things

@zook: about characters and people making knockoffs

neowae:

i really dislike being told my anger about this topic isn’t justified — being stolen from in any way shape or form isn’t and never should be regarded as any form of flattery, and i think it’s somewhat insulting to be told that i should feel great about someone else ripping off something i may be especially proud of

people say you shouldn’t care and should be flattered, but does that change how you feel deep down? nope. not happening. you’re still going to feel vaguely cheated, unjustified or not, and it’s subjective.

i have run into the situation before with characters of my own that weren’t very original at all.

back in the days when i had my ~rainbow hyena~ candypop, after his creation, quite a handful of people who i was well aware that watched my art had made very similar characters, calling them things like ‘sodapop’ or ‘__pop’ or ‘candy’ etc and it was just like i dunno man. even if rainbow furries are probably the most unoriginal thing ever, i felt dirty to have my character after that, because i just wound up feeling like some trend setter or fad bumper and the character no longer became enjoyable for me, because not only were they carbon copying his looks, my art was starting to get traced, my pictures stolen, and it got way out of hand.

it’s true that i can’t stop people from doing it. i won’t even bother saying anything to them anymore because i know it’s not my place. but to be told i’m not in my right to at least be angry, even if i don’t even say anything about it, pisses me off.

if someone asked me if they could make a character based off of livius, i would probably be skittish to reply, because i don’t want to govern them on how to make their character, and i don’t want to just say ‘yeah sure’ and then turn around and see livius minus his orange hair streaks or something.

he’s just a harpy owl/swallow mix with a subtly indian wardrobe (sometimes), but he’s my baby.

i should be allowed to covet what i’m proud of, and so should you.

the only time i would ever speak up about it, is like what happened a few months back — someone very, very blatantly ripped off a design i was commissioned for to the T (neon blue/green/silver spider boy i mean cmon how many of those do you see floating around) and tried to sell it. that, well, that boiled me something fierce. not only was it a character in someone else’s possession, but they paid for it. they didn’t pay for some asshole to steal what we collaborated to make, and then go make money off of it themselves.

BLAH BLAH BLAH EXTREME FEELINGS ABOUT CHARACTERS

i don’t really mind if people lose respect in me for these views, but they’re what i feel and i won’t readily be convinced of them, because this controversy has been around since the dawn of time and i’m very firm on my stand.

TL;DR

inspiration and unoriginality/laziness only have a very thin thread of a boundary between them sometimes, it’s one thing to be inspired by a few attributes of a character, but don’t just chop off an arm and call it yours. even if an artist doesn’t admit it, it’s almost always insulting.

O.. KAY BYE runs

pretty much all of this dang

“if someone asked me if they could make a character based off of livius, i would probably be skittish to reply, because i don’t want to govern them on how to make their character, and i don’t want to just say ‘yeah sure’ and then turn around and see livius minus his orange hair streaks or something.

he’s just a harpy owl/swallow mix with a subtly indian wardrobe (sometimes), but he’s my baby.”

THIS IS EXACTLY HOW I FEEL ABOUT DENBY WOW like i know he’s nothing special and i’m not like stands defensively over his mediocre design and digs at ground with hoof snorting like a boar protecting her young but i’d still be bummed out if i was like “ok go ahead” to someone asking me if they could make a “denby inspired” character and then it was like denby with green hair or something??

like

i’m sorry but if you intentionally copy someone’s design/aspects of their character there is a big chance you will upset them and make them feel disheartened about their character unless they have like

a will of steel

and it’s just not very nice ok……

(Source: jegilal)

Posted 3 months ago — 35 notes