[Mikko K]

I'm requesting backup from my soldiers at sijun.


Some (CENSORED) just got his "great matte piece" plugged on front page of cgtalk.com.

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=318755&page=1&pp=15


My problem is that the piece uses sampled parts of my Persian Palace image I did last christmas. Now he's encouraged to post it to Expose 4, where I recently submitted my pic.

I sent a message to the moderators but I'm not sure if they're gonna do anything as this guy is not ripping off Dusso, but a funny bloke with no name at all. Plus he's working at a major company.

Balistic> I remember that some idiot used your pics on his site. What did you do about it?

[Ranath]

that painting sucks anyway, how's the castle on left so well front lit with sun being behind it


link the pics here which he ripped off by the way....

ok and what to do about that guy, if you can prove that he used your photos, contact the artist and say that he used your photos without permission, if he says fuck you or something, just download all his paintings that gave him that job, put them to your portfolio and call it your own. He can't complain


I think this is different situation than someone using stolen art in his site, he might be saying that "it's so small portion of the final piece which I took from you" (which is very common explanation) and he might think he could get away with it. To that you answer, "if it's so small portion, erase it out then."

[eyewoo]

if so, his onscreen name is appropriate - slime

[gLitterbug]

It's amazing how everyone totally ignores you there and just keeps on going "amazing, can I have your babies please?". I went to the guys site and it makes me suspicious.

Keep us updated on the situation please, I'm very interested as to how this turns out.

[Mikko K]

the original:


The problem is he didn't use my photos but my PAINTING. There's photo elements in my version, yes, but he didn't just use the foliage but the painted buildings with only small modification.

I contacted the mods, see what happens. I think this has to do with the whole 'matte' thing and he probably doesn't even understand the difference of using some obscure rock/foliage photo and ripping off artworks of similar subject matter.

Thanks guys, I'll keep you updated.

PS. the reason the peeps don't reply to my posts there, is that by clicking the front page ad- they're taken to the first page. By replying from there, they won't probably notice my comments.

I've been thinking about doing an "overpaint" of his piece and stuffing it to my portfolio. But I'm above his level so I won't do it.

edit: check this comparison pic

[balistic]

I used to be a mod there but I haven't been active in a long time. I went ahead and reported the post to the moderators.

edit: The best thing you can do once that thread comes down is to put a notice about the theft on your site. Don't take the notice down unless he agrees to take his copy down.

Yours is a zillion times better. Nobody will doubt who the original painter was.
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brian.prince|light.comp.paint

[[Shizo]]

At first, i didn't notice anything wrong with it. But after reading that forum for a while... daaaamn! That guy didn't make a "matter painting," he made a "collage." I couldn't say a "photo collage," since he used photos AND artworks. That creation must have at least 20 stolen images in it. And when people go "WOW!! THE CLOUDS LOOK SO REAL! HOW DID YOU PAINT THEM?!" He admits "i just used photos of real clouds."
Hehe. And its funny how after your post, Mikko, people continue to praise his great art skills..

[Ranath]

wow Mikko - your painting is way better than the junk that dude put out... you should be working for Sony I think.. has similar atmosphere than what I see in 2 dusso mattes featuring Naboo style castles, I love the blue fill light - something I need yet to figure out how to do. Any hints?


right click save, not to "plates" or "textures" folder - to "favorites"

[Mikko K]

Thank you so much guys!

some thoughts..

I'm really not that considered about my stuff being ripped off as I'm about the state of digital stuff in general. Shit if my stuff gets ripped, what about the better stuff out there that might still be out of the eyes of big audience?

I don't want to be paranoid, but I'm probably not the only one who started doubting if that guy even works in the industry. It's so tacky to clone stuff directly.

Ranath> I'm a freakin' Dusso ripoff myself. His works have helped me a lot when trying to set up a palette. Still struggling with color. Values I can sometimes figure out OK, but good overall palettes are hard to get. The cliffs are too monochromatic and the castle probably has too much saturation that fights the feeling of distance.. Don't ask me for advice, damn, I know nothing about this stuff

Once again, thanks!

[Lunatique]

It looks like you've got the issue resolved in that thread. I think it's awesome you kept your cool and sense of humor throughout that whole ordeal. You have my respect for that.

