Whats your favorite type of animation technique

[Cartoonyanimator]

Do you like 2D or CGI? What do you think is the best animation technique? Which one takes longer?

[Lina-chan]

I stick with 2D animation, but I like CGI as well.

[DNethery]

Hand-drawn animation is my favorite. (personally I don't think "2D" is an adequate term for it , see here)

After that I like Stop-Motion, then CG . (although it might be useful to define what kind of CG are we talking about ? CG can cover everything from Pixar movies like Ratatouille to Flash animation like Homestar Runner or intentionally flat CGI like South Park, which is made with Maya , but is self-consciously "2D" ... I'm assuming by the term "CG" you mean the kind of mainstream animated movies done by Pixar/Disney/Dreamworks/Blue Sky, etc. )

I like them all when done well ; I don't dislike CG animation at all , it's fine , I simply prefer hand-drawn. Many of the principles of animation overlap from Hand-Drawn to CG , but CG animation technique is really more akin to digital puppetry , not the same as drawing animation. Two different things (with some things in common) , one is not inherently "better" than the other , but both have their strengths and weaknesses. (ditto for comparing Hand-Drawn and Stop-Motion ... and of course Stop-Motion is truly 3-D animation, since it involves animating real dimensional objects )

One reason I'd reject the term "2D" in favor of Hand-Drawn is because you can do CG animation that is completely "2D" , where you are moving around an articulated cut-out "puppet" in Flash or Anime Studio , and it's certainly "2D" , but it's not drawn. It's completely CG . So calling something "2D" doesn't mean that it is traditional hand-drawn animation. Similarly , much hand-drawn animation (in the Disney tradition) is intentionally drawn with the illusion of "3D" space. It's not conceived of as flat or 2-dimensional. Look at a Bill Tytla drawing of say , Stromboli , and tell me that it's "2D" . It's not.

[C. Siemens]

[QUOTE=DNethery;30130]Hand-drawn animation is my favorite. (personally I don't think "2D" is an adequate term for it , see here)

After that I like Stop-Motion, then CG . (although it might be useful to define what kind of CG are we talking about ? CG can cover everything from Pixar movies like Ratatouille to Flash animation like Homestar Runner or intentionally flat CGI like South Park, which is made with Maya , but is self-consciously "2D" ... I'm assuming by the term "CG" you mean the kind of mainstream animated movies done by Pixar/Disney/Dreamworks/Blue Sky, etc. )

That's exactly my order, too.
I make a distinction between CG (=3D) and 'digital animation', though, under which I group digitally drawn and/or symbol-based animation done on computers. Flash, ToonBoom, TV Paint and the likes - which I realise is silly from a logical standpoint because I don't think there's any form of animation left that doesn't get digital at some point. However, as I see it even hand-drawn animation is partly computer-generated once it gets scanned and pained using some software. Perhaps the popular terms really are becoming a bit mushy ...
(Incidentally, I started working on a show today which uses all the animated media to portray its characters.)

The reason why I like stop-motion second best is because I don't have a strong desire to try it myself. This may sound nonsensical but because of that I can admire it without having to try and figure out in my head if and how I could replicate it whenever I see it. Hand-drawn movies and all sorts of digital animation I can't really watch without trying to pick it apart from a professional standpoint - how did they do that, what's their structuring process and what kinds of tools did they employ to achieve the result? - those kinds of questions. I know how stop-motion works, of course, but I'm all audience where it is concerned.

[Solium]

I prefer hand drawn animation (2D), stop-motion, then 3D (CGI) Don't care for the Flash stuff or other 2D projects done solely on the computer.

As a matter of fact CGI looks like stop-motion to me. It is still very plastic looking and lack the suspension of disbelief you can get in a 2D film.