Game openings, Animation vs CGI

[EXBadguy]

Here are the openings that have either/or.

Animation - Final Bout, UB22, Budokai 2& 3, Ultimate Tenkaichi,Battle of Z, and Xenoverse

CGI- Infinite World, Budokai Tenkaichi series, Raging Blast duology.

Which one do you prefer, animation or CGI?

Myself, it's a really hard choice, but I'll go with CGI, with Raging Blast 2 having the best looking opening. Loved it for being realistic. I love the animation openings too, with Ultimate Tenkaichi in first place, Budokai 3 in second, FB in third. Xenoverse's on the other hand has one of the worst animated openings, due to the horribly done animation. I HOPE they make a CGI opening for XV2, because from what I'm seeing with Toei's current animation, it has its struggles.

[Anime Kitten]

I like the 2D animation better, but the CGI ones seem generally less generic (even though both are just Heroes VS Villains faceoff all the time).

The Xenoverse one wasn't bad animation wise, though.

[Nejishiki]

Comparing the openings of the video games by memory, I prefer the animated works by a 20% margin. (I decided to mathematically decide this, as well. Take it for what you will.) A common trend of the CGI openings is that they either don't take full advantage of being in a 3D environment or they are animated rather lifelessly. They become better with time and gain significant expression, even if it looks a bit clunky at times. Sparking! Meteor and Infinite World are the cream of the crop in these examples. I'll give a shout-out to The Greatest Dragon Ball Legend for letting Porunga be the primary dragon instead of Shen Long!

The ones that stick out for the traditional animations are Ultimate Battle 22 and Sagas. They look rather dead in vision and mirror the series' characters and actions in a robotic manner, giving it a phony feeling. That's not fitting for something with loads of energy like Dragon Ball, so thankfully I don't take issue with the rest of them too much. They tend to consistently be filled with personality and short, quirky interactions that give us a peak of what the characters are like and what we should expect. Another bonus my memory seems to pick at is that they're expressive with colors as the CGI openings tend to stick with limited palettes.

[MCDaveG]

Fina Bout, Budokai 2 and 3 openings were awesome. Then it went to hell.
Xenoverse's opening looks really bad, more so with the clash with in-game graphics afterwards.

I am for CGI, I really liked Infinite World, Revenge of King Piccolo and Raging Blast 2.

[nato25]

Animation but has to be good. Poster above do you even remember the xenoverse opening. It was 100% terrible. The most basic of one on one battles with poor coloring, animation and drawings.

[supersaiyan DbZ fan]

Xenoverse Seemed really lazy with just a still image at most times
Come to think of it, Naruto Storm 4 tells the story with still images
But at least it was on sale.

I wish they could just leave Cha la Head Cha la for once and bring something fresh, not necessarily an existing song.

I prefer Animated, the CGI characters look really wonky, example:
Goku and Vegeta's "rape" face at 1:35

[KentalSSJ6]

I have to go with hand drawn, even if it isnt what it used to be. Xenoverse and Battle of Z may be lacking compared to the hand drawn intros of earlier titles but the good ones we got more than make up for it. The intro to Ultimate Battle 22/27 is perhaps the single greatest looking and consistent looking piece of animation the franchise has ever had and is easily Yamamuro's Magnum Opus.

Pair that with the hand drawn intros of Budokai 2 and 3, GT Final Bout and Ultimate Tenkaichi and I feel they heavily outweigh the intros to games like Budokai Tenkaichi 1-3. From my memory Raging Blast 2 was the CG intro of any noteworthy quality.

[Lord Beerus]

While I'm much more suited to 2D animation, as that's how certain aesthetics of Dragon Ball are able stand out more, if the trailer for Dragon Ball Z: The Real 4-D is any indication, Dragon Ball with good CGI could work just as well as 2D animation. I was never really fond of the CGI in Tenkaichi 1 and Raging Blast 2.

[Bansho64]

I'm a bigger fan of 2D animation. The opening for Ultimate Blast is my favorite piece of animation from modern Dragon Ball. The angles, the effects, the shading, everything. I do have a soft spot for the 3D animation though. Budokai 1 has a special place in my heart when it comes to that.

[z_cherub]

Greatly prefer the 2d animated openings. Final Bout was fantastic. The animation seems to be movie quality for these & they're just really fun to watch.

[SingleFringe&Sparks]

I prefer the 2D animation when done well. When the art is good and the characters are doing coordinated things in a consistent flow, I like those ones; hence why Budokai 2 and Final Bout are my favourites. While most of the 2D openings now where the characters are just doing random nonsensical skirmishes, I loathe. (Ultimate Tenkaichi) but when the animation is terrible, I ignore it completely (Xenoverse 1). As for CG openings, while they're usually choreographed better, the animation for them most of the time often looks very shitty. Though RB2 is probably has the one where I'd get mad that it looks better than the in-game graphics themselves and presumably costed more to make.