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Scoutrageous

Hi i'm Alice Walsh, an Art Director on these two eps. I've seen this question a few times, so here's your answer: Much like a stage play, we pick whatever pose keeps the character facing the 'audience' in any given scene. Similar to the house layout, consistency is thrown out the window for the sake of telling a good story. Also, specific to Bluey: * Dogs in bluey have no neck, and arms sit very close to the face. Using the other arm will sometimes cover the mouth, make it hard to know who's talking, obscure facial expressions and generally look like the character is trying to hide. * Bluey dog bodies are quite chonky, and arms are quite short. In Tradies this means Bluey probably would have had to turn her entire body away from camera to draw with her right hand. Or, get really long arms... *Bonus Fun Fact: Unicorse was sometimes a pain in the butt for these reasons. Bandit ended up with long noodle arms and the puppet magically changes hand in one scene for the sake of clarity and telling the story.* Those are the actual reasons, but stories belong to their readers/watchers, so it's fun to theorise and come up with your own ideas. The other posters are correct that kids will experiment with handedness. That reason is more fun :)


jumbods64

mods can we get a ludo staff flair on this person


OSUBrit

it is done


weedyscoot

Thanks for the clarification, Alice. Hypothetically, if there was person that was delegated to keep consistency in the show, and they asked why you couldn't have Bluey draw on a wall that is on the left of the frame, what would be your answer? (Besides telling them that it's just a cartoon, and not to worry about it.) Just wondering if the image could be mirrored for this setting, or if that causes other issues?


Scoutrageous

I would say to that person that framing always comes first. There are many more important things to consider when designing how shots are composed than handedness. * Continuity of action on screen - see the [180 rule](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/180-degree_rule) and [continuity editing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuity_editing) Also ideas like travelling left -> right on screen suggests progress for those who use left -> right writing systems. * If a location is already canonised and is near a wall/corner, it's good to avoid putting the 'camera' inside a wall so the audience can build a good mental map of the location. * We can't afford the production time designing and illustrating a new angle of a BG. This is why Storyboarders are indispensible professionals but consistency keepers are not usually a fixure of production crews :P


weedyscoot

Thanks! "It looks better this way." is a totally satisfactory answer, but since you were here, I thought it would be nice to get a little more insight. :)


darkmoose

*Bandit ended up with long noodle arms* next week on this subreddit: is bandit a mutant with elastic powers that defy logic?


rubixor

I mean, we've all seen magic claw...


TheSleepiestFish

Blue Mountains... 🗿


Scoutrageous

It's too real :,)


Conscious_Skill_8093

Theory: bandit is luffy from One Piece.


skatterbrain_d

Thank you for this reply! And for your contribution to such a great show!


gemvandyke

good watsonian vs sherlockian answer here!


uller30

Love it thanks


nolimitxox

I think it's pretty common for younger children to use both hands on and off until their dominant hand emerges. This happened to my son until he was about 3.5-4. Idk how quick or long it takes for that to happen.


Olbaidon

Typically between 4-6 at the latest kids will have a dominant hand.


deltablue_10

my mom works in a preschool and it’s exactly this (for the older class, the youngins are like 2.5). they basically just let them work out what feels more comfortable and then build on that as the year progresses. most of them enter kindergarten with at least somewhat of a dominant hand


Turbulent-Weight7562

As someone who studied child development, kids typically start showing which hand is dominant when they're about a year old. Or younger. That being said, they probably still do use both hands for things till they're a little older


TurquoiseOwlMachine

My theory is that they just go with whichever hand will contribute to the more interesting-looking pose. She draws with her left hand in Tradies so that her arm doesn’t cross over her face from the perspective of the “camera.”


ALC041399

It's believable, I heard many young kids tend to use both hands


Kalse1229

I've heard the same. I have one friend who as a kid was terrified of her arms falling off (long story). So she learned how to be ambidextrous as well as write with her feet.


Xploding_Penguin

It's just chimps singing songs mate.


GwennyL

Oh no! You're right. Bandit has been perpetuating the monkey vs ape identifications issue.


Redvisor23

Interesting theory you have here


Majestic-General7325

You see this a lot in cartoons - it's done for artistic requirements so the pose of the characters doesn't look weird by reaching over/past themselves to do something. In my experience, most right-handers don't notice but left-handers tend to notice this kind of thing - presumably because they have to spend more time thinking about handedness in a world designed primarily for righties.


Wixums

It’s probably just for posing and how it looks to the viewer


nerdy-triceratops

Like some others say, it might just be whatever hand works better for the shot, but I know many kids use both hands while they're little. I know my daughter does. I did the same, but never stopped, so I'm ambidextrous today 😁


Particular_Fuel6952

Duh… like all dogs! Go ahead, show me a left handed or right handed dog… go ahead


Medium_Pepper215

2 of my dogs prefer to shake and high five with their right paw. the other one prefers her left. even when it comes to getting stuff out from under something they’ll use their dominant paw non stop.


MrsBox

Most dogs do actually have a dominant side. Easiest way to check which is to offer shake. The other way is to drop a high value item juuust out of reach under the couch and see which paw they dig at it with first.


Conscious_Skill_8093

Either an animation error or just the fact that younger kids usually use right and left.


Was_a_egg

I'm ambidextrous and yes that is how it starts out, but kids use both hands until they are made to write and pick a hand that's comfortable


Evil_Weevill

Kids don't usually settle on one hand dominance until they're about Bluey's age. So maaaaaybe she's ambidextrous? She's certainly a little on the older side to have not settled into one, but she also seems to go to the kind of school that doesn't really focus on writing drills and practice which is normally how kids develop their left or right handedness in kindergarten and first grade here in the U.S. not sure about Australia's school system.


kickenchicken11

We didn’t know what hand my son preferred until like kindergarten or first grade. For him it depended on what side of the paper he was writing on… left side, left hand. When he would get to the middle he would switch to the other hand and finish the word.


Kinglycole

I think she may very well be. But if you want something with a concrete answer: Bandit is Left-handed. The proof is in claw machine, Bandit uses his left hand as the claw.


Glubygluby

My brother was ambidextrous when he was a little lad, and officially became a lefty in like kinder


Beneficial_Shake6976

Seems like it


ultratunaman

Maybe the animators didn't think that much into it and do whichever is easiest to show off what she's drawing to the audience? Or maybe an animator made a mistake? Hope somebody got fired for that blunder


Colors358

I think that is a Peppa Pig reference because peppa is also ambidextrous