Is 3D Animation an Offspring of 2D Animation?

Many people have the idea that 3D animation stemmed as a progression from 2D animation. While not entirely untrue, this is definitely not the whole truth as well.
If we have to make some form of link, then I would say that 3D animation has more of its roots in stop motion animation than in traditional hand drawn 2d animation.

The stop motion film techniques were used very well in the 1963 film Jason and the Argonauts by Ray Harryhausen, although they have actually been around since the very early days of film in the late 19th century. But it was Ray Harryhausen who really brought the technique to life.

You might want to know also that the original King Kong movie produced in 1933, also used stop motion techniques extensively.

Comparing 3D animation and stop motion, we can actually see where the similarities are.
For stop motion, it involves taking a model and filming one frame at a time. Slight changes are made to the model and then filmed again. This is to simulate movement. By building up frame after frame and playing it back at between 12 and 70 frames per second, the model looks like it is moving.

This is a very painstaking process and by no means a walk in the park!
3D animation uses a similar method but it is created using computers. Everything is controlled within the computer and the output is automated by the computer after you key in the instructions. It is decidedly less tedious physically compared to stop motion animation, but the fundamentals are similiar in nature.

Even the lighting, texturing and camera aspects of both animation methods share the same fundamentals, with the exception that one happens in reality, and the other in the computer.
I would think that for a stop motion artist to transit over to 3D animation and vice versa, it would be a lot easier and faster, as opposed to a 2D artist. And having said that, I would end this section by saying again that 3D animation smells more like an offspring of stop motion animation than 2D animation.