RULES
PROJECT STARTS: July 26th, 2011
PROJECT DEADLINE: August 18th, 2011 at 12 midnight PT
Your video submission must:
- Be animated (see below for animation types)
- Be set against a particular song clip
- Must be the exact length of one of the animation segments – not longer or shorter
- Use a “rap video” theme
- Be in HD (ideally) and 24 frames-per-second – see submission page for details
- Include at least one Dick Figures character
- Include all original material – no photos of celebrities, Simpsons characters or other artist’s works
- Not include nudity or racial slurs
- Be submitted by the deadline
FAQ
Q: If I submit a video segment, will it show up in the final video?
A: If it’s insanely awesome, it will. If it’s not, we can’t promise you anything, but know that we’ll watch each and every submission.
Q: Can I submit more than one video segment?
A: Yes. But 50 is too many. Okay, 60 is too many, and not a single one past 60!
Q: What software is used to make Dick Figures?
A: We use Flash, but you can use whatever software you want to create your clip.
Q: Does my animation have to be in stick-figure format?
A: Not at all – you can do an anime version, make the characters out of clay, or any other style you want. You’ll probably want to maintain the colors of the characters and somehow retain some of their identifiable characterstics, but do your thing!
Q: Who “owns” what I submit?
A: Gandhi once said “sharing is caring” and we’re huge Gandhi fans. But in this situation we can’t share the distribution or ownership rights to your submission. It works like this – if Dick Figures characters are in your submission, and they will be because that’s one of the rules, then there’s truly no way for you to have any ownership rights of the animation (we own the series rights and the rights to the characters). We know this is a touchy subject, but trust us when we say that we’ll give full credit to any artist whose work is included in the final video. That’s what Gandhi would have wanted us to do.
Q: If my segment is selected, do I win a prize?
A: If by “prize” you mean “thank you email” then you’re gonna be drowning in prizes.
Q: Does my video submission have to be animated?
A: Yes, but our definition of ‘animated’ is fairly wide – including puppets, humans acting as stop motion puppets, post-it note animation, lego animation, machinima, chalkboard or whiteboard animation and just about anything other than live-action footage captured with a video camera.
Q: If my video is used in the final version, will I be credited?
A: Yes, we will be listing all artists in the description section of the video, so comb your hair and brush your teeth before we launch.
Q: What if I can’t draw or animate?
A: There are a whole variety of free tools available to help people animate. You can take a look at www.youtube.com/create for some suggestions from YouTube.
Q: Is there any free animation software you recommend?
A: Yes, you can download a free trial version of Flash. Or Blender if you’re into that CG stuff they use to make those hysterical Chipmunks movies.