Use concept for modeling tutorial?
polycounter lvl 11
Hi all. I Am modeling and texturing artist for more than 7 year experience and i was thinking to use my free time to make modeling and texturing tutorial for gumroad. The problem is that legal question. Does anyone know what is legal and moral correct to take as concept. One option is to take something popular, like military weapon or vehicle and do that. Is it legal to do it? I know that Coca Cola for example can sue you if you have logo or anything on your model that you sell, but is it same for tutorial. It is for education purpose... What is for guns and military vehicles? Is it ok to make it into model for unreal engine, and sell tutorial? And is it ok to sell model later on unreal engine store? Also, another problem is that it is more fun if i take some relay cool concept art, and make tutorial. Is it ok to take someone concept for that purpose? I mean, i am selling tutorial, guide how to make 3d model that can be game ready, not actualy concept of it. So, i don't see reason why would it be bad to take someone concept? I am not concept artist, i am modeling artist, and i am doing tutorial about modeling, Teaching other how to make model from any concept, but many people say that it wouldn't be ok to do so. What do you all think about that? I mean, it is same like if someone do tutorial about how to make harry potter castle from Lego cubes. He didn't invited that castle, he take real concept and make it into Lego model. Same if someone teach people how to play "stairway to haven" song on guitar. He don't have to make new song, he is not song writer, he is just guitar player, and he want to teach someone else to play guitar, not how to make new song. It is same to dancers, they teach other how to dance popular dance moves, no need to make new one. Why would it be different for modeling artists? So, is it ok or not to take someone concept, and do tutorials whow to make 3d model and texture it and add it in Unreal Engine?
Replies
Led Zeppelin are millionaires and well known, they could be the textbook definition of rich and famous. They don't know you exist and probably never will, even if you made a tutorial and they spent the remaining years of their life googling themselves they'd probably never find it. But if by some miracle they did find it and felt it was worth their time to bother, they probably could sue you. Musicians who perform or sell cover songs are supposed to pay royalties and on top of that Led Zeppelin got sued themselves over the exact song you're referring to.
No concept artist is rich and famous that I am aware of, this is more like ripping off an amateur musician posting videos to YouTube with a day job and a mortgage and profiting from their work while giving them nothing.
Edit: By the way I'm not even sure someone would need to sue you, I think they could probably just submit a DMCA claim to Gumroad and they'd just remove your tutorial. No way Gumroad is going to bother trying to fight that.
If you wish to monetise your tutorials or just live without worry, either a) search for CC-BY concept art(there's more of these than you think), or b) just ask the artist if it possible to use the concept for a tutorial. It's really minimal effort for peace of mind.
2) Could you get away with it? Maybe. Depends on whether the artist feels its worth their time to bother pursuing it.
3) Is it moral? No. You asked this in your original post, and no matter how many more walls of words you post what you're describing can be distilled down to this basic premise: You want to turn a profit using someone elses work without compensating them and without their consent.
The art is probably the most important piece of marketing material that sells copies of a tutorial and the concept is easily the most important aspect of that. Having a tutorial with an awesome design will sell a lot more units than one with the same information but worse designs and I suspect you're well aware of this, or you'd just use your own designs. But you'll make more money by simply lifting someone elses designs without permission and not paying them.
As a final question I have to ask: Who are you even trying to convince here? Us or yourself? You seem to have done some extensive mental gymnastics here to persuade yourself that this is okay which isn't surprising given that you have a vested interest in rationalizing this in a way that most benefits you: So why even bother posting this?
Something being legal doesn't mean that it is ethically right to do it, or in good taste. Using someone else's design for your own modeling tutorial without asking (regardless of it being free or commercial) ? I don't know if it is legal or not, but it is definitely, definitely of bad taste and could backfire in all kind of ways.
The important part you are missing here is that there is no guarantee that your result will do the design any justice. You could completely miss the mark on proportions, likeness, and so on - and therefore spread around a misrepresentation of someone else's hard work. Is it legal ? I don't know. Is is it fun to see one's work misrepresented, even with the best intention ? Definitely not.
If all you want is to teach people modeling techniques, then first take the time to do some research to find a subject matter that comes with a license allowing you to create derivative stuff from it as @Wolthera rightly mentioned. It will take time and effort, but you'll likely find something. As a matter of fact you probably researched this already, so ... what did you find so far ?