Why Animators Shouldn't Worry About Copyright

Copyright Law - Stop Worrying

If you’re studying animation at Escape Studios, you’ve probably heard other artists talk about copyright—how important it is to protect your ideas and ensure no one steals your work.  

And while it's important to understand the copyright law (to learn the basics of copright law, watch this video), it's equally important that students shouldn’t worry about copyright too much.  

Here’s why it's important not to panic:

Copyright For Animators - What You Must Know

Copyright Law is a common area of confusion for animators. What does copyright mean? How does it come about? What do terms like "public domain" mean? Many of these terms are widely used but often misunderstood. Copyright law forms part of a complex system of global laws which vary from one country to another,  but the basics of copyright law are easy to grasp and understand.  Watch the short video about for a basic introduction to copyright law, and how it works for animators.

Pixabay.com - Free Stills and Videos!

Sooner or later every digital artist has to get to grips with copyright law. In particular, where can you find royalty-free images and video for use in your work? It's no use just grabbing stuff from Google. Copyright owners can and will hunt you down, especially the stock image companies like Getty Images. One excellent solution to the problem is Pixabay.com.

Pixabay.com describes itself as "a vibrant community of creatives, sharing copyright free images and videos. All contents are released under Creative Commons CC0, which makes them safe to use without asking for permission or giving credit to the artist - even for commercial purposes."

Thousands of Free Images Online From New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art

Metropolitan Museum of Art

New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art has posted hundreds of thousands of images online for free non-commercial use under the Creative Commons License.

That means you can use the images in your work, as long as you're not profiting from them, and as long as you credit the Met.

What's so great about that? Well, if you've been to the Met, you will have seen one of the world's greatest collections of art, ranking up there with the British Museum, Paris's Louvre and Florence's Uffizi as a treasure trove of beautiful things.

And now, all these fabulous images are free for us to use.