Stolen Hat - Christmas
 

Guys, if you wanted me to be apart in the Holiday GFX entry, then you could've just asked...

Yesterday, it was no secret that many kids were seen running around in one of the 5uicide 5quad Gang Hat concepts. Personally, it doesn't bother me much, but for the sake of 55, I'd appreciate if the hat would be removed due to the future possibility of the hat being uploaded as their second gang hat.

I've uploaded four pictures in evidence that the concept work is mine:


The first and second are of the two original image concepts I emailed Harley when first discussing the hat.

^ The third image is one that I took just now, a screenshot on my laptop. It is of the date I finished and emailed the files to her: Friday, April 7, 2017.

The fourth is of (left) Nathan's plagiarized version, and (right) my original work. I'd say that they're different enough to be considered separate works, but the pure dead give-away is that he eye-droppered my colors lol

-Whippy

Hello Whippy,

first of all I understand how you feel. I made gfx in the past too and a different version of it got accepted 6 months later.

Have you talked to Nathan directly before making this post? Or did you bring this up before talking to him?
Did Nathan know about your draft?

Who would want to edit such beautiful work

Sorry whippy for this but.

Once your gfx is uploaded on graal unixmad/stephane portha owns that unless you get your work copyrighted or if its uploaded on a other game ol west can and most likely will refuse to take your content off the server due to dumb laws. Now you could take this to court and beat stephane portha easily on this but #1 it isnt worth the time and money #2 Stephane Porthas hiding in france. So good luck is all I can say

Lel he thinks ss going 4k

Lyvia,

Lmfao that's just outrageous xD equally as sorry for your ordeal as well, man!... Actually yeah, Nathan sent me an invite to his house yesterday after (I suppose) 5uicide 5quad members messaged him about it. Nathan privately offered me gralats, horseshoes, and this fancy-looking alien in a green cryo tank furniture item... I guess to keep my mouth shut? I invited one of my friends to his house during this time, so I have a witness if need be... (lol this is beginning to sound like an episode of Perry Mason) X,DD But yeah, we told Nate that I'd be reporting this, and he shrugged it off. Didn't deny anything said about his plagiarism though. And nah, I only recall sharing my work through KIK with members of 55 and friends from West.

TWIZ,

At the end of the day, I don't care. My work, I considered it to be a decent light study, and then I throw it in a file on my laptop to collect dust lmao... but if Nathan is so obsessed with me... y'think that if I posted an image of my ass on KIK... ol' Nate might gfx it into a hat next Christmas? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Mr. Tomato,

LMFAO. That was awesome. I'm sitting here with this big dumb grin on my face. I knew Perry Mason was lurking around here some place lol... 'ight but yeah I saw this coming. Technical stuff aside, I know I can't do anything about it. I came to ask out of respect to the work, 55, and I suppose... humanity? LOL. Really, like I said, it's whatever. But it is pretty embarrassing. Flattering, but embarrassing.

And Tomato, I urged Harley and everyone to stop and go find a more quality game (or just get lives lol) to play after 55 hit the 1.5k... but I think they love each other too much. It's ridiculous, but I can fairly confidently say that they will hit the 4k due to needing a game to support each others' company... Tbh I think I'll be asking for a mount template before I leave again.

No it's fantastic. Your sel out skills are great and your shading style reminds me of my own. I'm curious to see what you would do with a more elaborate palette.

The problem i had was that, after seeing the original in development for so long, it was almost embarrasing to see such a shoddy rip-off (no offense but yes offense) of a truly great hat. Alot of time and effort went into it and after talking with the 'Nathanator' his view on the act of plaguerism was "idc".

Im glad the community seems to mostly agree that the artwork is stolen (i expected a lynch-mob going off of track record..) and it's a shame that not a lot can be done about it.

However! In the actual submission thread it did specifically say that "stolen artwork will be immediately denied", understandably, it's difficult to discern whether a hat/concept is stolen but if the evidence is given, shouldn't it only make sense for the hat to be removed, refunded, etc.?

Interesting...
I didn't know you were invited to his house plus brought 5 people. I'll definitely ask Nathan about it. You and your 5 friends may discuss with me too.

