My Contribution to the Global Guard Dog Jam!

What's the Global Guard Dog Jam?
Bill Plympton is remaking his Oscar-nominated short Guard Dog—with your help. He’s calling it the “Guard Dog Global Jam” and he’s asking seventy animators to re-animate one shot from the short. Animators can use any style or technique as long as the dog character is recognizable and the length of the scene remains the same to keep the soundtrack in sync. Details about “Guard Dog Global Jam” are posted in a downloadable document at Plymptoons.com. Animators can begin choosing shots, most of which are between 2-4 seconds long, on September 1st, 2010. All participants will receive a piece of original art from Guard Dog. - CartoonBrew

Edit: Watch the YouTube video for a compilation of the finished scene! (Can you spot mine?)

I was initially informed by Mike, who I originally collaborated with other artists on NOTLD: Reanimated last year (available to buy now in the US).

"'Flicker Frame' animation is when each frame is rendered by a different artist in a different style/ media/ motif. The layout must remain unchanged for the animation to work but besides for that the sky is the limit with how those frames can be rendered. My scene is near the beginning when the girl laughs mechanically. It is 102 frames long which means room for 102 artists to participate (feel free to suggest it to others)." - Mike Schneider

I would highly recommend getting on the infamous FB and looking over the other frames taking part! It is astonishing how many art styles and varied emotions are being included. Oh, the beauties of the internet...

With my contribution above, it took me 1-3 hours to complete, the deadline was extremely tight for me. I wanted to involve something with a recognisable manga-twist, so I hope I've been successful. With the colour pallette, I made it a little bit extra *kawaii* compared to what I usually use... Refreshing, actually! (Afterwards, I developed a craving for Lovehearts, Chewits and general Haribo) :)

And you know what? It feels really good to be involved in an animation, without having to actually animate for once (it is sooo a time consuming)!

Want to take part?
Visit Mr. Plympton's website to download the full rules and regs sheet.

Here is an example of the "flicker frame" effect with another animation:
 Johnny cash - There Ain't No Grave - The Johnny Cash Project Part 1


I guess a term for it would be 'collaborative animation'.

And the effect it has on the eye, on the mind, is indescribable. It's like... you are constantly reminded that there is more than one way to look at something, even though that something happening, is the same thing. Everything and one thing at the same time. Like rays of sunlight and its spectrum of colours - you can only see the rainbow through the rainfall. Although with the above, the rainfall is YouTube. And going deeper, Youtube could be called a 'collaborative society', on a global scale - Which makes no sense, but perfect sense at the same time!

*Thinks it's time to go home* (Is still at the office at 9pm!)