Tag: Week 8 – M730

Week 8.1 – 16th July. 2021

IP infringement – Activity

To begin this week, we are asked to start by familiarising ourselves with IP law, and to research similar cases directly related to our own area of practice.

I began by watching the Intellectual Property Law (Copyright), on Falmouth’s Canvas Platform. It reveals information about the legal implications for Intellectual Property Rights, what it means to infringe someones work, clarification on Civil Law, Criminal Law, how your work is protected, yet not ideas.

“In terms of games and creative apps, the idea and expression dichotomy, means that although the code that has been written is protected, what the code actually does and how it achieves it’s functionality is not. Only the expression is protected. So non Literal copying cannot be prevented under the statued associated with copyright.

(Intellectual Property. 2021.)
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The quote above relates to the exact area now that I am studying, in regards to; games, game assets, background art, characters, animatics, storyboarding etc.

After researching further, and looking at Copyright in more detail, I understand that any work of art, that I have made in the past, is protected.

But it makes me wonder why ideas are not Copyright protected? As many famous creations, all started with a fantastic concept… and knowing that, it could just be easily taken is heartbreaking.

However, after writing and illustrating my own children’s books, only to let the publisher, print and contact book shops to see if they want any and how many, I know for sure my books are safe.

Although saying that, what is to stop someone from simply taking one of your characters, from your published book, or game, and manipulating it to suit their book or game?

Authors protection – Creators Moral Rights

I wanted to look deeper into Creators Moral Rights, to help me identify, what I need to do ideally, to protect any other creations, that I look to produce, going forwards with the Indie Game Dev Masters Degree.

Moral rights are reserved for literary, dramatic, musical, artistic as well as film and performance works.

(Intellectual Property. 2021.)
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I have decided to look into the most closest thing to my own practice and that is, learning more about animation, which obviously means creating new characters.

Intellectual property rights in the computer games industry

In this article, Sellars and Bicknell, concentrate on breaking each section down, that is included in the computer games industry. They clarify the importance of Intellectual property rights (IPRs), and protection across many jurisdictions, how software, artwork, music and film, in computer games is protected in the UK.

Personally I think this is something any artist or creator, doesn’t want to have to focus on, I know I certainly don’t, however I have found this to be a very interesting subject, and it will be something I look more into as the course progresses. The first area for me, is learning more about, how to protect my characters. The quote below is a start;

Characters are capable of intellectual property (IP) protection. The usual option is to register an EU Community design of the character. Registration of a community design offers a quick and effective option for protection.

(Sellars and Bicknell. 2015)
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Research – IP infringement

One IP infringement that directly relates to my practice, and looks at new character/ animation short films. I could completely relate to the Canadian creative director Damon Pourshian and Sheridan College. They filed a federal lawsuit claiming Disney/Pixar’s 2015 smash hit, Inside Out, infringes on his copyright to a short film, he already produced with the same name he wrote and produced as a student in 2000. 

I chose this as my example, as I too, intend to go down the animation route. I would love to work with Pixar, plus this is one of my favourite animations of all time. It’s really hard when you look into the infringement, because of the numerous similarities.

However, we discover that many of the Sheridan College students, who was working for Pixar at the time, had worked on the original film with Damon Pourshian. In the end not only did it go to court, they paid him a sum of money, and he had his name added to the credits too.

4 Intellectual Property Rights

These are what I will research more, further down the line.

• Copyright
• Trade Mark
• Patent
• Design Rights

Challenge – The Value of Team Work

IP assets inventory, is complete and held by the team.

Storyboard

This week I wanted to focus on making a story board, to introduce our game “Keep it Burning“.

My initial intension was to focus on drawing 6 slides, that would reveal how the name came to be. Below is the first black and white sketches that I have been developing.

(Figure 1 – Norton 2021 Storyboard black and white sketches)

Afterwards, when I presented my sketches to the rest of the team, they were really keen on how it looked and agreed, that I would go ahead and make a mini video, to introduce the start of the game demo.

I suggested the idea of sepia tones, and music or sound effects to set the scene.

Keep It Burning – The Intro Video

Week 8.2 – 20th July. 2021

Prehistoric Writing Research

As you can see on the slide 2, there are many symbols inside the cave…I wanted to make it as real as possible, so I researched how”Prehistoric Writing” was made, what they use for the colours. I found this quote at the start of my search from the history.com website;

Ancient humans in the Paleolithic period were also the first to leave behind art.They used combinations of minerals, ochres, burnt bone meal and charcoal mixed into water, blood, animal fats and tree saps to etch humans, animals and signs. They also carved small figurines from stones, clay, bones and antlers.

