Including Mood Boards in Kickstarter or Early Access pitches?

Kevin Albers

I'm a big fan of mood boards, ripomatics and the like. Being able to put together a bunch of images that show off the look and feel of a game (or movie or other creative product) in the preproduction stage, even if most of those images are taken from existing products, done by other artists etc., can be a quick and useful way of conveying the intended art style of something.

However, maybe it's a terrible idea to show these to laypeople in a pitch on something like Kickstarter or Steam Early Access. Non professionals may think that the boards are a blatant 'ripping off' of other peoples work, and consider them illegal or a sign that the project doesn't have 'actual art direction'. On the other hand, as long as the audience is made aware of what the mood boards do and do NOT represent (i.e. 'we are NOT going to include this obvious dragon design from World of Warcraft in our game, we just want you to know that we might have dragons that have a design influenced by Blizzard's works'), maybe they are a great tool for an early pitch.

They may even be illegal when shown off in public, although I think as long as they are not planned to be part of an eventual product that is sold, and are simply a form of inspiration, I doubt they would actually be illegal (correct me if you have concrete info about this, please).

Thoughts?

AtticusMars

I wouldn't do it, I don't know where it stands legally but I'd rather see concept art or some actual legitimate preproduction work in a kickstarter campaign.

A moodboard is no better than a pinterest page, it is not even the beginnings of a real project I would expect to get off the ground...

Meloncov

Unless all the images are in the public domain, or you have permission from their creators, using such a mood board to promote a crowdfunding campaign is unambiguously illegal. Marketing still counts as commercial use.

Jason Young

If you're at the point where you're thinking about doing a kickstarter or greenlight, I'd hope you already have your own concepts to show off.  

lefix

Fine and pretty standard for all kinds of pitches behind closed doors, but not for public eyes, imho.

Kevin Albers

Just to be clear, I'm not asking if it's a good idea to ONLY show artwork created by other people in a pitch. That would be a terrible idea.     The question is if it's a bad idea to show ANY non-original work in a pitch. My hunch is that it's a bad idea, and you guy's feedback certainly confirms that hunch. Also, I wasn't really thinking of pitch materials legally qualifying as 'marketing materials', but it makes sense that they would be, which means it's almost certainly not legal.

Thanks for the answers!

Joopson

It's too bad, because I do think mood boards are a great way to establish a general feeling for the project; and being able to show that to potential consumers/investors seems like it would be a great thing... I love looking at a good mood board.

Though by the time something gets to kickstarter, the general feel of the project should be well established in unique artwork, I think; whether concept, or a basic vertical slice of environment, or a completed character, or whatever.

pior

@Kevin : I see that you have made your decision, and I am glad that you took the time to ask for advice here. Just to drive the point across a little bit further : mood boards can be great ... but they are also extremely fast and easy to do, and at the end of the day they are by nature 100% derivative.

What I am getting at is that everyone can do a collage of pictures of VR headsets and screenshots from District9 in five minutes and impress some people, but using that as a Kickstarter pitch would come across as very lazy and would tell your audience that you are not ready (on top of the fact that you would need to clear the rights of all the pictures beforehand anyways).

My advice would be to not do it - for creative reasons, and also for obvious copyright reasons. Instead of snatching cool pictures online, while not contact the artists and actually hire them to work for you ?