Fan art. Okay or not?
polycounter lvl 8
I'm looking for inspiration for making 3d models. I'm looking for concepts already drawn out so I can focus on texturing and modeling. Right now I'm thinking of either reimagining 2d art made for 16 bit games or taking an iconic character and stylizing that said character. For a 3d art portfolio, is this acceptable or not? Does it really matter?
Replies
As long as you're not profiting and you give credit, I think it's fairly safe to use fanart. If the IP holders contact you, you'll obviously have to deal with them.
It's an IP someone else owns and its a pretty clear case of IP infringement, but it's unlikely they'll bother with someone making fan art (Even though they have the full ability to)
So it's legally not okay, but ethically accepted. At the worst the owner can request a takedown.
Yes, it's fantastic marketing for big companies.
It's not illegal to do fan art, it starts getting to illegality once you start distributing it in some way (be it for money of for free), taking money to paint an IP you or the payer does not own is illegal, taking any money in relation to you drawing other peoples IP or such is also illegal.
But again, ethics are seperated from legality, I think fan art is fine but that belief won't hold up in court.
I think the keyword to use is SAFE, it's SAFE to create fan-art in portfolios.
On doing popular concept it is a double edge sword. If it not like the popular character you are modelling, then it is easy to spot. Someone here did a Jinx model that suffered from this problem. The problem is that league of legends is a popular game and Jinx is a popular character and so it possible someone has played Jinx for 20-40 hours.
Doing fanart can give you insight into how a well designed character works. You can learn a lot from it.
Just don't do it the majority of the time.
Sure it's acceptable. Franchises like Star Wars, DC/ Marvel comics, Aliens, Transformers....they have game and film projects going all the time by different studios (sequels, reboots, movie tie-ins, etc).
You'll make your portfolio more attractive when jobs come up and you have samples (good samples, of course) displaying your skills in an established universe.
Walter White, Clint Eastwood, Tyrion Lannister bust sculpts are pretty popular.
You can even do one off fan sculpts for a fee without worries. You'll only really get into trouble if you mass produce, in which case you'll need to pay license to sell.
Unless its some kind of study or improving on the existing design and provide breakdowns and orthos.
Feng Zhu isn't the best person to reference when talking about matters of ethics in art and business.
Anyway.
I agree with skankerzero. If you're doing a study and making something that's essentially identical to another piece, there's no reason to have it in your portfolio. That's like having a master copy of something like the Mona Lisa; sure, you've shown that you're capable of some difficult techniques, but nobody's going to care because you just copied something that already exists.
If you're doing something like the Comicon contents where you put a new twist on an old design, and you're able to do it well, then I'd reconsider.
MMOs have in-game custom character generators where you pick anatomy features, hair color, costume accessory details, etc.
For practice and possible folio material use those for study or reference to generate your characters in a given franchise world. Take advantage of neutral pose animations. Screengrab, black out silhouette, then use your design talents to make something new (from something old).
It's like using a provided game level editor to make your own maps but in this case to make your characters.
:thumbup:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derivative_work
(Emphasis is mine)
Make fan art but do your own take on their art and it's the definition of derivative work, which is protected. And protected in the way that lets you make money from it. Just make sure you're putting your own style in in some way.
You can't make derivative work from stuff you do not own, it does not transfer original IP rights over to you. Original IP rights are required to make that derivative work.
The only detail here is that an original IP owner cannot take someones derivative work as their own, and the person infringing on the original IP cannot distribute this without removing the infringing IP in the piece.
The only way to use someones IP is through the owner or fair use, and that's on a case by case basis.
I've worked on a lot of fan art myself, here's my opinion on the matter.
I think something like what I did on Jinx is a ''good way'' of working, meaning I did not straight up try to reproduce a character following the exact art direction-proportions of the original character. I tried to make this my ''own'' take of a character design I really liked by working on it following my own taste and taking a different artistic direction.
I did not make any money of of this, it's just a cool learning experience and allows me to work on a character design I like without having to make it myself.
The popularity of the character can also be great to get a little bit of exposure.
What I did on Ellie is a little bit more tricky. It's a little closer to a reproduction , even tho I still see it as ''my own take'' on the character, my goal was to stay pretty close to the original design etc. So in that case it might falls in a little bit with what swizzle is saying. ''trying to make something identical to another piece'' isn't exaclty a method I would recommend either. However, I decided to work on this character in that way for a very specific reason, likeness, improve the quality of my work by trying to reach a ''goal'' in matching that kind of quality the original character had.
I guess I saw it as a study (as a lot of 2d artist will study the work of a master to learn from it)
In that way Ellie was a great great learning experience, made me really push myself to achieve a certain level of quality but lots of people might find it's not the best way to do ''fan art'' and I would agree with them.
for creathing something new need alot work, so easiest way creaty fan art, and after when you got some skill you can make something for yourself but for it you need learn alot and read studing tons of books