copy right questions

[EIDesignStudio]

I'm new here but not new to the field of art. I have a simple question. how does the copyright stuff work as far as props go? I have a idea in head of something that I want to do. i seen a lot of threads on the ABC warrior if i was to make a metal working one and later on down the road made a cast of it so it can be redone just like the movie one. say i even based it off a a kit that is already out there is that subject to copy right? I don't not mean to recast or to be labeled as one. like i said this is just a question from a new guy any info would be great..

 

[Ford W Maverick]

Here's how I understand it:

If you're looking at pictures and maybe basing things off of measurements that others have taken, or scaling up a kit, that's generally cool. If you incorporate parts made by other people that seems to be cool as long as you give credit to the person whose parts you used and you're not mass producing copies and thus making a profit off of work that someone else did, unless you have the permission of the person whose parts you used.

Technically if you make a prop replica of something that's copy-written there COULD be an issue, but most of the time nobody will bother. Most companies seem to realize that this kind of hobbying is more helpful to them than harmful. The only time you run into problems is if you're making something and producing it in massive quantities for sale. Take the Stormtrooper outfits for example. Lucasfilm seems pretty cool with people making themselves a set of trooper armor or maybe a few kits to sell here and there because it keeps the fanbase going, but if you started cranking them out by the hundreds then you can bet you'd have lawyers crawling up your nether-regions pretty fast.

That's how I understand it, but I'm relatively new here myself, so if I'm wrong I'm sure someone will correct me.

 

[EIDesignStudio]

ok Ford
thanks for you input on this I was unsure so as long as I have the permission of the artist who did the work or current owner of the molds and given credit to. no way would I want to make a 100 of something blah. there is no fun is doing the same thing over and over..
thanks again
maybe a another member can chime in on this as well

 

[Ford W Maverick]

You're welcome!

I'm sure someone else will chime in as there are probably loads of aspects to this that I don't know about.

But yeah, sounds like a cool project. I've always liked that robot design. Are you making it as a mannequin or a wearable costume?

 

[Ford W Maverick]

You're welcome!

I'm sure someone else will chime in as there are probably loads of aspects to this that I don't know about.

But yeah, sounds like a cool project. I've always liked that robot design. Are you making it as a mannequin or a wearable costume?

 

[EIDesignStudio]

I starting with just the head then I will pick up a resin kit for the body I found and scale up each part. I have a strong back ground in rc hobbies so I found a film clip on you tube and studied it for a hour taking notes on how it moves and pivot points.I have seen one done with just the jam moving but the placement of pivoit point is off. if you look at the first shot when Rico turns him on the close up of him opening his mouth you will notice the the two pistons on the front of the mouth are hooked up to a gimble type of setup or like a hip socket. where the back is a simple cross pin with some slack in it. Kinda funny as I was watching the shot over and over I turned on my gas heli that has a kind of set up to see if i was correct. so far I think I'm on point. just like the main neck is setup I saw some old pictures of how they did the stand up rig. I could rant for hours of how it was done in my eyes but until i have the parts in hand I can't be sure. Here is a quick way i was talking about youtube to the rescue. link I did not know how to embed the video

 

[Ford W Maverick]

Sounds cool! I can't wait to see some pics! I'd been kicking around the idea of making a wearable suit with my head and shoulders in the chest and maybe some platforms in the shoes. I'm 6 foot 4, so it would be somewhere in the 8 foot range (the top foot being mostly the head). I could probably do a lot of it out of the foam that a lot of people on here are using with PVC pipe for the pistons.

 

[EIDesignStudio]

I plan to start when I return from my trip. I'm sitting here making a list of stuff that will be needed off the top of my head. I will do a build thread from it and make a blue print up of what I'm working on so other people won't have to guess the sizes and scales. My problem is what metal do I want to use and how do i want to do my welding . I'm not going to tig weld it . My mig is out of order so i think I might go old school and do some oxy fuel so I will have the soft weld seam to hammer out. I'm also talking with another artist for his input to see if we should make some changes to the screen used one. I just hope i can pull it off my hardest point is doing the scaling of stuff but I have a 54" printer i can blow stuff up to scale..

 

[Ford W Maverick]

Well steel would get real heavy real quick at that size. Even aluminum would be pretty weighty. I think the guys that have done all aluminum R2 units said they come in around 200-250 lbs. Plus I hear aluminum is kind of hard to weld. How much do you plan on getting into the animatronic aspect of him?

 

[EIDesignStudio]

I have not given much thought to the overall I know about how much on the head I would to do the back of the head slides open so you have that tray. mouth moves and neck kinda moves on a base. I would be a huge pain to build a AIO unit for the whole body. the hands are big enough that you can stuff servos on a cable to pivot the fingers i think thts about as much as i thought. long process ahead. I sitting here making a folder with links and ref so i can relate to them later as i come to that bridge. I found a site if anyone likes to view it will a huge list of places and info on this subject.

link

 

[Ford W Maverick]

Well with regards to your original question I don't think anyone would object to this project. Quite the contrary, they would probably congratulate you on it.

Can't wait to see what you do with it!

 

[Ford W Maverick]

Well with regards to your original question I don't think anyone would object to this project. Quite the contrary, they would probably congratulate you on it.

Can't wait to see what you do with it!

 

[Ford W Maverick]

I don't know why my replies keep going through twice. I can't seem to delete the extras either for some reason.

 

[EIDesignStudio]

what i do when that happens is just go back and edit one and put double post in it.

 

[DaddyfromNaboo]

Hey guys,

this topic has been discussed umpteen times, so please use the search function.

Regarding the double posts, this is because of technical problems with the database, should be fixed soon.

Michael
RPF staff