[Danny Diaz]

If it's a matter of reducing their overhead or attempting to lighten a burden (manpower or financially) on Autodesk, I can see why they're doing it. However, I agree with everyone here that removing the regional award does decrease the likelihood that inexperienced animators will attempt to compete "with the big boys". Team 418 is one of those teams - we recently lost all our experienced animators to graduation last year (without being able to train a new generation), and new animators that have joined the team this year are starting from scratch. I can see our animators playing with the software if they're given a copy of it - as they already have with last year's software - but I don't see them trying to push the limits in a competitive atmosphere if they know they are doing it just for their own benefit, especially since there's no chance to win any kind of award.

You have my support and my signature (Danny Diaz), FWIW.

-Danny