This is strange

Today I took a drive to the Layton Mall just to walk around and look at all the plus size mannequins. While I was there I spotted a Halloween display featuring large monsters. I'm a sucker for monsters so I went right over to it. There were 4 or 5 static displays. Large muscular humanoids. here's a picture to give you an idea.

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So there I am standing there looking at these rubber creatures. There was something familiar about the monster in the picture above. I couldn't place it but I had seen this guy before. At least I thought I did. right next to the figures is a poster explaining about the display and the people who made it. Hey! I recognize one of the names. Troy L. I know that guy! Good for Troy. I use to work with Troy but he quit around 7 years ago to pursue his dream of making creatures for movies and haunted houses. Looks like he's still at it. Troy made this monster..... That's when I realized why it looked so familiar, not the whole thing but the face.

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I recognized it because I sculpted the nose, mouth and jaw 15 years ago. You see, a long time ago, I stopped doing physical creature effects. That left me with tons of molds and clay and paint and equipment. I didn't want to throw it all away so I gave a lot of it to Troy.

Here are some pictures from my website that show the mask that I made.

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You can plainly see that Troys creation borrowed part of it's anatomy directly from my work. He didn't use my work as inspiration then sculpt his own version of it. Instead, he made a copy of my mask, then applied a section of some other mask on top of it.

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I had to take some pictures for my photo albums but I'm still not sure how I feel about this. I'm not mad. I guess I'm sort of flattered but, I don't know, do you think he should have contacted me and asked or at least told me about it? I did give him the molds for this mask and I have seen pictures on his Facebook page in the past where he made copies from my molds, painted them, then displayed them as his work.. On one hand, I created the thing. On the other hand, he painted it. Hmmm. I don't know. I haven't seen Troy in years and I'm not going to bother him over this, but it is kind of strange for someone who presents himself as a professional artist to be using someone else's work as his own. What do you think?
 
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I recognized it because I sculpted the nose, mouth and jaw 15 years ago. You see, a long time ago, I stopped doing physical creature effects. That left me with tons of molds and clay and paint and equipment. I didn't want to throw it all away so I gave a lot of it to Troy.
do you think he should have contacted me and asked or at least told me about it?
It may look odd to you but you GAVE him the molds, like selling a business but you gave it away free, and he used it in his business. It's property (and yes, art).
 
The proper thing would not be to contact you but give you credit/partial credit, wherever the credits are listed (author(s) of art).
 
If you buy a ceramic business and use all the molds to make ceramics you would not have to contact the original artist at any time, but with unique pieces you are showcasing, it would be nice to list the original artist of the mold. But these are businesses and you gave yours to someone with permission to use/modify/do with as they please. But yeah taking all the credit for something this unique (if that is the case) is "tacky" as @mlesemann states. Nice work btw!
 
The taking the credit aspect is what would bother me, personally. To not aknowledge your part in the work I find disrepectful. I can't say whether it's worth the bother to you. To help people is one thing and that's fine, but I wouldn't let things go so far as to become anyone's Mcfly! 'Hey Mcfly, is my mask done yet!?'
 
Is this a case of not seeing the wood for the trees, and being overly concerned about one acorn? It's understandable that you're unsettled by seeing your own work appear in a different setting years after you created it, but to keep things in context: you admit that when looked at the figure, you did not recognise it immediately, and you acknowledge that Troy didn't use the whole mask for the face, only the nose and upper and lower jaw. Without any personal connection, then, how much of your work would any other observer notice in the model as a whole?

I'm sure there are thousands of examples, even on this site, of people using uncredited phrases, suggestions, plans and other creative "building blocks" to make something new, and we all accept it as part of the process. I would consider moulds, stencils, LUTs and clothing patterns to be part of the same toolkit: resources that one acquires progressively over time; for free or bought with hard-earned cash; sometimes with a specific purpose in mind, but often as part of a package and put aside for an as-yet-undetermined future use; and for there to be no need for a future artist to trawl through year's/decade's worth of archives to track down the original creator of something that might make up a fraction of their visible work.
 
I never said we weren't friends. We just haven't seen each other in a long while. Life is like that sometimes.
 
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Remember, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I've had many occasions where my work was "borrowed", but I typically don't worry about it. If the market value of the creativity was higher, or the dilution effect was stronger, I might care, but usually it makes zero actual difference.

The worst case scenario is when a wealthy person steals from a poor person, and they uses their financial advantages to make a fortune from an idea or work that the poor person was too poor to monetize. It happens more than you would think. Every studio has been accused of stealing a script at one time or another. Jingle all the way was stolen from a poor person and used to pay a millionaire more millions. He took his family to see a Christmas movie, and it was his script. He did sue and get a settlement, but he will never be treated as well as the person who stole his work. The Matrix was stolen from an elderly woman. The Sixth Sense was stolen. The Village was stolen. Every time, a person with millions of dollars stole from a penniless creative, and then used money to buy their way out of it once discovered. It's a huge hole in the justice system that you can make money by committing a crime, and then use that money to defend yourself in court. This is actually how sampling started, people would steal parts of records, make huge money, and then just settle out of court for some trivial percentage of the ill gotten gains.

It's interesting that a poor person can steal a single dollar, and end up in physical prison (it has literally happened), but a wealthy executive can steal a 100 million dollar idea, and then sell it on the open market, get caught red handed, go to court, loose the case, and still end up rich and famous because of the theft.

Here's a search for M Night Shamaylan, showing how he has been sued for plagiarism over almost every film he ever made.

 
hehehe... not that kind of a visit :)

I only brought up the borrowed face story to have something to talk about. Some interesting comments though. Its actually not the first time things I've come up with showed up in the market place. That's the thing. You have to guard your ideas but at some point you have to show people, and when you do, your ideas can be stolen... Has anyone else besides Nate and me had their work borrowed?
 
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