Copyright?

[Miharukun]

So, I got my friend joining on my new project. And I ask her to make a sprite and give her example. If i were use this, will it get copyright strike? Because the shading kinda different thought.

 

Here's the example I give her.

 

And here's what she made

[Kibbelz]

I'm no legal expert but its best to stay away from even using copyrighted material as template sprites. Its best to create your own original style to keep away from it all together.

[panda]

IANAL

I think this probably falls into a grey area. The limb structure might get a ding, but I would think is not suable on its own. That being said, the face is far too similar to be merely inspired, and that would likely be the basis of any court case. Eyebrows and nose look to be the same pixel-for-pixel -- even if the colors of the pixels are different, the shape that they make up is the same. Pretty sure the eyes more or less fall into this category as well. Using this a basis, even though the source image's limbs are covered, it could be argued that because the face is clearly duplicated pixel-for-pixel in shape, that it is highly improbable that the limbs and overall body shape were not also copied. Shading would likely fail as an excuse in this case because it's really easy to change the colors, it's a lot harder to recreate a wholly original sprite.

I would say that the body and limbs need minor adjustments, and the face needs a lot of adjustment so that it looks good, but does not look like a recolor of the original.

[Miharukun]

I see thanks a lot guys!