Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2025 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
Interesting answers and thoughts!
@ Ivy: I agree that Photoshop spot healing tool can remove signatures easily, though watermarks are harder to eliminate?
@ Wonderland: Watermark with your website and social media is a very good idea for promotions and marketing. I suppose it motivates them to look at your website for more artwork?
@Griffin Avid: Well said. I assume you are ok with people modifying your work?
@Hiro Protagonist: That is so optimistic of you.
@L'Adair: I absolutely agree! You got a case against them if they use your artwork without your consent.
@LeatherGryphon: Hidden and inconspicuous signature or pseudonym located somewhere in your artwork is clever. And so is reserving high resolution images privately. Presumably interested patrons will ask for them as they wish?
@Butch: Great! I didn't know that tumblr images can be blocked from being uploaded to pinterest. Thanks
@Griffin Avid: Well said. I assume you are ok with people modifying your work?
Depends on the situation. I say case-by-case basis. Daz used my gallery image for their freebies banner and I floated on clouds for a week. I must have screen-captured it a dozen times. Every time the store changed I grabbed a new screen-capture.. There was no credit or link or anything. I was happy as all get out.
A facebook group used one of my images for their banner. That's just awesome- an accomplishment, in a way.
I make instrumental music and release it- some of it is useable for placing vocals. Looking at the sales, I know somebody is making songs off that music. I came from a sampling background so I get it.
If someone passes off my stuff as their stuff, then I'd be offended.
I put a small title and date (year month) at the lower right corner with a non-offending colour, sometimes difficult to read. I made an object of my signature and place it somewhere in the scene with a matching or at least not very obvious colour. After a few weeks, I sometimes need quite a moment to find it myself.
In my past life I was a male dog. So, I tend to claim my territory
I sign every piece, but like LeatherGryphon, I conceal it in the work itself: along a beam, chair leg, wall edge, etc. I also post at about half the resolution of the original.
I never expect, nor have I found, any of my images being co-opted. But, then I also don't tend to do (read publish) "naughty" art or fan art. We have enough digital "Boris Vallejo" to handle that arena.
Like others, if someone were to approach me about an image and was willing to describe their intent, I'd likely give them the PSD so long as I see my name in the credits. I'd love to monetize this rather expensive hobby, but self-deprecation forbids it. That and my critical self has OCD, ADD, and several other acronyms that make publishing difficult.
I tend to sign artwork that I intend to post online.
Many many years ago, I regularly wrote film and TV reviews for a personal website. One fine day, I was doing some internet research on a sequel to a film I reviewed and discovered that . . someone had copy-and-pasted several of my reviews into a reviewing database under their own name. It wasn't flattering. I emailed the perp to remind him that copyright date and my name were the only parts of the original reviews he didn't copy-and-paste (he never responded, natch), and then emailed the webmaster/mistress a week later to notify them of the theft. The reviews were taken down soon after. I don't know if they were deleted by the powers-that-be or if the perp closed his account.
OMG !!! Ha Ha Ha , you sound just like my husband.
I sign my art, always have, even before using 3D stuff.
No I'm not kidding. My art is my art. Doesn't matter how much time I put into it nor the medium I used. If you don't sign your art, that's fine, to each his own.
I sign, it's just a carry over from when i draw, since i sign those too, it's not really about protecting because yeah, good luck with that on the internet. I'm not really sure though, what how talented you are or not has to do with whether or not you should sign. Gonna have to agree with the it may be garbage but it's my garbage :P
Not relevant (or maybe it kinda is) I do find it humorous when someone has clearly stolen someones work, didn't change a thing puts thier own signiture on the work and say in big bold letters DO Not STEAL!!111
Do as I say not as I do,
Thanks a lot for the Link, I'll have to take a closer look at that.
