Sunday, November 22, 2009

UPDATE! Don't copy other people's work.

(UPDATE!) Looks like we have another winner (or loser, depending on your point of view)!



Here you can watch my original: Battery Bunny

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Someone (thanks you-know-who-you-are) sent me a tip that another animator decided to copy one of my animation clips.

I guess I should be flattered, but it should be pretty clear to anyone to NOT copy other people's work. My clip is from 2005 (the copy is from 2008) and I won't use it on a reel anymore, so the impact of the person stealing my clip is very minimal.

But still. It's pretty much a 1-to-1 copy. The funny thing is, the animator even used my sound clip. I took a longer section and re-edited to make it shorter and that's what the animator used as well.

Please make an effort to be original Aysha Khan.

37 comments:

Zack said...

That's ridiculous! I mean, I can understand copying someone else's animation strictly as an exercise, to try and figure out how it was done (and it'd certainly be flattering to have your work used as reference that way). But putting it in a showreel and not giving credit? What a stupid and dishonest thing to do.

Anonymous said...

Holy Crap!

Rico said...

Animation FAIL!

Anonymous said...

Its very wrong of this guy to copy an animation, not to mention the fact that the point of animation is to give clear, simple acting with an original twist. At least if you are going to copy someone someone do it well...this wasn't even done well...

Adam Strick said...

I can't believe this still happens with the amount of animators out there complaining about it. When I see a test that I know was copied from another I'm just wondering where they copied all their other tests from. Here's another I found just a few minutes ago:

Original from Jason Ryan's webinar:

http://www.jrawebinar.com/october_framebyframe.htm
(Final shot at the end)


Copy is the first thing on this guy's reel:

http://darrellv-animate.com/reel/Demo_Reel.html
(I had to download the reel to see it)


There are subtle differences but I think this still falls in the same category. I guess some students don't understand that those work flow webinars are there to show how the animator works and NOT a step by step process on how to recreate the piece of animation they're doing. It's like the guy looked at it as a tutorial and then just pasted it on his reel.

Going about it this way completely contradicts the reason to create a demo reel: proving that you have the skills/talent required to be an animator; good posing, staging, timing, spacing, acting, etc..., and obviously they don't understand that. The one thing that it does prove is they're not as good of an animator as the one they copied off of.

Hammy said...

Woahh.. I guess thief can really come in all forms and sizes. I used to have my drawings ripped off on art community, and it's amazing people are ripping off other people's animation more and more as time goes, with the medium becoming broader...

But copying a professional animator's work and putting it in his own demo reel? That is painfully embarrassing. When will people learn?

Ajit Singh Yadav said...

Did he copied your animation ?
No i don't think so, he is not even so good enough to copying it, he try to rip off animation but he didn't archived that quality animation he thought off.

well get inspire or learn from other, But Don't blindly try to copy it.

Anonymous said...

Very bad idea to put a copy of someones animation on your reel but artists as apprentices use to copy there mentors work all the time as a way to practice and sharpen there skills. I don't see the difference with this exercise.

What are your thoughts on this? Is copying animation ,say 10 seconds from feature film a good way to learn?

Yeah, but REALLY bad idea to put it on a show-reel!

Eric said...

DOn't worry JD, I only steal stuff of yours from Transformers and Star Wars :) Thats ok right lol

Andy said...

Apparently this kind of thing happens a lot overseas, particularly in India, where this person is from if you read their youtube profile.

A week or so ago some co-workers were talking about finding copies of their reel pieces on youtube and even being contacted by some of the copyists asking them to check out their work. It seems as though there are animation schools in India who teach the students to find good reels, particularly AM student reels, and copy the exercises. I guess they just have different ideas of what's acceptable.

SEB said...

Ehhhh no comment !

Michael Mahy said...

Weird people those from the east. Anybody seen the Presto rip? http://www.cartoonbrew.com/cgi/chinese-rip-off-of-presto.html

Insane.

Luke Burnet said...

copy of Presto ? but why ? ahahahaha lol :D Peoples from China copy all stuff in the world :)

AnimatedTarun said...

wow the first shot is amazing! Who did it? oh! I remember, It was ME! :)
In my case it's not even a copy, she simply picked the whole video.

http://animatedtarun.com/animation.htm

at 41 sec. mark, I changed the rendering. Thanks Jean and Sushant for making my day. ha ha!

P.S- Nice blog Jean, Bookmarked! :)

Sushant Dholakia said...

