Resistance 3 artist “disappointed” at Borderlands 2 box art similarities

The artist Olly Moss has voiced his surprise and disappointment after it was brought to his attention that part of Borderlands 2′s box art bears more than a passing resemblance to one of his Empire Strikes Back artworks – especially as he’s a huge Gearbox fan himself and “would have jumped at chance to work with them.”

[HOSe]

first apple now gearbox! today is a sad day!

[kma2k]

What did apple do i mised that one?

[princeofthabay]

probably talking about this: http://techspy.com/news/108...

[Christopher]

But, that's not, technically, "box art"... that's an inside flap piece of artwork. It's not being used to advertise the game to the public at all nor is it being used to make money off of someone else's work. Box art tends to refer to the publicly visible artwork you would see on the shelf prior to buying, opening, and perusing the various inside elements of the game case.

And, I'd say this falls under homage. If the artist has an issue with someone creating an homage that otherwise could have been replaced with your standard non-descript background... *shrugs* they need to get over it.

If Gearbox were selling and making money off of this specific piece of artwork, I'd agree. But they're not and the game itself is a big hodgepodge of homages and easter eggs.

[Ducky]

The artist's concern was that they didn't contact him or anything, and chose to directly copy an element (specifically the 'zigzag') instead of imitating/recreating them.

He wasn't offended/angry at Gearbox.
You can check his twitter feed...

... also, it seems Randy Pitchford agrees that directly copying parts of the original poster wasn't right and they're working something out...
... and I suspect whoever is responsible for making that inside cover is going to get a paddlin'

[Christopher]

@FatOldMan: I guess you're right. I felt upon initial reading that the "tone" of the article itself was more aggressive than it actually was.

Still, while it would have been nice to get a notice, I don't think the author should really be disappointed that someone else in the gaming industry actually felt it worth paying them an homage of sorts.

Though, it's possible they did just rip it off. If they did, then I doubt that author will be working for much longer at Gearbox.

Luckily, if they follow standard protocols for saving art assets, they should be able to determine pretty easily whether certain elements were 'ripped' or created by hand.

[Bobby Kotex]

Not sure what you're smoking. Who the hell does a 'homage' to box art from a few years ago?

[Christopher]

***Not sure what you're smoking. Who the hell does a 'homage' to box art from a few years ago?***

Lots of people. Especially if they both work in the same industry. Oh, yeah, they do...

[Wenis]

At first I thought it was just copying the style, and thought that the artist was overreacting. But then I saw FatOldMan's comment, and went back and sure enough it was blatant plagiarism.. not sure if Gearbox should take the blame though, but instead should be focused on the artist who did it. (unless of course that the 'zigzag line' thing was like a stock image and not something created by the Resistance artist)

[Lord_Sloth]

Exactly.

1st Apple was all like "OMG ROUNDED RECTANGLES AND SQUARES! THAT'S OURS!!!!!"

Now this guy's all like "OMG MAH ZIG ZAGS IN A GAME FULL OF PARODIES OF GREAT STUFF!!!"

[Gamer1982]

The point is the bit he claimed he copied was a zigzag on a mountain.. Seriously? I mean out of all things.. Like that bit of the box art is gonna make them sales or anything. I cannot understand people sometimes they get annoyed at the stupidest of things. If he ripped the whole artwork fair enough but an element of it? Gimme a break..

[Kenshin_BATT0USAI]

I'm pretty sure it's just a homage, hence why they look alike. I mean if you play the game 90% of the things said and what happens is a pop culture reference.

[dalibor]

Could be. But box arts nowadays just aren't as out of this world as they used to be like back during the nes and genesis days. Those box arts were pretty crazy. And we could even go further with the odyssey, fairlady, atari 2600 as well as the other systems.

And Vashlion what was the name of the skit that you have as an avatar. Been meaning to see it again but totally forgot the name of it.

