Watermarks and your art
polycounter lvl 19
I wrote this another piece for my blog. It seemed pretty straight forward. But I thought with all the people that come here when they are starting out it might not hurt to post this here. Again love to hear what you all think.
Watermarks should be on every image you make. The main reason being is that Art Directors, other Artists, and HR Managers will look at your work and often save images for reference or review at a later date. If your images are not named with your name in the filename (ex: yourname_building_01.) then they will have no idea who made the piece. The name of the file is also easily changeable so that cannot always be relied on. If something catches the eye of a person in a position to hire you everything should be done to make sure they know who made it and how to contact you.
Your watermark placement should not be obtrusive and take away from your piece. It is annoying to look at those watermarks as well. Now what if youre showing flat textures off? I do not think you need an obtrusive watermark on those either. If a company really wants to steal your texture then theyll find a way to do it. Its probably not wise to put up a texture pack of 40 textures with no watermark unless you have the intention of people using those in their work. Maybe 10 years ago that would have been more of a concern than it is today.
The actual watermark should also not be your initials, picture, logo, or dogs picture. Make sure to keep it simple, straight to the point and legible. Many of us lose sight of this because we treat our portfolio as a brand. There is nothing wrong with that approach. Aside from large fortune 500 companies logo recognition is difficult for companies and corporations let alone a singular Artist. Focusing on that takes away from time you could be spending making art.
So what kind of watermark should you have? Short answer is it should be your contact information (website, email, probably not your phone number or address though) at the top or bottom of your art sample. Put some way for someone to find who you are and how to contact you. Personally since my website and email address share the same URL (environmentartist.com) I just use my email. Now if your email is drinkingbeersmakingart@generichosting.com then probably that should not be in your watermark. Youll want to have your website name and maybe your email in your watermark (though get a more professional email address).
Previously I did not watermark my work my blog sketches, speed sculpts, and doodles. I watermarked work samples on my main portfolio site but not on my blog. My thinking on that was no one would actually want to save something from my blog. It was just my art ramblings. Keep things consistent and make sure that anything (even art doodles on a blog) can be traced back to you is smart. My current watermark is just a colored box with my email in it. That might change in the future, but for now it is not obtrusive and allows someone to contact me if they want.
With that all said if youre watermarking your work you need to make sure its something you want traced back to you. Your artwork will always get better then more you create art. So even older art is fine to have a watermark. You just might want to cycle the older work off your main site at a certain point.
Please post any comments or recommendations for watermarks below.
Watermarks should be on every image you make. The main reason being is that Art Directors, other Artists, and HR Managers will look at your work and often save images for reference or review at a later date. If your images are not named with your name in the filename (ex: yourname_building_01.) then they will have no idea who made the piece. The name of the file is also easily changeable so that cannot always be relied on. If something catches the eye of a person in a position to hire you everything should be done to make sure they know who made it and how to contact you.
Your watermark placement should not be obtrusive and take away from your piece. It is annoying to look at those watermarks as well. Now what if youre showing flat textures off? I do not think you need an obtrusive watermark on those either. If a company really wants to steal your texture then theyll find a way to do it. Its probably not wise to put up a texture pack of 40 textures with no watermark unless you have the intention of people using those in their work. Maybe 10 years ago that would have been more of a concern than it is today.
The actual watermark should also not be your initials, picture, logo, or dogs picture. Make sure to keep it simple, straight to the point and legible. Many of us lose sight of this because we treat our portfolio as a brand. There is nothing wrong with that approach. Aside from large fortune 500 companies logo recognition is difficult for companies and corporations let alone a singular Artist. Focusing on that takes away from time you could be spending making art.
So what kind of watermark should you have? Short answer is it should be your contact information (website, email, probably not your phone number or address though) at the top or bottom of your art sample. Put some way for someone to find who you are and how to contact you. Personally since my website and email address share the same URL (environmentartist.com) I just use my email. Now if your email is drinkingbeersmakingart@generichosting.com then probably that should not be in your watermark. Youll want to have your website name and maybe your email in your watermark (though get a more professional email address).
Previously I did not watermark my work my blog sketches, speed sculpts, and doodles. I watermarked work samples on my main portfolio site but not on my blog. My thinking on that was no one would actually want to save something from my blog. It was just my art ramblings. Keep things consistent and make sure that anything (even art doodles on a blog) can be traced back to you is smart. My current watermark is just a colored box with my email in it. That might change in the future, but for now it is not obtrusive and allows someone to contact me if they want.
With that all said if youre watermarking your work you need to make sure its something you want traced back to you. Your artwork will always get better then more you create art. So even older art is fine to have a watermark. You just might want to cycle the older work off your main site at a certain point.
Please post any comments or recommendations for watermarks below.
Replies
A simply adjustment of the levels in PS will pop them right out again.
The banner based Watermark is good for quick access and such, plus interest if people want to seek you out, but sites like DA where many peeps rip left and right, a little hide and seek works wonders.
What matters in the end is the ability to produce art on the spot as directed and present it - a thief can't do that.
Besides, I think more clever watermarks like a signature in the alpha channel or in a hidden area on a certain color channel would be better or maybe even some bone names as a big "FUCK YOU" to XNALara and Gmod porting assholes.
You only post your images online to show them either for WIP help, or for showing off.
There is no point in putting a layer of repeated text on top of the image you're trying to show. Likewise, putting your name, your URL and a point of contact is prudent to getting noticed and hired, or noticed by the community.
As for art thieves, the response from this art community in the past has been enough to make the fuckers take their website down, take the images down, etc, and it's a big enough community that the people that'll potentially hire them based off've someone else's work will have probably come through here at some point, for any number of reasons.
