Urasora Traced
- Author: Artefact
- Categories: H, Manga, News
- Date: Sep 2, 2009 09:52 JST
- Tags: 2ch, Aoi Nishimata, Artists, Comparison, Illustration, Image Gallery, Photoshop, Tony Taka
Illustrator Urasora has been the subject of an investigation by 2ch, which found him guilty of egregious tracing. Rather than face 2ch’s wrath, he opted to retire from the business…
The images which led to the fiasco:
He regretfully explains his actions (in typically overblown Japanese style):
Maybe you know, but the things I have done have become an issue in a number of places. I searched for images online and traced what I found when drawing small objects in my pictures. I realise now this was a gross violation of copyright. I even made excuses. In truth, this was all utterly inexcusable.
I have been harshly criticised, and I solemnly accept the criticisms made. Henceforth, I will take the liberty of refraining from further work. I am afraid I will have to refuse any offers of commercial work, though I will have to finish such work as is outstanding. After that, I will take an indefinite break. I beg your forgiveness for all the trouble I caused.
I am deeply, deeply, repentant.
Urasora
In case you were scratching your head, nobody on 2ch has heard of him either (save the ones who obsessively dissected his illustrations in order to have something to hound him with).
He has done illustration work for a number of low profile light novels, eroge and similar, so it is fair to call him a low level illustrator.
He also reports closing his Pixiv account, although since Pixiv is already full of (often very beautifully) traced photographs, to say nothing of huge numbers of copyrighted characters used in an unauthorised fashion, it is unlikely anyone there cares.
The strong reaction both from the artist and the more aggressive elements of 2ch has sparked much debate, with nobody able to agree on the level of “tracing” or “reference” allowable.
Many consider the reaction of both Urasora and 2ch to be overblown, pointing out that using photographs, with or without explicit permission, is part of the industry and of the process of learning how to illustrate, and that expecting artists to use live subjects or bought photographs would drastically increase the costs involved and be quite unworkable.
It is also easy to see why some might find fault with the notion that making a drawing of a photograph constitutes copyright infringement, though clearly the ethical implications of tracing another drawn work are rather more hazy.
Whatever Urasora’s reaction, it is clear there are some much more prominent artists who will not be retiring over something like this any time soon…
Aoi Nishimata seems to have traced a sweet little bird in this illustration, which shifted tonnes of overpriced rice to otaku desperate to put it in their rooms. Certainly easier than hunting one down in the field.
Even Tony is evidently not above tracing – though possibly he should do this more often, considering how well he draws feet…





























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Tracing from the internet photo ;D How come 2ch can find those? Well, can't disagree about tracing. It was bad if someone tracing other hardwork. But tracing NOT from internet or photo book but by hiw own photo, that I think is not a disgrace. Cooking Papa (If you read the manga) also tracing some of it with his own photo. The view and the people are exactly the same with the photo. So I think, if you want to trace something (That is, if you are pro at drawing) trace it from your own photo :D
Hmm... Very true, but what about some object that happen to be hard to find. Like some musical instrument that you don't know how it looks like in some angle. It will be painfull to find it just to draw a single art.
Hm...if I ignore the fact that he so blatantly traced items & backgrounds, he does actually draw pretty well and I was impressed with some of the images. Color's not too bad either. A shame to see him "retire" : <
I fail to see what the problem is.
The only REAL issue here is the copyright ingfringement, which is a shame. As for tracing, it's everywhere in manga and anime-esque artwork. I really don't see the big deal.
The whole debate about him "not improving his artistic skill" is pretty meaningless to me since it's obvious that his main focus in each image are the characters. Then he needed nice backgrounds for his drawings and scrambled something together from what he could find on the internet. That's a very common and widespread way to go about it, and in fact he does it a lot better than other artists I've seen.
Some don't even trace the photos, just filter them to look more cartoonish.
I admit i also do tracing until now.
Feel a little guilty, yes, but what else i can do..
There is no way that i must go to the airport to draw them, or find a violin just for draw it once?
Man, that makes people freaking out.
