[reisser]

The professional judging seems to be consistenly inconsistent. There must be rubric so that the "professional" judges know what to look for. I quote the word professional because certain hints in the comments we received in the past suggest that some of the national judges are not professional animators. Regardless, a set of universal criteria is necessary to make a fair and consistent judgement about a work of art.

For the past three years I have read national judging comments that contradict themselves. Some judges harp on about the "lead in" statement while another judge requested more "sexy robots". One judge commended our use of depth-of-field when there was none at all. Little inconsistencies such as these are very hard to take when we all have worked so hard. And while the piece that won last year was compelling, I have to agree that it was disappointing to see a winner picked with so little demostration of 3d animation. Again, this clarifies the need for a judging rubrik. It is to keep the judges on-task, fair, and consistent. I struggle without a clear set of criteria at regional judging. I think any judge would benefit from knowing what to look for instead of assigning arbitratry number values for a vague set of categories.

The competition documents contain hazy instructions at best. Every year there is some misunderstanding about the "credits" version and where to put a black frame. Two years ago our score sheet reported that out entry arrived late. We Fedex'd it four days early and received deilvery confirmation. Some aspects of the competition are just blatantly disorganinzed.

I have been hoping that postivie changes for the animation competition would occur. It would be really rewarding to have some good come out of our criticisms. See everyone at nationals.