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RANT > Species.
11 years ago
As most of you know, I LOVE creating different species. I always have so many ideas floating around in my head and I enjoy making different specie concepts, I love developing on them and making something a bit different and unique. As fellow creative people, I'm sure a lot of you have tons of different ideas on weird creatures you'd like to see in existence! And its great fun, untill someone gets a bit too caught up in it.
Every idea originates from another idea or concept. For example "I really like ram horns, so I'm going to put them on this canine like creature, but I also like things that glow, so I'm going to make its leopard like spots glow." You simple CANNOT create something you havn't seen before, and let me elaborate, you may not have seen a canine with glowing leopard pattern fur and ram horns before, but you have seen all those things individually.
Because of this, a lot of ideas and concepts may be similar. That's just how it is and to assume that someone else stole your idea because your species has a similarities, is just down right ignorant. There are BOUND to be similarities between original species and you can't get all butthurt about a few similar qualities.
Obviously this isn't an invitation to pick apart peoples species to make your own. It's different when someone directly rips an idea from you and you know they did it because they actively watch you or something, but lets say you stumble upon someone you never met before who has a character, who has a similar concept to yours, it's extremely rude to confront them in a manner where you assume they must of directly copied you. Especially to blow your top and make passive aggressive comments on their submission or write journals, or GOD forbid threaten to sue them. -eye roll-
The moment people start respecting their original species for every detail about them that makes them different and unique instead of just focusing on one little aspect, the less you will worry when you stumble upon someone who might have something similar. This is a lesson I had to learn myself, or I would of driven myself crazy trying to fight with everyone who had a character or species that was some-what similar to my own.
Obviously, it's disrespectful to be all like "Oh. I like Aimi's forest dwellers, I'm going to make myself one but just call it something else and maybe add a couple more tails." That's ripping someone off and that it wrong, but don't go bitching at someone because their character has glowing horns and your character has glowing horns to. It's just dumb to fuss over a couple similarities, and ignorant to assume you are the first and only person to do it just because you havn't seen it done before. >T There are THOUSANDS of users on FA, you don't know who has what. Shut up.
I always get random ass people being like "Umm. Excuse me, but my character has glowing gems on its body and I just seen you made an adopt like that, I really wanted to be the only person who had glowing gems and I know you must of gotten the idea from me and I'm just letting you know it's not alright for you to use that idea." Just. Shut. Up.
I see this shit EVERYWHERE!
Someone submits a journal/submission etc about a species and theres ALWAYS that one person with that passive aggressive comment like "Wow....this looks just like my/myfriends species (When in reality there are PLENTY of differences and maybe 1 or 2 things similar) you should look into that...."
Please don't be that person. If you REALLY feel the need to say something, note it. Don't be rude.
Every idea originates from another idea or concept. For example "I really like ram horns, so I'm going to put them on this canine like creature, but I also like things that glow, so I'm going to make its leopard like spots glow." You simple CANNOT create something you havn't seen before, and let me elaborate, you may not have seen a canine with glowing leopard pattern fur and ram horns before, but you have seen all those things individually.
Because of this, a lot of ideas and concepts may be similar. That's just how it is and to assume that someone else stole your idea because your species has a similarities, is just down right ignorant. There are BOUND to be similarities between original species and you can't get all butthurt about a few similar qualities.
Obviously this isn't an invitation to pick apart peoples species to make your own. It's different when someone directly rips an idea from you and you know they did it because they actively watch you or something, but lets say you stumble upon someone you never met before who has a character, who has a similar concept to yours, it's extremely rude to confront them in a manner where you assume they must of directly copied you. Especially to blow your top and make passive aggressive comments on their submission or write journals, or GOD forbid threaten to sue them. -eye roll-
The moment people start respecting their original species for every detail about them that makes them different and unique instead of just focusing on one little aspect, the less you will worry when you stumble upon someone who might have something similar. This is a lesson I had to learn myself, or I would of driven myself crazy trying to fight with everyone who had a character or species that was some-what similar to my own.
Obviously, it's disrespectful to be all like "Oh. I like Aimi's forest dwellers, I'm going to make myself one but just call it something else and maybe add a couple more tails." That's ripping someone off and that it wrong, but don't go bitching at someone because their character has glowing horns and your character has glowing horns to. It's just dumb to fuss over a couple similarities, and ignorant to assume you are the first and only person to do it just because you havn't seen it done before. >T There are THOUSANDS of users on FA, you don't know who has what. Shut up.