Considering that i don't have a slight intention to make money from them, is it will be allright?
Poor guy took the right decision.
Otherwise, he might have been sued by god for drawing humans (or whatever else, in fact).
It couldn't be helped !
This is ultimately retarded. He "traced" shit for props and background purposes. People from Marvel use photo ref liberally and the guys from disney use to animate right over live action footage to get what they wanted. This is bs. I would have quit if i were him too. so dumb....ugh
Does anyone know what eroge he had worked on? I only found one mobile game by 轟そら, which is not eroge at all. Does he go by other alias? Thanks!
- Simon Cowell of Eroge
I'm sorry, was one of the pictures the're whining about a picture of OUR ****ING PLANET!?
I'm going to be rich after I copywrite "Earth" . If anyone wants to exhibit a picture of our planet without my express written consent I'll Cease and Desist their asses faster than your can say "Prince!"
http://img184.imageshack.us/i/oneworld1bc8.jpg
Prince!
The Earth has been copywrited by Anonymous, only Anonymous can post images of the Earth...Let's sue the **** out of NASA.
Hm. Seems to me some butthurt artists on 2ch complaining since their art (with or without reference) wasn't as good as his.
with the number of sites both pay and free that have open source images how STUPID could you be
Seems you illustrate this level very well.
The people at 2ch should comparisons of Disney and Pixar flicks, just for the fun of it. I'm sure they could find the original reference or "tracing" material pretty easily based on their no-life track record...and why not even live-action movies too?
Seriously, it's how you learn to draw, by making a copy of something, like live nude models!
He would have traced pictures from books, if there wasn't the internets...Lots of "high-profile" and other artists "copy" reality, what's the big deal?
Anybody have the sauce for the girl w/ big boobs in the blue yukata for the last pic?
Why can't he copy it and modify the image a bit? It's ok right? People need to copy things or use something as a reference of their work, this is just logic! Or else how do we learn? -_-
i had a friend who copied comics. no tracing but freehanded while looking.
i dont know how he could copy that accurate but his jim lee stuff was amazing.
Well, I mean, if he took the photograph of Earth from space himself...
I kinda feel bad for the guy. Even the best of the best trace/use references but once I saw that he copied the doodles and sketches on the wall, I realized this guy probably got what he deserved.
I still think the main issue here is 2chan's information capabilities...
Everyone should now go back and look at the people he drew in, really incredible stuff in my opinion. And honestly, the point was made about Warhol, if he showed the real picture and then his picture adding to it in a compilation like it's shown above, he could have probably pitched it as modern art. Such bullshit, I feel bad for the guy. Not much else he could have done with such a psycho investigation hunting him down.
Look to me like he plan to retire with a bang, but that just me
Okay, so drawing an accurate depiction of the earth is an infringement of copyright from God.
I didn't know crab mentality existed outside of the Philippines...
damn,... its one thing to have an archive resource, but to totally depend entirely upon your sources and copy every last detail is - is - just so wrong.
Its perfectly alright to have a source for refference, but you have to use your own creativity and immagination to conjure your very own interpetation of a subject. So that nit-pickers and copyrights won't be infringed upon.
A lot of the great artists use sources for refference, I've encountered lots of media that are slightly diffent in poses, surroundings, down to odds and ends that fill in the background and foreground. You just have to add enough and make it different enough to make it your own unique version.
geez he even copied all the tiny things down to the little nicks and dust particulates!!
He certainly has skills with vector art, inking, and other illustrative techniques, as clearly many other artists do. While so many other artists and companies get away with this without their audience even realizing it (ie. they take their own photos, hire photographers, or buy stock imagery), it's just plain silly when someone goes online and grabs anything available with no regard for copyright.
Just as Pandemonia said, he has the freedom and skill to continue working in the graphic field. Many small-budget or niche-market companies will readily grab him - willingly, even with the knowledge of his previously traced work. They may even hire him for that very reason. I used to provide freelance work within the IMVU community, digitally "painting" over screen caps of users' avatars and scenery. It is not an easy thing to transpose photography onto digital canvas, especially by hand.
whyever someone so talented got pushed to that extent?everyone does what he did.