(Kennedy. 2019)
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Below is just one animal, that I was looking into, especially for the game. We said we would like Dodos, Jurassic Geese and other predators. The one below is neither, one thing or another!?

Calanchi Goose

In Nydam’s blog, “Black and White, Words and Pictures”, she focuses on block prints and juvenile fantasy. During my search for the 4 legged goose, the picture below popped up, she mentions evidence of prehistoric dragons. Below is a quote from her blog, from her research of the unusual creature, discovered by Ulisse Aldrovandi back in 1570.

(Figure 3 – Aldrovandi 1570 Anser quadrupes)

Music / sound

The only one place I looked for music and natural sound was on soundorg.com, as the quality of sound is so clear, and that’s just what we needed for the game, and my storyboard opening to the game.

Semiotics

We wanted to create emojis for our game, as a way of communication, without using text on the screen, like in other video games.

As mentioned earlier, you can see from my slide 2 on the video, all the cave symbols, were taken from real “cave paintings”. This was a visual language in the prehistoric times, as a way of showing the tribe that lived there, what they must do to survive, the animals they would kill, if someone died, was to be sacrificed and so much more.

In Chandlers book; Semiotics: The basics, and the chapter on; Codes, he discusses the meaning of signs, and how we choose to understand the sign.

He states that it is important, we have established “the intended meaning“.

However this can only be achieved by making sure, that you are familiar with the interpretive system being used, which means you can only be familiar with interpretative system, if it is used everyday, and becomes part of a routine.

“meaning of a sign depends on the code within which it is situated, codes provide a framework within which signs make sense.”

(Chandler.2017: 178)
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For this reason, knowing the emojis we create, need to be clear and straight forward to understand. We decide to stick with simple pictures, in a speech/ thought bubble, like logs, flintstone, and green moss, above the elder who would be down stage right, so as the game starts, it is clear what you need to do, as the item would pop up above the elders head. See below;

(Figure 4 : The Wild Branch 2021 – Game Start screen shot)

References

Animation World Network. 2018. ‘Disney and Pixar Hit with New ‘Inside Out’ Copyright Infringement Lawsuit‘. Available at : https://www.awn.com/news/disney-and-pixar-hit-new-inside-out-copyright-infringement-lawsuit [Accessed 17/07/21]

Chandler, D. 2017. Semiotics: the Basics. Available at : https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/falmouth-ebooks/reader.action?docID=4877645&ppg=90 [Accessed 19/07/21]

Kennedy, L. 2019. The Prehistoric Ages: How Humans Lived Before Written Records. Available at : https://www.history.com/news/prehistoric-ages-timeline [Accessed 19/07/21]

IP Policies for Universities and Research Institutions 2021. Available at : https://www.wipo.int/aboutip/en/universities_research/ip_policies/faqs/index.html (Links to an external site.) [Accessed 16/07/21]

Intellectual property and your work 2021. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/intellectual-property-an-overview (Links to an external site.) [Accessed 16/07/21].

Valuing your intellectual property 2021. Available at : https://www.gov.uk/guidance/valuing-your-intellectual-property (Links to an external site.) [Accessed 16/07/21].

Intellectual Property. 2021. Available at : https://flex.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/913/pages/week-8-intellectual-property?module_item_id=54502 [Accessed 16/07/21]

Nydam, A, E, D. 2016. Black and White Words and Pictures. Available at : https://nydamprintsblackandwhite.blogspot.com/2016/04/new-evidence-of-prehistoric-dragons.html [Accessed 19/07/21]

Sellars, S. and Bicknell, P. 2015. Intellectual property rights in the computer games industry. Characters. nd. Available at : https://uk.practicallaw.thomsonreuters.com/2-598-3565?transitionType=Default&contextData=(sc.Default)&firstPage=true#co_anchor_a769258 [Accessed 17/07/21]

Full List of Figures

Figure 1 : Norton 2021 Storyboard black and white sketches

Figure 2 : Norton 2021 Storyboard Video for “Keep It Burning”

Figure 3 : Aldrovandi 1570 Anser quadrupes “Four-footed goose“

Figure 4 : The Wild Branch 2021 – Game Start screen shot