BIG FAT DISCLAIMER: ~stop-tracing supports and appreciates real vector art. I am NOT dissing every vector artist ever. This article is about vector "artists" who take other people's art, trace over it, and call it their own. Those of you that create lovely vector art from your own mind or use resources and references that you have the legal right to use are in the clear, okay? Keep on artin'.

This is gonna be a shorter one, folks, but I've been thinking about this for a while.

deviantART prohibits the submission of screenshot "edits". For those of you that have never encountered a screenshot edit- let me give you a very typical example.

Big note: The vast majority of this sort of "vector art" is anime-related, and that's what I'm most familiar with, so that's the example I'll be using. I'm sure this happens to American cartoons and maybe even live-action shows.

Say someone is a fan of the anime Naruto, and they like to RP or write fanfiction or something. That's fine, right, everyone's entitled to their fandom tastes, and there's nothing wrong with that. There's also nothing wrong with wanting to have pictures of your original character(s). But the people with OCs who "can't draw" often use screenshot edits to create pictures of their character. There are two ways to do this...

Trace-Over Method:

The "artist" takes a screenshot with a character in it that looks close to what they want their character to look like. Then, in a digital art program, they paint over the character in the screenshot and transform it into "their" character. They may change things like the face, hair, and clothes. It's rarely hard to figure out which canon character the "original" character was based on, and the painted-over character often doesn't blend in well with the rest of the screenshot.

Here's a screenshot of Sakura from Naruto, traced over in Photoshop: [link]
Original: [link]
Animated layover with the original (warning, the file is XBOX HUGE): [link]

_{Bonus game: How many times did the word "character" appear in this paragraph? Answer for a prize!}

Recolor Method:

Some editors don't even bother to draw anything and instead, simply digitally recolor the canon characters and name them something else. This can be done by actually painting over, or selecting areas of the picture and playing with the hue. For instance, someone may take Sailor Moon, make her hair brown and all of her clothes different shades of green, and call her Sailor Earth.

Here's the same screenshot of Sakura from Naruto, simply recolored this time rather than drawn over: [link]
Animated layover with the original (once again XBOX HUGE): [link]


Most screenshot editors don't bother to paint over everything- just the character(s) of their choice. Recolors especially are rarely covered up all the way. deviantART deletes screenshot edits because they contain pieces of the original, which is a copyright violation.

So, now that we've got that out of the way, let's move on to vectors. Specifically, screenshot vectors.

They're done by taking a screenshot, opening it in a vector program (Illustrator for example) and tracing precisely over the lines. Colors may or may not be changed. Usually vectors are little more than a fancy makeover- "shinier" than the screenshots they are "based" on. Some of them may be changed into "original" characters, but it's more common for them to just be "fan art". While the background in edits and trace-overs is usually left intact, the backgrounds for screenshot vectors are usually (but not always) changed.

Here is a screenshot vector of Mori from Ouran High School Host Club. Notice how little changes between the two images. The background is what changes the most, but the two images are near identical. However, the deviantART staff would not remove this.

So I ask you now, deviantART:

What's the difference?

Honestly, what is the difference between screenshot edits and screenshot vectors? Why is one method not allowed because it's "copyright violation," while the other method is allowed to grow and flourish here like a weed?

Neither method has the artist starting with a blank slate. Both methods take someone else's art as their base. Anime vector "artists" just tend to cover up the original better.

Vecotring is just another method of painting over. Sure, it's more complete, and the results are, 90% of the time, much more attractive.

But does that make it okay?

Why does that make it okay?



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