Guide to Roleplay Reference Pictures

[Lacuna]

How do you use google's creative common? I tried, but I couldn't figure it out


Once you have entered what you want to search for and switched to images: click "Search Tools" and then "Usage Rights" to choose "Labeled for reuse with modification" which will give you images that are CC licensed that you can edit/resize/reupload. Make sure you go to the image's page and look at the license there to make sure everything is in order, and link back to that page to show where you got the image from when you post it.

Example:


Edit: I have now added a section on Google Images to the front page!

[AcetheKidd]

Thanks!

Oh and one last thing. There are sites like render graphics and render planet. They are free to use images, commonly use for signatures and wallpapers . Is it ok I use pictures from either of the two?

[Lacuna]

Thanks!

Oh and one last thing. There are sites like render graphics and render planet. They are free to use images, commonly use for signatures and wallpapers . Is it ok I use pictures from either of the two?


I will admit that I don't really have experience with renders, but to me they appear to be cutouts of stolen images, and the person who stole the image says that because they have edited it's "free" but I doubt they had permission to use it in the first place. I'd liken it to reuploading to galleries on photobucket or zerochan. I wouldn't use them.

[troyards]

can i ask for clarification on what qualifies for "fan-use?" it's kinda vague and doesn't sit right with me.

i'm gonna be talking most in terms of tumblr since that's where most of the gifs come from but this may be applicable other sites.

tumblr's tos only extends sharing through reblogs (listed under item 6) unless the creator explicitly states (works kinda like how icon comms on livejournal work wherein the creator either says sourcing isn't needed or just to source to the post) that it's for public use and a lot of the gif edits aren't for public use. so if i were to use a gif from a gifset of annie leonhardt from attack on titan (or any character from any show, really. reason why i'm using annie is bc anime source material is really easy to find if you know where to look and it's what i had), according to tumblr's tos, i cannot, but according to here i can since the source is technically there and i would have to link to that and it's a gif so under the subsection as it is right now, it's for fan-use. however, here's where my issue comes in: i technically can't use those gifs since they aren't meant for fan-use. i'm assuming that if i make my own gifs for use here i can use them since they're kinda derivative works and they should work the same way photomanipulations work on deviantart.
(image of the source attribution i'm talking about. it's listed as origin (kinda wish i could link to the actual post but w/e w/e i think this gets my point across))
also gifs rarely have watermarks (if there's a watermark it's kinda faint) so you have to go by what the source attribution says if the caption isn't formatted so that one part of it links to the op but even that's iffy.

tumblr is listed as one of the places to not get reference images from since it's impossible to source, but i don't think people know that? honestly, i've never seen an image on this board sourced correctly (the most i've seen is copyright to respective/rightful owners and that ain't sourcing. it's akin to saying weheartit/zerochan/"i'm not sure!" on tumblr) and i know i should report them but it's just so many that i'd rather not flood the mods (kinda lazy on my part and makes the problem worse but there's just SO MUCH of it). sourcing isn't even that hard since you can do some bbcode trickery to hide the url line so idk why things aren't sourced properly. (i've also found stuff hosted on imgur and i'm not sure if they're personal edits or reuploads to avoid getting "no more bandwidth" banners so idk)

the only place where i can see it feasible to get pictures for celebrity face claims is from a fan gallery (like this one here) and they're pretty easy to find if you just google "(celeb name) gallery" if they're a well known celebrity. fashion models would also work (i had a gallery for that but i lost it and i wish i could find it again) and it may be harder for lesser known celebrities/youtubers but a little digging never hurt anybody and if they aren't willing dig, they probably weren't going to source correctly in the first place. kinda can't do this with anime unless you either have the source material or find a screencap repository/official art dump but source material is kinda easy to find nowadays and art book scans are always a thing

idk maybe i'm talking in circles but that subsection never really did sit right with me with the whole "most gifs are distributed for fan use!" thing when most of them aren't even if they get lost in the constant reuploading/reposting spiral. not under cc so....

tl;dr: gifs/gif edits/edits in general kinda aren't for fan-use bc of tumblr's tos and they aren't under cc licensing. should maybe stick to celeb galleries for celeb faceclaims but jury's kinda out on anime faceclaims if you can't find the source material to make gifs or any official art/a screencap repository.

if i kinda didn't explain things right just shoot me a pm or s/t and i'll try my best to clarify (might be rambly and not make sense so bear with me since i can't link to specific posts on my tumblr.)

[Lacuna]

Our rules (which I did not write, to be clear) state that it is okay to use images that are

... widely distributed online for fan use such as celebrity/movie images, famous models, or TV characters.

I never said that they should or could come from tumblr, and as I stated in my guide, it's not something I'm super familiar with. In general though, if someone could prove they made a gif and asked us to take it down we would.

I've attempted to do more research on it, but all I can come up with is that the gifs are able to be made in the first place because they may be "fair use" of copyrighted material, but even if they are the gif creator could still be taken to court in order to prove that their gif is fair use of its source material. If the gifs are being used here in a way that is transformative (making a new story based on them) or a parody I would say that may be fair use as well (especially because there is no way anyone is making money from posting a gif as their character reference), and therefore their use would be protected by copyright. I still believe that the source of the gif should be included in the post, but as you noticed there is a lot of content to police and if I went looking for it to warn people for it I would never sleep. I always source my own posts correctly as well, in the hope that users may learn by example, and I hope you do the same.

I may have this all wrong, but as I understand the use of these gifs is okay.

[AcetheKidd]

Umm..that was..abit confuseing

Anyway, this site seem really legit. If they where stealing art, i think they would had shut it down. I researched the the site and it they explains stuff.

http://www.renders-graphics.com/

[Lacuna]

Umm..that was..abit confuseing

Anyway, this site seem really legit. If they where stealing art, i think they would had shut it down. I researched the the site and it they explains stuff.

http://www.renders-graphics.com/


I'm not sure what you're saying they explain, as the site has no rules about their content that I can see (the rules board in their forum has no topics). I did however find several instances in the forum where artists were complaining that their art had been used to create renders without their permission, so I would not use this site.

[Fortunea]

Here is another website, but it hasn't got too much selection.

[goneleft]

Mark.

[Towelie]

Ive got a question ^-^
I get my images for RPs from a page called "pixelio.de" its a german side, where the pics have no licens. I used pics from it 3 or 4 times, is that allowed? Or do I have to remove them?