I need to Rant-3.5 Art

[Nightstorm]

I was all for paying 90 more dollars for 3.5 until I learned that they will be using the SAME ART! Sure there will be SOME new pics in the thing, but for the most part it's the same. That in my opinion is a royal Screw.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

....they actually did say it would only have SOME new art...it wasn't really overly emphasized, but WotC never said it was ALL NEW ART...*shrugs* I don't blame them...do you realize how hard it is to do the kind of art those guys do? Even if its "bad", I think all the artists deserve a lot more credit than they usually get...



...of course...this is coming FROM an artist...

 

[Painfully]

I think it is more than just the repeat of the art that bothers me. The new PHB still has those annoying lines in the background. Poor design IMO.

It seems more and more that the 3.5 books are just a glorified reprinting. I still hope that the MM layout will be MUCH better though, even with old artwork.

 

[Foundry of Decay]

Actually, the lack of new art doesn't surprise me in the least.

Persoanlly I don't believe this is a 'royal screw'. Why? Well, lets take into account:

1) To have all new art would require new contracts with existing/new artists to commission them (For money) to draw up all new artwork for the three core books. This in itself is a monumental task. Depending on the artist, art can take roughly a couple days to weeks to finish depending on variables.

2) You have to quality control the art. This means it is either rushed, or the dates of release are pushed back monumentally.

3) Finally, you have to reformat entire sections of layout, and work out a way to keep a decent page count again with all three books. Layout in itself would take a mind-numbing amount of time to rework with existing text.

4) Also, remember that they don't have as many people working on the revisions as they did the first core books, so more people are forced to do more jobs from quality control, to editing, to reformatting.

I couldn't imagine that there are any quick and simple ways to change up any of the three core books. The page count alone is pretty large, and all in color, meaning that new color seps might have to be done for new art as well.

Those are my thoughts, anyway.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

It seems more and more that the 3.5 books are just a glorified reprinting.

....that's what most Revisions are.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Dude, art is pretty freaking expensive and WotC is going to some big names, plus it's in color! That's more expensive not only to commission but to print.

 

[Number47]

Actually, the lack of new art doesn't surprise me in the least.

Persoanlly I don't believe this is a 'royal screw'. Why? Well, lets take into account:

1) To have all new art would require new contracts with existing/new artists to commission them (For money) to draw up all new artwork for the three core books. This in itself is a monumental task. Depending on the artist, art can take roughly a couple days to weeks to finish depending on variables.

2) You have to quality control the art. This means it is either rushed, or the dates of release are pushed back monumentally.

3) Finally, you have to reformat entire sections of layout, and work out a way to keep a decent page count again with all three books. Layout in itself would take a mind-numbing amount of time to rework with existing text.

4) Also, remember that they don't have as many people working on the revisions as they did the first core books, so more people are forced to do more jobs from quality control, to editing, to reformatting.

I couldn't imagine that there are any quick and simple ways to change up any of the three core books. The page count alone is pretty large, and all in color, meaning that new color seps might have to be done for new art as well.

Those are my thoughts, anyway.

Sorry, but your knowledge of printing is probably twenty years out of date. Every book is going to have to be completely reformatted whether the art changes or not, and every page is going to require new film and plates. Personally, with most of the art I think, if ain't broke, don't fix it. I think WotC only wanted to change the art that didn't seem very inspired.

 

[LostWorldsMike]

I've been saying this right along, and it's now somewhat counterproductive (seeing as I'm a co-owner of a new game store), but...

You don't HAVE to buy the books. The information you need to be 3.5 "compliant" will be available for FREE through the SRD.

I don't see how a company can be screwing ANYone if they're giving the stuff away. Maybe my understanding of economics is flawed, but it doesn't seem to me that you make a profit by giving something away.

As to costs for new artwork... It'd be huge. The artwork itself has to be paid for, but that's not the biggest hit they'd be taking. I'm thinking they (WotC) were smart and kept the original color seps for the books. Color seps aren't cheap - they run about $100 per page. Yes, per page. That means a 300-page book with full color on each page will cost the publisher $30,000 in seperations alone. That's before you add in the cost of the artwork, writing, printing and binding.

That's one heck of alot of copies they have to move before they make money. And I'm going to go away now before I get accused of defending WotC.

 

[Ace32]

I think what's missing is the fact that, when I purchase a $30 dollar book, I assume I am paying for all the things inside: the writing, the art, the binding, the printing quality, the cover, etc. etc.

As far as I am concerned - I've already paid for most of the art they are selling me this time around.. lower the price or redo the art. I think it's reasonable?

Who am I kidding.. I know I'm going to buy them anyways..

 

[Sejs]

Entirely new art would have pushed the production release back even farther.



And you don't want that, now do you ?

^_^