Sculpting over Daz characters and selling them?
awoerjawi
Posts: 0
in The Commons
So i know that its not legal to export let's say Victoria 8 mesh as obj/fbx whatever and sell it, but what if someone actually sculpts it and change it's appearance, does it still counts as a daz model? Can daz identify it? Is it legal to sell it?
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It will still not be legal, as it will still count as a derivative of the original geometry. The PAs who make new characters are using morphs and distributing in such a way as to make the purchaser need to have the original content on their machine in order for the new content to work,
If you use others' morphs, other than merchant resoruce sets in some situations, as the basis for your morph then when you bring the shape back into DS as a new morph you need to enable the Revrse Deformations option - that will separate your changes into a new custom morph which can then be applied on top of the other morphs to give the intended final shape, while still requiring the user to have the other morphs themselves
So how can i prove that my character is original? Or any other 3d artwork? I mean there are milions of chairs for eg. If i made one how can someone tell it was made from scratch by me and it wasn't someone's else chair modified? Same with characters/human figures, etc.
You asked what was allowed, not what someone might get away with. In any event, it would not do to underestimate the ability of an artist to spot their own work.
How do you prove your work is 100% your work - you KEEP "all" your working files. This is what I have read of modelers doing because that was what was required in court. Yes people can recognize their own work AND, after you've been working with enough different models, so too can many other people recognize whose work they are working with. A little like hand-writing, everybody has their own style as it were. AND there are programs to read files most deligently.
Hand-writing is quite a good example. When you look at some of the more known/better selling character creators in the store, you can immediately spot, for quite some of their creations, who the creator was. Dark skin, light skin - that might not even matter as well. Examples are Mousso, SASE, Rarestone, Lyoness, P3D etc... each PA has a kind of "character DNA", and all the their characters inherit some or all of it.
I have created a character myself, no "foreign" morphs. But you would immediately spot it as a Mousso character, because I used a Mousso skin on it.
Legally and morally, you wouldn't need to prove that your character is original. The burden of proof would be on someone to demonstrate that your work is derivative of theirs. In all likelihood, making a derivative model and then erasing every telltale sign of someone else's work would involve so much labor that it would equal or exceed the labor needed to create a wholly original model. Remember, a digital derivative would almost certainly exhibit evidence of the original work in its coded information, even if that coded information didn't have a visible effect on the model when seen in, for example, Daz Studio.
I do sometimes wonder how clothing can be created while following the exact letter of the license agreement. But usually only when I'm feeling exceptionally pedantic.
This is the way I see it: The clothing has to be made so that it'll fit on the outside of G8F/M, so, there must be a void inside the clothing which can only be G8F/M mesh derived to prevent intersection with the figure - if it wasn't derived from the figure, then intersection wouldn't be prevented or the clothing would be so baggy as not to be applicable to G8F/M. This void, as it's derived from the G8F/M mesh, must also count as a mesh derivative too when following the exact and literal wording of the license. Furthermore, the clothing is rigged to work with G8F/M using rigging transfer from G8F/M. Which must also be derived from DAZ intellectual property.
It's at that point I throw up my hands & start doing something else. But I hope you can see my slight concern about clothing and rigid application of the license.
Regards,
Richard.
The clothing also has the joint centres and a projection of the weight of the base figure. Daz allows derivative add-ons which (mainly) require the base figure for use (of course you could just hang the clothes in a closet or drape them over the furniture, or convert them to another figure with an effort, but those are not the main uses of the content).
Daz releases characters with the assumption that they could have hair, be clothed, hold props, etc., so there's nothing wrong with making clothes, hair, or props to fit characters: They supplement the character. The issue would be taking someone else's article of clothing, such as a jacket, altering it's geometry (adding/removing lapels, buttons, etc.), retexturing it, and then presenting it as original work. The "new" jacket is then distributed as a product competing with the original.
The problem with threads like this, is that a user should already know that trying to sell someone elses work, in whole or part is completely wrong, ethically, morally and legally.
If there is any discussion on how to tell, then that is just a discussion on how to get away with it IMO.
+1
This...
This.
Some people seem to make a good living out of it. I know somone on CGtrader, seems to kitbash and re-texture. I bought one of there models and reported it. It got taken down but many more remain
If your figure has the same mesh and rig as G8F, then your figure is... just a morph of G8F. So, you need to made new rig and retopology of new figure. But if you can do this properly, then why do you need G8F at all? ;).
There are many ways to prove that a model isn't your own. Aside from the original artist knowing their signature style, there's also wireframes that are a dead giveaway, the skeleton is a dead giveaway, UV maps can be a dead giveaway, and even textures can be a dead giveaway. There's no escaping it. If you really want to sell a model, you're forced to actually do the work like every other artist. My advice to you: Don't do it. You will get found out. No one is an exception to this, and those who do it regardless fall into one of two categories: The idiots, or the desperate.
My signature is on all my work. It's put where it can't be seen unless you go looking for it, was done on purpose so people don't complain a model of mine has something wrong with the mesh. It's harder to do with textures, but it is doable. I never liked watermarks because it interfere's with how a picture looks, highly distracting, so had to find a new way to add my signature to pictures as well, and again, very doable.
One "signature" I found in somebody's model long time back was precious. It was for a sphere. Now many 3D programs can make a sphere. Their sphere came with some textures for a planet or moon or something ... so anyhow, he put a butterfly inside :-)
+1
yep.
On the subject of using someone eles's work, if I use the Daz horse's coat to make a long haired version for the horse with the new hair system, could I sell that? I know that the texture artist is the artist for the newer Hivewire horse- her name is on the textures. Do I need to ask for her permission?
I'm no pirate, but a friend is already interested in getting it for her horse, and it seems like feebies are frowned apon- maybe I'm just clueless, but I find the whole thing quite confusing as to what is copyrighted and how, when it comes to models and textures.
I might be understanding you incorrectly, but you don't need the texture map to make a SBH preset for the horse, you build SBH off the base mesh.
You could sell a Strtand based hair set for the horse, but not the textures or the model it self. As Scorpio says, that wouldn't be necessary anyway.
I always use Reverse Deformations when I'm making my own morphs because that's what all the tutorials say to do. You're the first person to say what Reverse Deformations does! Thanks. I always wondered how the morphs I make ended up as separate and needing the base without including it. Now, I know.
vertex order, number and placement. No two meshes are exactly alike, especially those made by different artists.
I wanted to use the eyes and interior of the ears- since the ears never look right n the strand based animals that I've seen
if your export a model to zbrush and use it as a base for sculpting and it has a completely different set of UV's and looks completely different to the model you exported then im pretty sure theres no problem with that.
Pretty sure, but very wrong. No matter how much you modify it, you are still inherently creating a derivative work, and any redistribution would be in breach of licence terms.
Matt_Castle is correct.
There are softwares to compare model's vertex points and polygons. It all comes down to numbers and decimals. Ripped off content can be easily detected.