[Kenshin_BATT0USAI]

the skit was Dear Diary (aka the shooting). enjoy :D

hmm on a second glance it does look fairly lazy. well whatever, it happens.

[Ducky]

If it was just a similar style, then I'd agree...

.. but the 'zigzag' pattern on the canyon is a direct copy, and it seems more like someone was feeling lazy rather than creating an homage.

[grahf]

It is a direct copy, zig for zag, and thats a no-no in ANY medium.

All its missing is a TIE fighter..

[Flavor]

But I thought y'all call it 'sharing' now... so its okay to rip off famous people but not un-famous people...

[vickers500]

Does every single parody joke have to be given credit then? As someone said below, it's probably an easter egg for their upcoming dlc, which has some elements of star wars in it.

There are plenty of referential jokes in video games and tv shows and movies and whatnot, but they never express during the show or credits what the parody was in reference to, and they shouldn't have to.

If you don't get that it's a parody, then that's your problem for not knowing what they're talking about. If you do, then you should just enjoy it and not make a big girly fuss over the fact that they didn't specifically write out what it was a parody of. If you have to explain it, then it loses its effect.

[ZombieNinjaPanda]

@Flavor

Are you comparing plagiarism to file sharing? They're nowhere in the same ballpark.

@Vickers

I don't think you understand what a parody is, or what even happened in this situation.

[vickers500]

Well apparently you don't either. Ever see those "hope" or "change" obama parody posters? They're just parodying the original, just as the people who put the inside cover art are probably parodying that star wars poster.

But believe whatever ridiculous crap you want to believe and go ahead and jump to conclusions. It's pathetic how so many people these days are so set on starting fights over issues that don't even exist.

[Klonopin]

There is a fine line between homage and ripoff.

[George Sears]

“if they’d called I would have just made them something new.”

Yeah but then they'll have to pay you which is what they don't want.

[Karum]

If he decided to take action they may end up paying anyway.

Anyway, hardly big gaming news.

[TheRealSpy]

take action? what action could he take?

[Karum]

Letting the air out of their car tyres.

I say this as I'm fairly surprised the obvious answer has gone over your head.

[Statix]

This is pretty blatant. It's not an "homage" because Olly Moss's posters and artwork weren't created too long ago, and they weren't official Star Wars posters.

You can't just completely rip off another artist's style and creation like that, without any form of compensation, or even acknowledgment in the credits that his artwork was an "inspiration."

Some people need to make a living, and to see starving artists have their work and visual ideas basically copied is rather disheartening.

[antz1104]

First off if anything I think it could be a homage, def not a "complete ripoff". It is possible for artists to have similar styles, if one guy draws a mountain and another guy draws a mountain it doesn't mean guy B was ripping off guy A.

Second, this guy is far from starving if he's doing art for R3.

[camel_toad]

Yep I agree. As an artist I would guarantee Olly wasn't the first artist in the history of art to do something like that.

All ideas are born from other's ideas.

[r40k213]

Except that if you read the article and look at the images you'll realize they actually used parts of the original image. "Similar style" isn't an excuse for copy pasting someone else's work.

[camel_toad]

@r04k213

I did read the article and looked at the images and I don't see any copy n pasting as you put it. The style is extremely similar but it is still not a copy and paste of any of ollys work.

When darksiders came out people said they stole the art design from world of war craft but what the idiots didn't know was that the comic book artist had that style 10 years before world of war craft even came out.

Out of the billions of people in the world there's a very good chance that when someone has a "unique" idea its already been thought of or done before.

[shiver130]

@Camel_Toad

Look at the pictures again...

See the ziz-zagging right under Jack's neck? It looks too be completely copy and pasted from the Star Wars image.

[Statix]

@antz1104

You're implying that it's possible these two artists had "similar styles." Well, then, that would be QUITE the coincidence. I would go with the common sense opinion that, based on the similarities in color palette, theme, composition, and style, that this was more than mere simple "coincidence," and that the Borderlands 2 artist has at least SEEN the posters created by Olly Moss.

