When making art, I like to show off my work to others. However, I don’t want annoying watermarks to get in the way and degrade the quality of the art. At the same time, I don’t want my art to be stolen and used in another game by editing out the small watermark I usually have in the bottom corner. How should I go about solving this?
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You can either put a ton of watermarks or write your name somewhere small and hidden in the artwork.
EDIT: Your topic’s name doesn’t reflect the question you’re asking. I suggest renaming it.
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Just put your signature in the bottom right corner. Its non intrusive and helps people identify who actually created the work.
If you add a small name somewhere in the artwork (not the bottom corner, I mean like on the edge of a shirt or on the subject’s shoes), it will be almost impossible to get rid of it unless the stealer attempts to fix the image himself.
The thing is, these signatures can be easily edited out and used in somebody else’s game.
You can easily provide proof that you created the artwork and get it removed. Otherwise there is no way you can combine non intrusive and being degraded by watermarks.
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So I could just email Roblox with proof that I originally created the art and have not given permission and the artwork would be removed from their asset?
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Yes, I’ve done this with scripts & builds that have been stolen in the past. Roblox will take down any game that uses your assets without your permission as it is your Intellectual Property, so long as you can prove you made the asset.
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Yes, but that won’t work if your artwork is being used in a different site. You can file for a DMCA Takedown Notice along with proof you made the asset, and it will get taken down.
Wouldn’t this cause an issue for people that pay for commissions?
An artist could just email Roblox telling them that someone who had really payed for their art had stolen it and didn’t get permission. Discord messages aren’t enough to prove that the original creator could’ve really given permission as they can be easily doctored.
When doing commissions, if I’m correct, once you complete it and have been payed, the asset becomes the IP of the person who hired you. It can become a game of cat and mouse, however I’ve personally never seen it come to that. If a contractor did do this, the client could just appeal the asset takedown. As well, Roblox does not accept discord as concrete evidence.
Alright.
One last question, how can I prove that stolen art was originally created by me?
When I want to ensure that artwork cannot be stolen, I upload it as a thumbnail of one of my games. It’s worked for me in the past. Although unconventional, it does work, and is considered evidence. (Atleast for game thumbnails I comission). I’m not an artist in anyway
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Would uploading it as a decal also work?
Probably, however make sure the decal is set to ‘Not for sale’. (Isn’t open sourced)
i would just put a repeating semi transparent name
They’re quite intrusive though and make the art look bad.
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Fade out the watermark so that it blends almost seamlessly to the environment, hard to get rid of watermarks like these and they don’t really take away from the artwork itself!
It doesn’t matter what the watermark is, as long as it’s transparent enough to where the client can examine it, it’s something nobody cares about.
All my artwork used this watermark in the past and none of my clients cared about it, the “uploading the thumbnail so people don’t steal it method” is smart.
But it’s more trouble and there’s a chance people can use your work without you knowing, though it’ll work against shady clients.
Still, using a watermark is better from my point of view.
I meant that if I were to show my artwork to a friend or share it on social media, it can be easily stolen and the watermark would lower it’s quality.