athirah here back with another blogpost! (and i can almost see you guys sighing and closing the tab.)
stahp guys, im not that horrible. right?
but for this one, there wont be any bull! promise.
i hope. i'll try.

but yeah im going to specifically talk about an issue ALL graphic designers need to take note of, the consequences of (not) acting upon it, and how to go about doing it.
just because im nice, and i love all of you.
(hAH)

so you guys would probably have an idea from the title up there, and yes as cliche as it is, im going to talk about crediting issues for the resources we all download from other people.
come on guys, lets face it, not all of us have the luxury of time to create our own resources, and not all of us can be bothered to create a canvas just to create textures, when 97987498 people probably have done it already and is sharing it for free. #ifeelyou
but take note that when you download a texture or a brush, whatever it is, and you use it in your graphics that you claim as yours without giving credit to anyone, it is really unfair on the resource makers' part. yes, the graphic is yours and yes, the idea, blending, text and all that other shizzle came from your effort, but the textures you use and the colouring psds, individually, is not yours.
and if you want to try to argue, go create a graphic with no textures, brushes, stock images, colouring psds, patterns and anything else thats made by other people. boom. yeah sounds pretty impossible when you want to make it look decent at the very least, unless you are a crazy talented resource maker and in which, let me bow down to you.

but okay, yeah, so what? it's not like the owner of the resource will find me if i use their resources without crediting.
honey, this is where you are wrong. i am in a lot of forums and let me just tell you when i say resource makers are the best yet the most scary people ever. theyre like hawks okay. seriously. even after you put a texture or stock on a layer mode, and put a gradient map over it and blended it, they will know.
trust me because resources take a long time to make and by the time its released, theyd probably memorize every single detail of each thing theyre giving out.
not even joking, its the truth.

and let me tell you guys that resource makers have feelings too, and when its stated clearly to credit when downloading our work, please just do. its really disheartening when we see our stuff being used and not credited because creating resources is not easy work. yeah, youd say, why are you disheartened when people actually use your resources? thats an accomplishment itself. well yeah, that is great and we love it when someone creates something with our resources, but ultimately, if a third party joins in and says, hey can i use your graphic as a base for something im going to design, but im not going to credit and claim the whole final product as my own.
chances are, the user who designed the graphic is going to freak out and go all, 'no, this is mine. no redistributing and editing and claiming as yours because this is mine, i created it, mine mine mien mienienemienienmeienmieneineiene, copyright me.'
difference is, on our part as resource makers, we let you do whatever the hell you want with our resources if you abide by a simple set of rules. thats literally it. you want to print out a certain texture and paste it on your face? sure, do you need any help?

and if hurting someone's feelings is not enough to get you to credit, you monster, then this is where the law comes in. for example, when someone uploads something on deviantart, automatically, the product comes with copyright and is registered under the law. yep.
this is where the artist gives the permission on whether you can use the product or not. for resources, duh, you can use them, but for most of it, you have to abide by a certain set of rules. failure to do so is actually an infringement on copyright law and you can get sued if its really serious, i dont know im just reading some law sites right now HAHAHA.

but yeah. thats the importance of crediting one's work when you do not own it. im not writing this longass blogpost just for me, because ive come across situations when i see my resources being used and i let it be, because i know that most users who use my resources downloaded it from paradox, but paradox is not listed anymore so its difficult to give proper credit. but for other artists, this can genuinely stop them from creating more gorgeous pieces, and thats when people will start to regret.
unless, of course, the artist doesnt require credit. then youre safe. whooop.

AND SINCE I GOT THE CONVINCING AND LAW THINGS COVERED UP THERE,
lets get down to business.

how do you credit?
if your credit list is going to be 'credit to google and tumblr for everything', it is NOT counted as credit, and everything up there still applies to you. google, weheartit, flickr, tumblr, deviantart, whatever it is, DID NOT create that texture, or that stock. theyre merely hosts for artists that creates them, so you have to credit the artist and link back to the artist's page if necessary. that counts as proper credit and you will be safe.
organisation is good, but if crediting itself is already a hassle for you, then dont bother. usually id credit an artist under the site thats hosting them, but you can just write the artist's (user)name and thats fine.
you can credit an artist just about anywhere, but usually a list would be the easiest, and to avoid future trouble, id usually straight away credit the artist whenever i download their resources regardless if i actually use them or not.
theres no harm lol really

so to review: - credits to resource makers
- credits are in my favourites page
- credit to google and tumblr. they bae.
- nothing used in creating this piece is mine
ARE NOT considered proper credit. try harder honey.

what you should do, is basically something like this: http://slaysx.deviantart.com/journal/resources-credit-masterpost-420338691
that is my personal credit list and you can see that theres literally no shown effort in putting that together, im just linking and crediting and thats about it lol no surprise

also, another thing that i actually saw in one of the threads in our graphic community, YES ITS HAPPENING HERE, IM SO ENRAGED but i will calm down for the sake of sounding serious because this is a real thing because i saw a designer redistributing resources that arent hers without credit, or even the slightest 'not all of them are mine', (which does not count as legit by the way, just putting it out there HAHAH).
please guys, stop. i know it seems really cool that wow, your thread provides resources, but its not cool to hurt someone's feelings after their hard work. redistributing without permission and/or proper credit is NOT okay. youre not cool and you seem pathetic in others' eyes. yes its harsh but its the truth and its not difficult to just say that you got this and that from this user in deviantart and that user from tumblr.

so i hope this at least helped some people, and i hope to see improvement within our community!!
i love yall and our growing community, so lets just try to avoid so much trouble because of just one image, okay?
feel free to link back to this blog if youre addressing the same issue as well!

GOOOODBYE ITS TIME TO EAT IM HUNGRYYYY