Sprite drawing... nasty? Come now you must be joking

Actually a big part of keeping the sprites 2D is the fact it simplifies collision detection immensely. And not only between sprites but the environment as well. 3D on 3D collision is not exactly a walk in the park if you know what I mean. Plus I kinda prefer 2D drawn sprites over 3D textured/skinned models. I also like the fact you can do a lot of really cool 2D effects through 3D acceleration. I guess most of all though it's the innovation of melding tradtional 2D characters with a 3D environment that I'm hooked on. Finding a decent 2D artist shouldn't be all that hard once a decent engine is up and running. I'm just here to program, let the artisits do the artwork/animation. In fact I already have a few lined up, but they want to see a working engine before they jump on board (too many homebrew projects gone bad I guess).