ATTN:Professionals... ANOTHER ART THIEF is attempting to gain jobs with stolen work

[Jason Manley]

i received this email today.

after the whole chris runyon mess I am surprised to hear about another fraudulant artist trying to scam developers.

www.conceptart.org/fraud2 ....this may be some of your work.

ALWAYS CHECK REFERENCES. This is the ONLY way to know if you are being scammed.

here is the email i recieved.........along with a PM sent from the reporting member............................................ ........

Greetings, I need your help

I'm currently a part of a small game development group. Recently an artist has joined us and posted some sample artwork he claims to have done. I became a bit suspicious about some of the paintings but finally today I have some evidence that there is something wrong. He posted an artwork that is the same exact artwork found in this post:

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sh...&threadid=11798

I was wondering how I can try to track down some of the other paintings he's submitted to verify he is indeed stealing work from other artists?

Thank you.

..........................

Greetings,

Further investigations have confirmed at least 8-9 pieces having originated from conceptart forums. Here is an attachment of most the pieces he submitted.

The perpetrator's name is Harold Mahuguana. (hopefully the name is real since most of the other information he provided was false) He claims to originate from Manila, Philippines. He links to a website called www.nurvstudios.com.

He has used 2 forum names called nurvstudios or inferno on our boards. (HE IS USER NAME "diablo" on conceptart.org)

Here is the artworks were were able to match up.

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?threadid=11957&highlight=sasquatch

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?threadid=11798&perpage=20&pagenumber=1

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?threadid=2215

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?threadid=2215&perpage=20&pagenumber=2

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?threadid=2215&perpage=20&pagenumber=4

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?threadid=11656

I would like to take the opportunity to say that conceptart.org is a great community/resource for artists. I love seeing the work displayed on the forums but I would also recommend that some sort of watermark be placed on artworks in the future to prevent theft. Alot of time and resources have been spent by my team dealing with this issue. I want to prevent other companies/teams from wasting valuable time in the future. (note----is it possible to have code that puts a CA logo on the image when it posts on the forums?----jason)

In regards to this thief, he has been ejected from the team.

I thank you for your response and help.

Kanhong

[heiesuke]

that's sad and shameful..a good way to get blacklisted eh

[Jason Manley]

yes it is...world wide. its funny how small the world becomes with the internet. the concept art field is very very very small. this kind of behavior is not tolerated and is easily discovered.


j

[Mysen]

okay its one thing to be influenced by artwork.. but my Lord.. what are these peopel thinking just outright stealing arwork.. duh.. come off it people

Thanks for posting this suff Jason



Jamie McNulty (mysen)

[Joachim]

geez, I didn't know it was that serious. I found 3 of mine in there, I posted these just a couple of days ago and allready he has managed to add it into his portfolio - unbelievable. Wish I had his email adress, so I could do harass him in some way.

Jason, thanks for making sure he didn't get the job.

There's only one thing that always make me a bit more calm when I see stuff like this. I know that if he would get the job, he would make a laugh out of himself once he start creating his own work. Another thing is that if he would have used the art for any printing or commersial context he would be sued by the people that has bought and own the art.

[NOOSE]

man nothing makes my blood boil hotter then this type of thing!

It dosnt take an artist to tell that this guy has way to many different styles in his portfolio.....I was curiose, what is involved in hiring an artist,? step by step? ...I can usualy spot an artist who has inconsistancys at a mile away or even those that borrow from photo`s and not mention it, Ive even in the last few months have seen a handfull 3d modles with photoshop paint overs that were being passed off as fully painted, no refs? and sometimes on a lightly blured photo background,....Ive seen "photo realistic" body`s attached to heads with one eye twice the size of the other,..the kind of mistakes that someone who can pull off a photo realistic body doesnt make.


I think that if you are hireing someone you would make them draw or paint infront of you, or if you are hireing someone over the internet give the guy 1 day to come up with a painting or sketch of an Idea that you pull off the top of your head just to check out his speed and if he can do it without ref,...like say I dont know, maybe a cyborg cow with an army of mutated turnips driving dune buggys made of cheeze behind him,....lets see the fraud fake his way out of that bag! these fakes almost make getting in the industry look too easy!?? and I often wonder about the ones that dont get caught because they can put out just below average art, to sneak by, but got the position based on a hand full of hard working nobodys well above average work?.

