Special Effects - Animation Vs Make Up

3D animation is used in many films today, saving so much time and money for the costume department. Obviously this is a newer trend as 3D technology has improved and more software is available to combine 3D graphics and live action, but does this mean it should be used at every chance? What are the benefits of using animation instead of traditional make up options?

I feel like sometimes using CG for character transformation or make up can just really make the character stand out, but not in a good way; often they don't fit into the background, or don't feel realistic enough. They also don't always seem to have a lot of different expressions - obviously the characters behave certain ways and they are in situations where they may lean more towards certain expressions, but I feel like a lot of CG transformations/characters just make them stuck in the same angry expression that, to me, just makes them feel like some generic run of the mill character.

I feel like in Buffy, with the make up and prosthetics they use, the characters feel much more realistic - they look like others, even if they are a little more deformed, and the makeup lets them still move their face as they would normally. Obviously the way that the brows are on the vampire characters make them look angrier, but the expressions that the actor does themselves changes this and does actually make the characters look different to each other.

However, that does not always mean that it is better;

Of course, the quality of the costume/make up could be blamed on the time period that Buffy was made in, but almost every instance of werewolves in film and TV today are now made, or at least made to transform to their wolf self in CG - even as early as 2004, Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban used CG to make much better looking werewolves, and shows like Being Human, Teen Wolf and Grimm among others use it now.

There are instances where make up looks better - especially for more relateable species and characters that use more human expressions but where beasts are involved, CG seems to be the way forwards.