BTW, for future references, a few of us Sijuners are forum leaders at cgtalk, so you guys can contact us directly.

[Tomasis]

damn Mikko I missed a lot of your latest awesome works. I didnt know you are such so gooood painter. wow. Petri j got a job and I admire gecko and janne works. Go on rock finnish guyzz hahaaa

dont care about ripping.. your ability is what it matter. anyone cannot rip your ability and hard work.

sony isnt dream. freedom is the dream!

[neff]

haha, that slime-guy is so an asshole.
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[Mikko K]

Thanks Lunatique.

I actually wrote some nasty things first but didn't post 'em. A good way to let some of the steam out.

I feel awkward about this whole thing 'cause I feel like I'm almost the bad guy. Nobody seems to care about the bigger picture.. Everyone sure would be pissed if somebody posted a matte with elements from a Mullins painting.

This guy just blatantly copy-pasted some of the key elements from my painting.. If he had done a new design based on the same ideas, cool, no problem. Even using color picker to help with values is okay in my book. But copy-pasting.. raaagh.

I'd have no problem with someone using my stuff if they gave a bit of credit. It's like people want the praise for their great image, and suddenly it's just a study when someone points out the piece is partly a rip-off.. two faced behaviour in my opinion. "Do whatever it takes" attitude is good for learning, but I can't help but feel this kind of mentality eats away from the fun of creating. Why should anyone post hi-res work if it's okay to dissect it and use it without any notice to the original author.

The fact I brought this up in that thread may not help me at all. People may think I'm just a prick trying to get into someone's limelight. I'm hoping that at least some viewers saw and understood what I was trying to say.

Tomasis> I'm not really a good painter. I just invest a lot of time doing it.. Works better than doing speedpaintings. At least to me. But thanks

NeFF> I think he's just living up to his nickname

[watmough]

I read the thread,Mikko,and i just cant believe the people that post there are acting in that manner....
No one seems to care that he stole that stuff from you at all!(apart from balistic of course)
Unbelievable......

[lysander]

yeah, it annoys me that the people posting there dont seem to care or just shrug off the whole situation, even defending him.
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Earth under attack by paper mache aliens; world leaders plead - 'Save us! Doctor Who!'

[Pringle]

I've just posted in the cgsociety thread to give you my support.

Since its my first post is has to be validated by a moderator before its shown.
Hope it goes through.
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http://pringleart.com

[Mikko K]

Thanks for your input guys.

random thing:

That Justin Sweet thing is funny. It's not an overpaint but it looks that way when presented like that.. The difference is, that's not going to be printed anywhere. As a matter of fact - I'll remove it from my site now.

[Gecko]

Hey guys.


I was away for the weekend but wanted to comment on this thread.


I bet it's nice for mikko to wake up in the morning, make some coffee, maybe check out his email and some forums at the same time, before starting to work. But oops, what's this??

Look. Here's a guy stealing parts of mikko's work. It's alright with him as long as he doesn't get caught, and when he does, it's enough to comment something about "forgetting" to replace mikko's work in his painting.

Seriously, for a Senior Technical Director at Anywhere that's really sloppy. Maybe it would be better for him to paint his own work so he wouldn't run into problems like this.

Mikko you have every right to be offended by this. It's no one else's business to come tell you to calm down when your work gets raped. I think you took it nicely, but I also think this slime-guy took that as a sign he doesn't need to change his "work methods". I hope I'm wrong.

I wish the forum leaders did something about this. Stolen work at their front page :(. It gives a really bad taste for the whole forum and their rules.


That's it. Cya!
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Gecko
[email protected]
Portfolio

[Mikko K]

Gecko, nice to see your comments here as well

This whole scenario goes well hand in hand with what Cheney posted about the overall "political correctness" thing going on with pro people.

I understand that when talking about careers and money, we should be careful of making judgements.. so as a result, it seemed that I was on the losing side there. The people defending mr. Slime were all somehow relating his to ethnical background or they were colleagues. Things that go outside the actual issue IMO.

I think that mr. Slime was actually sorry for his screw-up. I don't think he'll do the same anytime soon. In my opinion, the biggest loser is the community and it's credibility.. this is just me. I don't know.. I just got the feeling that my next piece will either be posted here or at conceptart.org.