I wanst kidding either about the hireing process? how it done or is their a thread here that has a detailed breakdown of whats involved? just to see how these cons get as far as they do! :)

ahh that felt better ... I think Ill go punch a kitten for a while

.....kidding I like kittens. :)

[grinn]

What the hell? Again? Do people really think they can pull this off? I mean, does anyone pay attention to the complete inconsistancies in the work? Its amazing how this keeps happening. I am almost glad that my work isnt the kind of caliber people would be wanting to steal.

[al-x]

But this guy must have been really stupid. There are peolple in the game industry visitning these forums, and to steal someones art, like for example Joachims, that's been posted so recently. And in the case of Joachim, I'm guessing is going to or has been published. He's just begging to be caught.

Thank god that these kind of people, for the most part, are slackers and will eventually be exposed...

[adien]

I'm a little stunned that this happened again so fast. much of the art in this guys portfolio was just posted here within the last few weeks.

makes me think that he actually got the idea from the stuff that was happening with chris runyon. but why would anyone steal a scam that was busted and didn't work? doesn't make much sense to me.

the biggest thing that perplexes me, and a few people have mentioned this.. how do they think they will be able to keep the job? The industry that they are trying to scam their way into is a place where you have to prove your ability time and again. If you don't have the skills to back up your portfolio, you're not going far.

Personally, I hope to someday be able to work in the industry, although I think I have many years ahead of me before that will happen. But the thought of stealing others work to create a portfolio had never even crossed my mind. Not only is it not logical, as you are sure to get busted... but from a moral standpoint... Oi

Well, it's reassuring that this guy got caught so fast. Maybe anyone else considering this course will now think twice.

[Carnifex]

i don't get what people expect to gain from these actions.if they're said to do a crazy concept noone has done before they're like sooo caught.what do these people have in mind?don't they ever think of the consequences happening to their actions?i just don't get it.good this one's been caught.:rolleyes:

[Payback]

It's sad that people do this since it can make developers want to actually check all the artwork of new artists to make sure they're not posers and thieves...

I hope this "trend" stops, sooner rather than later.

[Kortez]

Artwork thiefs are sad pathetic lowlifes!!

I think someone should do a comic book about a superhero who stops art thiefs and brings them to justice!

I' was thinking of something like "Supermanley".... has a nice ring to it, right?

Art theft makes me :mad:

[faithrenee]

Art thieves have no respect for themselves or others. It makes it harder for every honest person out there to get a job because it makes companies paranoid. This is really common in 3d industry too. How many people really like taking tests to get a job?
An interviewer at a company should be able to determine who is honest and who is not by asking key questions and looking at the work for inconsistencies. Unfortunately, alot of interviewers may not have enough experience to determine this.

I am really glad that this time the interviewer did expose him!
Thanks!!!! You rock!!!

[Jason Manley]

my apologies to DIABLO....this fraudulant user is named diablo. in the confusion I put the wrong email addy.

[darkcult]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/155000/images/_158853_combustion_300.jpg

BURN BABY BURN!!!
:mad:



P.S. >Jason Manley---->:chug:

[chao]

oh.. not again!!!:mad: :mad: how many people will do this crap things!! oh.. just wondering.. isn't better if people in the industry at least ask for original sample in the interview process.. like just to show something that is original.. (pencil, ink ... etc).... uhhh this issue is getting bad.. thanks for posting this, jason!

[gekitsu]

jason, it's good you make everything public.
enough cases of art thievery ending up in a (almost) worldwide public blaming should teach people not to do.

i love the idea of supermanley, btw :) i vote for him having a feline companion ;)

[Mysen]

I dunno.. i vote for thw whole. When you interview have a testing process.. get them to do things right then and there.

I mean i would rather have someone come in and show a portfolio.. then give them a test right on thespot. i mean.. shows they can handle pressure. and shows they can do the work they bring with em. mind you ya have to be a tad lenient with them for the time it takes for the sketc/test/whatever...

[Rockman]

Thanx Jason for posting his e-mail...He'll be lucky if he only get 20 or 30 mails a day..