Yeah Nathan seems much like "Idk" and "Idc" and I know his english isn't that good. I used to base with Silence for 4 months and I never heard talking him much. His english isnt that good. Which is why I decided to join the discussion and help to understand what is going on. I have an Italian colleague and he reminds me much of Nathan. ;)

Nathan told me he saw this hat in a movie once and wanted to make it.

Don't get me wrong guys. I can very much understand that you're upset!

But how can Nathan copy your hat when he never saw your sprite?

Either some SS member sent him and he copied or it is simply coincidence that he made it.
But I don't deny it they really look close.
I mean how can you "copy" so closely when you don't have the original file?

I ve seen Nathan's GFX at the time when I just was hired and now. He improved alot and I m proud of it. Hell ya - I wish I could improve like this too but I cant do much gfx lately.
Furthermore Nathan had 18 of his hats accepted onto Ol West for XMAS. With that great result he actually doesn't need to steal. He sounded like he didnt do it on purpose.

As I said what bothers me is that colors look close even though he doesn't have your file.

I thought u quit this game u hate

Since this seems like a juicy expose thread I'll join in on the fun

The lineart is too similar, it even matches up for most parts of the hat and at other times he simply linetraced around the already existing outline.
The colors are super close to the point where it is obvious that Nathan has colorpicked them over and slightly changed them.

Here's some evidence with the lines overlapping and I've also picked out some of the colors which are almost identical to eachother.

GIF:
https://i.imgur.com/rJUA4iO.gif

PNG:
https://i.imgur.com/hLJazhT.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/rQgD7FR.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/vk5VEgr.png


Also Lyvia, if you are confident about him creating original content then please post the rest of his work and perhaps this'll turn out to be even more enjoyable than it already is :love:

Most of Ol’West is stolen artwork, what else is new.

"Oops I accidentally edited your hat"

90% of the line art matches up and the colors are exactly the same. This was no accident.

I think "plagiarized" is the more proper, loosely-based term here, as he didn't just take my hat directly and submit it. But yes, looking through a non-politically correct eye, anyone on the planet could see this and deem it "stolen". Lmfao Twiz nailed it xD ... btw Twiz, thanks for the compliments- you said my shading reminds me of your own- hmu sometime and share your work- I'm always down for some art swap.

Eugeen. Thanks for taking the time to do that, man. Very tidy work. Very much appreciated.

Lyv, I invited one friend during my visit with Nathan. It was J*, in fact. And as he said, embarrassingly yes, I really busted my butt over this piece. To see it ripped off and stuck in the very game that I designed it for was... well (I try to keep calm these days) yeah, it was pretty lame. I'd much rather had someone contact me and ask for the hat directly if I knew this was going to be its fate (heck I could've even thrown some holiday edits on it).

^ I'd like for Nathan to produce a screenshot of the hat in the movie he saw... because this morning, I dug up five more papers of concept work I have displaying this hat. I can also share my influences and thoughts before the hat even made it on paper. On the side, I don't see why you're listing all of these 'Nathan Fun Facts', as his personality or gfx struggle doesn't have anything to do the plagiarizing matter? And as for him bribing me in his house, he can verify this- because as sure as I'm alive and breathing, it did happen.

I did quit. Purely coincidental when I came back for a few days' visit with the SS kids. As soon as this matter is taken care of, I'll be gone again- don't worry lol

Ill explain the ambiguities here.
1. There were not "five friends" it was just whippy and i
2. Nathan HAD seen the sprite, a member of our gang leaked an early version of the hat (funnily enough that member is now in silence).
3. It is clearly plaguerised. Like Eugeen said, the line-art is similar and various details were clearly copied. Not to mention the literal 'eye-dropping" of the colours.

Edit: whippy how did we post replies at the exact same minute about the exact same thing haha

Double edit: yeah Nathan did get 18 of his hats approved. He also got three stalls for halloween this year and most of his hats were'nt themed for the event and im not even going to talk about the bow.

*reads over my reply for grammatical errors, logs out, sees your post

AHH MI AMIGO, I believe to further the question, WHEN WE SIMULTANEOUSLY CLICKED THE "SUBMIT REPLY" KEY, HOW DIDN'T OUR POSTS QUANTUM INTERMINGLE AND BLOW UP THE GRAAL FORUMS?!... obviously I'm just closer to the server than you, and my reply came in 0.00000001 seconds earlier... for the sake of all Graalians, be glad that it did.

(whaddabout that post from Eugeen eyy? snazzy stuufff)