Signing presets?

[vxxv]

Is adding a signature to presets a thing people do?
Like when you make a commission for someone and sign it so it'll be safer against art theft and people will know you made it
I MEAN it'd probably be somewhere discreet where it wouldn't mess up the character's design.................
I've been looking forward to make preset commissions in the future and i might just do that! But is it weird? Does anyone do it?? :O

[Astraea]

I've personally never seen this before or done it!
It's a pretty interesting subject to say the least... xD

[Valar.Morghulis]

I mean I've never seen anyone sign presets. I've seen people sign textures.
Preset stealing is against the rules so even if they steal it or claim as their own work, there should be some consequences

[Kuri]

i do it sometimes.   You can put it on the texture where the UV wrap isn't, or on the back of the teeth.  Nobody looks at the back of the teeth.

[turtlies]

I usually don't do it with personal presets, but I have sometimes tried to make a discreet watermark somewhere on the preset! It's a bit difficult to find somewhere that won't be too distracting, usually on a paw pad or on the stomach work alright.. otherwise you can always put a watermark in an unused portion of the UVs :o

Especially for commissions, I think a watermark would be a pretty good idea, I wouldn't say its weird at all!

[Jango_Fett]

seen it before


personally if i were to do it, i'd have it blend in with the textures/colors/etc real nice, so you had to be looking for it in order to see.
not that difficult to do.

[Insoholic]

I myself have a preset, which has a signature on it:

[Valar.Morghulis]

I myself have a preset, which has a signature on it:

That's actually very clever! I agree with this signature style. Just so it's not visible on the actually character when in game but on the photo.

[FlyingGrass]

I don't see the point in signing personal presets unless you're going to be showing the images to people, or to remind yourself that you created your preset. But I always thought signing presets made for others is useful for when someone forgets the name of the creator, so they can look at their preset's files to remember who made the preset for them.

[Lucius]

If you want an objective opinion, then yes, there are people who sign presets. Usually it is done on the texture area that isn't covered by UVs, in order to avoid messing up the design. I have yet to see anyone actually watermarking the visible regions, but that might just be me.

There's a couple options you might want to consider if you want to avoid theft of presets.

1. Sign the area outside the UVs.

2. Add an 'invisible' watermark to the texture if possible.

3. Use steganography to add a signature to image files, which is visible when opening them in notepad.

4. Get a free screen recorder and record your screen as you export the preset and send it to the person, while making sure that the date and time are visible.

If you want your signature to be visible on the preset in-game, there are also a few options.

1. Sign the less viewed areas of the model: paws, area of the tongue close to the gullet, roof of the mouth, area of the head covered by the eyes, area of the mouth covered by the teeth, topmost part of the teeth where they clip through the head, and the area of the body where the tail is attached.

2. Create an 'inner' and 'outer' texture for the body/head/whatever. The inner texture is the image with your signature all over it, and the outer one is the clean texture. In the material file, you can overlay the outer texture over the inner one, so that people can see your signature if they F3 into the character model, but not from outside of it.

3. I haven't tried this myself, but you could try lightly signing the chest area between the front legs or the area between the back legs. Because the UVs get so stretched there, if you play your cards right, you could make it look like fur from most angles. The UVs are also very compressed on the lower jaw of the canine head, so you could get away with signing there too.

If you want my personal opinion: I don't sign any presets. I'm more of a 'copyleft' person and I'm much more lax when it comes to credit or redistribution. Of course, this is a personal preference.

Hope this helps, good luck with your commissions in the future.