Clearing Up Some Drama
Due to some recent controversy over an allegedly stolen image, of which I'm sure is going to bring a few lurkers (welcome BTW!) I just wanted to restate how I came to make said icon incase you missed the argument.
Here are the steps below!
- I have a folder I chuck various unedited/non-watermarked screenshots, captures & photos into (If you look closely, that's the reason some pictures are more grainy than others, since the original pictures are of variable quality) called "useable bases" that's where I get my material from.
-I had started posting some of these icons over at the original Armitage Army in the art thread of my name (Tina2shy). Mostly they were just bases I cropped from said folder above, and added text and few color adjustments to. Nothing Fancy.
-One day about 2 weeks ago I wanted to start playing around with the preset gradients I've never used, so I removed a couple bases out of the folder, including the photo in question here:
and started playing around with various gradients on several different photos. Some looked horrible, but others turned out pretty cool looking, and when I tried the 'black to foreground circular' on THIS photo I really liked the ominous shadow that it created around the right side of his face (our left) so I kept playing with it over and over and balancing it occasionally with the 'light and contrast' feature so he wouldn't get to drowned out. This result can be seen below.
- From there, I cropped it down to 100x100, with the bit of the mustard lapel and the remaining backround still slightly showing, I then used a crescent shaped 100x100 brush in air brush mode at 35% opacity to carefully blacken the remaining colored areas evenly. Then I used the same gradient once more over the 100x100 photo smoothing out some of the uneven sections the brush had left.
-After that I duplicated the the textless result icon.
-On the first, I lightened the features and dulled the contrast and added the text, using the same color as the blue used for the eyes.
Creating this:
- On the other, I reversed what I did above and added contrast (as much as I could before its started glowing) and lessoned the brightness, bringing out his eyes with a deeper royal and once again matching the text with them.
Creating this:
While I admit the original version the user in question made, is eerily similar, it is by coincidence alone. Anyone who plays around with that base photo and experiments with the shadow gradients will indeed get the same result.
This is seen throughout many more popular fandoms, none of which intentionally steal someone else's work (well some might but in most cases it's accidental) and it occurs more often given the larger community and the more chances of people using the same photographs to work on. I've seen it happen with Lost icons, Glee, and most recently Game Of Thrones (given the limited 10 episode run and some truly iconic and gorgeous scenes that everyone wants to use) I've seen like 10+ freakishly similar, yet heavily edited versions of the scene where Daenyrys Targaryen stands on the side of the cliff at dusk, all by different users.
This WILL happen more and more as Richard's fanbase continues to grow as more people discover him through The Hobbit and his other projects. All you have to do is a simple google image search and that photo will be there for all to use. If you honestly think no one else is going to use a shadow gradient on a promotional like the one in question, just because someone might have made one in the past, some of you will be in for one rude awakening, once he hits Hollywood.
*Note* Upon seeing that that particular user had my entire post deleted in the Armitage community, I thought it only appropriate to reciprocate that action with the deletion of her comments and subsequent ban from my journal. I've gone about this being as adult (well as adult as you can get about a fanmade picture from a promotional picture that she never owned) as possible, but if your going stoop so low as to go behind my back report my entry, I figure why not do the same. For apparently being a mother, you are about as childish and petty as humanely possible.
Here are the steps below!
- I have a folder I chuck various unedited/non-watermarked screenshots, captures & photos into (If you look closely, that's the reason some pictures are more grainy than others, since the original pictures are of variable quality) called "useable bases" that's where I get my material from.
-I had started posting some of these icons over at the original Armitage Army in the art thread of my name (Tina2shy). Mostly they were just bases I cropped from said folder above, and added text and few color adjustments to. Nothing Fancy.
-One day about 2 weeks ago I wanted to start playing around with the preset gradients I've never used, so I removed a couple bases out of the folder, including the photo in question here:
and started playing around with various gradients on several different photos. Some looked horrible, but others turned out pretty cool looking, and when I tried the 'black to foreground circular' on THIS photo I really liked the ominous shadow that it created around the right side of his face (our left) so I kept playing with it over and over and balancing it occasionally with the 'light and contrast' feature so he wouldn't get to drowned out. This result can be seen below.
- From there, I cropped it down to 100x100, with the bit of the mustard lapel and the remaining backround still slightly showing, I then used a crescent shaped 100x100 brush in air brush mode at 35% opacity to carefully blacken the remaining colored areas evenly. Then I used the same gradient once more over the 100x100 photo smoothing out some of the uneven sections the brush had left.
-After that I duplicated the the textless result icon.
-On the first, I lightened the features and dulled the contrast and added the text, using the same color as the blue used for the eyes.
Creating this:
- On the other, I reversed what I did above and added contrast (as much as I could before its started glowing) and lessoned the brightness, bringing out his eyes with a deeper royal and once again matching the text with them.
Creating this:
While I admit the original version the user in question made, is eerily similar, it is by coincidence alone. Anyone who plays around with that base photo and experiments with the shadow gradients will indeed get the same result.
This is seen throughout many more popular fandoms, none of which intentionally steal someone else's work (well some might but in most cases it's accidental) and it occurs more often given the larger community and the more chances of people using the same photographs to work on. I've seen it happen with Lost icons, Glee, and most recently Game Of Thrones (given the limited 10 episode run and some truly iconic and gorgeous scenes that everyone wants to use) I've seen like 10+ freakishly similar, yet heavily edited versions of the scene where Daenyrys Targaryen stands on the side of the cliff at dusk, all by different users.
This WILL happen more and more as Richard's fanbase continues to grow as more people discover him through The Hobbit and his other projects. All you have to do is a simple google image search and that photo will be there for all to use. If you honestly think no one else is going to use a shadow gradient on a promotional like the one in question, just because someone might have made one in the past, some of you will be in for one rude awakening, once he hits Hollywood.
*Note* Upon seeing that that particular user had my entire post deleted in the Armitage community, I thought it only appropriate to reciprocate that action with the deletion of her comments and subsequent ban from my journal. I've gone about this being as adult (well as adult as you can get about a fanmade picture from a promotional picture that she never owned) as possible, but if your going stoop so low as to go behind my back report my entry, I figure why not do the same. For apparently being a mother, you are about as childish and petty as humanely possible.