D&D 5E (2024) Here's The Covers of BOTH of November's Forgotten Realms Books

We've known for some time that in November, WotC will be releasing not one but two Forgotten Realms books--one aimed at players, the other at Dungeon Masters. Thanks to Game Informer, we now have a look at the covers of Forgotten Realms: Heroes of Faerun and Forgotten Realms: Adventures in Faerun. The article showcases more art, and is well worth checking out--and for those who want more, the print magazine has a full feature previewing the books.

 

[wizard71]

The only reason I find that you think this looks like AI art is:
'Very bland background. Odd facial features'

Neither of these statements relate to the covers of the books in question or AI art, IMO.
Personally I look for too many fingers or weird blurring or clipping of images when trying to pick AI art.

That is your opinion. AI art often has the feature I mentioned. You can simply go to Chat GOT or other AI programs and create fantasy art. The characters will look very similar. Humans will have the same goofy expression over and over again. Either overly serious or overly comical. No subtlety, no range. The background for the FR DM guide incorporates very vague monster shapes in the background. It’s really bad. If drawn by an artist, why no details? Just a big purple stripe down the page?

 

[guachi]

There are plenty of old book covers with characters posing that no one complained about.
Personally, I think people just prefer the way oil paintings look.

View attachment 412735

I absolutely prefer the oil painting look. There's an extra hurdle to overcome with the current art.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I absolutely prefer the oil painting look. There's an extra hurdle to overcome with the current art.

Oil painting is something AI can imitate very easily.

I suspect acrylics were generally used (prior to photoshop) more than oils though. For example, as I mentioned the other day, you can see traces of the underlying drawing on the SCAG illustration, which would have been obscured by oils. Acrylic paint dries much faster than oils, and therefore was more practical for commercial illustration.

 

[Scars Unseen]

For me, the most distinguishing feature of the Forgotten Realms is everything is larger than life. Massive open spaces, towering citadels, enormous mountains, huge cities, frigid glaciers, over the top spell effects (mythals).

If I was designing a cover for a FR sourcebook I would focus on the landscape, the party reduced to tiny figures (just big enough to be recognisable as established characters) looking on in awe.

The Secret Level animation seemed to get this, HAT did not.

I can definitely agree with this take. It's one of the reasons I love the cover of Worlds Without Number so much. It's evocative of fantastic locations to fill a world with, which is far preferable to me than a simple group portrait.

View attachment 412912

These are the alternative covers, stitched together into one large print.

Source: I’m at GenCon and this is the print they are giving out. The WotC employees at the booth told us they are the alternative covers.

On the other hand, this is pretty fantastic in its own right. Very compelling, and in a way that I wouldn't expect to see from the company that produced the covers in the title topic. My group hasn't moved to the 2024 rules, and I don't know if my girlfriend and I ever will, but I suspect she may want to get the FR books anyway since she likes the setting, and I'll point out the alternate covers as a possibility if she does buy them.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

You can simply go to Chat GOT or other AI programs and create fantasy art

The elephant in the room is that AI art would have done better. The reason you can tell a human did it is that Karlach and Minsc are clearly copy-pasted from other illustrations. AI would have created it from scratch (well thousands of illustrations, rather than just one per character).

The reason people object to AI is because they realise humans are going to be rendered pointless, not that it can’t do the job.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

The elephant in the room is that AI art would have done better. The reason you can tell a human did it is that Karlach and Minsc are clearly copy-pasted from other illustrations. AI would have created it from scratch (well thousands of illustrations, rather than just one per character).

The reason people object to AI is because they realise humans are going to be rendered pointless, not that it can’t do the job.

The real threat of AI art isn't that it will replace great art, but that it will replace mediocre art.

Most working artists aren't making masterpieces like Rembrandt, or honestly, even doing cool stuff like fantasy RPG covers.

Most working artists make furry porn and corporate graphic design; two things AI does exceptionally well because the client doesn't really care about quality, they care that it's good enough.

 

[Scott Christian]

The real threat of AI art isn't that it will replace great art, but that it will replace mediocre art.

Most working artists aren't making masterpieces like Rembrandt, or honestly, even doing cool stuff like fantasy RPG covers.

Most working artists make furry porn and corporate graphic design; two things AI does exceptionally well because the client doesn't really care about quality, they care that it's good enough.

I actually wrote about this in a thread not too long ago. AI art will become real art, and it will be the "artist" that will sell it. They will have a niche, just like a lot of artists. They will be the salesperson for the art they create using AI art - and that will be the art that sells. You won't need Wyland, Banksy, or any other modern artist - you will need a personality that appeals to the buyer.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I actually wrote about this in a thread not too long ago. AI art will become real art, and it will be the "artist" that will sell it. They will have a niche, just like a lot of artists. They will be the salesperson for the art they create using AI art - and that will be the art that sells. You won't need Wyland, Banksy, or any other modern artist - you will need a personality that appeals to the buyer.

Just because you wrote about it doesn’t make it not a steaming pile of horse manure.

The person who commissions the art can describe to the software what they want. No artist required. Not that anyone will be able to afford to buy art anyway, since everyone is unemployed, having been replaced by AI. It’s not only art that AI can do, it’s your job too.

 

[Jahydin]

Ran across the full image of this one and it does make it much clearer what's going on. Apologies if someone already posted and I missed it.

Valindra still looks like she's pasted on top a completed picture, but would look cool on the book if they used raised textures.

On the other hand, this one just got worse...

 

[Scars Unseen]

View attachment 413069
Ran across the full image of this one and it does make it much clearer what's going on. Apologies if someone already posted and I missed it.

Valindra still looks like she's pasted on top a completed picture, but would look cool on the book if they used raised textures.

View attachment 413072

On the other hand, this one just got worse...

Yeah, I'd say the Adventures in Faerun cover looks better with the full picture than the Heroes cover for sure, but they still both get worse in one pretty major aspect: there is something behind them going on that they should definitely be paying attention to instead of posing for the camera.