Most freestuff I deleted is already at the AnimeDoll portal, and the AD pics I deleted here will end up there. But there are still images which are not anime, and thus not suited for the AD portal. Publishing on my own site is a bit pointless IMHO, because I'm no one on the art scene. Actually, I'd like to hear about an artists' site I could submit my small hobbyist production to.

Mmm. The only thing I have in my Evangelion folder is a mecha (monster ?) called "Zeruel".

What were you interested in exactly ? The plugsuit ? I know that Aya from AG studio was working on one, but I doubt she will post it here, given the recent sweeping of the freestuff and marketplace. You could check at the AnimeDoll portal. Or contact AG studio here, in the development forum, in the manga threads.

"Just change the color and the pose of the pic..." Sure, that's all it takes. Or may be just change part of the outfit. The point is how do I know I have to change the poses if no one told me that there might be a confusion with a well known character ? I'm not a lawyer, but if I buy something, I want to be able to use it without someone telling me "Hey, this is copied on XX game/film !" @ynsaen : "the Untied States of America". Now that's a cute lapsus...

http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?&Form.ShowMessage=2022984 mmm, could there be a relation between this thread and what is said here ?

First, it's not a DAZ problem, but a generic problem, which can occur in any store (as has been pointed out above). Second, it's not a copyright problem. Copyrights problems are settled by copyright owners with the possible assistance of lawyers. It's just a marketting problem. As Stormrage so acutely puts it : "The line is your own. do you buy it? or don't you. That's the only decision you can make." But, to make a decision, you have to be informed. Or else, you have been mislead, deliberately or not. From what he posted above, it seems the author of the Aiko's outfit was well aware of similarities between his design and the FF character. He and DAZ chose to post a pic that stressed this similarity. It's their choice and I don't see any reason to complain (unless you personally hold the copyright to FF character design that is). But since they were aware of this similarity, I feel they should have put a caveat somewhere in the promo page about possible similarities between the 2. Is that so hard to do ? Of course, it depends on what can be called "similar". When I saw the cat girl in the WIP images, I immediately thought "Hey, it's Felicia !" because I have never seen any other character looking like this, and that the 2 look really similar to me (although I should have not used the term "copycat", which is not quite appropriate here). On the other hand, the authors say they wanted to make a completely different character and that the two don't look at all the same to them, and I don't see any reason to distrust them. But posting links to images of both allows readers of this thread to make their own opinion and decisions. It's all allowing customers to make informed decisions, it's all about customer's respect.

By the way : I just checked Daz' forum for Aiko3. They seem to have a "cat girl" in preparation. http://forum.daz3d.com/postimages/origimage_1_124961.jpg Beware : she's a copycat (sorry, I can't resist bad puns...) for Felicia, a character in Darkstalker, a capcom game. http://www.stuart.iit.edu/students/adamadr/images/darkstal/felicia.htm You've been warned...

@Stormrage : I cannot answer on a lawyer point of view, just as an end user "artist" and as a physician. 1- The notoriety of the character comes into play. The African Queen is a classic, whereas this recent film about a werewolf huntress is known to few. Tauru once made a cute japanese school uniform that I have used in a couple of pics until someone pointed to me that it was Evangelion's Rey Ayanami's school outfit. I knew about the plugsuits from this OAV (Tauru had made them for Poser), but never had heard about the school outfit. In this case, it was the green colour that gave it away. 2- The completeness of the outfit. The Celeste clothes I used are composed of a corselet, pants, shoes, long cloak, and 2 pistols. When I used all these in a single pic, the guy who had ordered the pic told me "hey! it's (insert name here, I just cannot remember), why did you cut her hair ? By the way, I had asked for an original work, not a copycat...". You get the idea. 3- As a physician, it would be a little long to get into how the human mind recognises items, and the circuits involved from the visual perception, to the recognition, to the reminiscences of linked memories. For our topic it's enough to say that when we perceive an image, the brain tries to recognise it. If it is not stored exactly "as is" in our memory, the brain looks for similar memories, checks in what contexts these memories were stored, and tries to see which one matches the current context. It does thus for as many significant points he sees, and then makes a decision. The more "check points" that are matching, the closer the association.

Another question on this topic : Since the author knows that he has drawn inspiration from a film/game character, and since most people who have posted seem to think that it's not really a copyright problem, then what would be the risk for the author to clearly advertise his inspiration ?

@Stormrage : I think it is a whole set of circumstances. Marketting the Adventuress Sidekick would not have brought to my mind the images of Xena, but marketting this outfit and character at the very same time that "Swordswoman for She-Freak" was marketted clearly made the point. The clothes from Celeste character look very much many other clothes in the same vein. But marketting her with the very same rooftop that the original film character stands on in the film really makes the point. As for Aiko, the outfit would have passed unnoticed if it had not been a part of a package specifically designed to recreate the anime look. I don't know about copyrights involved in the African Queen boat. But I guess there is still some unsure area, or else the mesh would have been named "African Queen" instead of "Jungle Queen". To me, it is more a marketting problem : I can handle the copyright risks in my works IF (and only if) I'm informed about a potential problem. To push the matter, I'm becoming unsure about my libraries : how many items have I bought unknowingly that can get me into trouble ? It has happened to me once. How can I know that it won't happen again ?

"The concept of the outfit was the easy part IMO." Character concept is an art in itself, and many people are hard working on making a character look just right. It's just as hard as making the 3D mesh, texture, etc... IMO.

I would be hard pressed to have any opinion on the legal basis of all this, and on the differences between copyright and trade mark. But, as a customer, I expect someone who sells an outfit who looks like a well known outfit to tell me about this lookalikeness before I purchase the item. (and it's not just DAZ, BTW). For instance, I had no idea that this outfit for Aiko was a lookalike from a game. I learned this from this thread. I decided to buy it anyway, but now I know that I must not use these clohting items just as they are, or else I run the risk of producing a lookalike. With this information, I could make an informed decision, which is the basis of commercial relationships (or at least, it should be...). I would have appreciated to see this information in the promo page.

It's not the first case. Just to name a few : Swordswoman for She-Freak + Adventuress Sidekick for SP = Xena warrior pincess. Jungle Queen boat = African Queen boat. Celeste character and clothes = some recent film character whose name I forgot. The last one got me in trouble, because I didn't know the film it was taken from (something about a vampire or werewolf huntress) and made a pic with it, which was refused. I have no problem with DAZ making copyrighted characters, it's their choice. But I do object that they don't advertise it frankly.

Great tubular architecture. It reminds me of the Baltar pavillion. It really changes the feel of the whole thing. Brilliant ! I know you don't really need input to have great ideas. I just wanted to add my own crazyness to the brain storming, so here's an idea I had at lunchtime (see pic) : the town train would run on magnetic ramps, and the passengers would embark by being lifted into it. The town train would be a cross between a double decker bus, a land train and the Titanic. The wait stations would be lined in the streets, and the town train would get up and down the office levels, while the regular buses (rusty textures because low level areas ?) would gather the passengers in the "old fashion way", by ground, to reach the 0 level factories. If the cars and buses are moving at various levels, then you'd need "bus stops" appended in mid air, or even suspended, to catch correspondances. OK, OK, I stop here.

Great variation on a theme ! I love these industrial columns and pillars. Just a couple of ideas to add to the feel of it : As for the roof, how a bout a mushroom style attachment, starting from the center (where the hole is) and expanding towards the periphery, with added gizmos next to the column and pillars ? And what about replacing the glass windscreens with holo commercials ? And giving a more "heavy" look to the seats ? Anyway, just my 2 eurocents. Feel free to ignore it alltogether : I'd buy the set as it is now anyway...