KyoAni did so.
++
Yet more proof that the peeps at 2chan are utterly batshit when it comes to digging up stuff that you'd never expect an ordinary human being to actually be capable of discovering.
There's nothing wrong with x-referencing art when the subject is not the trace, but rather just small visual implements around it.
I suggest if artists are so insulted by this (and I do some non profit art for my local gaming store ^^) simply reference the sources Harvard style, APA, or Oxford with an attached bib.
Then all credit is due, and if owners of sources actually want to bitch or sue, cross that bridge when you get to it.
I am cool with tracing and violation of copyrights. Unless it looks bad.
As an amateur, tracing saved my art. "Eyeballing" every single aspect of a picture is like trying to multiply two large numbers without writing the intermediate steps down on paper first.
Furthermore what most people realize is that -- especially for characters -- tracing does not make a perfect 3D -> 2D conversion... a lot of line fixups still needs to be made. Oftentimes if you just grab the outline of a real-life reference posture, the figure will be too fat for an anime character, so you still need to thin the outlines.
Similarly with background perspective... what is naturally shot lacks the isometric depth which is a staple of anime, so you still need to distort the perspective a little.
So in summary, even with tracing, there is still a lot of touch-ups to do to make a better transition to a 2D picture.
such a low life
his art is good so he should've just tried to develop his own style rather than to resort to tracing
simca is disappointed
Do us a favor and kill yourself then.
Ya'll just jealous cos you can't trace like he can. I dare's ya lol
(Tis Meimi132, before I break and get an account.)
2ch: Bunch of retards. All artists (at least the good, wise ones) use photo reference. Trying to bash this artist for doing the same is a stupid, obnoxious thing to do.
Also, he didn't simply copy-paste shit like a photomanip, he redrew them. So, moral of the story, fuck you 2ch.
It's pathetic that people have enough free time for this kind of 'investigation' - but also, REAL artists don't trace, so I can see why he would feel ashamed.
geez if the guy was a rich artist claiming to create everything he draws i would understand such witch hunt,
it's obvius somebody gelt envious of him.
most of the pics seem to be used as reference rather than traced, only around 3 or 4 are obviusly traced.
the method used to compare Tony's pic with the original photto is the easiest way to know if something has been traced.
Those 2ch bastards clearly have no idea how illustrators and concept artists work like.
This is common practice! And it's well-accepted too in the art community (which is not 2ch).
Damn amateurs.
LOL I think he just COPIED the image rather than traced it. adjusting image size to fit each other isn't that hard.
Man, I wish these guys could look into Reiq's shit.
The internet is a place comparable to the universe. What 2ch has done is equivalent to playing I-SPY with the entire internet as your gameboard. Amazing.
Disagree, tracing does improve your skills...( As a child I became familiar with body proportions by tracing pictures...etc)
I don't think the artist will quit the scene, he'll probably just change penname...A lot of doujinshika/mangaka/illustrator does that when getting into trouble or just wish to try out other genres...
Since I'm drawing too I can't really judge him...Details are freakin' devils!! One line made incorrect and the whole pic is worth trash...Tracing not neccessarly means the lazyness of the artist rather his fear not being able to draw something...
"Tracing not neccessarly means the lazyness of the artist rather his fear not being able to draw something…"
I agree. And by continuing to trace, he's avoiding overcoming that fear and increasing his skill as an artist. Photographic reference can be great, but no artist should rely on it to this degree, I think. Rather, he should study the photos and see how these things look or work and see if he can represent them properly in his drawings.
Ummmm... yeah... (=_=);
Most of it does not look like tracing but merely well drawn referenced material. Some of it does kind of look traced though...
I don't know, reference pics are essential for an artist but it's hard to tell sometimes if they've crossed the line into copying and passing it off as their own.
HOW THE HELL DID THEY FIND THESE
If only 2ch would put their power to use for good...
Like finding some dirt on Agnes Chan, Unicef, Equality Now, etc...
Yes, a hundred times yes!
In reality all artist copy before they get down there own style.