Anonymous at Wed, 29 Sep 2021 10:29:31 UTC No. 853842

>>853835
Because you're committing fraud against your client at that point and copyright infringement towards whoever owns the rights for model in question. If caught you could end up in trouble.

Plagiarists always get the rope. There's like no sympathy whatsoever for them, it's a one strike and you're out kinda culture in effect.

Sneaky artists sometimes even add in proofmark imperfections so they can tell if you topo'ed over something you stole from them.
Laserscan and skew the model by some minor invisible to the eye offset from the real thing etc. Like how they know if you stole from Forza etc.

Anonymous at Wed, 29 Sep 2021 11:44:13 UTC No. 853852

>>853842
What if I am hired for animation- and the client adds an additional request for a Mercedes AMG in the background of the dancing they NEED it that car- They also just cut the deadline a week earlier (no pay adjustment). What would you do?

Anonymous at Wed, 29 Sep 2021 11:55:28 UTC No. 853855

>>853842
>>853852
https://youtu.be/qlZhIiPIdek?t=105

Anonymous at Wed, 29 Sep 2021 11:55:37 UTC No. 853856

>>853835
>download existing model
>retopo it
>move a few minor details around
>hand it to the client
>nobody will ever know

You're welcome, OP

Anonymous at Wed, 29 Sep 2021 12:21:01 UTC No. 853860

>>853852
there is literally nothing wrong with buying models for jobs. you are literally giving money for the license to use it.

if the only job was to model something then you should just do >>853856 . if the client is too dumb to do the research themselves or insists that they need a new model then you deserve the cash.

Anonymous at Wed, 29 Sep 2021 17:01:28 UTC No. 853894

>>853835
I don't know if you're talking about purchasing models or stealing them. If it's the former, we do that all the time. There is no benefit for the client to have us model and surface assets from scratch if they can just be bought from turbosquid or something. In fact it helps the client by shaving days off the budget, which they care a lot more about than where the asset came from.

Anonymous at Wed, 29 Sep 2021 17:11:16 UTC No. 853896

>>853855
>3D assemblers coping

Anonymous at Wed, 29 Sep 2021 18:44:31 UTC No. 853905

>>853842
How the fuck would you be able to tell a retopoed Mercedesss from the stolen one?

Anonymous at Wed, 29 Sep 2021 18:45:40 UTC No. 853906

>>853856
I was thinking this. Literally noone inthe world could caught you if you retopo it in the different way. Especially if it's a common car model

Anonymous at Wed, 29 Sep 2021 18:47:16 UTC No. 853907

>>853894
I don't wanna streal. I was talking about even free models with public domain license, but not made from scratch by yourself

Anonymous at Wed, 29 Sep 2021 19:34:31 UTC No. 853912

>>853905
We alter meshes so they differ slightly from a real cars so if you retopo them they can just impose their model and demonstrate
it has the same intentional imperfections as theirs. proving you didn't scan a real car or something but used theirs.
Like move a fin or a vent or a keyhole half an inch this way or that way etc or skew this or that curve ever so slightly off.

Artists and all kinds of industries and businesses have used such proof marks for various things a long time.
Like you add some nonsense little thing to a design that serves no purpose and is just there to catch plagiarists.
If someone tries to sell the code/design/equipment knock-off as their own you can demonstrate how your tell tale mark is there and demand fines/royalties etc.

Anonymous at Thu, 30 Sep 2021 03:07:56 UTC No. 853968

>>853835
It's quite a simple thing to answer. But here's a quick and dirty, followed by some explanation.
>render/animation
Just download it
>anything else
do it yourself

>Does your client need an animation or render?
Sure, download a car. Visually it's no different than if you modeled it yourself, assuming you have the skill to do so.
A Mercedes AMG will look, and should look, like any other AMG of the same make/model. That's the thing about cars.

If possible, purchase a model and offload the cost onto your client (now you have a legally obtained model to use in the future), but if not just use another source. Personally, I use video game rips. Mostly Forza and Grand Turismo since they are high quality, and include cockpits.
Geometry doesn't matter, nor does the source, since there's no way of knowing where the fuck a model is from in a render, unless you get cheeky and show wires like a retard.
Generally there's a good bit of cleanup involved getting the model ready to present anyway, assigning materials, rigging, managing LoDs, etc.

>Does your client need actual models or has access to the scene/source
Never download something and send it, even if it's purchased. At least if you want to be safe. Most licenses and stuff with 3d models might be fine, but some have clauses against sharing to clients. Pretty sure Megascans does as well. Renders and animations are okay, but you're not "allowed" to send files that give others access to Megascans assets.
Just model it yourself and charge extra, or do what other anons said and retopo existing models. In either case, you have a model you can re-use, and if you did it yourself you can do whatever the fuck you want with it. Even turn around and sell it.

But yeah, personally, since I deal mostly in animations and renders, I save myself the time and use existing models. I've got a library of like 20 or so cars from rips that I've fixed up and rigged to use, so I can just drop it in and focus on what the client wants.

Anonymous at Thu, 30 Sep 2021 03:28:47 UTC No. 853971

>>853968
>Personally, I use video game rips. Mostly Forza and Grand Turismo since they are high quality, and include cockpits.
You are not the only one. I have heard a couple of 3D artists mention these games as a source for models they "borrow".
Any idea where I can get some of them?
You surely don't rip them yourself but rather download them from forums/websites of rippers/modders/whatever.
I am out of the loop in regards to sources like these.