There was that one guy who'd stolen art that I can remember. After PC was through with him, googling his name took you to the forum thread that reported his art stealing. Most HR will google your name before offering you a position.
I totally agree its common sense Glynn. But I can't tell you how many people I see not doing it. I wrote it more for beginners.
I like the approach of just not caring about an overlay and letting the community deal with them. Seems like a sound approach.
I just stick my email address in the bottom right of the image in question.
I don't know about anyone else, but I find it pretty offensive when someone plasters a watermark all over an image... I want to see the details of the art, not a semitransparent name everywhere :P
I kind of see this like personal DRM, to a certain degree. It's right to secure your art, but if people are going to steal your stuff, they will do it anyway and is it really worth inconveniencing the people who your art is targeted toward? (HR peeps, Art leads and your peers).
People have to ask themselves if that super offensive watermark is worth not getting a job because the people that are hiring cant see your stuff or are put off by it.
I think it makes people look kinda paranoid too :P
The community is tight knit enough to shout a heads up, if they recognise some art that doesn't belong to the person posting it, so there really is little reason to over watermark images, imho
Dont you guys go to the interviews with your portfolio (As in, hard Collector's album containing copies of your works' (Non-watermarked)SS and (Non-watermarked)2d art and/or a USB and a laptop to show and talk a bit about your self constructed projects, your methods and set of skills) with a copy of CV and cover latter regardless?
If so, why bother worrying about watermark so much. =\
http://www.georgesokol.com/images/jet_image1.jpg
Maybe I should use my website name as well..
Althought I feel like a dbag posting pictures on here with my name displayed on it.
Can't say I'm all that worried about thieves...even if my work was stolen..it would piss me off, but I can prove its my work with the 100's of megabyes of unflatted texture .psds and all my WIP files..which I tend to have several incremental saves of..
Really...its just for exposure..and the hope that...if somebody came across the image anywhere other than my website..they might concact me and give me a jerb.
Its not to prove its mine during an interview...its to get my name associated with cool shit so I can get an interview.
@McGreed I do the hidden name in my personal texture work or as a sign or something in a scene. It's more fun that way. Have to watch that stuff professionally though.
@Nitewalkr Your stuff doesn't always get saved with your resume/CV though. My resume/CV is only available on request. I don't keep that up on my site. Also that stuff can get mixed up or misplaced. So why not take an extra step since it doesn't take long to make sure people know who made the art?
@gsokol What you're using is nice! It's way fancier than mine. Mine feels kinda lame now. You're right it helps with exposure so you can get the interview. Not to stop from people taking the work.
@Jessica Dinh Thanks Jessica! Totally right about not preventing theft. Look at all the DRM that software companies put in place. You can even get around DRM on a OS these days.
@Mefix Nice find! I'm gonna put that at the bottom of the piece if you don't mind. That is perfect. I could have just linked to that instead.
I like the watermark "behind" the object idea. Just not a huge one. And very subtle. You could also use trademark geo or textures on your models. Not trademark in the legal sense, but if Polycount were a person, having a running theme of your special sauce (being the PC logo) would be obvious if someone trade to pass it off as their own. I guess my point is, if you have a well established style, it's pretty easy to call BS.
I don't know, just brainstorming.
having the url makes me remember the website from where i saved it. so i can go and see if there is new art there.
I do like the Stradigo's idea of pixels in the corner. The only issue is, many of them simply crop the image to cut out any banners or such, so doing the couple of pixels change (for example, a small triforce) on your characters eye, or on the window, could work wonders.
Thankfully, with Googles and TinyEye's image search functions, easy art-rip is a thing of the past now, and more people simply put up and image and call themselves a fan as opposed "I did this, me and my team, we spend 10K hours, blargh".
Now 3D model ripping...that is a whole other story. I wish companies and artist alike would put a simple watermak on those.
I like it. Has a DaVinci Code kind of feel to it
As far as coming in with a hard copy & laptop - I did in the past and never ended up using them, I just give a narrated tour of my portfolio website.
I also have some print experience so I can't stand printing out low rez material
Yes to contact info.
Err, I take this back. Someone just decided to take my stuff and apply for a job with it. Which, although somewhat flattering, also kindof pissed me off lol -_-
Back in the early 80's when I was attending M.I.C.A my whole semesters worth of drawings were stolen right before finals/portfolio review. Thankfully my drawing teacher that year ( Karnes is still @MICA ) was very supportive of my work and Ace'd me on memory alone... However this is a decade before I did any Digital Graphic work ( not only did someone ace a grade off my work but all that hardcopy work was lost forever! )
I don't understand how someone that slimey can live with themselves. I would rather slit my own throat than live a talent lie.
I can only imagine these guys throw up when looking at themselves in the mirror.
jeffro - Haha, yeah, breakdowns would be a good thing to ask for. I know he didn't get to the interview phase, because the company found me before then, and informed me of what had happened. They just entered my image into a google search and it came up with one of my Polycount threads haha
SupRore, yeah, I don't plan to change anything about the way I label my images. I guess these kinds of things just happen sometimes, but it's still so shocking to me. I couldn't live with myself stealing someone's work!
I wonder how someone who pulls that shit expects their first day on the job to go.
Did they get the job?
[ame="
Rick - No, they didn't.
At a local college here in Dublin someone stole a load of art from the walls a the open day. Come applications time they applied with said pieces in their portfolio. I think some folks are too stupid to feel guilt let alone do the job.
Jessica: Your stuffs rather nice, I wouldn't be downing on it at all.