica of the [=McKenzie-Trench-designed=] Mark II Metropolitan Police Box used for a TARDIS prop in the entire six decade history of the show. Ironically the most accurate TARDIS prop ever used was in the non-canon [[Film/DrWhoAndTheDaleks Peter Cushing Dalek movies]]!

** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E4TheTimeOfAngels "The Time of Angels"]], watch carefully when Eleven catches River Song: the Russell T. Davies-era TARDIS makes a brief cameo!
** Another victim of OffTheShelfFX — the rather Doctory scarf worn by Osgood in [[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor "The Day of the Doctor"]] has a noticeably different colour scheme and stitch to any of the scarves the Fourth Doctor actually wore, making it a bit ambiguous as to where she got it from.
*** Mind you, it's unlikely that Osgood would actually have got the Doctor's scarf, so it's not surprising that it's different.

* One very flashback-filled episode of ''Series/{{Frasier}}'' ("Crock Tales") featured younger versions of the characters wearing some very unconvincing wigs. In particular Daphne and Roz seem to have hairstyles they didn't really have at any point during the show. Most inexplicable is David Hyde Pierce's wig, given that they gave him an absolutely convincing wig replicating his season one look in the season nine episode "[[Recap/FrasierS09E03TheReturnOfMartinCrane The Return of Martin Crane]]".

* One very flashback-filled episode of ''Series/{{Frasier}}'' ("Crock Tales") featured "young" Roz and Daphne wearing truly terrible wigs.

** In fact the TARDIS has ''always'' been an issue – there has never been an accurate replica of the {{McKenzie}}-{{Trench}}-{{designed}} Mark II Metropolitan Police Box used for a TARDIS prop in the entire six decade history of the show. Ironically the most accurate TARDIS prop ever used was in the non-canon [[Film/DrWhoAndTheDaleks Peter Cushing Dalek movies]]!

** In fact the TARDIS has ''always'' been an issue – there has never been an accurate replica of the {{McKenzie}}-Trench-designed Mark II Metropolitan Police Box used for a TARDIS prop in the entire six decade history of the show. Ironically the most accurate TARDIS prop ever used was in the non-canon [[Film/DrWhoAndTheDaleks Peter Cushing Dalek movies]]!

** In fact the TARDIS has ''always'' been an issue – there has never been an accurate replica of the McKenzie-Trench-designed Mark II Metropolitan Police Box used for a TARDIS prop in the entire six decade history of the show. Ironically the most accurate TARDIS prop ever used was in the non-canon [[Film/DrWhoAndTheDaleks Peter Cushing Dalek movies]]!

** The TARDIS console changed quite a bit over the years, sometimes from episode to episode. Especially a problem during the '80s years — there were times when someone put the panels on in the wrong order, which meant that ''nothing'' fit right; at other times, dings and dents were very obviously painted over. The console room itself went through this from time to time: in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS26E1Battlefield "Battlefield"]], the main wall was a painted backdrop (as the standard walls got irreparably damaged while in storage), and the set had to be dimly lit to try disguising it (with the in-universe excuse being a power outage).

** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E3ThePowerOfTheDaleks "The Power of the Daleks"]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E9TheEvilOfTheDaleks "The Evil of the Daleks"]], and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E4PlanetOfTheDaleks "Planet of the Daleks"]], Dalek armies are represented by [[OffTheShelfFX Louis Marx toy Daleks]]. The problem was that Marx's Daleks [[http://doctorwhotoys.net/marx_mysterious_dalek%20copy.jpg were a noticeably wrong shape]], with the tops tapering too much and the eyestalks looking undersized, which became more obvious when intercut with ''actual'' Dalek props.

** The TARDIS console changed quite a bit over the years, sometimes from episode to episode. Especially a problem during the '80s years — there were times when someone put the panels on in the wrong order, which meant that ''nothing'' fit right; at other times, dings and dents were very obviously painted over. The console room itself went through this from time to time: in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS26E1Battlefield "Battlefield"]], the main wall was a painted backdrop, and the set had to be carefully lit to disguise it.

** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E3ThePowerOfTheDaleks "The Power of the Daleks"]], the Dalek army is represented by [[OffTheShelfFX Louis Marx toy Daleks]]. The problem was that Marx's Daleks [[http://doctorwhotoys.net/marx_mysterious_dalek%20copy.jpg were a subtly wrong shape]], which became more obvious when intercut with the three ''real'' Daleks.
** The Second Doctor's outfit is supposed in-story to be the First Doctor's outfit, but baggy as it now no longer fit him properly. In reality, both men were about the same size, so the baggy outfit had to be made especially, resulting in significant differences bordering on CostumeExaggeration — a tuxedo jacket instead of a suit jacket, windowpane check on the trousers instead of tartan, no waistcoat, a bowtie instead of a ribbon tie, and gaudy braces rather than the rather understated ones of the First Doctor. Of course, the changes were more subtle to a casual, non-fandom audience watching every episode on a tiny valve television for the first and final time.

