How far does copyright go in creature design?
<p>I'm trying to make some dragons for my game and I'm wondering how far I can go with inspiration before I get in trouble.</p>

<p>Obviously, I can't just take a picture and make a 3D model that looks exactly like the picture. But what about taking ideas? For example <a href="https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/hbz-got-dany-drogon-1505228283.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this dragon</a> has these iconic red fins on his neck and his tail and now I'm wondering if I could use similar fins on my own dragon or if that's getting me into legal hell.</p>

<p>I tried to google for Creature Design copyright but I could not find anything. Maybe someone here got some resources where I can find more info about that?</p>

<h2>Copying something is copyright infringement - being inspired isn’t</h2>

<p>Where the line lies between the two depends on the particular circumstances.</p>

<p>With dragons, there are probably millions of images created over thousands of years. If your dragon is a generic dragon inspired by these it doesn’t infringe copyright. If your dragon clearly looks like another specific copyrighted dragon then it does.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, if you stray to close to a copyrighted image you <em>might</em> get sued and that suit will be expensive to defend and you <em>might</em> lose. At the end of the day, the judge/jury decides if its a copy or not.</p>

copyright