I dont know if this is the correct place to post this in but i dont know who to ask this.
Is it legal to use someone else modeling techniques and/or art style?, specifically Im talking about a popular mmd modeler known as TDA, to create his characters he uses big eyelashes, colorful textures, etc, I create a model of my own using the same techniques, art style and similar proportions but i used those to create my own character, it is not an edit since i made it using blender yet im worried because i dont know how copyright works in this situation.
A few examples of things that look similar in my model are:
-the eyes (I used exactly the same mesh here since the effect it creates adds more depth).
-the highlights on the eyes (not the same mesh yet same technique of separate materials from the eyes).
-the ears (placed proportionally exactly at the same place where the tda model ears are, meaning that the distance between the eyes and ears is exactly the same).
-the textures on the face and body are similar but i painted them using a softer style (the shadows are proportionally in the same place).
Everything else from the face to the hair, body and animations is my original character.
I can include pictures of both the tda model im using as reference and my model if needed.
Yes, but you can’t copy them verbatim, but you may make them similar enough so that it’s clear what inspired the style. You can’t take the models from those game(s) if they’ve been extracted from the game and make minor cosmetic changes and call it you original model.
Yeah, it’s perfectly OK to mimic some else’s style. Artists do that all the time. As long as you actually create all of your models from scratch then you’re fine.
And probably as you make more things then you will find yourself tweaking a bit here and smidge there until one day you realize that you’ve developed your own style. Then someone can imitate you.
It you make something from scratch it’s ok to use it as long as the design is not trademarked.
Even if you make something that looks similar to the original it’s still ok [as long as your model doesn’t have the exact same vertices and your textures don’t have the same pixels, otherwise you can’t prove that you didn’t just copy the original].
If you edit an existing model then that’s not ok to use.
You can’t copyright styles or ideas. Only actual final products. So, believe it or not, you can use whatever style you like.
And if you’re talking about TDA who’s associated with Hatsune Miku models, then as @neoshaman said, it is cookie-cutter manga/anime style, nothing special.
Copyright only applies to original models, as long as you’re making things from scratch, you’re fine.
That’s not a style. That’s a whole character. The character is obviously Goku. IIRC Goku is a property of Toei. So, of course it is going to be rejected, unless you have actual permission from whoever owns rights to Goku.
For the same reason you won’t be able to plug in hatsune miku into something you plan on selling, but you could easily make another generic anime girl with extremely long twin tails instead.
You can’t use someone else’s characters for commercial purposes without permission. Meaning you can’t sell batman or goku or one punch man on asset store.However, you can use someone else’s art style. Art style means proportions, eye/body types, etc.
It might be OK but I’d advise caution, remember Nintendo sued the pants off that Vietnamese guy who made Flappy Bird for copying the pipes from the Super Mario games?! And also way back in the late 80s there was a game called Great Giana Sisters, which was almost a direct clone of Super Mario, so Nintendo ordered US Gold to stop making copies of it.
If you didn’t take their data, you’re fine. If techniques or art styles could be copyright then I would promptly commit seppuku, because living in a world like that would be too unfathomable for me.
In that you were not copying the style of DragonBall Z, you were copying it’s design. If you had not used the words “Dragon Ball” and you had changed the color and cut of the clothing then you could have made an argument that you were just copying the style, but by making it visually identical to the original you ended up copying the design instead.
Here’s an example of someone who copied a style.
This is a French animation student’s project that is done in the style of Hayao Miyazaki. Watching it you get a real sense that this would fit in perfectly in a Miyazaki film, but nothing in it is taken directly from Miyazaki save for the appearance of one character who seems to be modeled after Miyazaki himself.
It’s important that specific cloth design is also a problem when making original character do not steal (oc), most dragon ball OC mimic the very specific cloth design while changing hair style and head features (namek garb, sayan tight, kame senin tunic). Don’t do that, the difference can be tenuous but the kame senin in white (with a different logo) is just a regular martial art.
Though even if legal, public frown or mockery might still be a marketing issue. Some style are just too strong to be generic like sonic (ironically is an evolution of the old generic 50s cartoon on the style of early mickey), dragon ball, simpson, etc …
It just occurred to me it may have sounded like I was saying that as a rule of thumb. I was only saying that in regards to the OP said he did, in terms of copying things like the highlights in the eyes. I wasn’t condoning the dragon ball thing. If the dragon ball thing was legally okay I would also sepuku. So somewhere in between copying the highlights in the eyes and copying every exact detail including the title, I live happily lol.
