As in man-hours per project? Of course, unless someone is extremely indecisive and/or willing to spend a lot of time on exploration. Usually, you'll also need more people doing 3D than people doing concepts and while there will often be some overlap, the concept artists will start and finish first.
And just in case you mean which is more future-proof: Who knows? As it stands, AI can be used as a tool to speed up ideation and concepting or even replace a concept artist, although with increasingly questionable/inconsistent/half-baked results for each step. But how much it will actually catch on remains to be seen and the same could be true for 3D tomorrow. At the very least, it's very likely that less people will be needed to do the same amount of work in the future. Which could result in more / more detailed assets being created or smaller teams.
It doesn't matter if it doesn't really understand anything as long as the output looks somewhat convincing, and the decision making or oversight can still be handled by humans. At worst you'll only have some sort of concept artists/AD hybrid picking and choosing and making minor adjustments. It's also not like we are doing heart surgery. Don't get me wrong, I don't think this is a good development (or even idea), either, and how prevalent or accepted it will actually be remains to be seen, but obviously AI can do a lot of work with little effort/cost and will replace some people in the long run. But that discussion probably belongs in the already existing thread.
When I say longer lasting, I meant which of the two do people tend to hold longer before having to look for another job? I've noticed that for concept guys they tend to only work for a few months whereas 3D guys tend to work longer on average, sometimes years, but well that might just be due to the small sample of people whose work history I skimmed through so my perspective on it is limited. Sooooo thats why I'm coming here to ask, from people who've actually been part of a production with concept guys and 3D.
it's quite dependent on the company and the project, but I would say 3D lasts longer than 2D, for job duration. But it really depends, because if the project is big, you'll want to retain the concept artists to keep the game's art direction consistent over the years. On the other hand, if the project is small and you really only need a few characters and maybe some environment concepts to establish an art direction, that'll probably just be a short-term contract, or per-project. Additionally, 3D artists can double as concept artists; I personally make my own designs, unless my work tells me to use concepts.
Another clue that 3D lasts longer than 2D is because 3 is a larger number than 2
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And just in case you mean which is more future-proof: Who knows? As it stands, AI can be used as a tool to speed up ideation and concepting or even replace a concept artist, although with increasingly questionable/inconsistent/half-baked results for each step. But how much it will actually catch on remains to be seen and the same could be true for 3D tomorrow. At the very least, it's very likely that less people will be needed to do the same amount of work in the future. Which could result in more / more detailed assets being created or smaller teams.
Don't get me wrong, I don't think this is a good development (or even idea), either, and how prevalent or accepted it will actually be remains to be seen, but obviously AI can do a lot of work with little effort/cost and will replace some people in the long run.
But that discussion probably belongs in the already existing thread.
Another clue that 3D lasts longer than 2D is because 3 is a larger number than 2