Using dress up games for your UTAUloid's avatar...

I personally use the doll maker as a way to say 'hey, this is what I imagine they'd look like.' I make sure people know it is not official art, because I didn't make it, and that it's from eLouai. But having a visual is better for some people than just describing it (language barriers etc), so there's a visual suggestion.

I don't consider it stealing because I credit the site I got it from, and I say that it is a suggestion, NOT an official design. People are free to change it if they like. I didn't even include the doll avatar in Trem's voicebank, I just use it when others ask for visual references. With Adele I put it in there, but I made it clear in the readme file that it wasn't mine.

The way I understand it, the doll-maker is meant for messing around with clothes and making little doll characters, basically. and the fact that they even have a 'save' feature on the one I use makes me suspect that they are fine with you using them for personal use.

all this being said, trem's act II will not be from eLouai. I don't know what I'm going to do exactly, but I really am getting tired of using the doll.

I'm referring to people who use the dollmaker dolls as like, the official art for their UTAU.

Because if they do that, and somebody draws FANART of that character, yes, they are STEALING, because in the long run the dollmaker won't be getting any credit, and the design will be associated as the UTAU maker's design.

If you do it for fun then pfffff I don't see any problem with it XD But using a dollmaker and going LOL THIS IS MY UTAU GAIZ EVERYONE DRAW HER :D That's stealing.

Okay sorry for the double post, but I'm really kind of irritated with this topic and I'd like to make some points clear. .___.

First of all, JUST BECAUSE THERE'S A SAVE BUTON DOESN'T MEAN IT'S FREE USE. The save button is not some freaking free pass at taking this person's work and doing whatever in all hells you want to do with it. Dollmakers were intended for nothing more than fun, and are usually aimed at younger children, who, if they were to save it, would probably just send it to their friends or show their mom or something. A save button =/= a free pass. After all, you can save stock photos, mp3s, and even entire programs with a simple right click of your mouse, too.

Second, TAKING people's designs and claiming it's okay because "I GAVE CREDIT LOL" is STILL not okay! That's like holding up a bank and then going to the store and telling the cashier, "Oh well this isn't actually my money, it's the Bank of America's." You gave credit, so it's not stealing anymore right? The only case in which ~giving credit~ is an acceptable thing to do for taking something is if the artist/creator themselves have given you written permission and asked that you credit them -- in which case if any of you have it I'd be more than happy to see it.

Third, I checked out one the largest dollmaker's website, as mentioned before, eLouai. I used to play with it a lot as a kid too. XD I hunted all around the website, and couldn't seem to find a terms of use policy (<which btw in this case, you really shouldn't take their things and use them ANYWAY without asking what they are because this kind of think could get you into HUGE trouble later in life if you kept this habit) But what I DID find is that all of the clothing on the website were contributed by different artists (which I'm sure is this way on many other dollmaker websites as well) So in THAT case, you can't just go LOL CREDIT GOES TO ELOUAI because Miss Louai DIDN'T DRAW A LOT OF THE THINGS YOU MAY BE USING. So not only do you have a BUNCH of different artists to credit, but you also have a BUNCH of different artists who may have different terms of use on their designs and art!

In any case, without written permission you are not allowed to use things from a dollmaker however you god damn please. .___.

I agree so much with Misha and Scarfu. Sorry but I don't really like when people uses dollmakers for making "official art", although it's nice to get some inspiration

vodKata wrote:I agree so much with Misha and Scarfu. Sorry but I don't really like when people uses dollmakers for making "official art", although it's nice to get some inspiration

Kata took the words out of my mouth. Although I never directly used dollmakers for designs, I'm completely sure that somehow or another, smal pieces of such designs unconsciously inspired in the making of my own designs. Because we all know that art, at least nowadays, is basically impossible to be original. Same for anime, manga, TV series, or even actual clothing designs (even if they're from past eras) and things found in nature. We all end up adapting them to our own designs, somehow or another.

Of course, I'm /very/ unoriginal with designs, but I know people who are relatively original and ended up telling that they were searching various sources of inspiration and stuff.

Hmm, I see, I see. Now so that I can leave this topic at peace, final thoughts:

I guess those dress-up games are useful for ideas/inspiration, but at the end you need to come up with your own design. If you can't draw, maybe you can think of a design, make an avatar out of a doll-maker, and tell people that it's a representation of what he/she should look like (preferably w/ description of what you actually imagine he/she looks like) but to not credit it as the official design as it comes from so-and-so's doll-maker.

*looks at scarfu's posts*
*looks at the fine print on eLouai*
.....................

You know what, this is too much headache. You guys are right. I'm going to get a pencil and paper and see what happens. I have been convinced.

EDIT one hour later: does anyone mind if Trem turns into a robot, or something? Something with angles and straight lines? X[

I thought of mine on my own.

For kochiro's second design I used polyvore.com to help pick out outfit stuff.

\=u=/;;

For the record, I didn't mean to attack or sound mean or anything, I just wanted to make some points clear. [/realizes she sounds kind of fired up when into a debate XD]

I think taking INSPIRATION from some of the things in a doll maker is okay, but just BLATANTLY copying the design you pulled from it, that's theft, you know? XD