It may take the computer a few minutes to a few days to render a scene, depending on the complexity of the scene and the age/abilities of the computer hardware, but that doesn't mean the artist hasn't worked on the scene for weeks. I spent six weeks putting this one together, off and on, while working on stuff IRL; two straight weeks of nothing but on this one. And about two and half on this one, including the time in Hexagon to model the spray paint can in the background. (Rudimentary, but it got the job done.)
As I've said many times, "Art is Art, regardless of the medium." And the amount of time put into it is irrelevent, too. An artist's work is his/her own, and signing that work, (or not,) is a personal choice.
I'm sure there are people using Daz Studio to create images just for the fun of it, even in their own minds, the digital equivalent of crayon drawings from their childhood. But there are also accomplished artists using Daz Studio, (or other 3D software,) to create some of the most beautiful images I've ever scene. (And of course, the many of us in between, who strive to become one of those accomplished artists creating amazing, beautiful, images.)
Interesting thread.
I don't sign, though sometimes i wonder if i should. I don't feel like doing it yet though.
As for anti-pinterest war, it's complex. On the other hand i understand why you want to prevent your images being copied to pinterest (from position of author).
But i also remember cases (from position of audience) when pinterest copies were the one and only available images of something important which gone offline forever due to tumblr blog closing or site being abandoned etc. etc. Preservation matters. So, it's case to case individually.
A lot of good views on both sides of the coin have been expressed so far, but let me add one thing to the equation I believe some of you might be missing -- Age...
Some of us predate the internet age, and come from old school real world art where we are taught from the beginnig to sign our work for the public eye (not only commercial publication/monetary endeavours).
Some of you might have only been involved in art with digital 3D renderings, or digital art/painting/drawing/illustrations, so might not know/believe it could just be something carried over from previous art genres.
Next, is perception (with beliefs). You all place your own perceptions upon whatever you view, read, or experience. So, that factors in as well.
Personally, I sign my mediocre work, not for vannity, nor for admiration (or any of the other perceived negative connotations), but for ownership (just as I was taught way back in the 1970's).
As some here have already pointed out, it does serve to help identify who actually created the image/work (and publicized) first on the internet when there is a dispute of ownership.
I ususally sign everything I post. I don't care how long it took me to make, whether I created the character(s) myself, etc. It's mine. I'm signing. I put a ©, the year, and my name. That way if somebody removes it, they can hardly claim they didn't know any better.
I don't mind other people's signatures or watermarks in the least. As long as I can see the art, it's all good.
I started signing after I won things at the Other Place... it just seemed appropriate to honour my .002 seconds of fame with a name and date. I try to make it unobtrusive - I'm not that proud, I'm Canadian ;-)
I probably would never notice if someone used one of my images... I might be flattered if they cared enough to take one, I suppose, then annoyed that they couldn't at least ask. I have sold artwork before, though not digital work, and I always signed then, too. Looks sort of strange when you don't, IMHO. As others have said - it may not always be pretty, but it's mine. :-)
old school real world art where we are taught from the beginning to sign our work for the public eye
Back then, We used to sign the back of the canvass, never the front of the art piece itself.
I don't know if it's even possible to have a wrong answer or approach/attitude here.
If you go back to the early internet days, you had to have TWO VERSIONS of everything. The thumbnail was a must when bandwidth was limited. lol
Now, every site and social network can generate thumbnails and previews on their own.
And Google can reverse look up, where you give it a picture and it can find its source on the internet.
The biggest culprits seems to be people who take other people's art and use it on items like t-shirts.
I've seen a lot of that.
Some years back, I uploaded one of my first finished alleged artworks to a poster printing service so I could hang a big print of it on my wall. Following the advice of a couple of more experienced actual artists, I put my name and date in the lower left corner. A couple of days later I was shocked to discover that the printing service was offering prints of my picture (and those of other folks who had uploaded for prints) for sale on their website. It appeared that they had cropped out my name and the date. When I demanded they desist, they did so promptly. The poster-sized print they sent me was pretty good quality, but I never would deal with them again.
