Now that you are familiar with the basic principles of animation, we can start using them! Next you have to ask yourself: What style of animation do I want to use? The answer usually boils down to two options, 3D animation or 2D animation. To make your decision easier, keep into consideration your style preferences, goals you are trying to accomplish, audience, and client requirements. If that is still not enough to help you decide, here are a few differences to help you choose between the two.
PROCESS
Animating in 3D requires a 3D model that is rigged, meaning it will have controls and virtual structure. The animator would then pose the character using those controls and key it on a frame. After keying multiple frames, animators then go into a graph editor to cleanup and smooth out their animations. 2D animation requires traditional drawing abilities. Animators draw characters pose to pose through successive pages of paper.
FRAME RATE
Both styles of animation work with 24 frames per second, but 2D animation can double up on their frames or "work on 2's." This means there would only be twelve drawings per 24 frames. In 3D animation, doubling a frame would create something that would look stiff. Even when your characters are still in 3D, you want them to move within a pose.
APPEARANCE OF DEPTH
As each style is stated, one is two dimensional while the other is three dimensional. This means that 2D animation is limited to two planes of axis the X-axis and Y-Axis. The added depth in 3D animation comes from working additionally in the Z-axis.
TRUTH TO MATERIALS
3D animation requires objects to act like the materials they are suppose to be. Venturing away from this aesthetic makes for awkward motion in the animation. On the other hand, 2D animators are able to take more liberties when animating different types of materials.