On June 23rd 2014 I received an e-mail from a CG artist claiming that Kenneth Sullivan, a former Pixar employee and current associate to the Murphy brothers, contacted him in May of 2014 and hired him to model a CG character.
In his first e-mail to the CG artist, Ken Sullivan introduced himself as the Project manager for an undisclosed short film and mentioned two individuals, a director and a producer, but didn’t reveal their identities. These two individuals were most likely Adam and Antony Murphy, since upon completion of his services, the CG artist was paid through a paypal account associated with Imaginears Animation Studio.
This is the Scottish Animation Studio that stole some of my artwork and tried to raise $250,000 through kickstarter, without my knowledge, permission and without compensating me, in direct violation of US copyright laws. These are the same people who repeatedly threatened to sue me for $10,000,000 in an attempt to bully me and silence me.
In a following e-mail to the CG artist Ken included an e-mail from the short film Directors, where they praised the CG artist work and once again confirmed Ken Sullivan as their project manager. The signature to their e-mail indicated the short film’s code-name to be “Project Rita“.
The reason why the Directors didn’t e-mail the CG artist themselves, nor reveal their identities was most likely in order to prevent the CG artist from googling their names and realizing they were notorious scam artists. Similarly, the reason why Ken and the twins referred to the project as “Project Rita” as opposed to “Steampunk AL” was to avoid being associated with their previous kickstarter fiasco.
The CG artist was provided with a character package that included turnarounds for the character and he was asked to create a CG model of the character.
Upon completion of his services, the artist was paid through a paypal account associated with Imaginears Animation Studio. Out of curiosity, the artist googled the company name, found numerous references to their scam and immediately alerted me. His final model is shown below.
The character design that he was provided with, matches a design that appeared online on the Murphy‘s now-defunct crowd-funding blog, in late 2013. A comparison between my design, their derived design and the CG model is shown below.
This is the Murphy‘s second attempt at deriving a CG model from my original artwork. Below is a comparison between my original design from 2012 and a design, that was produced in 2013 by a paid contractor who the twins provided with my artwork and asked to reproduce it.
Upon receiving this information, I contacted Ken through Facebook and asked him if he had been in touch with the twins. He lied to me and told me he hadn’t heard from them in a few months. I asked him about “Project Rita” and he suddenly stopped replying. Almost immediately the CG artist told me he got an e-mail from Ken asking him what he had told me.
I asked Ken if there was anything I could do to help him and I asked him to explain to me why he was still working for the twins at the risk of ruining his reputation.
He never replied to my questions and shortly afterwards he blocked me on Facebook.
I contacted him through his phone number and he admitted working for the twins, although he referred to his position as a “liaison between the parties”. This his despite his own e-mails where he repeatedly referred to himself to and was referred to by the twins as “Project Manager” for “Project Rita“.
Ken Sullivan is currently the only person I am aware of, who is still collaborating with the twins despite being fully aware of their repeated acts of copyright infringement, defamation and legal attempts to bully me into silence. He chose to continue to work for them in spite of the possibility that it could affect his professional reputation.
Pixar, a former employer of Mr. Sullivan--whose employment was terminated in 2012--, never participated to the scam and is in no way associated with Mr. Sullivan's or the Murphy's wrongdoings.
In his first e-mail to the CG artist, Ken Sullivan introduced himself as the Project manager for an undisclosed short film and mentioned two individuals, a director and a producer, but didn’t reveal their identities. These two individuals were most likely Adam and Antony Murphy, since upon completion of his services, the CG artist was paid through a paypal account associated with Imaginears Animation Studio.
This is the Scottish Animation Studio that stole some of my artwork and tried to raise $250,000 through kickstarter, without my knowledge, permission and without compensating me, in direct violation of US copyright laws. These are the same people who repeatedly threatened to sue me for $10,000,000 in an attempt to bully me and silence me.
In a following e-mail to the CG artist Ken included an e-mail from the short film Directors, where they praised the CG artist work and once again confirmed Ken Sullivan as their project manager. The signature to their e-mail indicated the short film’s code-name to be “Project Rita“.
The reason why the Directors didn’t e-mail the CG artist themselves, nor reveal their identities was most likely in order to prevent the CG artist from googling their names and realizing they were notorious scam artists. Similarly, the reason why Ken and the twins referred to the project as “Project Rita” as opposed to “Steampunk AL” was to avoid being associated with their previous kickstarter fiasco.
The CG artist was provided with a character package that included turnarounds for the character and he was asked to create a CG model of the character.
Upon completion of his services, the artist was paid through a paypal account associated with Imaginears Animation Studio. Out of curiosity, the artist googled the company name, found numerous references to their scam and immediately alerted me. His final model is shown below.
The character design that he was provided with, matches a design that appeared online on the Murphy‘s now-defunct crowd-funding blog, in late 2013. A comparison between my design, their derived design and the CG model is shown below.
This is the Murphy‘s second attempt at deriving a CG model from my original artwork. Below is a comparison between my original design from 2012 and a design, that was produced in 2013 by a paid contractor who the twins provided with my artwork and asked to reproduce it.
Upon receiving this information, I contacted Ken through Facebook and asked him if he had been in touch with the twins. He lied to me and told me he hadn’t heard from them in a few months. I asked him about “Project Rita” and he suddenly stopped replying. Almost immediately the CG artist told me he got an e-mail from Ken asking him what he had told me.
I asked Ken if there was anything I could do to help him and I asked him to explain to me why he was still working for the twins at the risk of ruining his reputation.
He never replied to my questions and shortly afterwards he blocked me on Facebook.
I contacted him through his phone number and he admitted working for the twins, although he referred to his position as a “liaison between the parties”. This his despite his own e-mails where he repeatedly referred to himself to and was referred to by the twins as “Project Manager” for “Project Rita“.
Ken Sullivan is currently the only person I am aware of, who is still collaborating with the twins despite being fully aware of their repeated acts of copyright infringement, defamation and legal attempts to bully me into silence. He chose to continue to work for them in spite of the possibility that it could affect his professional reputation.
Pixar, a former employer of Mr. Sullivan--whose employment was terminated in 2012--, never participated to the scam and is in no way associated with Mr. Sullivan's or the Murphy's wrongdoings.
