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View Full Version : "The Simpsons Already Did It"


Alex Chow
May 17th, 2009, 08:51 PM
Well, obviously, my thread isn't specifically targeting The Simpsons but I was just wondering how people feel about this topic.

How concerned are you artists when you feel something you're creating and mid-way in the process, you realize it looks strangely familiar with another person's artwork? Are there different degrees where similarity is dismissable and when it is enough to be considered plagiarism or condemned by viewers (imagine somebody going "THAT LOOKS LIKE SOMETHING OUT OF *insert show, game, or whatever here*")?

This is noticable when it's something simple like one character in a scene. The character's pose may have been conceived by myself but, unintentionally, it looks like a certain game cover after thinking it through. Are similar character poses significant enough, in your opinion, to have something changed or dumped, especially if it has already appeared in a popular media release? This is one example I'm asking about only because I'm finding it very hard to not have "one character in a scene" look like something already out in the market.

Then we can branch this off to character designs, compositions, colour choices, environment, style, and many other things. Which do you believe would be an immediate alarm in your head? Combinations of the above? Does the popularity of the artwork in which yours look similar to matter in the decision making?

I asked my friend about this and he told me that it's not something one should be actively worried about since internet kind of made it hard for anybody to be truly original but I would like more input on this before I green-light this topic. I want to adjust my "alarm", so to speak.

donm
May 17th, 2009, 09:57 PM
try to modify it more if you can.

Muz
May 17th, 2009, 10:12 PM
Well for commercial purposes you always should aim to seperate yourself from them, so try and make changes to make it more original. Keep in mind that people will naturally migrate towards something similar to what they already know; so it kind of leeches off the originals popularity. I dont like it but hey it works; you just have to be careful you arent making it so similar that there is a potential law suit.

If its for personal though feel free to change it how much or how little you like.

That being said, i once drew a mech and was told it looked like gundam, battletech and patlabor all by different people.... How the hell can something look like both gundam and battletech :|. People will always assosiate things to things they know, even if the similarities are small, so you should take all assosiations with a grain of salt. It also depends on what it is that looks similar to something else, like say if it is a futuristic soldier in armor; Try designing an original version of that....

Elwell
May 17th, 2009, 10:15 PM
Irony meltdown in

3 (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=135171)...

2 (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=130652)...

1 (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=141518)!

Musselfarmstudios
May 17th, 2009, 10:21 PM
It's always going to happen, I don't see anything wrong with it. I'll use two great movie directors as examples of my point. If you look at the style of both Sergio Leone and Quentin Terantino you'll find that their influences are drawn from older movies. Leone would look a lot to both John Ford and also to Akira Kurosawa, and like wise Terantino would look everywhere.

"I steal from every single movie ever made. If people don't like that, then tough tills, don't go and see it, all right? I steal from everything. Great artists steal, they don't do homages." . . . Terantino

A lot of it has to do with Post-modern philosophy that everything has already been done and that all we are doing is finding ways to adapt and make ideas our own.

Alex Chow
May 17th, 2009, 10:27 PM
Irony meltdown in

3 (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=135171)...

2 (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=130652)...

1 (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=141518)!

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUck.

Okay, thread over guys. Thanks for those who replied already but looks like it's been done quite a few times. I'll read the previous threads on top of the replies here.

I'll be on my way.

EDIT: Changed something to avoid some possible confusions.