Star Wars

So hyped for Ventress, very cool reveal

3D animation is definitely a lot easier/cheaper than 2D, and probably a lot cheaper than live action. Making a good looking 3D character is harder than drawing a frame in a cartoon, but once you have it, animation is much easier, since you don't have to make a new model for each frame. I assume it's also easier to make effects for 3D than live action, since they're stylized and don't have to look lifelike, which is the goal of most CGI in live action media

Mandalorian was about $15 million per episode in season 1.

Clone Wars was about $1 million per episode.

Certainly cheaper to make cartoons than live action, but not exactly shoestring.

It’s difficult for me to find a good price analog to a 2D cartoon made recently that has a similar amount of action, and doesn’t have the budget weirdly skewed by licensing.

I would guess that to make a traditional animation as detailed, full of motion even in backgrounds, and full of constant action scenes it would probably be more expensive and time consuming compared to 3D.

You meant if the 3D GCI where only the voice and movements of the people are used is cheaper than the 3D CGI where the people's appearance is used too?

I have no idea, but the difference can't be very big.