What will this year's topic be?
 

I'm just wondering what everyone thinks this year's animation topic will be... If you have an idea on what you think it should be please feel free to post it here..

I really hope it's something different than the last few years topics,

"What does FIRST mean to you?"

So feel free to post your ideas..

Hopefully something a tad more original.

Re: What will this year's topic be?
 

I think it should more be an open topic where we can show off more about the indvidual teams instead of something about First. The teams work hard on doing more than just building our robot. I would and I am sure other teams would like to show off what they have done other than building robots. It would be a great way to show that this is more than just building robots.


Cyber Blue 234

Re: What will this year's topic be?
 

^ agreed.

I'm tired of this "What does FIRST mean to you?" topic. Hopefully they'll think of something better for this year.

Re: What will this year's topic be?
 

I agree with him ^

Re: What will this year's topic be?
 

TRUE DAT!

Re: What will this year's topic be?
 

Yeah, they have this it is called the Chairman's awared

Re: What will this year's topic be?
 

True, but isn't "What does FIRST mean to you?" kind of vague?? What if FIRST meant staying up late, drinking mountain dew, and eating krispy kremes to me?? :p

Maybe this is one reason Chairman's Award got put down to paper entries only.

Re: What will this year's topic be?
 

So do that for your animation... I don't see any problems with that....

What first means to our team is some really neat team logo going around building a robot.

Re: What will this year's topic be?
 

I have to say that "What does FIRST mean to you?" is pretty open...

If you move it to concentrating on teams, then those with an awesome robot or "bigger" and more popular teams are going to fare much better than rookie teams or teams with a less-than-super-awesome robot and work schedule. I think things that do more with the team than FIRST are reserved more the Chairman's Award. This award is supposed to be concentrated more or less on making a "spot" (their words not mine) for FIRST...sort of like an advertisement.

Re: What will this year's topic be?
 

I can't picture this ever changing in that way. Like Jeremy said, it's kinda like a FIRST ad.

I could turn this into a discussion of the FIRST philosphy, but I'll keep my mouth shut.

Re: What will this year's topic be?
 

I dunno... is it just me, or does it feel like they can't come up with a new topic?? I mean, how many years have they been using this "What does FIRST mean to you?" :confused:

Re: What will this year's topic be?
 

The contest should be more about the person or persons ability to use the software, not the ability to convey a message. While an animation should make sense, to give them a closed topic like, "What does FIRST mean to you?" is shortchanging peoples talent. Why? You basically just told people to model their robot. The entries I saw before I came onto the Royal Oak robotics team were basically disregarded if it didn't have the following:
A FIRST logo
Something to do with their robot

A lot of the entries I saw (Speaking of the 2002 entries I saw) had excellent graphics and technique, yet they didn't place well simply because their topic meant something to them a purely them.

Re: What will this year's topic be?
 

First is not all about a robot though. This is a large part, but not all of it. People could make an animation similar to a Chairman's award. Plus there is like the 2002 Technokats entry, I know I'm biased but still good point, it is the design process. It involves the robot but does not directly revolve around it. This was the only one I could think of off the top of my head, but I am sure there are others out there. That are what FIRST is about but never show a robot, or at least don't focus on it.

Re: What will this year's topic be?
 

The ones that I saw, if it didn't have the logo of FIRST or their robot, it placed low. Thirty seconds really isn't enough to define something that's not so generic.