I have a lawyer friend that has done some copyright work, and he explained to me how Copyright Trolls prey on beginning (or even experienced) artists, and how difficult it can be to go after copyright thieves (unless you are Disney - they will hunt you down!) . Another beginning artist on a forum I frequented stumbled upon all of his renders on another site with someone else's name on them.
So, when I manage to get back to some alleged art, I intend to add a watermark, or a copyright line that is difficult to crop out. I will never be anything more than a hobbyist, but I will be darned if I will stand for anyone trying to profit from my stuff without my permission, and I sure don't want to have to fight a Copyright Troll for posting my own pictures!
Even though I wouldn't call myself an artist, and even though I hate watermarks, I do put a watermark on every single image I create. It's generally somewhere slap in the middle of the main subject, and it's generally very well obscured as a reflection or a scratchmark or something like that. It may be stretched or rotated somewhat, but always the exact same base design, in a manner that leaves it recognizable as the original design once you find it. The only way for someone who'd want to steal the work, would be by seriously degrading the quality of the image, or by spending several hours trying to find it and then manually removing it. If they are capable of the latter, then it'd probably be quicker for them to simply recreate the image from scratch.
If you make art, it is your artwork and worthy of your signiture.
If anyone steals your artwork and claimes it as thier own, they are a thief.
It does not matter what the medium is, your artwork is your artwork. Ease of theft does not make it any less of a theft.
My only concern is when someone else claims my work
it happened once on YouTube
I don’t have much of an issue with others using my videos but when they turn around and come after me claiming something I created it’s a whole different story
Yes I sign & date mine. A number of my pieces--usually character portraits but sometimes full scenes--accompany articles I write for a small games blog. My edtior--a published author--expects that when I use an image off the internet, instead or in addition to my own, that I give credit. "Copyright YYYY [Person/Company]" will be below the image or in a separate Credits section. If it's an actual public domain photo (as opposed to, "it's on the internet = free!"), the WordPress upload page includes a description box (not visible to readers) where I put a link to the photo site's public domain blurb/license.
So if I am giving credit to someone else, which is the right thing to do, I am going to credit my own work.
(Not that I think I am good enough someone would want to steal my work.)
Nope, I'm not a top artist, hence, no need to sign my crapworks...nobody will steal mines.
I started signing and using the DA watermark on DA because things got stolen and ended up on other websites.
Managed to take down most of it, but it takes time and effort.
I sign everything. Its my work, my effort, my imagination. Doesn't matter if its good or not.
I think that if people want to steal renders there are two kinds of them:
The first category will remove any logo in a matter of seconds, unless it's so ugly that it ruins the whole picture.
The second category couldn't fool anyone, since they would have such a strange gallery, with many different styles, that they would never go anywhere.
So, no, I don't sign my renders.
I see them on many websites where I've not posted them, but until they give me credit it's fine.
But my case is different, since I mostly do stories, and so they often repost the whole story.
Then, my standalone renders always feature characters from my stories, so it's pretty straightforward to understand if someone who's claiming them is not the real author!
I've put my initials on exactly one piece of my artwork. I was just so dang proud of it. Most of the stuff I made in my earlier days wasn't that great. I still have some things that turn out pourly. A lot of my stuff now, I'm pretty proud of and I'm starting to consider adding a signature of some sort to future artwork. I haven't completely decided yet. I haven't decided if I'll stick with my initials or an actual signature or not. Or maybe just sign everything Knittingmommy. It's a decision I'll probably make soon as I get better at what I'm doing.
Like @Ivy, for the moment, I don't really care if anyone uses artwork of mine I've posted on various sights. Most is mine is unsigned and I doubt anyone would want to steal it anyway. The stuff I'm making for commercial use is a different matter. There are things I'm creating that I intend to keep the copyright to and sell the commercial rights. While I'm selling the use of my artwork, I'm keeping the copyright so I would hope anyone using that artwork has legaly purchased it.