Gaah! Nothing for the animation people!

[stevek]

I dont know about an illigitamate child of the chairmans award. That would imply that at least in secrete there are good blood lines. (Since the Chaimans Award is a big thing) But we continue to see that there isn't much consideration in secrete either. The key here is that everone will be seen at the regionals and the qualified ones are seen at the Championships. The point of being at the championships still revolves around the fact that At best if you were to win points here- you would still need an additional 3-4 more to get your total of 5 Qualifiying points (As applies to all the other judged award winners). Form some teams the Animation could put them over the top. For others- it may still fall a little short. But if there are incentives for teams to win points through animation, maybe the team leaders will spend more time looking for mentors in this area.

I am a team mentor and work as an animator/Graphic Designer. I often solicit my clients and vendors for donations of time and money or services in this area. The problem is, most teams I hear from dont do this. If there was more incentive to win this award- ie extra qualifying points, then teams may pay more atterntion to the potential professional help in this area and will look for active participation of a mentor from the professional environment so they can produce better products.

One other issue- The entire idea of FIRST is for Students to see how professionals in the real world work. Yet here the rules say that you need to uses 3DS and other Autodesk Products. Frankly Autodesk isnt the only products I use in the professional environment and they arent the best either. I understand we want an even playing field- but they make it sound this year like we cant use any other products. I like to compostire animations in Aftereffects and Edit in AFX or Avid. I have worked in Lightwave for 8 years and can be a much better help to the team if I wasnt spending half the time trying to figure out their program (Which I do fine with- but takes lomger) Lightwave was a bigger player in the Video Production industry well before 3DS was. I also think its better rendering and lighting and more suitable for Engineering projects. If they want a Profesional environment why limit the tools- If they really want the best- FIRST should talk to ALIAS about MAYA which has come to a price point equal to Lightwave and 3DS.

Dont get me wrong- 3DS is a great program, but no one in my area uses it for Professional work- so getting professional help here is limited. FIRST doesn't limit the budget of teams that can afford to build two robots and alow their drivers to continue to practice after the main robot ships, why limit the budget or tools we use- Every program I mentioned is in the same budget anyway. And different style animations may look better in other programs.

KEEP THE TALK GOING, THEY'RE LISTENING