Do y'all ever get, like, scared or nervous to share your designs? Not for fear of how people would view your work, but rather fear that someone would steal your work and then sell it off as their own;
What do y'all do to deal with that fear? Is there a way to reduce it?
My friend,
@Ran-Ron, has the same fears. And I perfectly understand the reason behind those concerns.
However, for me? I'm not scared coz I can always do it again.
As for selling it off? This is the net, so it's easy to find who's the fake. I've seen a lot of cases where the artist tried to sneak in some copyright violations and ended up in hot water.
Still, can't be wrong with playing it safe. Always have your works copyrighted.
Also, to add context to what I just said...
When I was in college (2008), I tried joining an animation group in our campus. I got accepted, and began training with them. A feature of this group was that, in every assignment they gave us, they'd rank our works. Not only for encouragement, but it was also for 'bragging rights', because that group encouraged competition as a way to motivate members.
One of our assignments back then was to create a character (concept), and I did one with enthusiasm. After that, I submitted it and it went through under scrutiny.
Needless to say, when the results came out, my work was plagiarized. Not by a peer member, but one of the admins. The costume, the looks...only the colors are different, and maybe some additions on the hair and the clothes.
I was also unranked.
When I raised the issue, I was expelled. Swore to myself that I won't join any anime group from then.
Still, I'm living happily with my commissions, while that guy who plagiarized my work before was afraid of AI proliferation.