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(The pirate is not modeled by me, but the animation and rig are done by me)
I've put a lot of thought and practice into using 3D graphics in RPG Maker MV, which has some specific format requirements and a particular spritey look and feel, that I can mimic with 3D compositing:
(I felt the need to prove that these were in fact 3D for the RPG Maker community. )
These two walk cycles really exemplify the power of 3D animation over 2D to me. The size, the number of frames would make this a massive undertaking to do with spriting. With fairly minor changes, I can turn one character into two, and with a simple camera move, I have another walk angle done, whereas I would have had to almost start from scratch to do that in 2D. And with the right approach, 3D can still capture the same spritey look and expressiveness that 2D sprites have.
The following ships and maps are not modeled by me, but assembled by me from purchased pieces, and formatted for 2D games.