I really don’t see the similarities besides theme? Circus themes are not that rare of a concept lmao. Personally I’d just keep the character and move on, who cares if someone thinks they look alike?
Crosspost on DA/TH
Who: Lottesu (DA), Mosu (TH), formerly mosuoo on DA
What: A closely ripped off design + scams
When: September 2019 - sorta currently?
(Excuse me if I'm doing this wrong. Please correct me if I am, I've never written a PSA on TH ;w;)
Hi guys, this is a bit of a more serious subject, but I felt I had to address this as it's not only bugging me but others involved too.
I waited a long time to write anything about this, mostly because I felt a bit embarrassed I promoted a scammer/thief and because I wanted to forget about it.
And because I thought my situation was put to rest, but it wasn't so I'm finally speaking up.
First of all, please do not send any hate to anyone involved in this story. This is simply to share my story with @/LOTTESU and to warn others. Please do not harass or bully anyone.
Alright.
For context, I'll start off with what prompted me to interact with @/LOTTESU.
My friend Stockinghime and I had been talking for about a horror/candy/sweet themed circus for a while, because she has multiple clown themed OCS. (Giggles, Chuckles).
I've always wanted a Carousel OC ever since I played LOVENIKKI, they have a few Carousel themed sets
For a while Stocking I had spoken about creating a huge circus themed RP and universe because of this, and I LOVE was supposed to create one but I never found the inspiration for it.
(I'm posting links since I don't know how TH works with images OTL..)
Then I ran into this adoptable:
She was almost perfect, I had to have her. So I bid on her, and because I was so in need of her I even made a deal with Lotte to buy her for much more than the auction was at in that current moment because of said deal.
Though I asked for some changes, because she wasn't exactly how I wanted her to be.
I wanted a carousel theme to herso I requested horses on her skirt, I wanted the bow in her hair to be different to a ruffle with a little horse on it.
I wanted black eyes and blonde hair because I absolutely love that combo(light/or blonde hair and dark eyes), I have many ocs with that (most not uploaded to my TH as they are fandom ocs and I stopped uploading those, but for context I have about 5?) and I wanted heart cheeks because of Stockinghime. She draws herself with hearts on her cheeks, and draws many ocs with this too.
And more in her gallery.
So, my OC ended up looking like:
And she was perfect!
And Lotte had been great to me, so I thought we were friends so I promoted them, I helped them financially. I gave them core so they could change their name to their current one as I was so happy with my OC but also because I thought I had made a friend.
But everything changed after I received a commission from my OC, and I got a note.
It turned out my oc had been a rip off from another oc, who I did not know of.
it turned out to be 02Nai oc Cherry who I honest to god did not know that existed, and nor did I really know Nai existed either.
And while I requested those changes to Lotte, they knew of Nai's OC. I did not, so they could have stopped me to make them look close to identical but they didn't and it left me and Nai in this situation.
So, Nai and I both worked things out. Luckily, and also confronted Lotte about this.
Lotte denied to ever have seen the OC, but then later changed their words to they had seen Nai's OC before and was inspired by their designs.
And, I was going to collab adopt with Lotte before this too and I noticed looking back at it the first sketch was a rip off of one of Nai's adopts, too. So I confronted Nai about this too and she confronted Lotte lied who about that, too.
Nai was very kind and allowed me to change things on my OC and the design I had bought , I removed some things off of that outfit and also gave her a new outfit and I will be switching inbetween those outfit. And I will be giving my OC more outfits in the future, too (like I do with most of my OCS)
I wanted to make a public statement to apologize to anyone who got scammed because of me.
A while ago I was notified that there is a PSA about Lotte on both DA and Toyhouse too so I will be linking those, too.
Once again, I am extremely sorry for this.
And I also request people to please stop noting / bothering Nai about this situation. It causes unwanted stress about something she already knows and was kind enough to settle with and work it out.
I feel extremely sorry for anyone involved.
Also in case anyone wonders why I am not sharing screenshots, I don't want to leak private conversations with either party, Nai or Lotte , but if I must I will but I wish to prevent that because of past experiences.
They are similar themes, but it's where it stops. Like, I'm sorry to say this, but they look nothing alike, the concept isn't original. I'm inclined to agree to just keep the design and move on. It doesn't seem like this is anything malicious at all. Taking inspiration from designs isn't stealing. Artist take inspiration from each other all the time.
I have OCs that get mistaken for other peoples a lot. You just have to say "Hey they're mine though, thanks" and move on.
