"Relationship between model designers and model makers" Topic

Specifically in regards to digital format (3D models for printing and/or designs for laser cutting) is there an 'industry standard' when it come to licensing or assigning designs? Do more designers sell their designs outright than license them, or is it the other way around?

The people I have used for CAD work:

irrationaldesigns.com

tradestands.co.uk

Have made models based on my brief, as such that finished model and thus IP is mine and mine alone, the people that made the 3D model have no IP rights to it at all.
This is how they work.

This seems to be standard.

Michael.

I don't think there is a standard, just as there is no standard between figure sculptors. I have had some companies come to me and say "I would like you to make X (historical) vehicle in X scale" or "I have this idea/concept art/need to fill a gap in my IP". In some cases they want to pay for the model and all rights out-right, in some they prefer to have a lower front-end cost (in my pricing scheme anyways) and pay royalties on a per-model-sold basis.

I'm pretty sure there will not be an industry standard for some time, if at all, as each designer/modeler is a freelance individual (rather than a standardized production company), has a different set of skills and style, and demands on their time due to either their popularity in the industry or that they only do this sort of thing as a side project/side job.

I don't see any of this as a problem, anymore so than as with freelance figure sculptors.

Isn't this between the artist and the buyer? It would apply just as much to painters and song-writers and ghost writers and every sort of creative artist. If I describe what I want and approve it at the end as I pay for it, it is presumably mine -- but a different arrangement might well be worked out beforehand.

In the UK at least, legally all IP and creative rights are retained by the sculptor/modeller… which means that the client is actually breaking the law if they mould and cast the sculpt!

But while that's what the law says, in practice, sculptors simply ignore this and pass the rights onto the client. At least, that's how I work, as do all the sculptors I know. Occasionally a client will ask to have this in writing for legal purposes, but normally it's simply assumed. Otherwise I guess the whole business would fall apart!

With CAD/3D modelling, this gets a lot more tricky – the modeller can keep a copy of the 'master figure' on file, for example, and may work up new figures and models using it as a template or armature. I think some sort of written contract would be needed to sort out the very different issues involved compare to physical sculpting/modelling.

In the UK at least, legally all IP and creative rights are retained by the sculptor/modeller… which means that the client is actually breaking the law if they mould and cast the sculpt!

By the creator surely?

For example I create a sketch of an alien and give you the sketch to use make a 3D model.
I am giving you the right to copy my IP (the sketch) and thus the IP is mine and not yours?

As an example…?

Strangely enough, no! You would own the IP to the sketch, but a 3D sculpt based on it counts in law as a separate work, and the sculptor legally owns that.
Always seems odd to me, and as I say, sculptors generally just ignore their legal ownership of created works and simply assume the rights will pass to the commissioning client.

To ensure that you legally hold the IP to a sculpt you commission, you'd need to sort out a contract and get the sculptor to sign it.

But I can't imagine it ever being a problem – I've never heard of a sculptor claiming the IP rights on a commissioned figure; indeed, if they did, they'd probably not get any more commissions at all!

That is bonkers!

I've never heard of a sculptor claiming the IP rights on a commissioned figure; indeed, if they did, they'd probably not get any more commissions at all!

Indeedy.
Tis a small world we all live in the wargames world…

"Tis a small world we all live in the wargames world…"

And it's a model, probably.

For those in the UK this might be worth reading:

link

and specifically:

link