oh man, that's a pain in the neck for us to make it. I do believe there are flaws, and that's what you need to keep in mind. During the last week of that project, we were so obsessed in trying to get everything perfect. We literally tried our best, spent a lot of our time in perfecting everything. (cos we won the nation champ in 2002, we don't want to lose the quality) That thinking killed us. First, there's nothing perfect. No matter how good we did, we still have flaws in there. Second, we did not spend the time wisely. We used the time trying to get the best quality, but neglecting other important elements like sound effects and outstanding titles.
When you guys work on the animation, please expect to have flaws, not one, but a lot!! Just make sure those are not obvious. You certainly have to correct and make those important objects standout as good as possible, but don't spend them on something unnecessary. Lightings for example is very important. If you have a chance to see our 2003 animation (
http://www.la.mvla.net/XtraCur/Clubs..._large_mac.mov), look at the lightings in the playing field (2nd scene). We used the lights to emphasize the robot and the crates out, making you guys focus on the object. Keep it simple is the key, save your time rendering and save your time checking.
BTW, in the last part(entering Mars) of the animation, there's a flaw in it. It's quite hilarious if you think about it. pause the animation once you see the whole shuttle and look at the it carefully, you can see two top wings missing. I discovered that 6 hours after it started rendering and we decided to leave it along + laugh at our silly copying skills for 2 minutes. sigh, this is something really unexpected...
Good luck and remember (getting the perfect animation is good, obsess with it though... will screw you over)
Brian