Is 3D Animation Easier Than 2D Animation

There are actually different styles of animation in both 2d and 3d. Which will make each one of them easy or hard depending on your preferences, your artistic background, in addition to the resources you have whether it be time or money that you can spend on equipment and training.

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[dannymorales]

As a 3D Animator, both are easy to use but very hard to Master. Anyone can animate something, but very few can implement the 12 principles of animation.

[IGarrettI]

In recent years we've seen 2D having a comeback. It even started bleeding into 3D animations; animations like spider verse, Luca, that Sony family movie. I think it's great !

[alchemy]

I don't think there is easy or hard. 2D requires a huge amount of commitment and artistic integrity - starting from character design, understanding shapes, perspective and shading/materials. These are things that in many cases, happen sort of "automatically" in 3D. Perspective is set, and it is relatively easy to give your scene a mood through colors and materials. Also 3D is very intuitive, allowing you to make later changes without much effort that could be impossible in traditional 2D.
On the other hand though, 3D requires much more than an artistic talent and knowledge of your tools and anatomy. Lot of cases, physics and programming plays a huge part in building a 3D scene (light physics, simulations, complex character movements, etc). Things that are everyday work for a talented 2D artist, like a campfire, rainstorm, long hair, etc, can be a real nightmare even for groups of experienced 3D animators. Also, 3D requires very complex softwares, and with lot of features comes lots of glitches.
I usually don't like when people compare the two. It's very different, and both require different types of knowledge and talent. I think 3D mostly gets its bad reputation from studios that try to make movies in 3D, but only have software knowledge and no artistic integrity whatsoever. Resulting in plastic-looking, soulless works.

[jollyelmroot]

Trying both worlds each has to heir own advantages

[kiratsandhu]

From my experience 3d is more technically difficult while 2d is more time consuming

[vorrch]

I've done both 2D and 3D animation and let me tell everyone that neither of them are easy, each one has their pros and cons. The importance for both of them is that the characters need to move properly and have the correct weight and silhouettes and the attention to the small details is what pushes both of them from being a good animation into an amazing animation. I would recommend to try to do 1 year of 2d animation and another of 3d animation and see at the end which one you prefer the most. If you draw a lot it might be the 2D animation but you never know.

[realjayjobes]

Good 2D is hard and requires expertise.
Good 3D is hard and requires expertise.
Anyone saying 3D is "easy" probably isn't doing AAA work. Drawing poorly is easy too.
I think 3D2D and 2D3D is going to become more and more prevalent.

[dtstar]

Comparing 2D art to 3D art is like comparing a pear to an apple, in my eyes
Both clearly have their own advantages and disadvantages and it's ultimately up to the artist which one they prefer

[veerbhadramahant]

3d and 2d have their own benefits. Each of them have their hard and easy points. Some things are easy to do in 2D but not that easy in 3d, and vice-versa.

[JamesTDG]

To be honest, the best thing is to do both, like with Disney's 2000s films such as Atlantis and Treasure Planet. They are amazing projects and I wish Disney didn't shut down their 2d animation department

[Namivi]

I'd say, it's easier to animate movements in 3D like walking etc since youre literally dragging for example an arm and BAM, theres your animation but making effects like Luca turning into a human and the other way around is easier in 2D because you can just draw it without having to tell the program what to do because this can really get complicated :D So everthing has its pro and cons

[UnknownDino]

2D takes more work. It's harder to fix errors, no auto interpolation, you need higher drawing skills.
3D is so easy/flexible/practical that it is often used to fake 2D shots.
I personally work in 3D and I love it for the freedom it gives, but 2D animation was super helpful last time I tried it.

[Gio-mihd]

both. both is hard... I mean, it's not about the process, but the deadline is always haunting you in your sleep.

[SimFiftyFifty]

I've tried both. I personnally think that for somebody starting from scratch, 2D animation can be quicker if you plan doing very short animations (partly because you don't have to model anything first), on the other hand, 3D is a huge save of time if you are creating a long video: in 2D, every single frame added will extend the duration of work, it is not the case in 3d, for example adding a new camera angle to an already modelled and animated 3d scene can take just a few minutes.

[noahlani]

I love how everyone is just agreeing that both are difficult and deserve respect.

[caseyt]

This video taught me that Klaus was a 2d animation
I literally had no idea that it was that clean up or whatever they did on digital was really good oml

[BizlaC]

They both require a different skill. For 2D artists they need to he able to imagine a 3D object, and how it would be lit.
3D artists have to do the opposite, take a 3D object and imagine how it's going to look in 2D. As a professional 3D artist, I would say 2D is more hard, because that's what I can't do. But I imagine a 2D artist might say the opposite as 2D comes naturally to them.

[Ldbuix]

Both is hard! but after you complete a 3d animation, you can build endless animations sequences ( Hotel Transylvania 1, 2, 3..10 )
But in 2d ( traditional ) you have to create everything ! again and again. So for me 3d is easier to build / edit / add more sequences etc.

[nobitanobi]

I find 2D traditional animation much harder. In 2D you better know how to draw a whole character in many different kinds of poses on top of the usual animation essentials that you need to about it...perspective, anatomy etc. In every....single....frame. 3D does not have that, the character is done and you move the less to think about.

The exception to this would be the puppet based animations. Still need to know some extra techniques but it's not so bad. So the order I would give it(from most to least difficult).

1) Traditional 2D Animation
2) 3D animation
3) 2D Puppet Based Animation.

But overall animation is time consuming and hard, and I wish Animators would get more respect then what they are getting now.

[milhouse]

From personal experience, 2d animation is way harder. It requires lots of fundaments and good drawing techniques even in the most simple scenarios. Animate characters frame by frame, paint backgrounds, clean up etc etc sounds like nightmare to a short deadline, in 3d once you optimize you models and scene environments, you can play with camera movements, lighting and stuff, I already made 5-6 min of decent cg/3d animation, but couldn't do 1 minute of good results in Adobe flash / TV paint in years. (I've tried)