[DinkyDogg]

Another student animator here annoyed about the elimination of the regional awards. I'm the lead animator for team 114, and we got Honorable Mention last year at nats. Here are some of the reasons I want the regionals back:

Regionals encourage rookie teams and teams less experienced in the animation department. It gives them a shot at getting an award, but with the new system Autodesk is imposing, a team has to be one of the top 5 in the country to even have a shot at getting an award. So any team who isn't confident that they're good enough to compete at that level will have no motivation to compete at all!

Also, what if there are more than five teams that are worthy of some kind of award? The regionals allow teams to get rewarded for excellence if they're the best in their area, even if they aren't the best in the country. With the new systems, if there are more than five excellent animations some of them won't get any recognition at all.

The regional awards help local animators to meet each other and network. I've met a few other animators at regionals with whom I keep up a steady correspondence. My team doesn't go to nationals, so without regional animation awards there would be no reason for me to even attend the regionals and I wouldn't get a chance to meet other animators.


Some things Autodesk should also consider:

Why are you trying to decrease students' exposure to 3dsmax? Showing award-winning animations up on the big screen at regionals gets us interested in your product, and now you've done away with that.

Also, your judges will be deluged with animations that haven't been filtered through the regional judging process. If you thought the judging process was hard before, think how hard it's going to be now.

You are decreasing the prestige of animators within our teams by making it harder for us to get recognition for our work. That's not going to inspire new students to become animators. What chance does a newbie have at being one of the top 5 teams in the country? Your new policies are going to make many potential animators give up before they start.



I want to email all of my thoughts to Autodesk. My animation partner feels the same way I do, and he'll email them, too. Does anyone know who specifically to email? If I don't receive any suggestions soon, I'll email Kelly Stanphill, who I think has some association with the animation awards.