Also, the season 5 one looks more detailed to me than the season 2 one because of how it’s shaded. Generally the animators have improved their shading skills since back then anyway.

Looks like the season 2 version was meant for a different time of the year, one of the trees has flowers, though I imagine that was a mistake, as it’s supposed to have apples and those are not apple blossoms, and several of the plants in the back are shaded for fall, not to mention the other trees are barren.

… I just want to point out that, while it may deserve the “OP is a duck” tag, I doubt ‘point out animation error’ would deserve the tag.
 
So with that, I thank everyone so far for not resorting to adding the tag.

@Background Pony #F5FD  
Yeah, you have a lot of catching up to do.

@FreeBacon  
WHAT?  

@FreeBacon  

 
WHAT?!

@Background Pony #57EF  
i didn’t see the cottage, you must be trolling because i don’t remember it and you’re triggering me

I don’t even notice this.

Upon watching the episode again, there is a ladder inside the clubhouse, shown multiple times. So although this is probably just a mistake/oversight (the artwork in the rest of the episode, including the dream stuff and the boarded up clubhouse was much more detailed and shaded) you could argue that they replaced the stairs with a ladder (although that would be much more difficult for ponies to use). And i think you can see the upper level in this episode when AB is looking out her window at the clubhouse, but it’s blocked by the window thing so you can only see the spire part. I’d need to go back and watch previous episodes to see if the upper level is there without the external stairs in wide shots…
 
But I probably wont… it’s far too much effort just to determine the canonicity of the CMC clubhouse’s stairs.

Everypony in Equestria had a thing about stairs ever since they heard about Sombra. XD
 
(Yes, I see the main set of stairs. X3 )

@Background Pony #57EF  
The cottage shot wasn’t really drawn differently. It just used more dynamic shading and whatnot than the older stuff.

@hype  
You must have hated the beautifully drawn Fluttershy’s cottage from the previous episode then. And all the excellent camera movements, lighting, and depth of field effects they’ve been using more recently. Or you’re just trolling, I can’t tell.

@Background Pony #57EF  
it’s not better, i want my cartoons to look cartoony
 
the animators are clearly making a good call on making the show look like best season

@Background Pony #F5FD
 
It’s been out since april 4th. We’re already on episode 4 by now.

WAIT! SEASON 5 IS OUT?! WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME?!

@Background Pony #57EF  
I think the second level with the telescope has always been there in long establishing shots of the CMC treehouse. They just added stairs in Family Appreciation Day because they actually had to animate the CMC going up them to get to it. Also, though it’s certainly a matter of opinion, I think the richly shaded leaves kind of clash with the simple stick-trees it’s surrounded by.

@Background Pony #57EF  
It’s more detailed. Sometimes that’s better, sometimes it’s not.
 
Hell, part of the charm of the entire series is that Flash animation lends it a certain simplicity.

@hype  
You’re saying you think the flat, flash-gradient colored tree from s1/s5 looks better than the more richly detailed and multilayered shades tree from season 2? not to mention the second level of the treehouse being gone. I know art is subjective but In this case is say the s2 art is pretty objectively better.

>they used the worse looking season 1 art for the CMC Clubhouse, instead of the nice look S2 artwork with the second level added on
 
wrong
 
opinions

@Background Pony #AF70  
Thus giving us another reason to hate DT and SS.

Well, Babs, DT, and SS did take over the clubhouse in season 3. They probably wrecked parts of the clubhouse and the CMC just didn’t have time to fix it.

@FancyCat2008  
The main tree and clubhouse are the exact same asset with different coloring, I overlayed them in photoshop. The additional stairs and upper level (cut off in this shot) are only there in the Season 2 screenshot. I’ll post a comparison gif later, unless someone else makes one.

Old art is fine. I’d rather have more episodes than the art redone.

@Background Pony #7BDB  
@Vitruvius
 
Could someone layer them on top of each other? Because I seriously think it’s the exact same art asset, just with different shading. Technically, all three pictures are different. The S5 shot has much richer colors than the S1 one.

@Vitruvius  
The episodes are Season 1: Ep 18 The show stoppers; Season 2: Ep 11 Family Appreciation Day; Season 5: Ep 4 Bloom and Gloom

@IpersonallylikeCupcakes  
That reason doesn’t make sense. Once the flash asset has been created, they can just plop it in the scene in future episodes, they don’t need to redraw it each time. The artwork has already been done. My guess is whoever did this scene just used the wrong/old assets on accident or didn’t even realize there’s a newer/better version (or maybe they named the new one incorrectly so the animator searching for “clubhouse” didn’t find the new background). But still it’s a bummer. I was hoping for an even better looking clubhouse than S2 after seeing Flutters’ home last episode.