[mrhyperpenguin]

Yeah, as a technical guy I would tend to go with the full 3D route. It might be 10x the upfront work but having a fully automated pipeline might save you a lot of work down the line. For example just changing the color of a character could be as few as two clicks in the full 3D solution, but you might have to manually go through each sprite sheet with the other route.

And technically you could export the sprite sheet with however many frames you want (and be able to lower and increase the number easily) while still getting the exact same results as the Sprite Lamp solution. And of course artists could go in and manually make any changes they want.

It's interesting hearing the perspective of the artists. Thanks.

[egypturnash]

If you're hand-crafting sprites there's a good chance you're using a palletized paint program, which makes changing a character a matter of two or three clicks.

Also there are major stylistic advantages to drawing it by hand. Check out the baked-in motion blur on Sonic's feet in this sprite rip of Sonic 1: http://www.spriters-resource.com/genesis_32x_scd/sonicth1/sh... a while back there was a 2.5d Sonic game, and its motion had a lot less impact because no attempt was made to replicate the motion blur.

Plus of course if you're just drawing it you don't have to worry whether or not it actually makes sense - a lot of the more stylized cartoon characters are VERY hard to build spot-on 3d models of, because they're full of weird abstractions that only make sense in the 2d plane.

And finally, some people just don't like modeling stuff in 3d.

(I'm an artist and ex-animator.)