Odd Job Jack – FreeJack: Remix your own animated TV show

Odd Job Jack is an animated comedy series that airs in Canada on The Comedy Network. Earlier today the show creators, Smiley Guy Studios, announced that for their upcoming third season (airing July 22) they would be making every character, prop and background from every episode available under a free to hack, use, remix and share-friendly license. The initiative is called FreeJack.

The series was first developed as a web-based cartoon before it was picked up by The Comedy Network. Odd Job Jack has always maintained an interactive component with games and activities available on their website for each episode that airs. Coming soon, fans will be able to download flash files and create their own episodes and mash-ups.

This is an interesting move by the shows creators as they look to harness the creativity energy behind viral videos like the countless Zidane remixes appearing daily on YouTube. Unlike more mainstream copyright holders, SmileyGuy is embracing the latest trends and courting a larger younger audience.

Here are the details of their email:

Enjoying your summer? Here’s an opportunity to make it even more enjoyable.

Is your summer sucking? This is still for you.

Everyone’s favourite temp Jack Ryder is heading back to work with a new thirteen episode installment of Odd Job Jack. Beginning Saturday, July 22 at 9:30 PM ET/PT on The Comedy Network, Jack takes on jobs that are odder than ever. King Crab Fisherman, Clown Dancer, Corpse in a Terrorist Drill – it’s gonna be a wild season.

Guest stars that Jack (Don McKellar) works with this season include Jason Alexander, Molly Parker, John Goodman, Christian Slater, Jerry Stiller, Sean Cullen and many more…

COORS LIGHT TEMP CHALLENGE
Don’t forget to visit oddjobjack.com because big free things are afoot. We are giving away a PlayStation 3 as our grand prize this year and there are hundreds of other prizes to be had including instant win trivia prizes.

FREEJACK
Odd Job Jack also unveils FreeJack this season. We want you to get animated and to that end we are giving away the master files of every character, prop, and background from every episode this season. We also provide tutorials and other animation support material. All free to hack, use, remix under a share-friendly license.

Why can’t real work be this much fun?

Odd Job Jack

Disclosure: My brother Paul works at Smiley Guy Studios. Even though I saw him on Sunday he had yet to make me aware of their decision to release the content this way. I found out via their newsletter.

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4 Responses to “Odd Job Jack – FreeJack: Remix your own animated TV show”

  1. brad Says:

    Our first of 13 torrents has been seeding all week and now the 2nd episode’s torrent is up via a very high speed seed here:

    http://www.legaltorrents.com/bit/odd-job-jack-episode-2-art.torrent

    Our effort has had lots of coverage this week:
    Front page of digg.com twice!
    http://digg.com/television/Animated_Series_Puts_All_Assets_Under_Creative_Commons_License

    BoingBoing
    http://www.boingboing.net/2006/07/26/animated_series_puts.html

    Front page of the creative commons
    http://creativecommons.org/

    Drawn.ca
    http://drawn.ca/2006/07/24/freejack-odd-job-jack-and-creative-commons/

    Articles for the Toronto Star and others.

  2. brad Says:

    By the way episodes 1, 2, and 3 are now up with a high speed seed.
    http://www.legaltorrents.com/bit/odd-job-jack-episode-1-art.torrent
    http://www.legaltorrents.com/bit/odd-job-jack-episode-2-art.torrent
    http://www.legaltorrents.com/bit/odd-job-jack-episode-3-art.torrent

    We also just put up a sample flash movie, two video tutorials, 23 animation guides and 13 interviews with our production team:
    http://www.oddjobjack.com/freejack.php?sec=3

    If you bother to register then you are in a draw for a play station 3. How much better does it get than this?

    Go Odd Job Jack, go freejack.

  3. brad Says:

    Torrents 4 and 5 are up now with high speed seeds:

    http://www.legaltorrents.com/bit/odd-job-jack-episode-4-art.torrent
    http://www.legaltorrents.com/bit/odd-job-jack-episode-5-art.torrent

    enjoy

  4. OddJobJack Says:

    Hi. Thanks for the support of Odd Job Jack’s Freejack program. We just released a single torrent containing all 13 Freejack archives. Think of it as a full set.

    Download it here:
    http://www.legaltorrents.com/bit/odd-job-jack-compilation.torrent

    This archive contains master flash assets from 13 episodes including:
    - 1416 characters
    - 914 props
    - 2762 cameras

    You can browse all the files before downloading the torrent:
    http://www.oddjobjack.com/freejack.php?sec=2

    Check out our 39 production interviews, videos, worksheets, and tutorials here:
    http://www.oddjobjack.com/freejack.php?sec=3

    Learn about the Odd Job Jack season 2 DVD just released here:
    http://www.oddjobjack.com/dvd.php

    Catch Odd Job Jack in ‘person’ in his mall tour:
    http://www.oddjobjack.com/OJJLive.php

    Don’t forget to register at OddJobJack.com for a chance to win a PlayStation 3.

    http://www.oddjobjack.com/freejack.php
    http://www.smileyguy.com
    http://www.legaltorrents.com

    This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License so feel free to share, remix and mash. Don’t forget to send us a link to your work.

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