Civ V stock image Scavenger hunt

Oh very cool. It's amazing what we can do these days. That being said, that's quite distinct from using it as a reference.
 
http://www.firaxis.com/jobs/openings.php

User Interface Artist

Responsibilities:

* Design compelling visual treatments for game User Interfaces and menus that are easy to understand and use.

* Maintain a consistent art style throughout the entire project interface.

* Work closely with design and technology teams to conceptualize and prototype interface functionality, look and feel.

* Create conceptual wireframes, user flow diagrams, and high-fidelity prototypes to solidify design direction and plans

* Identify priorities and gaps in current designs, and contribute/iterate creative solutions.

* Work with engineering staff to implement final assets.




Requirements:

* Significant UI design experience is required.

* Advanced knowledge of Photoshop and Flash.

* Excellent graphic design skills.

* Knowledge of 3ds max is a plus.

* Passion for the games industry and an understanding of interactive market trends and styles.

* Ability to create art assets (especially icons) matching existing art styles.

* Have a self-starting work ethic. We're looking for a capable problem solver who is not afraid of big challenges.

* Only strong portfolios illustrating strong UI and graphic design skill will be considered.
Click to expand...

I wonder. It's likely for Civ world though (Flash knowledge required), but I wonder if we'll see these icons changed at any point.
 
I doubt it. Also, I quite like them. If there were no legal issues, I'd strongly suggest they'd be kept as is (I view this thread as something fun, not as a shot at Firaxis). As for legal issues, it's borderline. There are ways where, if you add something, it's not really a copyright. But it's hard to tell if this counts. Think about the Barrack Obama Hope Poster. It was based on a copyrighted photo. The person who made the poster insisted what he did was legal, while AP disagreed. They ended up settling out of court, which doesn't necessarily suggest one was right and one was wrong, they just didn't really want to fight over it.
 
Fair Use doesn't aply to Civ 5:
-Civ 5 is not a documentary.
-It's not a non-profit project.
-It's not any sort of study, school work, college work, etc.
-The images are too similar.
-It's not a derivative work.
-It's not a parody.

I also like the icons and the style, but that it's a bit unethical there's no doubt.

If Firaxis sourced the images, then there's likely no legal bind, this also counts if the images are public domain. I guess it's time for us to check the credits and put the legal talk to rest once and for all.
 
I'll admit I haven't taken intellectual property, but isn't there a doctrine in property law where if you change something significantly and increase the value of its use, it doesn't count as the same thing anymore? I remember a case about someone who cut down trees and turned them into barrel hoops that were worth 8 times as much and he didn't have to pay back the value of the hoops, just the value of the trees. Likewise, Mickey Mouse was based heavily off of a rabbit that Disney didn't own the rights to (although that might have just been lax enforcement of the rights, not something actually legal).

I'm just saying (provided that the owners of these images would actually care enough to fight it), that it's actually more complicated than we're saying. Otherwise, every modder who uses an image would be in the same kind of trouble.
 
Barracks




First page of results of "barracks" GIS.

Hydro Plant



(page 3 of GIS: "hydro electric")
I'm pretty convinced. What do you think? It looks like a bit of the broadcast tower art in the background.


I'm very excited about this one.

(2nd page of results of GIS: "food wagon")
The icon for Market:

That one is just blatant. Hope they had permission.
 
How likely is it that they did the same thing for Civ 4?
 
Louis XXIV said:
I'm just saying (provided that the owners of these images would actually care enough to fight it), that it's actually more complicated than we're saying. Otherwise, every modder who uses an image would be in the same kind of trouble.
Click to expand...

I had understood that Fair Use applies as they are noncommercial. Most mods that do become popular eventually source their assets:

http://kael.civfanatics.net/Credits.shtml

EDIT: I've just checked the credits, not a single sourcing of the images. Please somebody else double check.
 
Amazing thread! I guess a lot of people make art like this now days. Why wouldn't they.
 
code9 said:
Amazing thread! I guess a lot of people make art like this now days. Why wouldn't they.
Click to expand...
I kind of agree with this. To make totally original art for these icons would take so much effort, maybe there are just too many mundane graphics needed. I mean you could tell somebody to draw a market place. Somebody could invest infinite time in doing this. They could design hundreds of marketplaces and still not come up with one more fitting than the others.

That being said they have AFAIK produced a lot of original music for this game. Also many other games have all original artwork and design (I'm thinking of fantasy type games). Or do they?
 
CivCube said:
How likely is it that they did the same thing for Civ 4?
Click to expand...

I thought it would be very likely at first, but the images from CIV don't seem like the type that would be copied. One of the few that seemed likely was Masonry:
=
+ ?

I wouldn't say its likely the above images are related...The problem with finding these for CIV is that some of the stock images may not be top results anymore, or may not even be online anymore. Worse, some "matches" may not have even been around at the time CIV was released :crazyeye:
 
30 minutes of work on the "food wagon" photo... i'm by no means a graphic artist, and not even too great at photoshop. this is just resizing, using paint daubs filter, maxing out vibrance and increasing saturation (though colors still aren't a match), cutting out background and making a duplicate resized, using a white-> transparent gradient with some portions cut out to make the jacob's ladder effect.

they added one extra red onion, changed the duplicated carts red onions to some unidentifiable blobs, got rid of the stems in front of the back wheel. they didn't bother to add a proper perspective wheel to the background cart; it's only got one wheel.

it seems like this could definitely have been a simple filter job with those minor tweaks.


 

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Its clearly not deniable which pictures they used as a base. So no, they didn't come up with the motive (clearly robbed) but the pictures themselves are still original work.
 
just gotta say, if I did most of these icons so blatantly copied in my graphic design classes as Civ V has clearly done, I would have FAILED those classes and been expelled for plagiarism...just saying...
 
Was the purpose of the class to teach you to do something properly or to sell a game? If I had an assignment in a contracts class to write a contract (I wouldn't, but that's beside the point), I would fail for using a stock contract. If I used something other than a stock contract and made some mistake in the real world, I would probably be sued for malpractice for using something other than a stock contract. Context is vital.
 
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