Well, the only time I have rendered something as a 2D cartoon piece, I did a hybrid, with the main characters in semi-shaded, shadowed mode, and the environment in flat-shaded, un-shadowed mode. That would have been possible in a 2D program, but would have taken longer. I do use a lot of 2D programs when story boarding. Also, sometimes it is easier to use existing objects in 3D, than to create them from scratch.

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