Signed concept art

Jack Schitt

Jack Schitt
Well, my signed print of 'Station Approach' turned up this morning. There's no delicate way to put this. It's bad. Shockingly bad.

The main problem is that an already dark and moody image has been rendered darker still by the printing process and any detail has been buried in shadow. The whole lower half of the planet is totally black, with all of the subtle cloudscape lost. And the space station itself is almost completely hidden within its own shadows, the bright highlights of the sun shining on metal reduced to smears of grey. The subtle details that were visible on the station's arms and panels in the original image are rendered more or less in silhouette. Even the iconic docking bay port is invisible, with only the merest hint of a navigation light to give away its location.

I'm attaching a scan here. While I appreciate that the scanning process will introduce even more distortion and a scan can never be a true representation, at least people will be able to compare it with the original image on the 'wallpapers' thread and perhaps see where I'm coming from.

station.jpg


If this is from the new and improved batch, I'd hate to see what the rejected originals looked like.

Crushingly disappointed, fellas. It looks like I'm going to have to do what some others have done and have my own posters printed. I don't even consider this a legal grey area any more; I've paid for the rights to use that image, I guess just have to make it myself.

First the mugs, then the T-shirts, now this. Slowly my faith is being eroded.
 
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fozza

fozza
Hi folks.

I received my print today. Not the signed one but the one already pictured here and I have to agree. The bottom left of the image might as well not be there . it is so dark and faded there is not definition at all.

On my image also there are scratches where the image has been rolled to go into the tube.

I was going to buy two acrylic frames to mount my two prints on the wall. If afraid to say I wont be doing that with this one as it's just not worth displaying.

To quote Drews kids

"Disappointed" :(
 

Alien

Alien
I couldn't afford to buy any mugs, T-shirts or prints (and certainly couldn't afford the models),
After seeing the feedback from these extras, I'm glad now I didn't buy any of them.

After Lavecon, I'll be looking into ordering my own polo shirts with the Elite logo on them
 

Mobius

Mobius
Real shame to hear that the quality is as poor as the mugs and T-Shirts.
what is the quality of the paper like?
 

Jack Schitt

Jack Schitt
Mobius said:
Real shame to hear that the quality is as poor as the mugs and T-Shirts.
what is the quality of the paper like?
Click to expand...
It's reasonably good stock as far as I can tell, although the world of printing is not something I'm overly familiar with. It certainly seems a lot thicker than many of the officially licensed movie posters one can buy from bookshops. The finish is not as glossy as I would have liked, but finish preference is a very personal thing so I won't hold that against it.

It's the colour reproduction that really lets it down. I appreciate it's a balancing act with dark images, and I wouldn't have wanted to see the brightness raised to the point where space becomes a murky grey. But this is the polar opposite; for an image that was already reliant on darker tones for its atmosphere (in both senses of the word) they really should have taken more care not to bury the detail.

I don't know which of the Frontier staff was responsible for that particular image (Josh?) but I would not be impressed if my work had its impact reduced in this way.

Hopefully the 'Elite Combat' and 'Cobra Docking' images, with their larger dynamic range, will have weathered the printing process a little better. On the other hand 'Discovering Danube' might well end up as a large number and a couple of engine glows and nothing else :(
 

Susimetsa

Susimetsa
Alien said:
I couldn't afford to buy any mugs, T-shirts or prints (and certainly couldn't afford the models),
After seeing the feedback from these extras, I'm glad now I didn't buy any of them.
Click to expand...
I'm in the same boat (no funds for extras), but I am still dissappointed with the quality if these early reports prove universal. The quality of these products cannot but reflect badly on the game itself...
 

