How are 2d cartoons made in maya
 

please excuse my noob question but ive been reading around alot about animes and cartoons in general and most of them say they use maya to compose the hole thing but since maya is a 3d application how do that actually use it for 2d excuse my noob question

Do you have an example of what a particular cartoon or anime show that states this? Not doubting just curious, I'm not really into the whole anime thing.

How they make a cartoon in Maya is not too special.

They model and animate the characters and the scene in Maya and then render it (often with thier own custom renderer) so it takes on a 2D or cartoon style.

Some cartoons only have the background done in Maya while some only have the characters (rarer), and then mix it with drawn content to get the final result.

As for dockode's question, I know that some bits of Futurama is done in 3D, but I have no idea wether it is done in Maya.

Oh yeah, I remember that. The credits mention 3D work for futurama. You can tell too. Most frequently the space scenes and the lab.