2D vs. 3D Animation: A Short Debate on the Individuality

Regarding Mario, 2D and 3D animations significantly differ based on the angle and dimensions. To be precise, 2D animations are limited to the width and height of the art, whereas 3D animation involves length, width, and height (3-dimensional).

2D versus 3D animation: Is this a war between the two?

Actually, no. 2D and 3D animation stand in their individuality and serve different purposes, whether it is in gaming, filming, or other industry. 

2D Animations 

To define first, 2D animations are developed in two-dimensional space, which confines the limitations of length and breadth. 2D animations are flat and usually formed in sequential images at the speed of 24fps. It entails that a sequence of 24 pictures in 1 second can be adjusted to make 2D animations and motion graphics.

3D Animations 

3D animations are developed in three-dimensional space and are not confined to any dimensional limits. Such animations are created in the XYZ plane or axis, i.e., length, breadth, and width. 

The Expansion of 3D with the Evolvement of Technologies 

Gone are the days when 3D was a three-dimensional and standalone thing in this open world. When people hear the word ‘3D,’ they think of video games, movies, and films. Interestingly, 3D has evolved with the speed of light while setting benchmarks in the gaming industry with its three main aspects of passivity, interactivity, and immersion. 

The question is how? 

3D has made its way to virtual and augmented reality, which has proven to be a game changer in the industry. Augmented and virtual reality are the new evangelists for 3D animations and graphics that people look forward to. The audience wants to see the new horizon, and we are indeed moving toward it using AR/VR and the metaverse. 

Let’s take a look at them.

Passive 3D Animation 

Such 3D animations are purely visual and are deprived of the interactive or immersive factor, which gives them the name of passive 3D animation. Furthermore, passive 3D animations are best for serving the fundamental purposes of businesses and game development as they are widely used in both markets. It is further supported by a report shared by Statista that unveils the global market value of 3D animation i.e., 18 US Billion dollars which is expected to surpass 27 billion dollars by 2026.

Interactive 3D Animation: Augmented Reality in 3D 

The horizon of 3D animations is expanding with augmented reality and making animations out of it. Who would have thought of making reality a part of the animation? Right? 

With the advancement of technology, we have come across the inclusion of animations or objects in the real-time background. Businesses, whether for marketing or game development purposes, leverage interactive 3D animation to create engaging content for the audience and players, respectively.

It is undoubtedly a progressive step towards bringing innovation and advancements to 3D animation - no wonder the hype and popularity of 3D animations are ravishing.

Immersive 3D Animation: Virtual Reality in 3D

You must have heard of virtual reality - the new buzz!

Virtual reality and 3D animation work in tandem to create a realistic and immersive experience of the gaming world that lets players delve into the virtual world using VR headsets and devices. From 3D arcade games and adventure games to RPGs and MMOG, virtual reality gives us a comprehensive platform to expand our gaming experience and take it to the next level. 

Did you know that Virtual reality can even stimulate our olfactory sensations? Yes, it’s true. A Company in Vermont primarily produces scent technology for virtual reality by which users or players can smell virtual objects. 

Pros and Cons of 2D Animation 

2D animation undoubtedly comes with a lot of benefits and a few downsides that depend upon your business needs and target audience. Let’s have a look at its cons and pros briefly. 

Pros of 2D animation

The scope of 2D animation is not limited to the gaming industry, but it also spreads its wings to the gaming industry. Hence, we will look at the pros from the practice of both sectors to have a bigger picture.
 

Cost Effectiveness 

With technological advancement, 2D has progressed and come a long way, as their sketches needn’t be drawn frame by frame. Instead, with the 2D software and tools, it has become easier to complete them in a short time with more uncomplicated steps.

Moreover, speaking of the cost, 2D animations are much more affordable and budget-friendly because they have fewer complexities and functionalities. From the SMBs' side, 2D animation has been a feasible option for their marketing and other business agendas.