Re read and one last point before I bounce:
Even if they are similar. You paid for that design, you should be allowed to keep the original design. Who cares? You shouldn’t have to change it to make anyone happy but yourself.
It's like saying I can’t use my Sona’s design, and have to change it a bunch because he has a similar look to Snufkin from Moomin valley! A design is a drawing, a character is the story you create for them! :)
They requested the horse (if I’m reading correctly) Mortymer , so it’s not really the OG artists fault that they may be similar! (Though looking at it closer I do agree that is one of the alike things.) They may have indeed taken inspiration for the eyeball bow though, I can’t say for sure obviously. To me, it really doesn’t look like a copy. Just similar themes and a possible mix up! :)
Hi guys tysm for the comments ;w; I'll try to reply to all of them with some more expaining!
First of,
pax I probably should have just commented on the other PSA I agree, I saw your comment too late and I would have taken it down had so many people not already commented, I'm sorry ;w;
Otter_under_water & Bronze_Coffee , Though I completely agree the designs are not identical, I understand why Nai was extremely uncomfortable with the design being so close to her OC. Luckily Nai was kind about the situation and I am still allowed to use the outfit, but I have also designed more outfits for her now too because Nai has gotten a lot of notes about my OC being a rip off , which it kind of was? Though the designs not being identical.
And yes I did request the horses because of the LoveNikki outfit with the horses under her dress (hence why currently in her newest outfit she has horses again but with wings! c: )
nidoran I hope that answers your question too. I did request for the horses at the bottom of the dress because I wanted a carousel like affect on the dress, so this isn't the artist fault persay.
Though why I am upset with the artist is:
They knew about Cherry. So they knew the changes I requested and made would look so close to Cherry they could have warned me. But they didn't, they let me run with it and it seemed to me as a ''how far can she push it before I'm found out'' situation.
My problem is that Lotte lied about not having seen Cherry at first , and then turning around and admitting to having taken inspiration off of Nai's art and designs before.
Though, I admit the changes I made made the character look closer to Cherry, but I had no way of knowing this.
The original adopt outfit even had the same bow in her hair as Cherry did.
Now I will keep my OC and I changed her a bit so Nai wouldn't be uncomfortable but I won't discard the bought outfit, because after all I did pay for it and I explained this to Nai too because I myself see the differences too especially with said changes I made after finding out about Cherry.
But I don't mind adding more outfits per Nai's request and using those more too so Nai won't be uncomfortable, but I won't discard the outfit completely.
And to answer Mortymer I'll answer too I don't think it was really done maliciously but more with the intent of ''How far can I go'' mind set.
I also found some more links that may add to the PSA but I'm not sure whether I should edit it or not so I'll add it in a comment
Here's the link to the other adopt they had tried to copy but then changed designs last moment. it was the collab adopt. (Like I said, the design changed last moment but it still is iffy to me how Lotte lied to me about not knowing Nai when this one shows they obviously do)
This one is taken from this one. As you can see the outfit is almost identical again..
I do want to thank everyone for sharing their opinions on the forum and helping me clear my mind a bit because personally I was a bit confused too with what to do in the situation and don't want to upset anyone but don't want to be upset myself too losing an OC I have fallen in love with so once again thank you ;w;.
I've had sonas look like others as well. It's happened before, it seems they did take inspiration off the design but poofy carnival themed skirts like that (and stockings/hairstyle) aren't uncommon. Even some of my circus themed sonas have one like it. Especially eye bows.. the concept derives from pastel goth or Kpop I believe? quite creepy but it became a recurring theme over time. The horses placement is similar but if you really look at the design of them they're different. This one dangles much lower and the design is much more simple than the original. The hearts on the cheeks aren't uncommon, I've seen that in the show Star VS the forces of evil (but I believe some had diamonds on the cheeks but the concept still isn't as uncommon as you might think, circles, stars, hearts, and etc are pretty common markings) the thing I can say that looks very similar is the shoes but yours is one color. The other design has two different colors and the diamond is much smaller. Garters aren't uncommon either in a design so there's that. As long as there was no outright coping of personality or art I see no real problem. It could be deemed as a copycat by some but in reality there is differences if you try to look. As long as you make them a whole different personality, give them their own traits, etc they should be all good. It's happened to me before but I've derived from the original then traded off the design later in time due to me not enjoying it any more. (But after reading they've done some weird stuff like this before.. I can't say I'd keep supporting it. Just try to change her up a bit and make her "yours" sort of speak. If that makes sense!)