Hi! So for an animation class i am going to do an animation, of all things.
After watching the AnimationMentor demo reel thing i kind of fell in love with their rigs. Just the basic shape one of the human body.
After sending them an email and asking if they had it available to anybody else they replied it was only for students.
So anyway, basically i am making my own basic character rig and borrowing their design, since it is so simple and looks nice.
Nicer than some of those free rigs out there. anyway....
i was just kind of wondering if i create this and use it in my portfolio will i get any negative feedback for design copying or anything like that?
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"who wouldn't want to make stuff for me? I'm awesome." -Bloo
I think it would be more model fraud, but any way, I would think it's fine. Just don't copy it exactly, and if you're really worried, put a disclaimer saying it's based off of the Animation Mentor model. It's good that you are being careful about this, as AM has gotten a lot of industry attention. Many studios might question if they see the AM models in demos not from AM students. That makes them wonder about the integrety of the animator and would they really want this animator working on secret studio projects. Sorry, don't mean to scare you. Just vary it up, and in the shot list, state you modeled the character off the AM one.
Aloha,
the Ape
...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."
Ape's advice is great. I'd add that AM is certainly not the first entity to design a large-headed/teardrop-shaped-body character for use in animation exercises, nor will they be the last.
Like Ape said, vary the model up a little from what they've got. Obvious areas to change are the hand- and foot-shapes. A disclaimer couldn't hurt.
cool. thanks.
ill keep this in mind when finishing this up.
"who wouldn't want to make stuff for me? I'm awesome." -Bloo
well, finished.
here is what the one i made looks like so you can better compare.
eh? eh? ok to use?
"who wouldn't want to make stuff for me? I'm awesome." -Bloo
It does look a little different I guess, but like everyone has said just state that you modeled and rigged this yourself and that you got the inspiration from the AM rig.
Most people inside AM don't switch the color out, so a simple way to be even more distinct is to avoid the wood-like duotone when you go to un-gray him.
In addition to what's been said, the fortune and the misfortune is that the actual rigging/controls will be different, which could make your movements more distinct or make the same job harder; the only problem I can think of is an elaboration of what came before...the concern being that if he is known to be a rig you can only get as a student, and the animation is of a quality not representative of the education you might get there, and it's representing it anyway...they probably don't want to send the wrong message about the effectiveness of the program. That's just a guess and not a dig at you or anyone else like the SCAD kid who copied the equally non-distinct ball-with-legs model.
Like DSB mentioned too, there are reasons why so many basic rigs (or 2D "test dummy" characters) have this general layout, so just taking the idea of what these kinds of things are trying to get you to learn would be equally effective. Beyond that the only reason for copying this exact rig verbatim would be some ulterior motive...again, not a dig or even directed at you, just a reasoning for all who might be reading...
If you don't copy it exactly, and you put a disclaimer there as well, you shouldn't have any problems. So I hope everything went the right way for you, and you didn't struggle with that. Also, I appreciate that you're so careful and thoughtful about it. You're not one of these people who do whatever they want in order to get profit, there are a ton of them already, you can't even imagine how many of them are involved in various types of fraud even in real life like taxi scam, jsut check more info on it. so I really hope it turned out the best way for you