Disappointing Animation Judging

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Posted by Kris VanKleek, Student on team #71, Team Hammond, from School City of Hammond and Beatty Machine and Manufacturing.

Posted on 4/29/99 6:27 AM MST


In Reply to: Re: learning experience - YOU ONLY GET WHAT YOU GIVE posted by Dan on 4/28/99 7:41 PM MST:



That is exactly how I feel, when my partner and I saw our animation on
thursday morning it was so great to see. It wasn't the best animation by
far but I know that I did that and I worked hard on that animation. I am
just glad that I had the experience to sit down and do the animation.

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Posted by Rich Spadaccini, Student on team #177, Bobcat Robotics, from SWHS and IFC.

Posted on 4/29/99 3:32 PM MST


In Reply to: learning experience posted by Sean Kim on 4/28/99 4:59 PM MST:



Ok Well ill say our animation is 100% student built as well, mainly becasue i was the only student involved in the animation this year and the entire team.
I've been readin gthe posts and i agree to an extent with some of the comment sbut believe that engineers and/or advisors are needed to complete the animation the first year its done. Speaking from experience my first animation received a 38% from teh judges, which i thought unfair at the time but now looking back i would give it a 25%. YEs you put a lot of time into your animation but you have to admit the judges did a good job and followed the criteria very well.
Every year there are better animations as kids learn more about the programs they use and i can honestly say mine is the best this year. I put in more hours than i can count and yet still worked on the robot. The winners were betetr than mine and i can see why from a point of view, while i will defend mine is the best because i put so much time into it the winners were good. HAs anyone ever tried to make a human? I have and it took me so long. And the first place one was just technicaly superior to most and made it look better with teh special effects at the right place, not explosions but effects
YEs this was winded because i had a lot to say, just try harder next year. I have valued my aniamtion experience a lot and have learned more about the programs than i ever imagined, and realize that FIRST is about learning and you do learn when you try to animate
Finally if you want to see what one studen can produce check the aniamtion at this link http://198.82.97.30/Animation.htm I warn you it may not paly because it was compressed from 180 megs to 3.4

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Posted by Kyle Huang, Student on team #192, Gunn Robotics Team, from Gunn High School and Nasa Ames, Sun Microsystems, Xerox.

Posted on 4/29/99 4:12 PM MST


In Reply to: There is more than just learning posted by Rich Spadaccini on 4/29/99 3:32 PM MST:



I have to disagree. I definately think that engineers aren't needed to produce an animation for a first year team. Example: GRT won the animation competition its very first year in competition (1997). I wasn't on the team back then, but the animation team consisted of three students, plus one more to draw the storyboard, and no engineers. The only professional help that was recieved was help getting the final animation onto video tape, and mixing sound.

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: I've been readin gthe posts and i agree to an extent with some of the comment sbut believe that engineers and/or advisors are needed to complete the animation the first year its done.

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Posted by Sean Kim, Student on team #115 from Monta Vista High School.

Posted on 4/29/99 5:09 PM MST


In Reply to: There is more than just learning posted by Rich Spadaccini on 4/29/99 3:32 PM MST:



You know why I am so upset over this matter?

My team has a contact with a professor in Cogswell College. This college is famous for its computer graphics department. This is where we get our file to tranferred to the video tape (we do them, of course. he watches us in the background.)
He is just a great person to work with. He is very well aquanted with one of the judges last year. And after we won the honorable mention, he asked the judge why we didn't win the first place.

They told us that our intro was too long, which was 9 seconds. They told us to show MORE robot. They wanted the ROBOT to score and pick up the ball and stuff.
Well...That's what we DID this year. The whole freaking 30 seconds.

You guys seem to be so fascinated by the character animation of that honorable mention.
I mean, I liked it. But I didn't get it. how does their robot work?

have you guys seen Mills High School's animation last year? I think they have BETTER character animation...They have like 3 people in it.
And how did they do? They got disqialified. Why? Because they used the stupid Epcot ball without permission from Disneyworld.

if you guys want to see this, ask me. i will put it up. It's 22 mb.

kison

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Posted by Jacob Etter, Student on team #177, Bobcat Robotics, from South Windsor High School and International Fuel Cells and ONSI Corp.

Posted on 4/28/99 6:30 PM MST


In Reply to: Disappointing Animation Judging posted by Mike Dubreuil on 4/27/99 1:53 PM MST:



I totally agree with you. But that is the way first works they say one thing but it really doesn't matter if you follow the directions, they pick who they want for whatever their reasons may be, i remember one year when if i remeber correctly the winning animation exceded the time limit by quite some time. is this fair? no! but that's the way it is first isn't fair.

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Posted by Greg Fodor, Student on team #30, Fury, from High Technology H.S. and Celwave.

Posted on 4/28/99 7:26 PM MST


In Reply to: Disappointing Animation Judging posted by Mike Dubreuil on 4/27/99 1:53 PM MST:



Argh. My team didn't go to Florida b/c our robot didn't work.

I did, however spend 200+ hours on an animation for our team,
and sent it. FIRST hasn't returned my calls, and there have
been no posts on the web site. I'm getting annoyed that I have
no idea how good or bad our animation did in the competition, or
if they even judged at all (despite their assurance it would be
judged).. if anyone would let me know if they have the winners
or if they saw 'Raiders of the Small Parts' on the big screen,
I'd really really appreciate it.

Annoyed,
Greg from Team 30

: I believe that based on the animation scoring sheet
: animations were supposed to be realistic. Because of
: that our team designed an animation which involved a
: school gymnasium and a movie theatre- very realistic
: situations. But when it came to the winners very few,
: if any, were realistic. Has anyone else experienced
: the same anomaly?
: - Mike
: PS: Our animation is on our site if you’re interested.