No animation award in 2013! :'(

[Eagleeyedan]

Well, this is it folks. Autdesk blogged today confirming what many had suspected, there will be no Excellence In Design award this year. No CAD or animation Here's the link and quote.

http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr.../blog12-7-2012

"Blog Date:
Friday, December 7, 2012 - 11:44
Excellence in Design Award

As many have noticed from looking at the 2013 FRC Administrative Manual, the Excellence in Design Award, sponsored by Autodesk, will not be part of our 2013 season. I had intended to give more advance notice of this change, but things did not go as I had expected, and I’m sorry about that. While a relatively small number of teams – less than 50 – submitted for this award last year, I recognize that for the teams that did submit, this represented a significant portion of the effort they put forth for the season. Autodesk remains very committed to supporting the mission of FIRST, but wants to take this season to consider ways they could allow more FRC team members to explore the software-aided design and showcase sides of the FRC experience. We support their approach on this.

For teams that were planning to submit for this award in 2013, consider this: when a change gets presented to you, even an undesired change, it’s often a great opportunity to step back and evaluate the ‘whats’ and ‘whys’ of your activities. You may find new and exciting ways your animation sub-team can contribute this year. Here’s one idea: the new Digital Media Award will be looking at the many ways teams get the message out about themselves and FIRST. Could animation be part of your marketing strategy? "