Vector Art Mega Collection Version 2

[sc.crab]

I have Vector Art Mega Collection Version 1 and was wondering if version 2 was different or was it basically the same as version 1 ?

[Brady Watson]

It's the same; only different.

-B

[steve_g]

“The same only different” is a good description… How many different pin striping variations do you need? Also, we have so many good fonts available to us that more in a vector format is unnecessary.
I was disappointed in the offerings and didn’t buy #3.
SG

[Brady Watson]

If you want ready to go vector designs, then any of them are good for that purpose. The nice thing about the VAMC is that it has a paper book/catalog that you can thumb through. This is a lot easier than doing it on the computer. It's good for noobs starting out, schools and when you need something artsy fartsy to embellish something really quickly. I almost always draw my own stuff, so it isn't a big deal - but there are occasions when it is nice to have some quick designs around for trinkets to give to friends, and you can let them pick out a design instead of trying to hone your mind reading skills.

-B

[steve_g]

Brady feels like the printed catalog is a plus… Here’s another opinion.
The images aren’t digitally searchable by name, subject or anything. This means that you or your customers have to manually go through and look at everything to see if something or parts of several somethings might work. The customer can never make up their mind on the spot or don’t have the time right now, and want to take your only catalog home to study it more. This means that you don’t have your catalog when another customer wants to look at it!
I’ve found it easiest to do a Google image search by name, topic or theme to narrow down what their wants are. Now you can either take ideas from several quickly found images or buy the one they fell in love with.
This is just the way that seems to work for me.
SG

[Roy Harding]

I put my catalog up on a password protected Google Drive site. If the customer is interested, I give them the password - they download the .PDF, and can search to their hearts' content.

[Brady Watson]

Brady feels like the printed catalog is a plus…

Yes...but I didn't say anything about using it for my customers. I find it the easiest thing for...
...occasions when it is nice to have some quick designs around for trinkets to give to friends, and you can let them pick out a design instead of trying to hone your mind reading skills.I don't have retail customers - but I can see where it would be useful for those who do, or are into the 'trinket' business. Large corporations, architects and designers worth their salt already know what they want...and customers who would be happy with a design everybody & their brother could use isn't my clientele.

Overall though, the VAMC is a high quality set of vector artwork - as far as vector clipart goes. The designs import cleanly into just about any CAD/CAM package (EPS ones do anyway) and if I recall only 1 or 2 designs in the whole book had a rogue node or two that had to be cleaned up. I have nothing bad to say about the product at all from a quality standpoint. Whether it make business sense or not to use it with your customers is a totally different line of thought.

-B

[steve_g]

Roy…
Is the catalog PDF something that’s offered now or something you took the time to put together?

Brady…
I have to agree with you as to the quality of the vectors and artwork. When I was first starting out It was a valuable asset, nowadays I find I can create my own faster than searching.
SG

[scottp55]

For us "Newbies" What are you designing in that is "faster than searching"? Currently proving a slow learner at Adobe Illustrator and several others(also proved slow at Corel Draw:(). anything as intuitive as Vectric?

[steve_g]

Scott...
Recent examples are Stage props… A castle wall, a carriage, trees & shrubs and a spinning wheel. In each example I sent clipped images from a Google search to get a basic feel of what they wanted. One resulted in an image purchased while the rest were assembled from what was “liked” from several images.
I’ll try to get some photos… I deliver them as pink foam and often don’t see the end product.
SG

[scottp55]

Thanks Steve, Currently only drawing in VCP with no graphic background, but slowly getting faster. Need something like Corel Draw or similar I guess, but really like Celtic type art for VCarving and borders and fluid designs and don't need half of Corel features. Be nicer to Morph stuff(Nudge/Drag/Swirl elements) at least for me. The stuff I really like all seems to be for personal use only. Have bought a couple dozen VectorArts and very happy with them, but hard to find My style and not really artistic.Think Mega 1 might be good as source of ideas.

[steve_g]

Scott…
After re-reading your post #9, I don’t think I fully addressed your question with my answer…
One area I was certified to teach was mechanical drawing. This background helped me “see” product in 3D from a traditional 3 view drawing. Prior to SB days I was drawing with AutoCAD, However, for presentations to customers, I found that others often don’t visualize things the way I do. I tried to help them by spending inordinate amounts of time doing orthographic and perspective drawings, I was glad to let SketchUp help with this!
I’m currently using Photoshop, illustrator, SketchUp and VCP. VCP is the workhorse… it’s bitmap to vector ability is uncanny!
I agree that Mega 1 could be a valuable resource for you, giving you a bunch of clean vectors to play with… but the original question for this thread was re mega 2, I was disappointed.
SG

[Roy Harding]

Roy…
Is the catalog PDF something that’s offered now or something you took the time to put together?


You can get the catalog here: http://www.vectorart3d.com/index.cfm/MonthlyCatalog.htm

If you're a registered "member" you can download an unbranded catalog without prices from the "My Account" menu.

I keep an unbranded catalog on my Google Drive. Although I don't have all the models contained therein, it's a handy resource to figure out exactly what the customer is looking for. Depending upon the customer, I either charge the cost of the model to the job, or I swallow the cost and have the model for future jobs.

[Brady Watson]

Roy,
That is VectorArt3D (http://www.vectorart3d.com/) - the original post was about VectorArt2D/Mega Collection (http://www.vectorart.com/Mega_Collection/)

-B

[Roy Harding]

Roy,
That is VectorArt3D (http://www.vectorart3d.com/) - the original post was about VectorArt2D/Mega Collection (http://www.vectorart.com/Mega_Collection/)

-B

My apologies. I'll have to quit posting while thinking of other things.

[Brady Watson]

My apologies. I'll have to quit posting while thinking of other things.

No worries! Happens to me all the time! :D

-B