Addendum/Glossary:
This and other English-language FE communities generally have four levels of asset restrictions for using them in your projects. These consist of:
Permission Not Granted : Some artists don’t want anyone using their work. Maybe they have had a lot of bad run-ins with sprite thieves in the past, maybe they’re holding onto it for a specific project, maybe they simply made it to be viewed only, or any other number of reasons. Either way, don’t use their work.
Ask before using : Most artwork falls under this umbrella. Many artists will be fine with you using their portraits, animations, or whatever so long as you ask them for permission. If you’re not sure about someone’s positions on their creative works, just ask. It can’t hurt to double-check.
F2U (Free To Use) : This means you are free to use someone’s work in a project without asking them for permission. All works inside the Graphics Repository, at a minimum, fall under this umbrella. That means you can use anything inside the repo without asking permission, but you must give credit to the original authors. (Note: You may typically recolor portraits or add frames if a portrait is missing frames, even if it is ‘only’ F2U. Significant graphical edits are discouraged, but you can always ask the original author for permission to edit their work if you’re unsure.)
F2E (Free to Edit) : This is the final level of permissions. This work can be altered or edited as you please, and even re-released with those edits for others to use. However, you must still give credit to anyone whose work you edit. (Note: All animations in the repo are considered F2E. This means you can release additions or edits to any animation, provided you always credit the original creators.)
To reiterate: You must always give credit to artists if you use their work. If you aren’t sure which of the four levels someone’s work falls into, perform the following four steps:
- Portraits and other assets in the Repo are always F2U. Some are marked F2E, but many F2E portraits haven’t been updated to list their F2E nature. Also, as stated above, animations in the Repo are F2E by default, with very rare exceptions.
- Check the ATTN Artists topic. Many FEU creators have listed which of the four positions their work falls under there.
- Check the creator’s art or resource topics. This can also be off-site, such as on Deviantart, Pixiv, or other such places. Often, they will list their positions on the artwork itself, or on a main page somewhere.
- Still don’t know? DM them directly. It never hurts to ask.