When, if at all, is it safe to recycle previous work.

Fwap

I've been using Substance Designer a lot lately, and one thought I've had was;
If i make a procedural texture for someone else, when is ok, if at all to use parts or a different seed of that procedural texture for another client.

Obviously in a studio environment, you can't because usually work done on company time is the companies property, i'm more talking from a freelance perspective.

I'm also not implying that i have intent to do this, just hella curious.

Kwramm

(assuming you refer to Substance here, or similar)
I think it's similar to code, where you should specify if you deliver the source code - which can be used to compile the program, or just the compiled program itself. If you just deliver the output, i.e. the compiled program, you can re-use the source since the (c) remains with you.

in this case:
source code = your procedural generator (e.g. Substance)
compiled output = generated textures, e.g. TGA files

If the contract you have with your client just states "work files" then you may want to clarify if this includes the generator program (or Substance) itself. If you change the seed drastically and the output is very different it may be hard to prove that you reused a substancs though, if you gave away the (c), but it wouldn't be right.

EarthQuake

I have, and I assume most artists have as well, reused various effects, layers and overlays from psds created for one project on another. I would see reusing bits of substance designer files in the same light, and really can't see why it would be a problem. Maybe if the content in question is hugely important to the project and defines the unique look of the game, for instance the Borderlands style textures, then I wouldn't reuse any of that work. If its a method to do nice edge wear or paint chipping or something like that, and you're applying it to a completely new asset, what is the problem there? You're almost certainly going to alter it to fit the current project anyway at which point it isn't really the same thing. I wouldn't re-use content wholesale, but this is unlikely to even be a possibility as each project will have a unique art style and set of requirements.

I don't think its analogous to engineering work, where much of the work is developed solely for the project and often times legitimate trade secrets that can't be shared. Art on the other hand tends to be a collection of processes built up over time by individual artists, usually the technique will be polished over many projects and will be an ever evolving part of an artists workflow. You can't expect artists to re-learn how to create art for every project. So, refusing to allow an artist to re-use generic workflows would be sort of like refusing to let engineers use the knowledge that they've learned on previous projects, rather than the code itself.

TL;DR

There is a scale, it goes from:
UNIQUE PROJECT SPECIFIC STUFF <

---

> GENERIC STUFF

Where the thing in question lies on that scale determines how likely I am to reuse it.

All that said, I often recreate old workflows from scratch, as when I look at it a year or two later I cringe, thinking to myself "did I really do that?".

CharlieD

The simplest thing I was told by legal at an old job was to, "Make it 10% different."