I always get random ass people being like "Umm. Excuse me, but my character has glowing gems on its body and I just seen you made an adopt like that, I really wanted to be the only person who had glowing gems and I know you must of gotten the idea from me and I'm just letting you know it's not alright for you to use that idea." Just. Shut. Up.
I see this shit EVERYWHERE!
Someone submits a journal/submission etc about a species and theres ALWAYS that one person with that passive aggressive comment like "Wow....this looks just like my/myfriends species (When in reality there are PLENTY of differences and maybe 1 or 2 things similar) you should look into that...."
Please don't be that person. If you REALLY feel the need to say something, note it. Don't be rude.
Comments that get me irritated are ones like "Looks like my sona/species" or "Those colors look similar to my character."
Almost everything has been done more than once. It's just life and people will like ideas and use them. *Sighs*
"My character has blue hair and yellow eyes..."
Like...Okay? Why was that necessary to even tell me. :T
>_> Okay?
I feel bad knowing it's usually done as a snide thing.
I can't stand when people say it in a rude manner or a accusing you of copying them, but I have absolutely no issue if someone goes "Ooooh, my canine is tan with red hair too! :D So cute!" or things along that line that clearly have no malicious intent.
I've done that once or twice. Does it count as irritating if it's jovial? :D
There are SO many users that by accident some designs will cross over eventually..
People can be immature about stuff like that, my char has a hearts on her thighs, there are hundreds of chars with heart markings lol
That is all.
Things I see commonly that people assume are of "original design" would be: Bio-luminescence, Extra Tails, Canine/Equine Phallic Objects, Multiple Phallic Objects, Wings, Horns, et cetra.
I understand how people would feel upset seeing someone has something of similarity but, as you said, there's THOUSANDS of users and each one, their own mind. It'd be like going down the street and wanting to threaten and/or sue someone for having the same skin tone and/or wears glasses, and such. (Which, would be partially hilarious to see.)
I'd also say watch out for stolen artwork... There's been a lot of that, lately. :|
< /Opinion >
In the meantime, I should make a potato with glowing spud spores and wings and then copyright it! (/jk)
I get annoyed when people are like "It's just a cat with 5 tails" When the creator has nearly an entire book written about the species! It doesn't have to be a flying lamb with 7 horns, 4 eyes and farts glitter to be something special.
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/14021321/
Complete with all kinds of sexy lore and reproduction information and all kinds of other cute things.
Not even joking, even something simple as THAT apparently sets people off and it's the dumbest thing.
HAIRSTYLE
"My character has a pawprint on her ass and I made her in 2005"
Umm.. Okay?
I never know what to say to them. XD
Like no, okay, I made Ghira before Gezaks even existed.. and even then..
WHO CARES? THEY'RE SLOTH PAWS.. THEY'VE BEEN AROUND FOREVER!
D: I don't even watch pokemon. Plus there's like 1000's of them, I can't keep up. I only know the popular ones like pikachu. lol
Great minds just think alike I suppose.
It sucks cause I'm not the type of person who would be to proud to admit when something is inspired by something else. I'm pretty open. But everyone just assumes I took the idea and it's a bit annoying cause I didn't even know they existed untill I released the species and some pokemon fans were all like "ERMAGERD"
Dude, do you honestly think I would be stupid enough to intentionally rip off a pokemon and try to pass it as an original species? I know how popular pokemon is. XD
"My character has a pawprint on her ass and I made her in 2005"
My response woulda been:
"And My Little Ponies first came out in 1983, omg, you were ripping off their idea weren't you? D:"
It's exactly like the real world (Boo hiss) where you have two people who look similar but add their personality to their appearance. We're all humans, yet we all look different in our own ways.
Ultimately, there's no such thing as an original thought these days, instead we have methods of adding our own flair to our characters. Yes someone's character may look the same as another, but it's how you express that character which will separate them; rather than what most do and complain to the other/their friends that they're too similar.
I actually had a girl comment on one of my ref sheets noting how my new character and her existing one looked similar, which they did and they shared the same general color scheme, but they were completely different species and had many notable differences (different placement of colors, mine had horns when hers had wings/tufts, hers had spots where mine had stripes, etc) We went back and forth a little bit on the similarities and the differences when finally she asked me to change things on my fursona. I stayed polite but firm and pretty much said the same exact thing you did, in summary. Some characters are going to share some similarities, it's just how it goes and people don't seem to understand that.
