Exposing an art thief
I stumbled across the portfolio of an artist who is currently employed at a reputable games company.
Their work contains an image belonging to somebody else and they use it across their whole portfolio. Their ACTUAL work is pretty poor and I am confident that they would not have been hired if it wasn't for the use of the stolen imagery.
I have attached an image with the stolen work on the left, and a snippet of the original piece on right. I am not a fan of naming and shaming but I want to know what people think on the matter.
I don't feel like people should be able to get away with this kind of thing; the person got a job that somebody else deserved.
mesh
Their work contains an image belonging to somebody else and they use it across their whole portfolio. Their ACTUAL work is pretty poor and I am confident that they would not have been hired if it wasn't for the use of the stolen imagery.
I have attached an image with the stolen work on the left, and a snippet of the original piece on right. I am not a fan of naming and shaming but I want to know what people think on the matter.
I don't feel like people should be able to get away with this kind of thing; the person got a job that somebody else deserved.
mesh
Replies
But what do we gain, really? Cause some guy to lose his job? Black list him from future jobs?
I'd like to think that he'll get his just desserts based on his own abilities while everyone else just continues to improve beyond even what he stole and claimed his own.
I can't necessarily say any better, so I'll just drop this here.
I also want to add that if he really does steal, he may be doing it at work as well. And that means he's a huge liability to the studio. What if they ship a game, only later to find out he ripped off another artist? Now that artist will sue and maybe even prevent the game from hitting the shelves, that's not good for the studio and all it's employee's.
JC said "..... what a shame ..."
http://athornton.co.uk/tunnelui.html
I guess Adam Thornton has some explaining to do...
This bit of 3D:
http://athornton.co.uk/ghosttown.html
VS.
http://www.turbosquid.com/FullPreview/Index.cfm/ID/349694
or many other links...
EDIT1: (oops! removed warez links :poly136:)
It's even split in pieces so you can't Save As!!! irony, lol
I think what happened, is he designed his whole site in photoshop and used auto slices and exported to html.
So yeah, what Kot_Leopold said.
Wow for a guy who claims he's good at graphic design and calls himself an artist his webpage really is horrible. It seems quite clear that he has just taken others artworks and plastered GUI-elements on them which probably are stolen as well.
I don't really know how to expose the guy though, maybe contact the company he's working for, or it might just be better to contact the guy himself.
'reputable games company'. I would love to have the name of that company, cause it seems any schmoe can land a job there. oO
@ Ben Apuna
is avax and the other 2 sites not Warez websites and violating with the rules of Polycount ?
thats even worse to post that because the original creator wants to earn his $125.00. ...
http://www.peonystudio.co.uk/
Reputable games company?
http://www.adamthornton.co.uk/cv/cv.html
On the art side of things, I doubt thieves will improve or develop their art skills, or even stay in business for more than couple of months, so I see no reason to go hunting them fulltime
Oops! I had no idea :poly136: Well I removed all but the turbosquid link.
My mistake I sort of assumed that this scene was pretty much available for free pretty much anywhere you looked (according to Google) and that someone was trying to sell it on turbosquid...
I apologize to the original creator, whoever you are!
I... I just don't know what to think any more.
The guy doing these mangled...things seems a bit delusional to me, if he really is at Rare chances are he's already halfway out.
Thieves never win :P
one day i hope to have achivments too
(edit) his whole sliced-up image-based website is dog shit, i wouldn't hire him based on that alone, regardless of whether he stole all his work.
http://www.adamthornton.co.uk/New%20folder%20%2834%29/crashed.html
http://concept-on-mac.deviantart.com/gallery/1033029#/dkepo7
Press download image on DeviantArt.
The thing that stands out to me the most across his gallery is that all of the stuff which has been pasted is really blurry.
Also, if someone is applying for a UI role, I'd expect all of the work to be their own. When none of the elements are his then they might as well not be on there.
I don't know about the ethics of a graphic designer using free clipart on his portfolio, and I don't wanna pick on the guy unnecessarily, but I do find it kind of funny all the same.
If you where inspired by something someone else did and tried to emulate it with a twist would you post that on your portfolio giving credits to the artist?
Like if i used a concept i found on CGhub and made the enviorment 3d?
Just taking examples here really
I think "the line" is drawn at any sort of select -> copy -> paste or clone brush use.
Makes sense. Thank you for that answer. If i where emulating someones art beacuse i love their work the last thing i would what to happen is to upset that person.
making a 3d based on a concept is totally ok as long as you make it known that the concept is not yours, you notify the artist that you will be posting either his concept and your interpretation on your site, and that you do the courtesy of linking to his site.
At the time, Poser wasn't very well known, and he managed to get a job at a start up company in 2000, and he now currently holds an Art Directors position at a reputable AAA studio.
Karma doesn't always work.
It is fun. Pity we'll probably never get as much mileage as we did out of that last guy... what was his name again? The guy who 'shopped his face on everything.
Chad Love LiebermaaaAaaaaaaaaaaaN! \o/
that guys takes the price tbh. He's like the chuck norris of thieves!
Saving this image. Thanks!!
EDIT: Oh wait thats "art stealing." xD
Yep.
I know of someone who, a while back, used others work to get his first job at a really nice studio. The hardest part is breaking in, once that's done, people will only work and progress just enough not to get fired.
I'm not sure I get this. He doesn't deserve the job if he is stealing other people's work. He's filling a position (and taking the chance to make a living) that should go to someone who actually made the work they are claiming to have made. Art thieves deserve to be outed.
It bothers me to think that they would have turned other people away and hired this guy instead.
You would think the clever thing to do would be to remove all traces of your portfolio once you got a job through stolen artwork?
As soon as someone is outed like this it's inevitable that their site will go offline although they seem to forget that the damage is done and the images have been saved locally.
This.
Or maybe it does, because he now directs versus creates? I had a friend around the same time with getting a job offer because of his bryce and poser work.
see dtschultz's post:
this is a very good point. if he fraudulantly got a job based on lies and deception then he doesn't deserve that job, regardless of whether he is going to get fired; maybe he is at work right now lifting art from people to hack together for actual work projects.. this leaves the studio wide open to lawsuits. maybe the studio don't deserve to get closed down because of one little shit?
This is really challenging since as an artist you are constantly inspired by artist around you. You might have seen some element of a piece you liked and you forget about it, and your working and suddenly things click and you do something similar. Its how your mind works, you remember stuff and you constantly use that as your reference. Borrowing ideas is inevitable. I will bet my ass that those ideas ALL artist borrow, have been borrowed from someplace else. These days, especially with the vast internet under our fingertips have become a pool of borrowed ideas.
Nothing is truly original.
Time to setup a hit-list. ;D
"Theft/larceny is typically defined as the taking of almost anything of value without the consent of the owner, with the intent to permanently deprive him or her of the value of the property taken. Most states recognize degrees of theft, such as "grand" or "petty," which usually relate to the value of the property taken."
This is clearly a case of blatant plagiarism, possibly fraud if used to gain employment.
Interesting that you mention fraud.
I wonder if a studio would sue a employee that got hired by having plagiarized work in their portfolio?
Lawsuits cost a lot of money, especially with the kind of lawyers big companies hire. Most likely, somebody like that would just be fired and shunned away from the industry.
Google Chris Runyon.