Have a look at the new character in overwatch, Sojourn.......Yeah its a Nomad, it is so blatantly a Nomad its painful.
Oh, I can do that too. Look at these moderators and morlocks! Yeah, its marvel and DC ripoff, it is so blatantly a marvel and DC ripoff its painful.
Yes she could be a Nomad, but I don´t see, why this should be painful. I like the look of her - could be a good source for a Moran special char ;-)
Well, Blizzard seems to like suppressing cases of sexual assault and sexual harrasment so I wouldn't put much stock in what they like but hey... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
There are so many "homages" to lots of IP owned by companies other than CB in CB's range I don't think we shoukd be slinging stones in glass houses here lol
There were threads about "references" years ago, in previous versions of the forum. Maybe in this one too (sucky search engine).
A few things: 1. Almost all media is inspired in some way by other media. Sometimes this is in the form of direct homages, other times its blatant theft. In most cases, one creator sees what another does and is inspired to do something original that has can be compared to their inspiration. And of course sometimes similarities are nothing more than coincidence. Two separate people can, and very often do, have teh same or similar ideas. 2. An homage is a purposeful tribute to another artist's work. The artist isn't trying to steal the design for their own or claim they came up with it. When Corvus Belli sculptors create a miniature that purposely looks like Harley Quinn, They aren't trying to make you think they invented that character, and they aren't trying to pass it off as an original design. They are paying tribute to something they like, or something they think is an inspiration. They KNOW you know what it looks like, and no one is pretending otherwise. This is both acceptable and extremely common. 3. When an artist takes another artist's ideas and designs and presents them as wholly theirs, without making any changes or only making minimal changes, that is (usually) blatant art theft. A ripoff. A swipe. This is extremely common in graphic design and advertising, but also in comics, animation and gaming. Sometimes character designs, packaging designs, movie posters, music or comic panels are totally replicated, without crediting the original artist or compensating them in any way. This is an attempt by one artist (or company) to steal and profit from the work of another. This is fairly common and extremely unacceptable. This is obviously not the same as an homage. 4. Very often an artist will be inspired by one or several works, and go off to make something of their own that looks much like those works, but is (or at least attempts) to be its own thing. Most of the popular media we love falls in this category. Infinity, Star Wars. Warhammer. The Lord of the Rings. All superheroes. Overwatch, Star Craft and Warcraft. Elden Ring. Destiny. My Little Pony. Gundam. Adventure Time. When you look at these things and see something familiar, it doesn't mean that the creator ripped someone else's work off. It means they were inspired to go out and make something similar of their own. This is a good thing, and extremely common. It is not impossible at all that Blizzard saw Infinity and took inspiration for Overwatch. There are a few Overwtch designs that certinly suggest this. Thats fine. Thats literally where dieas come from.
A clear homage is making a Nomad Harley Quinn and saying This is Harley Quinn in Infinity. It's a reimagining of the original IP with the attribution of the original source, author, etc. Literally copying real people or movie characters and calling them your own names, not connecting them to the original person or author is plagiarizing that idea or abusing that person's / actor's personal image. It's exactly a ripoff. "Shona Carano", in both her Aristeia and Infinity iterations has Gina Carano's face and name, silhouette and general sassy attitude. She can be called an homage. Van Zant is a direct, recognizable copy of the Matthew McConaughey's "Van Zan" character from the movie "Reign of Fire". That's an homage. Those stated connections to the originals is what saves them. On the other hand, something like Senor Massacre, who is very obviously Deadpool, especially when you see his Aristeia cards, with whom if correctly painted you can't tell it's not Deadpool, is a very much more iffy topic. You see the Bakunin Moderators and you know they're clearly The Collector, Yondu, Gamora and Nebula. There's no disputing that. And they're not linked to the characters and original IP at all. The Morlocks are the same, it's a clone of the original Suicide Squad! Joker, Harley, Croc, Katana. No homage, no respect to the author and IP, a blatant ripoff of the character designed sold as a "CB sculpt and product". CB has been better recently about skirting the homage border of "inspiration", it's still blatant but probably legally safer for them. But if HASBRO/Marvel wanted their asses for the Morlock or Moderator ripoffs, this would be an uphill battle I think.