I mean; I can almost bet that there's a lot more characters out there that have this ridiculously adorable care-bear heart pattern on their chest as I do, as well as on their butt and joints. xD
Doesn't mean i copied someone, I just wanted it to look like that. :3
But I do know one thing, My fursuit will never be able be able to be replicated the exact same, and I'll parade around in that all the time because i'll be the only durr in that suit. <3
http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/6018631/
Actually, to be honest... I was surprised that my friend linked me to this journal and to see who it was..
Blair, the artist almost everyone knows for her closed species and amazing art style. And that she had very similar views towards what I have.
Reading your journal's actually given me a little bit of clear-minded thoughts and helped motivate me to look at it the way you described rather than be completely shut down by the certain someone discussed about in my journal..
So...Thank you.
I will sue you fo 1 million dollah and all your brain idea thingers
My sona is different from hers because my sona is me. The story behind my sona is different. ^u^ I just needed some time to figure it out.
I'm glad someone finally said this.
It should be recognized that copying/ripping off the idea, and two things being similar are not the same thing.
For a minute there I thought you might be ranting about the Species game, haha~
Unfortunately I've been on the receiving end of pitchforks-and-torches from angry mobs in the past; they'd come out of the woodwork screaming for blood because I'd supposedly stolen some art, and it would always turn out to be something that actually was my work to begin with, that got posted somewhere else by someone else and them claiming credit for it. It didn't matter that my upload of the same thing was marked as "posted six years ago" compared to "posted two weeks ago" of the repost, it seems some folks just want to hop on the hate wagon for whatever excuse they can find.
Yeah, it's amazing to have people go white-knighting over to my page and start posting examples then passive-aggressively go "Excuse me, but I think you're using a character belonging to~" "Excuse me but you've stolen the work of~" "Excuse me, but this character belongs to~"
Oh, no no no; excuse ME, I'm pretty sure that my own 'sona belongs to me, thank you very much, as my "posted X years ago" time stamps on every single one of my pictures of her will show. :P They tend to scurry off after that.
The absolute worst one was when someone blatantly ripped off my star destroyer model and a whole ream of folks on his forum started shouting "I hate to tell you this man but I think this Jade person stole your design."; there was a huge back and forth about it with the forum members getting all stirred up, until one of them had the sense to actually check my original post only to see that it predated the one on the forum by three or four years. Then all the attention turned away from me, and onto the guy who actually HAD stolen it.
Just kidding of course, haha, I understand completely and I agree with like all of it, it gets really silly when people get so worked up about their 'ultra original ideas' being used by someone else even if there is no possible way for the person to steal an idea that is pretty average. And by that I don't mean stuff that is actually original, I mean stuff like "my species is a rabbit but instead of being a normal rabbit they have glowing eyes, closed species please do not copy or make one of your own."
Stuff like that is always silly to me, if it's an iconic design piece like the tails on scarftails where they're long thin and have a design upon them, you can usually guess which characters are a specific iconic closed species by a few specific things that are pretty unique to them, that doesn't mean no one else can have a character with a long scarf-like tail of course. Just that it wouldn't be odd for someone to make that link between them based on the iconic element alone because that's a big part of the scarftail design, that applies to every closed species though whether it be the large winged tail aspect of eerays or the pom-pom tails of dreamies, we're creatures of pattern after all and recognizable imagery usually sticks with us as an identifier. Should someone make a pom-pom scarf tailed eeray combo and claim it's unique? No, but it could just be that they thought of those aspects together separately without ever seeing any of those species, it's hard to judge that kind of stuff without knowing how the person made what they made, just because there are people that blatantly steal designs it doesn't mean everyone does, ya know?
Plus, personally, I like seeing things similar to what I design for my characters, it just means that I wasn't alone in liking whatever it was that I picked, do I get mad at other pink corgis with heart eyes? No, it might be similar to my Fabrie but it's not my Fabrie, Fabrie is my Fabrie because he's Fabrie and not because he's a pink corgi with heart eyes, haha.
It's like a great man once said:
"The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it, but the way those atoms are put together." - Carl Sagan
Also I'm a bit irked when I see food dogs/cats species up for adopt for hundred of dollars. What's so special about them? I mean, I remember I had a food character for a certain time when I was a kid that looked partially like those species :/
Yeah, that kind of drives me nuts, too. :P
I have also seen people who get angry at people who uses the same colour palette as them, completely different species, completely different markings but nope that colour palette was the thing that broke the camel's back.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXsSgzKJ0fY
A few weeks ago, someone said my alias Graveyard looks like Anthro Krystal from Starfox.... (not at all in my opinion, but okay....)