Mobius

Mobius
the printing process will come out a little darker otherwise it will looked bleached.

below is a poster I put together, the original does show more detail than the final print hanging on the wall. though I happy with how mine turned out.

yaDXayDl.jpg


and the original.
G383CnGl.jpg
 

Steve

Steve
Jack Schitt said:
Hopefully the 'Elite Combat' and 'Cobra Docking' images, with their larger dynamic range, will have weathered the printing process a little better.
Click to expand...
I got an unsigned 'Elite Combat' and it's not too bad at all. Bought a little frame to display it in.
Looking at the images on the Frontier page, 'Elite Combat' and 'Cobra Docking' look like the ones to go for. The others are pretty dark to start with :(
 

[VR] Shadowman

[VR] Shadowman
Steve said:
I got an unsigned 'Elite Combat' and it's not too bad at all. Bought a little frame to display it in.
Looking at the images on the Frontier page, 'Elite Combat' and 'Cobra Docking' look like the ones to go for. The others are pretty dark to start with :(
Click to expand...

I just received the Elite Combat (signed) print and I'm happy with it. Gonna find a nice frame as well now. :)
 

Kerrash

Kerrash
Alien said:
I couldn't afford to buy any mugs, T-shirts or prints (and certainly couldn't afford the models),
After seeing the feedback from these extras, I'm glad now I didn't buy any of them.

After Lavecon, I'll be looking into ordering my own polo shirts with the Elite logo on them
Click to expand...

Me too. I really would've liked a T-shirt too, but hey NVM; all I want is the game really ;)
 

Susimetsa

Susimetsa
Mobius said:
the printing process will come out a little darker otherwise it will looked bleached.
Click to expand...
Good of you to point that out - we must differentiate between work that is as good as it can be (with the limitations of technology) and work that is truly awful.
 

psykokow

psykokow
Depending on the paper type, it can drink the ink up like nobodies business, a semi gloss/glossy paper will preserve the colours and details but ends up like a poster feel/ large photo.

The fine art texture/matt paper will have a totally special feel, like a piece of art and will not fade for 250 years in sunlight (with the right inks). Ideal for framing and making the artwork special.

usually you lose 10 -15% of the light, it can be adjust pre print, that is where quality and trial n error comes in. The art work Mobius showed was definately darker but also had a infinate depth to it.. it made it look like a cut out into another world.
 

Jack Schitt

Jack Schitt
Hmm. Maybe I'm just too picky, although I'm glad Fozza put his 2p into this thread earlier on or I might have thought there was something uniquely wrong with my eyes.

I've taken another look at the print in the harsh light of day -- literally, by taking it outside for a closer inspection -- and I'm still not convinced the colour reproduction couldn't have been handled better. Those who clearly have more knowledge than I do about such things are saying some light drop is to be expected, but to my untrained eye this looks to be much more than the 15% Kow suggests. As an experiment I reduced the brightness of the original image by 50% and could still see more detail than in the print. But this was on an uncalibrated monitor rather than a printout and I do appreciate the difficulties of matching monitor output to paper.

I just wasn't expecting so much detail to have been lost to the blackness.

Still, as it's the only signed thing I've coughed up for and 43% of the cost was for the signature, I'm prepared to cut it a little slack. Maybe the print will look a bit better when it's suitably framed, in an appropriately lit corner of the office, and where I'm not constantly comparing it with the digital original.

Having said that, there's absolutely no question that if I'd been able to see a sample of the final print in Honest Dave's High Street Print Emporium, or at a convention, I would not have ponied up £35 for one. Or at least not for this particular image.

I'm just hoping there are some actual stars visible on the boxed set star charts when they arrive :p
 

psykokow

psykokow
IF you use a good clear well polished glass it can REALLY bring the details back out!! BUT only if its there..

I've not seen them, but I have printed artworks out for the last 5 years and so consider myself experienced. I use high quality papers and archival inks.. and sometimes you print and go... crap need to up the brightness.. reprint and yay fixed.. and usually I have to increase around 10 - 15% brightness and contrast depending on the image.
 

Michael Brookes

Game Director
Generally speaking we are happy with the prints, although the signed prints were laminated after the signatures so I'm wondering if that has caused an issue for some of them.

I also think that some images printed better than others, we should have selected which images we printed rather than doing the polls, so my apologies for that.

Michael
 
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