Sorry, but it's just common sense. The two artworks are just way too similar to dismiss as "mere coincidence" that they are so alike.

[grahf]

Nobody is disputing the overall "style" of the BL2 art is similar to Moss's, and I'm sure you could go back through the history of art and find plenty of references where Moss got an idea for his image.

The problem is the blatant ripoff of a part of the image. Its copy/paste.

[Eldyraen]

The style isn't the issue--similarities are just way too pronounced. The river is the most obvious but if you visit the site and look at the 3cpo and Fett images in particular you cannot help but notice the similarities. I would like to see an overlay of those two original images compared to Botderlands as it is even more uncanny.

The tilt of the head, 1 collar off each SW character and even the basic shape of the "head" minus hair (it's pretty much 3cpo with a wig and few minor sharp angle softening). Coincidence? Perhaps but not likely IMO. There are few others as well but less obvious or natural coincidences. I've never even used photoshop but I can just see too many easy minor alterations that make up most of the top 3/4 of the image. The black and white comparison is huge too as if you look close more of the background but infrint of the river is similar (faint ridge line and odd artifacts where enemies on Borderlands are).

Granted could all be a huge coincidence but I'm sure someone at Gearbox is going to be asking questions.

[camel_toad]

I concede. I was looking at it from my phone and didn't see the zig zag which I admit is a total copy and paste. (slapping myself in the face repeatedly for being an idiot)

[hardcorehippiez]

speaking as an artist, well musician but still i find it kind of flattering the people cover / copy your stuff as long as you say they give acknowledgement to the original creators . agree 100 percent .

hardcorehippiez psn hippiez2007

[3rdDimension]

My friend, you are miss-informed.

Those Star Wars poster he did are officially licensed.

http://www.moss.fm/post/235...

[shutUpAndTakeMyMoney]

Why do people care?

[LewisDenby]

I imagine the artist cares because someone is profiting out of his work for free, without permission.

[TooTall19]

It's not his work though.

[aliengmr]

Considering the fact that the pieces, while very similar, aren't the same I'm surprised you have any agrees at all.

You can copyright a specific piece, not something as vague as style.

[omi25p]

how are gearbox profiting out of a reverse-able box art?

[TooTall19]

This is parody and a major part of what Borderlands is. Gearbox did nothing wrong. The guy should have been honored.

[chasegarcia]

This looks like a copy & paste job to me. Homage is not a good enough excuse unless he asked for permission.

[Nick_515]

I didn't notice this at first, but if you look you can see that the black part with the lines in it is copied straight from his picture. Not cool, Gearbox.

[Robotronfiend]

But nobody is disturbed when Star Wars rips off The Fortress? The entire Star Wars IP was a blatant ripoff of a samurai movie from years earlier. You can't just pick and choose what types of artistic ripoffs are okay.

[Hicken]

Who said it was okay?

It's like two people committing murder, and only one getting caught. That doesn't make the other crime alright; people just didn't know about it. There's a pretty big difference between condoning, and being unknowing.

[MagicAccent]

I've seen The Hidden Fortress many times and it is one of my favourite movies, along with Seven Samurai and Yojimbo.

They have a similar story archetype, and Lucas has aknowleged Kurosawas movie as inspiration, and even payed homage by using a similar POV to tell the story.

However, Star Wars is definitely not a "rip-off" of that film. If you believe that then you are truly stupid. Simply put.

[MasterD919]

Well Gearbox clearly loves to show appreciation for great work.

Half of the masks for the characters you can upgrade are homages...There is the Joker, Ghost from COD:MW and a few others that are quite noticeable.

And this guy didn't invent the faded drawing genre...It wasn't a direct taking of his work IMO.