[Atmospheria]

GOD DAMN!!! There are two of my sketches there!!!
elves_sketches[1].jpg and orc_hero_sketch[1].jpg !!
NOW I'M PISSED OFFFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :mad: :mad:
Find him immadiately and burn him in hell fire!!!

[chudzta]

edit: wait maybe its nurv not nury. lol. o well . shut up chudds
edit2:did any1 go to nurvstudios. why the hell is he using davi's avatar. what an idiot


RUNYon NURY.. i dunno that looks iffy tho i have no clue who runyon is to begin with other than a bad person.

Thankfully someone caught this one..

[Fisa]

I have no idea where to even start looking, but I have been to sites that do not allow you to copy the images by right-clicking.

If I can find further info or if anyone here has info could they plese elaborate on it?

[Big-Dave]

Frost had quite a clever idea for stopping richt-click and save as. Use a java script to open a new html document with the picture as the background. That way right-clicking doesn't work (hope he doesn't mind me posting his idea)

As for SuperManley, maybe we have an idea for the next Thunderdome? :D

To the guy that caught him and Jason for letting us know :chug:

[JoshuaTheJames]

Along with many of you I extremely value being able to gaze at the net and see some many artists and watch their progress. As easy as it is to steal artist's work it seems with such competent on-lookers we are in good hands when it comes to catching on to fraud.

Thanks guys,
-Joshua





As for the person who is to blame... if you are reading this..Its sure as hell time to wise up. You know damn well submitting and getting jobs off of work more competent then your own will bring nothing but shame. The work place is ten times more ruff than sitting at home doodling out your our work. And when it comes down to it even a good artist may have trouble preforming under pressure. How actually do you think you would do?

We all make mistakes but, my friend you made a large one. I don't have to tell you the benefits of hard work, just please learn from your mistakes, move on, and progress...

Whelp fella's I'm off to listen to some Frank Sinatra and do some comic book class homework ;)

[McNallyism]

Haha! Joachim, Kress, and Fuzion, you're nobody until someone rips you off, right? I think we need new titles for those who have had their art stolen...its almost a status symbol!

congradulations guys (sort of...)

-Sean

[Atmospheria]

what did u mean by that mcnally?
"you're nobody until someone rips you off"

isn't suitable for a pro...

[tyboogie]

Why dont employers ask artists if they have the original files--or atleast PS and painter files above 72 dpi? if you can provide teh original files then your probably not stealing. i mean how are people getting away with getting jobs with stolen works at 72 dpi? do you just hire someone by seeing some work they emailed you?


this is making drawing tests for jobs sorta inevitable

im gonna post this before i get too profane

[strych9ine]

Atmospheria, I believe McNallyism was giving you a compliment... as in your work was admired and professional enough to be targeted by art thieves.

[McNallyism]

haha...Yeah thats what I meant. They say that immitation is the highest form of flattery, but I think they forgot outright stealing. Of course I acknowlege the negative consequences of art theft, especially the companies and art directors who get duped, but in the end these thieves aren't really fooling anyone or gaining anything (except maybe a free flight, stay in a hotel, and maybe a free meal). When and if they do get a job, they make a fool of themselves and gain a bad rep in the industry. No one can steal talent. Now if they were selling prints, having gallery showings etc. its a whole different ballgame...

But, yeah, what I'm saying is that they wouldn't be stealing your art in the first place if it weren't good. Sorry if I left any of the art victims out in my post.

-Sean

[WildSpruceMoose]

I spit on him. Spit I say. Well another good warning to the community and I think Jason and the guy who Pmed him deserve a nice :chug:

[Titan]

Funny..I just have to laugh at people who do this..as has been said before...how far would he really get even if he managed to decieve his way into a concept position....its ridiculous..
personally I've never been overly attached to my art work...I have had people rip off portfolio pieces..hardcopies or even just sketchbook stuff and try to pass it off...it upsets me but at least I know I can reproduce my level of work...
I assume that anyone who is pilfering art has not the skill to do it themselves or they would...so again, how far will they really get?

and to answer FISA's question above...
those javascript right click disable scripts are easily defeatable.....if the art is on your screen then its on your comp....just pull it from the cache, or get a direct link to the image from the sourcecode...

my 2¢

[Ben Shore]

Un-fu##ing-beleavable. Another one? Really? Well I'm not posting a long evenhanded speech this time. . .

