/agdg/ - Amateur Game Development General

>>23161

Ultimate, in this area, efficiency comes down to ability.

If you're good enough at 2D to hand draw animation, get it right the first time, and do it quickly... then just sitting down and doing 2D would be a good choice.

However, if your 2D drawing ability is not good... you could even be semi-good at it but you either spend too long to finish one frame, or you can't into animation, then it wouldn't hurt to create a 3D model as a baseline template that you can trace.

Then again, if your 3D is no good too, well you will have to decide if you ever want to get good at that. The learning curve for 3D is a lot more predictable than for 2D. With 3D you can methodically create anatomically correct characters, correct bad models+animation, and use the same skills towards creating environments and whatnot. With 2D, you need a lot of practice, a lot of criticism, and some manner of taste or standards to git gud. You may study anatomy and meticulously go over every detail and how fast you get better will still be an unknown.

2D tends to ignore correctness anyways in favor of emphasized deformations etc... so it's up to you.

>>23185

I think some of your points are correct, but I also believe some of them are dead wrong.

A lot of generalizing really, and tbh if you think 3D doesn't also need a lot of practice, criticism and a manner of taste or standards, you may want to look at how many 3D artists started out doing 2D first.

Additionally, I can't even name a single 3D modeller/animator who isn't already good at 2D.

It's the study of anatomy, shapes, movement, negative space, weight, and all around just things that bring a static object to life.

I think 2D and 3D are far more similar than you're detailing.

I also believe that one doesn't "decide" if the want to get good at that. They work damn hard for a long period of time, not believing that they're good until someone else points it out to them.

>>23203

Hi -- Well, I don't believe anything I've said was wrong. I think you've applied extra meaning to it and then argued for those assumptions. I don't mean to offend anybody who dedicates themselves to their craft, but AGDG is proof that anyone can half-ass stuff and get by just fine <-- and I am one of those people.

I am obviously not saying there's a switch in your head that you flip to get magical abilities. If you decide you want to get 3D skills, you can gain the abilities.

My main thrust was that ultimately the learning curve for getting to a point of having practically usable 3D ability towards use in games is much more predictable and less time consuming than learning 2D. Knowing 2D helps, but there is no absolute that says its a requirement. 150 former classmates are proof of this <- I can't name most of them either -- but they could realistically sit down and make Myst, or Katamari, or FF7 style super deformed characters.

You can cheat with 3D+animation. You don't even have to use your own reference images and you can easily correct your characters by keenly modifying your creations and learning stuff faster. You only have to make your character once. With 2D+animation, it's less forgiving, and you need a lot of practice.

Cheating is a real thing and to all the people who half-ass stuff, I say do it.

>It's the study of anatomy, shapes, movement, negative space, weight, and all around just things that bring a static object to life.

You can cheat with all of these things, and you can cheat easier in 3D without having picked up a book on it. You can have practical ability in 2D and 3D and not spend anything more than a quick glance at references as opposed to doing deep study and visualizing it from your mind. It would be better and it wouldn't hurt, but some people just want to be good enough. In the process of doing it, you might actually get good. Cut+Paste coders know what I'm talking about.

I stand by my point in that the learning curve for 3D is more predictable than for 2D. You can practice 2D all day and never feel confident about your ability to portray foreshortening, but this isn't even an issue of concern for 3D.

Even then these points may be moot depending on how good you want to get at these things or even the level of detail you are putting in on the 2D side. How stylized you go. A stick man is less time consuming in 2D. Some 2D artists will never paint photorealistic. Some 3D modellers may never sculpt or use detail maps. Some devs want to have N64 graphics.