Sorry but this caught my eye and I can’t let it go. My comic book geek level will drop if I don’t say something! The original suicide squad was created in the mid to late 1950s and most definitely did not include the joker, Harley Quinn, killer croc and katana… they were a much later addition, especially Harley who debuted in the animated Batman 1990s tv series and was so popular she was later added to the comics. Sorry, I couldn’t let it be, I do realise what your point was and indeed these are the key members of the Suicide Squad. Agreeing also with most of what you’ve stated @Nuada I am confused with your inclusion of Van Zant as an homage. Since he’s literally a copy of Matthew McConaughey's “Van Zan” character from reign of fire (he even hunts dragons on Ariadna now) would that not constitute a ripoff scenario for this character rather than homage? Similar to the senior massacre/deadpool situation that you’ve mentioned. To be fair, a huge number of IPs have been used for ideas in Infinity that could potentially have gotten CB into trouble over the years. The use of Masamune Shirow’s Appleseed as the basis for the original squalo (and every bunny eared panoceania mini that came after) could have created issues. I am glad it hasn’t, I enjoy the fact that a large number of my favourite anime and TV shows are represented in such a manner and I hope to see similar things done in Warcrow.
By the way: isn't it time for Corvus to release a dismounted model for Celty Sturlson... I mean... for the "Kuroshi Rider"?
I would like this very much but since it was unlikely anytime soon I got impatient and made one… used a celestial guard and an extra Celty, I mean Kuroshii rider, I got for cheap on eBay. Didn’t think anyone else recognised her from Durarara!
It's veeeeeery bordeline IMO, the only saving grace is the name, which connects the intent and IP directly. It's the "this is Harley in Nomads" scenario. It's not reimagined like Harley would have to be, but it's at least attributed by name to the original character, just like Gina/Shona Carano is to the real person. What's definitely beyond that line is the above mentioned Celty Sturlson / Kuroshi Rider. It's a blatant ripoff of the character idea and design, just color coded red for Nomads instead of yellow. There's no attribution to the original either, it could've been a reimagining if they tried, but lack of attribution crosses the border hard.
Ah, I see. Yes that does make it a homage then for Van Zant and not a rip-off. The Kuroshii rider/Celty is most definitely as you’ve said! Think ryuken 9 are too, they’re the Major and Batou… I do love the minis though, I will be painting my Celty in all her yellow and black glory as she was meant to be!
Its not, and I really don't think you know what you're talking about. You don't seem to understand the difference between an homage and plagiarization. I do. I work in industries where these are major concerns. I've also been an art teacher for decades. I do know what I am talking about. I posted here because a number of people in this community seem (completely understandably) to be confused by the differences between plagiarism, homage and inspiration. I hoped to provide some insight one what is acceptable in the general art community and what is not.
Mmmhhh… Her armored legs are very Infinity like. I like how she has that same weird split on top of the foot as so many of my Infinity models. Never understood what that was supposed to represent, except more detail to paint… Well, I hope CB returns the favor. The prices of armor on her legs might be simpler than some Infinity stuff, but they also make more sense. I guess having to animate the character afterwards makes you more conscious of movement limitations… Personally, I hope to see that stuff on a mini near me soon.
It’s actually a lot more explicit than you think; the character is called Massacre in Spanish translations.
I do agree with @jake richmond that you don’t have to explicitly announce “this is a pop culture reference” by naming a model after its source material in order to have a valid homage. If nothing else, that would make it impossible to do references in anything other than newly created named character units, which seems a bit silly. I don’t always care for the homage / reference units, they can sometimes feel a bit overdone, but l don’t think CB ever really strays into ripoff or plagiarism territory. Massacre / Deadpool comes the closest, much more so than various Morlocks, etc.