IDIOT! :grumble:

nuf said.

[Kress]

Wow one of those is my drawing, and I'm stunned. I was JUST getting over the last one and still asking myself, what in the hell was he thinking he would do when he actually had the job..?
I hope the f*cker gets blacklisted from as many things possible. I just took down a bunch of old images from my site so it wouldn't (hopefully) happen again. I feel real sorry for the studios that have to put up with this, and spend the time and money fixing it. How inconsiderate and shameful...
Hope this doesn't happen to anyone else.

*edit: LOL McNallyism - you kind of hit it on the head. It sucks real bad and kinda feels like rape a little, but in a f*cked up way it's a good sign.
P.S. Thank you Jason and Kanhong for bringing this to our attention. Jason you are doing your job as admin extraordinarily. Kudos.

I wonder if interviewing will include doing live demos now...:rolleyes:

[NOOSE]

Immitation is the Sincerest Form of thievery!...I have been spending the last day and a half hideing my name and e-mail address in my latest unfinished pics, its kind of fun! and sucks all in the same, and I designed a lame personal logo with my name email and handle that I plan to overlay VERY faintly over my peices that I would like to post online. I hope some of the proffesionals will do something simular, because it would suck to come to this site and see just chickens with lens flares, and milk spewing ponies(nothing wrong with either) but when you want to see something fresh and Godly to get the creative juices flowing nothing hits the spot more then the works of the pro`s and soon to be pro`s on this site
I have to go now, because Im in the middle of dart game with my new Chris Runyon Dart board!! :):D :bash:

[bgermain]

I think the people who are stealing work have a few things in common:

1. They are young, late teens to early twenties.
2. They believe they are capable of replicating the quality of work which they are stealing, at least sufficiently to fool someone.
3. They have no physical experience with the art/cg community at large and do not realize how close-knit it really is.
4. They believe that if they can just get a job (any way possible) they can prove themselves once they get there. They don't understand that crucifixion awaits those who are discovered.

Now, there are a few things I want to point out before anyone responds to this message. First, I am not in any way defending, rationalizing, or justifying this kind of behavior. While it may be gratifying to "Hang 'em high," it doesn't fix the overall problem. Remember, making an example of someone only works if all the other potential thieves are watching and listening. There are constantly new generations entering this field and they will never have seen how so-and-so got reamed for stealing. They will steal work and think themselves mighty clever for coming up with such an "original" (no pun intended) idea.

Also, there are plenty of honest, talented, ethical people in this same age range, so don't think that I'm just bashing "young punks."

Someone suggested deactivating the Right Click > Save Picture As function on this forum. While that would be fine, we all know that there are some very easy ways to bypass this. Watermarks are also a good idea, but again it's not too difficult to pull an image down and erase the mark with a little rubber stamp action. And the 72 vs 300 dpi thing; well, with a minimum of talent I can download anyone's 72 dpi image, blow it up in Photoshop, and start tracing. It may take a little longer, but if I'm already a half-talent scumbag to begin with I won't care.

The only thing I can suggest is to continue making public the people who do this sort of thing so that we're all aware of it. Industry professionals visit this board and others like it. While an HR resume shuffler may get fooled, the supervisor who actually does the hiring will almost certainly not. As far as I know--and I may be mistaken--a photocopied or printed version of your portfolio will only get you a first interview, but when they call you in they expect to see originals. This is how my interviews have always been, anyway.

I know it's bullshit and it sucks, folks, but people will steal your stuff. Period. On the bright side, while it may be easier to steal it's also much, much easier to get caught. Think about it: in the old days if someone stole your work (which did, in fact, happen) and took it to another town, who would ever find out? So the internet may not be such a bad thing; at least you stand a chance of having your work recognized worldwide.

On a personal note, I'm a little put out by the fact that no one is stealing my stuff. I mean c'mon, I'm good. Really!

[Ant4d]

awful. just awful. stupidity.

[egerie]

Did he actually make money out of this ?