The role of 2D animations in the gaming industry is remarkable and unstoppable. As a matter of fact, 2D games that are also casual and hyper-casual games are more in demand than other game categories. 2D animations for games cost range from $15k to $30k, in contrast to 3D animations, which definitely cost an arm and a leg.

Story Focused 

2D animations are more focused on storytelling to create a compelling story with easy characters and environments to engage the users. Even though 2D animations have top-notch quality, the focus is not on producing a wow and immersive experience but rather an interactive one.

Cons of 2D Animation 

Despite the potential of 2D animation, there are some points at which they need to catch up. Let’s discuss this below.
 

Repetitive 

For 2D animations, the designers or artists have to create a number of frames to develop a complete 2D animation which can be very distressing and monotonous. Since the body features and movements are involved in creating frames, the designer has to be very precise in the development process to develop timely and accurate animations for each fraction of a second. 

Pros and Cons of 3D Animation 

3D animation has revolutionized the gaming industry which bags it with a lot of benefits. However, there are some cons to it. Let’s have a look at both of them.

Pros of 3D Animation 

There is a misconception that 3D animation is a better version of 2D animation which is not the case. 3D animation is different from 2D which has just upgraded the animation industry. Let’s have a look at the benefits and downsides of it.

Realistic and Detailed Animations 

3D images and animations are created in three-dimensional planes so that shapes can be viewed from all different angles. The main purpose of the 3D images is to show the aspect of realism with intricate details that can engage the players.

Dynamic Animations

The 3D animations bring life to the gaming graphics by developing  the intricate details so seamlessly. The juxtaposition of 2D and 3D animations describe that 3D animations simulate realistic motion and moments. Looking at the game assets, clothing, and background effects - 3D animations prove to be the most believable technology in simulating clothing graphics, real-time architectures, environments, SFX, and VFX.

Gateway to Immersion and Interaction 

In recent times, the gaming industry has been raving about immersive games that indulge the players fully to the environment and setting. With the help of 3D animations, players are able to immerse themselves in the virtual world without interference of the real-time objects. However, if we speak of augmented reality, we can see that there is the perfect amalgamation of the real world and virtual worlds.

Cons of 3D Animation

Despite the potential of 3D animation, there are some points at which they hit a snag. Let’s discuss this below. 

Time-Consuming 

Since 3D animations require detailing and a number of processes such as texturing, lighting, baking, rigging along with many others. To create a render of a 3D character, environment, or event animation it can take days, weeks, and even months depending upon the complexities and functionality of the animation of 3D render. However, 3D animations are worth the wait for the fact that it almost looks lifelike. 

Process of 2D Animation

To create engaging and compelling 2D animations, here is a complete process of almost five steps: 

Concept Development

Conceptualization is one of the essential steps of 2D animation. In this process, the concept artists know the details of the idea to understand the complete look and development of 2D Animation starts. It is further developed into casual art. 

Storyboarding

From concept art, we start to make a series of sketches to develop the story. This stage requires the art development of props, objects, and environment so that animation has its completed assets. 

Animation

This process entails creating animations for the game, whether a character, prop, or environment. For 2D animations, there will be 24 frames per second to complete the movements of animation and make them look interactive.

SFX and VFX 

Sound and visual effects play a vital role in simulating real-life imagery and scenery in animation. SFX and VFX make the story engaging and help players have an interactive experience as if they see it in real life. 

Final Touch-ups and Delivery

This is almost the last stage of 2D animation development, in which the QA team tests the animation to verify that animation works properly. After it is glitch-free and performs smoothly, all the deliverables are sent to the clients.

Process of 3D Animation 

The process of 3D animation is technical and involves a number of methods before we start to make a full-fledged animation. It starts with concept art, casual art, meshes, modeling, sculpting, etc.

The core purpose of 3D animations is to create realistic visuals, characters, and graphics that can be viewed from different angles and an architectural point of view. Let’s take a look at the process of 3D animation to understand it better.
 

Modeling 

To create models, artists must first develop simple objects or primitives, which are then transferred into 3D meshes using specific softwares. Once the objects are made, and meshes are created, the 3D model is prepped for the lighting and baking to give proper texturing along with colors to the three-dimensional objects.
 

