Digital Art is Expensive... Ugh
- Michael S Bearre
- Feb 8, 2019
- 3 min read
Updated: Feb 12, 2019
Okay, so digital art is expensive, very expensive, and I am hoping to capture the 'woe' factor associated with the creation of book covers.
Let's start at the basics. When you're creating a piece of digital art you need something called maps, more specifically, UV maps, and what these maps do is create photorealism (a piece of cgi that is so realistic you wouldn't know it's cgi).
I am excited about the prospects of this because that means I can create photorealistic humans, animals, and anything that is real, but, more importantly, dragons, weapons, landscapes, and things of the like. That's my ultimate goal: to create something that I write about in a photorealistic way.
Imagine if JK Rowling could create her depiction of Harry Potter, or Tolkein had the tools accessible to everyone today and used them to create Middle Earth, Gandalf, all of it... Holy smokes.
I want to deliver the universe I see in my head to the world in a way that only I (since I'm the creator) can, and, I want to work with other writers to do the same for them, though, I could never get into their head, but I can get as close as humanly possible.
In order to do that I need to acquire materials that are quite expensive.
Example: https://bit.ly/2Dn6aDU
The link above directs you to a Thanos Bundle on texturing.xyz, as of right now, 2-8-2019, the commercial bundle costs $499. In order to create royalty free graphics, you need to pick up the commercial licenses of these maps, otherwise you cannot use them for anyone else other than yourself.
Those are just skin maps. That's it. This isn't including other models that you may require.
Example: https://bit.ly/2IpiAwz
The link above directs you to poliigon.com, and this company specializes in maps that have resolution properties that go beyond 4k.
I don't have the equipment to acquire such maps, nor do I have the money. The companies who create such maps are deserving of the price they request because they have to pay for incredibly high quality cameras that can capture such textures in such a high resolution.
To expect resources that posses that kind of quality to be free is not only selfish, but detrimental to the development of my skills as a artist. I wouldn't go to any job for free, and wouldn't expect someone else to do the same.
Now, some would argue that the difference is hardly noticeable and not worth the effort, but I'd like to argue that when you're working on a large scale project, say a cover, those little things add up, and eventually, you could end up with a sub-par image. In the future I plan on building a scene with proper lighting and things of the like, but for the sake of demonstration, this is what I had to do.
Now imagine having a cover that is blurred and pixelated, or worse, the features that actually matter (the focal element) of the picture is pixelated or made up of poor quality materials. Not only will your cover be embarrassing to look at, it'll turn away potential readers, as such, that is why I strive for the highest quality materials, so that my cover can stand out among second rate covers that were thrown together because they were cheap (say, $20-$100).
In essence, I (and you) are competing against top tier publishing houses that have money and resources at their disposal, so naturally, all of us in the indie circuit have a disadvantage before we even walk to the starting line.
In order to compete, we must be diligent and supportive of each other, and so, since I'm going to acquire these materials anyway, I figured I'd help out other authors by creating covers for them for free, however, by no means is this an invitation for people to take advantage of me, for there is a difference in my offering to create a cover for free, and someone demanding a free cover because I made one for their friend or whatever.
I hope this post helps establish why digital art is expensive, and further explains why I ask for a meager contribution through Patreon.
Sinecerely,
MB
