FrozenDeath

So you're saying that blueside people are being perceived as jerks because they are not adequately living up to their roles as superheroes in a video game?

I guess it would be helpful to know what people mean by "jerks". Rudeness? Unwillingness to work properly with the team? Selfishness?

That's pretty crass for this discussion. I'm not going to go into it, but lemme say that there are very rational and very moral reasons to reject Christianity.

Lol no. But imagine you did the study and then take it back to your dorm room. Your roommate has the same assignment but didn't go to class that day. So she sits down and copies your picture, without ever having seen the model, and then makes a few superficial changes in order to make it her own.

Here's the deal: swiping means stealing. It's like saying "it's a fine line between conning someone and ripping them off." The most value neutral phrase I can apply here is copying, possibly tracing since the copying is so faithful down to the placement of the veins and the position of the fingers. In cg that's generally described with the derogatory term paint-over, because it lacks creativity and the end result is so below the quality of the source material. Whatever the intention, I don't consider it an hommage because any point of interest in the piece draws directly from the source material.

Artists use reference all the time. This is where ethics come in to play. If you take, for example, a fashion spread and paint a costume over the model and change the background--you are appropriating someone else's work. Their skill in lighting, composition, the model's skill in posing, makeup, whatever. It happens so frequently, that people start to lose the sense that it's wrong.

Proper use of reference is this: you get an idea or direction to make a picture. You sketch it out. You refine the drawing. Then, when you are assessing what you've done
you look at reference to help correct the various flaws that may have entered in to the work. Sometimes at this point I realize "hey this looks a lot like that picture from the book I have on my shelf!" Then guess what? I CHANGE THE PICTURE OR START OVER.

Using reference is smart and everyone should do it until they no longer need to. Copying or literal lifting from someone else's work is not the same. It goes back to the "thin line" comment. Stay as far away as you can from that line.

"Hey Swiper no swiping!!!
Awwww, man!!"