I tolh him, I created that character as I was 12 or so (15 years ago!), when I didn't know anything about Anthro or Starfox.
And then he/she was just like "as if" and OMG, I was that close to rage out because of it^^""""
beautiful
The white knights who know not who came first " ahh you riped of so and so, you should be so ashamed!" And then you show them dates of creation of both chars and they still insist you riped the other off even though yours came first.
And of corse this closed species nonsence. The whole concept is only enforcable via harrasment. As a species can not so much be copyrighted due to the fair use clause. So long as someone doesn't copy a character exactly they are fine and all.
Those that claim closed species are protected by copyright and then use trademarked popsonas ie pokemon digimon, my litle poney ect.
Those that claim all they need to do to make a unique species is add a set of horns to a cat, yet do not give any details on the species. For example, what is their culture like, do they have a type of ecitecture comon to them, what level of technology has their society reached. Are they overall agressive passive and succh. Things like clothing styles or their views of art, maybe a bit about their history. Honestly anything to flesh them out as a poeple. Take my character for example, his kind started due to a lab lab accident. Gentic experiments using alien dna splicing it with human trying to make a supersolder (mostly in enhancing a humans telikenetic abilities). Any how the story goes on quite a bit but that is enough to give an idea on how it differs from others even if that in of itself is not completly original and all, as you said most ideas come from combining several elements of other existing things.
It is a pleasure to meet someone who does not only understand how copyright works (in the sense what can be copyrighted), but also touches a point I am missing for aquite some time in the fandom.
Phyisical attributes does not make a species.
And at the same time no one wonders why DC Comics, which belongs to Warner allows so many SUperman clones to exist. Because they went to court and lost so often that they aren't even trying anymore. Here is the one of the best examples of what copyright protects and what not. Superman's powers? Not copyrighted. His backstory? Not copyrighted. His name and distinctive look? copyrighted.
How did he put i? Yes, I was lucky last week. I had no idea what to write and could rip off a Buffy episode. Except... I wrote the current issue's story six months ago, because that's how long it takes to get a comic made and delivedred to the shops.
My comment? Morons.
Besides, copying stuff is done all the time and if you want something copytighted? Create something that can be copyrighted.
Vulcans? Copyrighted.
Space elves with no emotions and following pure logic? Not so much.
Just with a few subtle differences I look different from the next closest vixen. I don't need horns, tattoos, and glowy bits to be different.
A friend of mine once got bitched out for having drawn a picture of a generic lion guy wearing briefs.
Literally, you think of a yellow lion guy, kinda medium-slender build, wavy shoulder-length brown mane/tailtip, brown eyes, no distinguishing tattoos, glasses, markings, weird patterns/hairstyle. That was what she drew...and someone got snippy at her, insisting that she was ripping off his character. Like...buhh??
I can't even tell you how much it infuriated me, the passive aggressive attitude and the sense of entitlement that I should take it down because it resembled the markings of her character, which both were based off of a blue and gold macaw...but mine was more than different than hers in body features (hers had a bird tail, and black legs, and the colours were slightly different, as was the patterning and many other things; mine had an angler lure and wings and natural fox proportions, yellow legs, etc.).
At first I thought, "oh, oops." But when I got to looking at it, the more irritated I became, like, "What the fuck?"
This 'closed species' thing is bullshit, too; you can't expect to cross a rabbit with a wolf and "copyright" (read: hoard to yourself and harrass anyone who tries to make one) the concept of the cross to yourself. It's the same thing with wolves with skulls for faces, and other simple things like that. I do have a species of my own, but without the concept and backstory behind them, along with EVERY single thing included about their anatomy, they're just another character with a long tail, sharp fangs, or long ears. I'm not going to flip my shit over someone making a character with a similar tail - because it's been done before, even if I haven't seen it around much. No more room for originality on the internet, and I'd hope that everyone would have calmed their tits about it by now and at least speak from common sense and a sense of politeness to their fellow human beings by now, but I guess that was too much to ask of humanity...LOL.
A while ago, I created an insect species with a hive mind. Because they have a hive mind, they care more for the good of the entire hive rather than the good of individuals.
Someone complained that I was ripping off vulcans.
Seriously?
*pulls out all references to hive mind groups in literary instances, movie instances, etc.*
Just leave the words 'Vulcan', 'Pon Farr' and 'Spock' out of it and Paramount would loose every law suit. Just as DC comics did when they tried to sue the first Superman clones..