Anonymous at Thu, 30 Sep 2021 04:14:44 UTC No. 853986

>>853971
One website I know was gamemodels.ru

Anonymous at Thu, 30 Sep 2021 05:31:39 UTC No. 854011

>>853986
That anon is right.
I use gamemodels.ru for those rips. I've been using it for years.
The Forza models are the ones you want, mainly (anything FH3 or later). Generally because they don't collapse verts and make the mesh an unworkable mess, and you can un-triangulate it to get everything back to quads pretty easy. You'll have to get familiar with Forza studio or whatever it's called to export them to whatever filetype you need (since all the cars are in a proprietary .carbin format). It's not too hard to wrap your head around though.
Materials and stuff all export the right IDs and UV layouts, but you'll have to put the materials and textures back in order yourself, since they don't transfer the right way. So there's a bit of guesswork in what texture goes with what material, what your material settings should be at in terms of roughness and stuff, and a bit of improvisation in getting things to look right. So I like to keep some reference of the car/interior handy.

It's admittedly a bit of work to get everything all together, but it's a lot less than modelling it yourself (around 2 hours or so depending on the car).
That, and I think that for me, if I'm going to go the easy route and download a model ripped from a game I should at least be expending *some* effort in getting things working. If only to balance out some imaginary karmic scales.

So yeah, if you think it's just a one-stop download and drop in to your 3d software, not quite. It's still better than modelling yourself, and there are some OBJ files floating around the site. Forza just tends to have a huge library of cars, so you're more than likely to deal with those ones.

Anonymous at Thu, 30 Sep 2021 10:14:32 UTC No. 854042

>>853912
I would do that keyhole from scratch

Anonymous at Thu, 30 Sep 2021 10:15:46 UTC No. 854043

>>853968
>>render/animation
>Just download it
>>anything else
>do it yourself
That's what I meant first, I meant for a render, not a complete and stolen 3d model

Anonymous at Thu, 30 Sep 2021 15:10:27 UTC No. 854095

>>853986
>>854011
I appreciate your help, kind anons.
>I should at least be expending *some* effort in getting things working. If only to balance out some imaginary karmic scales.
absolutely, I already have a guilty conscience, thinking about ripping off other artists.
Paying of karmic debt by putting some work in is nothing, also to give them at least a hint of personal touch.
On the other hand, I am a lazy slob, I just checked CGPersia (superficially) and there is a huge library of ripped cars available, some are definitely from Forza. Maybe they are in a better state - if you have an account you might want to check them out.

Anonymous at Thu, 30 Sep 2021 22:03:58 UTC No. 854147

>>854043
Yeah if it's a rendered image/animation it'd be pretty much impossible to tell where it came from, unless it's something specific to a game or something. Like a limited edition Forza car or something.

>>854095
Well for the most part, I don't even think the devs make the car models themselves anymore. I'm quite sure they just get the actual models from the car manufacturers and they themselves tweak and edit it to make it work in-engine.
I've got accounts on Peers and Persia, so I'll give it a look. Generally though if they're still in .carbin format, you have to do the exporting and cleaning up yourself. That's just how it is.
Thanks for the tip though, never thought to bother with looking there.

Anonymous at Fri, 1 Oct 2021 03:04:35 UTC No. 854172

>>854147
There is one 14GB big collection on Peers (which is also on Persia) that is in Max format. There is a high chance it contains finished assets.

Anonymous at Fri, 1 Oct 2021 03:32:54 UTC No. 854174

>>854172
Yeah if they're in Max then they should be. Looking at the description though seems to imply that they've been exported to the format and nothing else, judging by
>Wheels and rims are to be manually transformed, they spawn at world center.
Then again, it's worth a look. Good thing I still have that student license for Max. Who knows, maybe all the materials and everything just work in it compared to Blender.

Shame that it's the older models from Horizon 1/2 and Forza 3/4, though those are the Xbox 360 era models. They're decent, but not so much for close up shots, and the interiors aren't as detailed as XB1 Forzas.
Still worth it though just to get a bunch of background cars that aren't super high-poly or supercars.

Anonymous at Fri, 1 Oct 2021 13:44:22 UTC No. 854252

>you buy the model on some platform from someone who hasnt payed license fees to mercedes benz
>you build it by yourself and sells it to the costumer without paying license fees to mercedes benz

...the designs of the cars are protected and when you dont have the right to sell them, you can get trouble with the license owner, just sayin.

Anonymous at Sat, 2 Oct 2021 03:33:37 UTC No. 854361

>>854252
Those license fees only matter when it's a studio or company using their assets. For the general user and freelancer it largely doesn't matter, and doesn't matter for the owners either.
Why waste time and energy going after the small fries when the big ones are the ones profiting off of it.

Licensing never meant anything about protecting IP, it was always about getting a cut of the action from someone else's work. Point is, if you're not making enough bank for them to give a shit, they won't. Once you do start making noticeable bank and they catch a whiff of profit though, it's open season.

Anonymous at Sat, 2 Oct 2021 03:52:19 UTC No. 854363

>>854252
>film street
>there's a mercedes benz on it
>get sued

Anonymous at Sat, 2 Oct 2021 19:23:29 UTC No. 854469

>>854252
retard. When rappers use fancy cars in the video, Lambos and Rolls royces they don't pay fees

Anonymous at Sun, 3 Oct 2021 04:20:55 UTC No. 854530

if they ask you something for 30hr worth of work you give them that
not a 100 hr model out of the blue

the point is don't stick out your neck because someone dont know the difference