~*APZ SPEAKS!!!*~Humorously, Know that as I write this I got my newborn son in my lap
Necro posting I guess but I think you guys want to read this.
Now, the question is, will APZ actually log in and reply to this?
Maybe we could get some confirmation from the man himself, or maybe even a full confession of if it was ripped? Not for proof, but just for some credibility on his part.
As for the head mesh, maybe it's original, but I wouldn't really bet on it given all the similarities. Definitively not a "legit" model, anyway.
I'm speechless. I had no idea that this tiny project would mean so much to so many people. So I'm a fallen hero now huh?
Really? I was ANYBODY's idol at all!? I never could understand just how popular this model became, because, well... i just wasn't that interested in this community, no offense. Understand how surreal this all is to me.
Well you guys want an explanation now I suppose:
Here's the answer: The mesh is 100% mine. The sword, hair, and body texture are mine. However since you guys are as analytical as I am, there's no way for me to bs the texture of the face away. It is
obviously a lazy attempt on my part. I was having a problem with painting it, a poor excuse. THAT DOES NOT MEAN THAT I RIPPED ANY PART OF THE MODEL AND PUT IT ON MINE. What I modeled, I modeled myself using the other as a guide. THE TEXTURE OF THE FACE AND EYES IS THE ONLY THING I DIDN'T CREATE.
That's the absolute truth. There is no "completely ripped" I copied and pasted and color corrected the texture for the face. THAT'S IT! Not counting the face texture, it's otherwise a completely unique creation. If the original thread is still there you can watch the progress of the model from scratch. The model was 100% box modeled by me. (And nobody had ripped anything out of Crisis Core when I made the buster sword and I based the blade on screenshots released before the game came out
)
I guess you could say the crappy excuse that I told myself was that the texture it's self is not supposed to be viewed. If you guys didn't have access to the texture you wouldn't have been able to tell. Infact, if you ask people who work in television broadcast, they do things like this all the time (As a student at the Art Institute of Austin my professors are all professionals from the industry) The reason being that the END product (the complete model not it's isolated parts) is not an exact copy of the source. This is called Fair Use. But it's a large grey area
THAT DOESN'T JUSTIFY WHAT I DID. You guys are absolutely right and that small act of vandalism was wrong. But if you want an honest explanation of why. That's was it. That and laziness.
As to everyone's idol being shattered, i get you. I got inspired by him too, in fact he got me into ff7 modeling/modding. although mildly shocking, this event should not shake the faith of any of you. whats important is the inspiration you got, and that you keep using it. If you got a jumpstart by being inspired by apz, its in you now to do stuff, don't need apz to hold yer hand .
What he did isnt a huge deal, just doesnt conform with qhimm rules. learning from pros like Square is a great thing to do, and i've gotten much better by studying their textures and models.
Thanks Timu
You hit the nail on the head. Couldn't have said it better without several paragraphs if I tried
If he replaced all the nicked parts with scratch-made ones then sure, but his reputation is certainly damaged..
I never thought of myself as an idol, because quite frankly I made this model purely for my own selfish reasons, even though I like to share. Actually I'm quite glad that the old model is gone! I've never been particularly proud of copying that texture, and that's why I several times promised that i would re-do it so that I could make a new one before anyone find out!
Well it's too late for that now, oh well! Life, horrible family tragedy, depression, a full time job (Not anymore...
) , full time school, I'm a 3D texture and modeling tutor now. All that just got in the way of me wanting to have anything to do with this place. Or to my mistakes I made here. Guilty! I now live in a 4 bedroom house with 15 people living in it and I make 800~900 dollars a month and no one will hire me because of my school hours, and I'm getting by just fine. I completely understand if no one believes this (That's the same guy who ripped stuff after all) But i swear to you by everything that's holy it's the complete honest truth.
~*However*~Now that it has come to this, I can offer several solutions:
1) I just repaint the face and everybody's happy (even though my shattered reputation is irreversibly damaged
And that's supposed to upset me )
2) I finally get up off my Arse and do what I kept saying I was gonna do and kept putting it off and make A NEW CLOUD with everything I've learned since I've been at school. Seriously though, I've learned so much about keeping uv's cleaner and edge deformation, all kinds of better cool goodies. I think this might just be the push to get me to do it. Actually, I think I'm starting to become excited about it again!!!
3) "We hate you now APZ because you lied to us, you broke our hearts, please go away and die, we don't want anything from you at all!"
Or even
4) Both 1 and 2 if people love that model
that much.
It'd certainly make me happier.
I may never again regain you guys respect. But understand that this just isn't that big of a deal to me. This was a stepping stone I used to teach myself more about modeling and texturing. This was the first time I modeled a character in it's entirety. It's in the past for me, I've moved on, I've learned, I've gotten better. It's my take on a copyrighted character, it's not something I made for profit, I'm not emotionally attached to it. If you want to continue to disregard anything I post after discovering I copied a single texture, that's entirely up to you.
Bottom Line is that I was sorry when I copied the face texture, I was wrong, but other than that it is still my creation entirely. And that I'm not gonna cry over spilled model when what I really would want is to scrap it and start over anyways. And move on
On the bright side: I'm a daddy now, and I'm excelling at the Art Institute of Austin (No I don't rip off anything at school
)
Check out my temporary portfolio I haven't gotten around to stuffing:
http://s69.photobucket.com/albums/i59/apz_freak/Portfolio/and this AWESOME (yet incredibly flawed and unfinished) video I made and animated:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XxnF5zvXmkAnd I made that from conception to completion in 11 weeks. 100% content made by me, even the sfx and music (That's me playing guitar)
Here's my latest creation, same idea I had with Cloud only Doom:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=128461210540511