Why? Well, the fact that no official comment was made on behalf of the mods (except Lunatique here).. it just left me the taste that they sort of hoped the whole thing fade away with no mess. Okay, it worked. But the community suffers because now the next guy thinks "I can use parts of artist X's works and maybe make it to Expose too!" I hope I'm wrong.

I hope Ballistic Publishing won't publish that piece by mr. Slimey. I don't care if they accept my works either. I've posted two works there, but somehow the whole thing looks just worthless now.

Anyways, I appreciate seeing people still care about these things on this forum. Thank you all!

[balistic]

The fanboy mentality at CGTalk is part of the reason I haven't visited much the past few months (the other part being health problems). If somebody is obviously tracing and you call them out on it, a million fanboys will accuse you of petty jealousy. Look at how many people praised Slime's picture. It's TERRIBLE. It's a fucking collage, yet he got praised to high heaven for it.

There are areas that are still cool and useful (I hear Jeremy's doing some great stuff in the lighting area), but the main galleries are just too congested with fanboys for my taste . . .
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brian.prince|light.comp.paint

[[Shizo]]

"fanboys"
That's exactly what it is! And i bet most of these fanboys really are boys, hence this childish herd-like behaviour.

[Andromeda]

im slow .. havent checked the net for a few weeks .. so the whole things resolved huh ? .... i was about up and spam the guy with meaningless stuff like "YOU SUCK!" ...


*shrugs* .... just came back from school... too tired for anything more than a "YOU SUCK" comment for Slimeball ...

not much help that would've been huh =] .
urgghh sleep

[Giant Hamster]

Sony Imageworks? Lies!

Daniel P. Ferreira, Ph.D - Head of Botany Department

He plays with plants! PLANTS I SAY!!!

[slime]

Hello.

Thomas Pringle was nice enough to tell me about this thread.

I am depressed after seing all the comments posted against me in my back. I didn't receive a single e-mail in my inbox about this issue. I guess it's more fun to ridiculize people when they cannot hear you.

I explained myself several times in the cgtalk thread. I don't think I deserve these comments:

[slime]

By the way, Mikko, after seing your image in high resolution I must say once more it's absolutely beautiful.

[balistic]

What is your issue? Why are you acting like you've busted us? Mikko is a long-time member of this community. That's why we're talking about this here.

You don't just accidentally lift elements from somebody else's picture.Most of your image is just rearranged clippings from various sources. Don't even try to claim that you painted all of it, because anyone who could paint detail like that would understand how to light things and use atmospheric perspective. You've just hosed photos with conflicting lightsources all over the place, particularly with the vegitation.

If you'd intended to present it as a work in progress you put it in the wrong section of CGTalk. You could've apologized and moved on with your life and maybe regained a shred of respect from us, but instead you keep flailing and trying to act victimized.

Here's some advice: ditch the piece. Start a new one from scratch, without using photos except as reference.
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brian.prince|light.comp.paint

[slime]

[slime]

[Freebooter]

Now I'll have to back my brother on one particuler thing. Mikko's barbaric Sweetesque picture was just that, -esque, not copypasted from Sweet's image.

The reason that Mikko's piece look very much like his is because Mikko has been looking for Justin Sweet's and Vance Kovacs pictures for inspiration for a long time. Just to tell you Slime, human anatomy can be quite similar between speciment (My god I look JUST like Brom's[insert name], he must have copied me from my swimming suit contest pics from last summer).

I have a thousand drawings of muscular men in the internet, and most of them could be placed over a pic made by Frazetta, Sweet or anyone else and resemblance would be evident because they draw realistic bodies and I try to do so too.

Why Mikko's piece is in exactly the same tilted angle I don't know. Perhaps the poster who dug that up tilted it a bit to match that Sweet pic like that. Perhaps it's a coincidence I don't know. But I do know that Mikko did his piece from a sketch because I witnessed the process and I even gave him some suggestions to better his anatomy. I apparently shouldn't have as it ended looking too much like your-average-joe muscle guy which had been previuosly made by Sweet among others.

You were right to remove it from your page, but not in the reason it reminds me of Sweet's but because the pic was rather crappy. And there's always the possibility that the would-be employer is as narrow minded as some people and don't see the difference between two similar looking anatomies and two identical cities.

[Nilwort]