The 2D vs 3D character question

As you all may have known, I've been having this debate with myself for more than a year, if I am not mistaken.

 

Both style have an almost equal  number if advantages and disadvantages so I'm going to list some of them below.

I may have mentioned them before so sorry if I'm repeating myself.

2D Character

Advantages:

- I am not constricted

I can make the character anyway I want, I am only limited by my skill

 

-  Character are more expressive

Due to the simplistic nature of the 2D style character expressions stand out more

 

- Easier to make fanfiction and specific characters (except for comrade Putin, that guy is impossible to draw, and no I don't like any of cartoon representation I saw on the net)

 

-  It does not rely on hardware/software

Yes, I use a drawing software, but it does not consume a lot of PC resources, and if I change the PC I'm just one install away from going back in business.

 

 

Disadvantages:

-  Lacks detail compared with 3D

Yes, the character lack in detail compared to the 3D, mostly because of the simple style

 

- Takes a lot of time to make

Oh yes.... it takes a lot of time and it depends a lot on the number of panels and characters in the page

And this is, in a way, the reason I moved to 3D

 

- Everybody hates the nipples design 😆

I don't know, I like them this way. I did try to add more detail but it just looks ugly because the character are very simple in their overall design.

3D Characters

Advantages:

- A lot more character detail

The human characters are a lot more detailed  than their 2D versions (especially in the clothing department)

 

- Fast to make

Oh yes it is fast, mostly because I only need to spend the time in designing the character model and then it's just posing the character for each panel.

 

- Easy to fix and open for character pose and camera angle experimentation

If I notice any mistake, such as pose, camera angle or want to rotate the character 180, and even test out multiple angles and poses to see if I find something better than my first idea

- Detailed nipples.... yay... I guess...

Disadvantages

- Poses are very constricted and I need to be a lot more careful with what I want the characters to do especially if the character interact with each other

*side note: Kissing on the mouth is the most difficult pose to make and holding hands

- Limited character facial expression (depends a lot on the model)

Facial expression are very stiff... and sometimes it gets very annoying, Vlad's model has the least amount of expressions, but since his character is always grumpy it is not noticed.

- Limited character design

Unlike 2D I am very limited to the content that I have witch is mostly human characters

- Fanfiction and historical characters are hard to make

I was able the create only a few characters, but some are impossible for me to create they way I want them, the only, somewhat successful fanfiction characters are: Sibella but her hair is super annoying, Alice but not her "personalities" such as the Hatter, Cheshire Cat, White Rabbit, and Door Mouse (that I had to replace with the March Hare because it was impossible to make a decent looking anthropomorphic mouse.)

AND THE MOST IMPORTANT DISADVANTAGE AND THE ONE THAT SCARES ME THE MOST

- the 3D characters rely on powerful hardware, a very large database of models, clothing and props; and the software that puts together each character

This is a danger that affects all my comics, I have lost models before and had to start from scratch. And even back-ups are not entirely safe.

And not to mention that I am limited to the power of my PC, take the new Railroad as example, the scenes are so complex that the software runs out of memory and crashes.

So... whit all that said.

I think I will suck it up, move past this "uhhh... I don't feel like drawing" bullshit and make the great Library back to it's awesome 2D character design. Hope I can still draw after all this time *

No, I am not going to change for previous pages from 3D to 2D.

And no... I will not add more detail to the nipples, F-y-T will have all the detailed nipples you want.

F-y-T will remain in 3D...

Despise of what some people think of 3D characters in webcomics, the success of F-y-T proved to me it can be done with 3D characters.

Going back to the subject...

The transition to 2D will be... soon... maybe even this week. I got really pumped up on drawing.

Death will remain a "spider girl" since in the original she would have changed as well but at a much later point in time.

So in conclusion:

- the library will go back to its original 2D character mixed with 3D background design

- F-y-T will remain full 3D hardcore porn comic 

- The Railroad... I need to change my graphics card or try something to reduce the RAM consumption

Cheers everybody, and thanks again for reading.

Update:

So I've been doing some drawing tests and something is wrong about my drawings now.

I don't think I have drawing fatigue after all... I think... I like the 3D style more than the 2D one now.

I think I'll postpone the transition to 2D only if my 3D database fails.

 

The problems mentioned  above are still valid.