OMG!! The first clip is a my brother-in-law's (Tarun Sharma) WIP animation. He stole the animation clip and has made it his demo piece.
Epic Fail!

.Louaye. said...

This is so NOT cool !

Sumanth Marda said...

ooh my god!!! It gets WORSE JD! I was just about to mail you regarding THIS same issue! I found a copy of your "battery bunny" on someone's reel!!!

here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hx2aEPrNhU

This is sooo BAD.

Jean-Denis Haas said...

Wow, thanks Sumanth, two in a week, and this guy is from July 2009! I hope this doesn't continue to the point where I can't post my stuff anymore. :)

Anonymous: It doesn't matter to me if you copy things in order to learn, just keep the copies at home.

Anonymous said...

Its just so crazy that they are copying the clip down to the sound/set/detail and they still are completely missing the life/point/personality that makes the animation.

Skellybobbly said...

This is crazy and more than a little worrying.

I saw a reel recently that had a piece very similar to one of my own but these ones are just awful copies.

I'd hate it to get to the stage that people stop posting their work online for fear of it being copied.

Bernie Warman said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bernie Warman said...

JD,

There are copies of your work all over the net. I just found this on:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYMmXzik6VQ

What type of person post this things?
If you are reading this, STOP STEALING other people animation!!!!

.Louaye. said...

Oh my god it's all over youtube!

Omer Rana said...

The one posted by Bernie is kind of funny really! its SOooo bad :) Unfortunately things like this will always happen. That is the way of the internet. Cant do much about that.

Bernie Warman said...

I agree Omer. It's not only a bad level of animation but the characters are also not appealing at all.

Here is the link again:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYMmXzik6VQ

Hammy said...

Hahaha HOLY crap you guys!!!!!

I guess not only there are thieves in the lab but also character rig thieves *cough cough cough*. Maybe we should inform the school faculty of this so we can post warning posters everywhere with scary eyes staring warning about it.

Lisa said...

oh for the love of... ! wait, hey bernie, that link you sent.. i think we know chung lee ken... doesnt he go to our school? i think i saw some of his stuff in the spring show folder...

anyway, even if its a terrible copy at least the rigs are kind of interesting... does anyone know if those are available for free online? im having trouble finishing my thesis, maybe i can use those characters in it...

Jing Qi said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jing Qi said...

chung lee ken... does he come to blue sky lab quite often?

.Louaye. said...

Jing, your avatar is AWESOME!

Anonymous said...

Well... I don't see any contact info anywhere on it or the user's youtube info page, and it's hardly of professional quality even apart from the copying.

Someone (likely a kid) is trying to learn animation and/or software by taking a simple-looking clip and trying to replicate it themselves. I guess posting it online is crossing some line, but on the other hand, so what? There are plenty of videos of teens lipsynching pop tunes on there too; while it violates copyright it's hardly as though they are trying to "steal" from Lady Gaga or whomever. Take the mild compliment and move on, sheesh.






it looks like the work of someone who is just learning their way around the software and decided to post it on online. So what?

Jean-Denis Haas said...

Well, the moment you copy someone else's work and pretend that it's yours on a show/demo reel, then it becomes a problem.

Dew said...

Holy!!
This is definitely a serious problem. It's the reason I alway concern to post my stuffs on the public community. The clip JD post is definitely frame by frame copy. I agree that it's ok to learn and practice but to put it on the reel? come on!

About chung lee ken's clip. It's funny that he said the idea is his too. Man! what a shame. If he really comes to our school, can we talk to anyone about this. I mean, I has a friend that her works are copied by another student and she's really hurt. I don't want that to happen to anyone in our school.

Ajit Singh Yadav said...

what do u say when is copied from Pixar,Dreamworks or AM reels from models to animation.

http://edu.hxsd.com/videos-10-32.html

Anonymous said...

@ANDY:
i agree with everyones views above bout the copyin etc etc...
but; to say that in india students are taught to copy reels(somewhat true);
if u put such things up on a public forum,it generalises the image of the indian animator!
its not fair for ppl like me;who on the other hand are working very very hard to make a good(original) reel.

i agree with u otherwise, :) ive had my ideas ripped off too! :)

Unknown said...

I just don't understand. I half (stress half) could understand a "fan mash up" or something. However, to say your an artist, and also try and get work with another persons work is beyond wrong. You'd be surprised by the stuff that people will rip off too. Some of it is actually horrible work. So if I can give these jerks any credit, it's that they have taste in what they rip off!

Shaofu Zhang said...

KHAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!