Possible to create vector art that isn’t flat?

I'd like to create rigged 2D characters via AE but also be able to print them on things later, like shirts or boxes. But whenever I see examples of rigged characters, they (/their individual elements) are made in Illustrator using flat vector shapes -- e.g, the style of Kurzgesagt YouTube videos. But is it possible to do this with a more traditional style of art? With detailed ink or watercolor brushes for example. I understand that vector art makes it infinitely scaleable, but is that strictly necessary? Or can you just make the original elements on a high enough DPI/PPI canvas originally to nullify the issue? I'm not looking to create blankets or anything. At most I'd want the characters to be able to appear on a T-shirt or something down the line. But the impression I'm getting is you'd have to essentially recreate them for either art or animation purposes in entirely new formats -- and the AE rigging process is prohibitive of non-vector formats. Am I understanding this correctly?

In the videos, the characters would be overlaid filmed content, like in "Space Jam" or "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," but still a much simpler and smaller scale. Think characters that walk across the desk of somebody giving a presentation or who are cut away to documentary style to illustrate what's being discussed. I'm hoping to use character rigging because these are supporting animations, not the core content, and they're doing simple things overall. Traditional animation via onion skinning/frame-by-frame drawing would be time consuming and disproportionately so given that these are not the main focus of the video.

TLDR: I'd like to create characters in the more traditional art styles and use their print image on physical products later. But I'd also like to be able to rig them for in-video use as well and it seems to me that AE character rigging requires flat vector art to function?