[kungfuian]

Best case- people play boarderlands 2, enjoy it, and then the similarities on the boxes lead them to buy resistance 3, or funnier yet- the illiterate will mistake resistance 3 for boarderlands 2 and insomniac actually sells a few copies, lol

[Acquiesc3]

Yeah, I was ready to jump in and say it's just a homage, reference get over yourselves etc etc.

But the fact that they actually lifted and copy pasted that part with no real editing done (atleast Bioware managed to do that much) is disappointing.

[xTHRASHx]

As I really doubt Randy Pitchford drew this pic, someone is getting a tounge lashing at Gearbox when they get wind of this news

[TronEOL]

If anyone got upset about this, I'd laugh. Borderlands is a game where it's main tool is humour. So to put little easter eggs like this in and around the game is just fantastic.

Those who know where the original is from will pull a good old "awww yeeeaah" when they see "it".

[Zieben]

If people researched this, part of the box art is a little bit of an easter egg reference for their next DLC. Randy Pichford hinted the dlc will have vehicles resembling those in Empire Strikes Back. Its just more Borderlands 2 humor!

[CrimsonessCross]

I actually remember hearing something about that :)

[BabyTownFrolics]

slow news day huh

[Der_Kommandant]

Borderlands is a homage to pop culture

[vitorizzo]

exactly thats all it is, a homage

[v0rt3x]

ok seriously that is not cool at all.
Really Gearbox?

Right out manipulating an image from someone else, hoping that nobody notices, is one thing.

But doing it without asking the original artist??

And then fan creations get shut down by the industry with "cease or desist" orders??

You gotta be fucking kidding me...

[lionelglitchy]

resistance 1,2,3 owners disapointed with the actual games

[OneAboveAll]

Who really gives a shit? Let's make a huge deal out of it. Borderlands is a game with parodies all over the place anyways.

[L30N4KU]

What if I told you
This is an Easter egg

[hano]

Poor artists, they get screwed all the time.

It's actually not very easy to make a living as an artist.

[ame22]

How do you answer to that some may say?

Rapture.

[Drainage]

at least they didnt copy their games. thank goodness that wouldve sucked

[IWentBrokeForGaming]

is the R3 artist upset about the art... or B2 doing better than R3?

[MilkMan]

PLEEEEASE. What kind of jealousy sh!t is this?
Borderlands is blowin' the hinges off of Resistance 3 and THIS is the response?
How about "Gotta say, B-Lands 2, YUP kicks all kinds of @ss oh and by the way great box art"

[BrianC6234]

Whoever came up with that headline did a horrible job. It isn't about the Resistance 3 boxart so why mention Resistance 3?

[user7792788]

Well, the Resistance 3 boxart is very neat

[ame22]

It's called marketing people.

[sazzrah]

www.everythingisaremix.info/wa tch-the-series/

Just sayin'.

[CanadianTurtle]

Honestly, this guy is being a turd about it.

I saw the two pics and they have a similarity in the structure. But thats pretty much about it! Did Olly Moss create a copyright lawsuit that no one is allowed to use a particular watermark artstyle? No.

The artist is delusional if he thinks that he "owns" the art style and deserves credit for something that he really isn't a part of....

[AuToFiRE]

If you play the game you will realize that literally everything in the game is a spoof of something else. its not being a douchebag, its paying respect to the masters.

[aquamala]

I don't think he would want to be known as a "resistance 3" artist lol

[SovereignSnaKe]

-I only recently found those posters, they are wonderful, but truth be told, I'm sure 30% of the gaming population even know they exist. If they were going to copy something, I'm happy it was this!

[TheSaint]

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

[PirateThom]

I like how they went for "Resistance 3" artist, as if it's implying they ripped off the "Resistance 3" artwork when, really, Olly Moss is known more for his movie posters.

[violents]

It's not the same picture, its the same style which could be the artists way of saying he likes anothers work. It's a typical style of water color painting. You dont get exclusive rights to an entire medium of art. They are similar but if you look closely you can see they are very different pictures.