[ahecht]

I have to say that the winning animation was very well put together, presented a clear message, and came out very professional. However, I would've preferred to see a team like 21 win, who used what John Lassiter calls "common sense animation." Basically, what that means is that they presented a clear and interesting story, didn't rely on swooping camera angles and other gimmicks, and rendered something that could look believable given the technological contrainsts (this is why Lassiter's Pixar, which made such movies as Toy Story, has been so successful). There animation with marionetts was very cute.

I think that there should be an award for the type of submission that we saw win, perhaps some kind of "promotional media" award. This is basically what the Chairman's awards had turned into in the past few years, and I know that many teams were sorry to see that aspect of it go. However, I don't think that the Autodesk Visualization Award is the place for it (or if it is, there should be a seperate Autodesk Animation Award).

Also, I was very dissapointed with the way that the Autodesk rep announced the awards. It was very anti-climatic. There was no sense of suspense or drama, and by announcing the team number first, and then describing the animation and the team, all of his comments were drowned out by cheers.