My fiancé made a Boston terrier character a couple years ago
The out of the blue she made a ref for her and someone came along stating that her character look just like their friends
Not sure if you've ever seen a Boston terrier but they don't come in many color/ fur patterns
People get but hurt to when they have a generic thing and think its original and see lots of other people doing it
When I first got into this fandom, it was pretty small. People were foxes, cats, dogs, wolves, horses, and such. Now they're just so many insane chimeric jumbles of impossibilities, desperately trying to be unique, and ultimately still being uninteresting because they're investing too much in appearance. It makes me want to gnaw my own leg off, sometimes. There's this wave of relief that sweeps over me when I realize a commissioner isn't going to ruin a good picture idea by making me draw a chartreuse penis, or a blue anus that matches their Christmas-tree-light nipples.
Thank you for this, you awesome person.
That doesn't mean I won't go after a blatant rip off or theft though. I just don't see the point in going after someone with a red fox with pink highlights, or blue fur.
I mean, there are goo cats, dogs, rabbits...what's the next logical step, dude? Just ugh, don't go around on other people's things claiming you'd ~thought of it first~ unless you can back it up. Even then, guess what? People independently have similar ideas all the time, and nothing good's going to come of you being a passive-aggressive little shit.
THANK YOU FOR THIS OH MY GOD.
There was a species I recently found that I thought would look really cute paired with my sleepyheads species that I made so I said "oh my goodness these species would look good paired together!"
That kind of stuff I'm okay with, but the stupid "this looks like my character" comments DRIVE ME UP THE WALL.
LIKE OKAY, YOUR CHARACTER IS A DOG WITH A DINOSAUR TAIL. (Idk I just picked something) ITS REALLY NOT THAT FAR OF A STRETCH FROM A REGULAR DOG. CHIIIIIIIILLLLLL.
But all in all this is really well worded and definitely the honest truth.
That would be like me going around and assuming that every female blue-eyed brown-haired Cougar 'sona was ripping off my 'sona. Some things are just very common place, you're going to see it repeated by various people. That's life. I hate when people get all upset and bent over stupid shit like that. Like fairy winged dragons, people act like it's such an original idea, and get so mad when someone else thinks of it too. (I've seen this happen, with this exact example) They start threatening lawsuits and shit, and I'm like ... Unless you have an actual, real legit copyright on this exact creature/species ... a lawyer is just going to laugh at your threat e__e
I don't remember who it is now, but I do know there is a furry who had her species copywrited because it actually came from a book she was writing, which was also in the process of getting a copywrite if I recall. Something like that, I could see the artist getting a LITTLE upset over, but again, as you said ... 1 or 2 similarities a rip off it does not make.
I must now go add glowing gems and ram horns to my 'sona. x3
The Races on my Master List of Species are ones I created (and if they were inspired by someone's literature I mention that) over the last 25 years (I'm 32 in about two weeks), and have over that time discovered that several of them match up with races and species others have created, be it name or form.
Personally, I'd be honoured if someone liked a race I created and wanted to create a character from that race. Admittedly I'd like to told about said character so I can see how they envisioned my race, but that's just creator's interest in how people interpret your designs.
People can be sooo stupid!
I know the whole "no call outs or personal information" thing, but man, that sounds hilarious.
#FuraffinityinAction
In my experience, I think the worst offenders tend to be people who are overprotective of their closed species. You don't want other people making them, that's fine, I understand that. But when you vehemently bash anyone else who has created something slightly similar, even if said species was made before yours, yet you still go apeshit on them? Arrrrgh.
I created creatures of my own but I did sometime see similar species but I think all is by coincidence anyhow. I can understand why some would feel it's personal but one shouldn't jump to conclusions
Like no one has ever combined dragon and canid traits before. Or like a person could lay claim to both animals and NO ONE EVER can use them again. (The species didn't even look remotely similar.)
Thanks for writing this. Some people are just... ugh. x3
http://media1.giphy.com/media/DPKp5.....nIcg/200_s.gif
I love seeing the critters you come up with--new designs are always such fun!
There are plenty of white cats around here. There is even a few with some similar head jewelry where I(my ego) think "Hey. . is that me?" only to find its someone else who has been around nearly the same as me. *shrugs* It happens.
This is why I'm kinda glad my kinda designs' aren't exactly seen as typically cute or sexy or even attractive XD Plus most peopl tend to give their species noses...mwaawha...