Anyway... I beleive disabling right clicking (along with middle clicking) is RETARDED. And I know for a fact it's annoying a hell of a lot of people. If I like an image and would like to keep it somewhere to gawk and admire it again, I need to grab it simple.
If I'd really want to copy the image for some more devious plans, Right clicking would only make me spend 5 more seconds from getting the picture !!! I'd either check my temp files since as soon as you see an image, it's been downloaded on your computer (duh). OR I could check the source and get the image's path. :rolleyes:

[Ben Shore]

I have to concur that disabling right clicking is just annoying and useless. I keep images I find online for inspiration and it always seems paranoid and vain when people try to take security measures like that.

Pluss of course it just doesn't work, even if you display images in some even more secure way, like a flash program that hides the image sources, lets not forget that ANYTHING displayed on screen can be copied with a simple screen capture.

Lets face it, if people want to rip us off their going to, but are they going to get away with it??? Well obviously not, we all know being a succesful artist is way more than just getting your foot in the door, this pathetic anything-it-takes hollywood-backdoor approach to being an artist in games simply doesn't work, thank goodness. :chug:

[Foxglove]

I don't know how people think they can get away with something like this...especially when they'll be held to those standards. If they were unable to produce artwork to get the job, how do they think they'll keep it?

[madster]

Let's just speculate an annual salary of $50K/yr.

That's over $4K/month...

If he can skate from place to place for a couple of months, he gets a decent check for his scam.

[grinn]

I dont believe that disabling right click is a good idea. For me personaly I love to save a lot of the artwork on this forum to my drive. So 2 years from now I can still go back and look at that one piece I loved so much, without having to search through the forums for it...if its even still here.

The biggest flaw with the right clicking is screenshots, if I wanted to save something that wouldnt allow me to right click, I would just take a screenshot and bring it into photoshop and clip it out.

But I really enjoy having all the work available to me to study and admire without having to bookmark thread after thread.

Taking measures to stop this kind of thing may hurt the 2 or 3 guys who would be doing it, but they also hurt the hundreds or maybe even thousands who arent. I think the system should stay the way it is, but somebody should make a website dedicated to reporting art thieves like this, for the companies who are looking to hire. They can just go check the site to make sure they arent on any lists.

If I were more involved in the industry, instead of just a wannabe, I would make the site myself.

[Phuzion]

you know what's weird... He jacked 4 of my images and got a job, but I tried to get a job for and year, and couldn't, so now I'm back in school. Of course those images he took I only just drew about a week and a half ago... but still. Either way, that guy's a little bitch.

[bgermain]

Let's see... iris... irk... iron... Ah, here it is. Irony.

[PixelFoundry]

:bash:

I admit I admire the works of the pro's and find inpiration in them, and I find it disturbing and sickening using someone else's work as your own to get a job, SHAME ON YOU!!! DON'T YOU HAVE RESPECT FOR YOURSELF OR THE ARTIST YOUR STEALING THE WORK FROM.

These people are nuts in my opinion, it's either they don't have the talent or the balls to make their own original artwork for their porfolio or they can't do it at all and the best they can do is rip-off someone else's.
UGGGH!


Being the head artist in our company I make sure that new applicant artist perform a hands on exercise in front of me and they better make damn sure that that they match the quality of work they showed me in their porfolio or else I make it a point to them that they are fraud artist, coz it will be a waste of time and money hiring these kind of people.

[lauri]

and its sad how weak some PERSONS are

smash and kill, locate and punish

[Joachim]

I don't think this forum needs more restrictions in saving pictures or such. I always believe that it's never a problem to steal, as long as you don't have pride or scruples of conscience. Besides it's just to press the print screen button :) -removing watermarks isn't exactly brain surgery either.

Just let loosers be loosers, they will fuck up eventually.

[N D Hill]

How can people not know by now that not only is this wrong, but once they're discovered they're committing professional suicide? Every bit of abuse they get from threads like these is well earned.

[metaphysiks]

so yeah i was recently in the midst of creating a portfolio of self portraits that i have done for a little over a year now. good idea huh, nobody has ever thought of that. maybe i should like abandon this idea now.
of course i am kidding and i think that we should deal with this mofo Happy Tree Friends style.
meta

[egerie]

Give me a lollipop. We gonna get some eye candy :)