How many times have your thumbnails been copywritten?!

Lead Story

Have your thumbnails been stolen?

This week we wanted to draw attention to the growing problem of island thumbnail theft and specifically the great article written by DWDFN(Dustin).

A few weeks ago, we mentioned a new reporting tool Epic added, aimed at banning islands with copywritten promotional materials, thumbnails included!
With thousands of islands being released daily onto the Fortnite Discovery page, the option to simply duplicate what is already existing and working, is all too appealing for some.

Despite being strictly against Epics Creator rules/Guidelines (see rule 1.6 and 1.7) and the addition of the above mentioned reporting too, the fascinating article written by Dustin, shows how prevalent and growing this problem is for many frustrated Creators. The issue is even more alarming for artists who specialize and make a living off designing thumbnails for developers.

While we don’t want to give the full article away, Dustin manages to create a Python script that collects and compares HUNDREDS of thousands of thumbnails which fall within a similarity percentage. The results of this weekend project are shocking and gives a lot of credence to Creators and artists frustrations.

The full article is a great read that is sure to open your eyes to this issue. The comment section is really interesting others share their own findings and Dustin even provides some on the fly evidence to cement his theory.

News

This Weeks Feed!

Our weekly round up of cool things to hit our feed!

Another cheap and effective UV trick. The Bulge effect!

In need of some inspiration? Unreals #ScreenShotSaturday thread has inspo by the fistful!

Yet another cool showcase of what simple shader math can do!

Learning

Custom Project Thumbnails - Liyability

We’ve got a slight change of pace this weeks Learning. A short and sweet tutorial on applying a custom project thumbnail for the "Project Browser” window in UEFN.

At first glance, this doesn’t seem particularly useful, especially if you’re just starting out. As time goes on however, that project browser window gets mighty full!
We’ve got piles of unfinished “test_tycoon” or “gun_game_v3” (don’t judge our naming conventions ), that can make your shiny new island difficult to spot in the sea of neglected side projects.

Adding a custom thumbnail to important projects or published/active islands can make is SO much easier to spot, giving you all a nice quality of life improvement. Plus it just give a little more professionalism to the work.

Spotlight of the week

Redline Racers - ArtByTav

0513-9071-6161

This week ArtByTav released a truly epic racing game built in UEFN. The island gives players the power to build their own race tracks with either modular “hot wheel inspired” elements or normal tarmac streets, (we know you’ll be re-creating all your childhood hot wheel circuits though).

Players can either build solo, or collaboratively with friends to really push the boundaries of Fortnite Creatives racing tools and on top of that. There’s even a procedural system in place to populate the world as you create.

This island utilizes a range of powerful UEFN and Verse tools and brings a breath of fresh air through the onslaught of gun games and tycoons!