Layout and animation 

Once 3D models are ready, they are deployed into the next stage of 3D animation development, i.e., movements and frame adjustment. There are different keyframes that can be used to create animations of 3D objects, such as frame-by-frame events of objects of motion capture.

Rigging and Rendering 

These two processes are important in creating realistic and humanoid objects for 3D animations. Rigging entails adding bone structures to the characters to develop real facial and body features, whereas Rendering involves textures, reflections, and light baking to create the proper outlook.

Popular 2D Animated Games  

A report published by Statista in 2023 unveils the most popular casual games/2D games depending upon the revenue generated from them. 

Guess who won it? 

Candy Crush Saga!

The other popular casual 2D games are coin master, royal match, homescapes, gardenscapes with many others. Take a look at the report below to know about the revenue generated by them. 

Source: Statista  

 

Popular Animated 3D Games 

Remember the time when we had simple games with low-quality visuals? 

3D animations and 3D technology have allowed us to experience top-notch graphics with lifelike visuals, environments, and characters. This is one of the reasons that 3D animations and 3D animated games have become popular, and players are much invested in them.

The most popular 3D animated games of all the time are as follows: 

• Asphalt 9: Legends.
• Black Desert Mobile.
• Call of Duty: Mobile.
• FIFA Soccer.
• Genshin Impact.
• GRID Autosport.
• Lumino City.
• Minecraft.

 

3D Animation Tools: Paid and Free Resources 

The most popular 3D animation tools are as follows: 

Blender: Its application is broad as it is used for creating various types of animations, games, movies, etc. 

Autodesk Maya - It is best for 3D animations, 3D modeling, and game assets development. Its auto-rigging tool makes it stand out. 
 

Cinema 4D - Considered one of the best tools for beginners who want to start their 3D journey. Cinema 4D has some amazing features for modeling and animation. 

ZBrush - a digital sculpting tool that produces top-quality 3D models for game animations and game assets development. 

Cascadeur: It is specifically built for game developers with an active community. It is best for movie and game developers. 

Houdini - It has been an amazing platform for game development and VFX in games, as it is known for its artist-friendly tools and flexibility.

Daz Studio: It is a free media source that is quite helpful for creating sceneries and rendering for images or videos.

 

2D Animation Tools: Paid and Free Resources

 

Spine 2D - The 2D animation tool has impressive features to create bone structures, meshes, and more by creating a streamlined workflow.
 

Adobe Animate - create any animation style, such as cartoonish, stylized, or 3D, with this computer animation program, widely used for game animations and game development.

Toon Boom - A software best for creating 2D frame-by-frame animation, digital drawing, and enhanced storyboarding in game development.

Moho - create reusable 2D rigs with vector-based animation tools to level up your game animations by creating rigged characters and game assets.

Pencil 2D - an open-source animation tool that offers cross-platform operability to create 2D sketches and drawings.

2.5D Animation

As the name suggests, 2.5D animation is a 2D and 3D animation blend. The curiosity factor here is sparked by “.5” which entails that 2D objects are combined in 3D space to develop interactive yet realistic graphics or animations.
 

Such animations are known synonymously with pseudo-3D and hybrid animations as they create the 3D effect, which is not purely a 3D effect.

Application of 2.5D Animations

The scope of 2,5D animations is quite broad as they are rapidly being used in business, marketing, and gaming verticals. The new concept of 2.5D animation gives the median who are still deciding if they should choose 2D or 3D animation.
 

Bottom Line

2D and 3D animations have their individuality, and their role in different industries are undoubtedly essential. With the advancement of technology and the power of creativity, we have been able to create hybrid animations.

Hire InvoGames to Make 2D and 3D Animations for Your Next Game Development Project 

Looking to take your games to the next level with our 2D and 3D Animations? Let’s make it possible with InvoGames.

We offer full-scale 2D and 3D animations for game development to help you develop 2D/3D character animations, environment animations, and props animation using the latest tools and technologies.