ThinkGeek, that delicious haven, destination and veritable year-round Christmas morning bonanza, also sells tshirts! Geek tees. Usually quite clever, witty and terrifyingly geeky.

As I’ve designed a tee or two and once in a while am known to get my geek on, I was excited to note that ThinkGeek has a ‘Bounty Program’. In a nutshell: you can earn cash by submitting ideas for tees. I like cash!

To sweeten the deal, you can earn double the cash by also submitting artwork. I love double cash!

What could go wrong?

As it turns out, plenty. Now, I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV. But see for yourself: the terms and conditions include this particular nugget:

13. General Conditions (c) By submitting Entry, You hereby agree Design will be deemed a “work made for hire”, as that phrase is used in the United States copyright law, and all right, title and interest in and to the Design will vest automatically in Sponsor. To the extent the Design is not deemed to be a “work made for hire,” You hereby assign, transfer and convey, and agree to further assign, transfer and convey, to Sponsor any and all Your intellectual property or proprietary rights in the Design.

Did you catch that? Normally (in Canada and the US) when you create work, it’s automatically yours. You, the creator. But at ThinkGeek, when you submit artwork, you implicitly agree to automatically give away those creator rights. Those rights now belong to ThinkGeek. Forever.

Then there’s this other nugget:

(g) Entries become the property of the Sponsor and will not be returned.

In other words: when you submit artwork, it’s not only theirs, ThinkGeek doesn’t have to give you anything. Click ‘submit’ and you’ve just flushed your IP and/or artwork away. Wheee!

Artists be warned!

As much as you and I might be scratching ourselves raw for cash, hardware and self-respect – ThinkGeek’s  bounty program will cost you your artwork and creator rights to that artwork in exchange for nothing. As much as you can, protect your creative work by knowing your creator rights.

“The fire’s in their eyes and their words are really clear “

Excellent presentation of (what I call) layered authoring: it all comes together in my head the way Photoshop comes together in the layers control.

Always a fan of Simon Tofield’s animation. Be sure to dig for more.

I’m learning more about DoInk – a web-based animation studio. I took their popup ‘Create Now’ app for a spin and was suitably impressed: vector drawing, some primitives, paint bucket, erase, text tool, onion skinning and more. What was quite unique was a community library of props that you can use in your own animations.

The look and feel of the drawings is very Flash-like, which I’m not a fan of, but I can look the other way for now. Alright I lied:

Dear DoInk, in a future version may we have more painterly effects as well as the ability to import PNG alpha-channel bitmap drawings for cut out animation? Love, Carl.

But let me tell you, cadets — what got my wheels spinning in the driveway was this announcement: it’s available for the iPad. A mobile animation studio you can carry in one hand. For $5. (On sale for $4.99, reg. $8.99)

*clutches chest*

I can’t even imagine taking animation projects with you let alone working on one at the doctor’s office, the kitchen table or the front porch. Geez, I’m still getting used to pixel drawing on my iPod whenever I get the urge. To draw.

Where will the iPad and apps like DoInk take artists? I don’t know, but am eager to find out.

Of the many things that tickle my ears or dry out my eyes, I had not until now seen tee shirts and stop motion combined. The comedic artists Rhett and Link were hired to produce a television commercial, the behind-the-scenes goodness you’re about to watch.