%% Image and caption selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1333303516058420100

[[quoteright:246:[[Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/off_model_mahou_sensei_negima.jpg]]]]
[-[[caption-width-right:246:Makie's finger-counting skills go [[Film/ThisIsSpinalTap up to eleven]] as she [[ExtraDigits magically grows an extra finger]].]]-]

Long running shows suffering from [[NoBudget budget issues]] or a troubled production schedule will start resorting to [[FilmingForEasyDub thinly veiled camera tricks]]. The movement and even design of characters will start to slip, especially if the show is bothering to animate heavy action scenes. When they ''are'' animated, fight scenes will become {{Fight Unscene}}s.

** Pure CGI goofs include the 3 year-old indricothere calf that still uses its newborn animation model, even though another, same-aged indricothere already looked like an adult; and though this could be intentional, the ''Allosaurus'' at the end of ''Series/WalkingWithMonsters'' is at first represented by the one model from the 2001 TV adaptation of ''Series/{{The Lost World|2001}}'', then suddenly becomes a true ''Walking with...''-brand ''Allosaurus''. Freeze-framing reveals that the animals tend to get heavily distorted during particularly fast movements.

** Karzahni's first ever official image in ''Bionicle: World'' colored him blue and green with glowing yellow eyes, while the text described him as black and gold, with empty black voids for eyes. The author later retroactively explained that he just rebuilt himself with a different armor and made the artist's mistake canon.

** When writing a scene in animation, Straczynski ''recommends'' some extra dialogue and AsYouKnow because of the limitations of the medium. You as an scriptwriter may write an emotional (non-verbal) scene for a character but as he puts it "she may look like she's having a gas attack."

** {{Unreliable Illustrator}}s and InconsistentColoring is the norm for ''Warriors''. Characters change designs between artwork, nevermind what their canonical designs look like. Dovewing is an example where she was eventually {{retcon}}ned to match her ''off model'' design: she has blue eyes in the books but green eyes in all her illustrations, so eventually they outright made her green eyed in the text as well.

* Referenced in an episode of ''Radio/JohnFinnemoresSouvenirProgramme'' in which recurring interviewer Patsy Straightwoman (Carrie Quinlan) interviews Stanley Meadows (John Finnemore), an artist who only paints "slightly off" Disney characters on the side of ice cream vans. Stanley explains that when the van drivers paint the characters themselves, the results are either wildly off or completely spot on, but it takes real talent to paint characters where the individual components look fine (as opposed to Pluto's nose obviously being too long), but the whole just looks... slightly off. He also deliberately selects a black paint that fades more quickly than the other colours, so that the "slightly off" Goofy is "staring out at you with blank, sightless eyes" after a couple of summers.

[[caption-width-right:246:Makie's finger-counting skills go [[Film/ThisIsSpinalTap up to eleven]] as she [[ExtraDigits magically grows an extra finger]].]]

!!Examples

The prevalence of computer-inked animation merely assures that ''colors'' stay consistent. Off model refers to the character model (on a model sheet), which is what the animators are ''supposed'' to base their drawings on. This is another important step is animation checking, which may be skimped on when time or money (or even both) is short.

Some artists willingly invoke [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools this trope]] and do not follow model sheets, such as [[Creator/JohnKricfalusi John Kricfalusi's]] ''[[WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow Ren and Stimpy]]''. Following models too closely can lead to rigid and lifeless animation, whereas playing fast and loose with the designs can allow for more expressive and fluid animation. This does not mean that such creators "draw badly"; they still follow the basic rules of animation, and work to avoid outright errors. Similarly, animation principals such as [[MotionBlur smear frames]] and squash and stretch could be thought of as temporary and more subtle variations on that technique, where models are briefly disregarded in order to make a particular shot look more lively and less stiff - these moments often look perfectly on-model when played at normal speed, but look bizarre if the viewer pauses on one of the deliberately distorted frames.

** A common problem in 1970s promotional photos, as they were taken of the dress rehearsal performance, where more simple makeup was used, rather than of the actual performance. Mostly this isn't noticeable, but does result in things like the join between Davros' mask and body being visible, or the Brigadier missing his moustache. Noah in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E2TheArkInSpace "The Ark in Space"]] has a strikingly different hairstyle (big and curly) that the actor had not yet had removed, there's several shots of the Doctor trotting around Mr. Sin's hideout from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E6TheTalonsOfWengChiang "The Talons of Weng-Chiang"]] in Tom Baker's everyday clothes but with the Doctor coat thrown on top, and there's even a few pics of Alpha Centauri from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS9E2TheCurseOfPeladon "The Curse of Peladon"]] missing its cape ([[UnfortunateCharacterDesign aagh]])... Philip Hinchcliffe complained about the practice, because, as the promo pics were things people could own, it made people remember the effects as being more shoddy than they actually were.

[[caption-width-right:246:Makie's finger-counting skills go UpToEleven as she [[ExtraDigits magically grows an extra finger]].]]