Am I missing something..

[Lord Nerdlinger]

What's the point of the animations again?

[Caleb Fulton]

First has an animation competition, too, so a team would want to have a good animation, right?

[Alavinus]

F.I.R.S.T. = For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology
Since animation is part of technology, I would say it definitely has a point. Animation is very much on the cutting edge of technology, and therefore, falls under FIRST's umbrella.

[Soukup]

here's what the animation competition is and what it's about.

The animation competition was started up some (6?) years ago by autodesk. Software is supplied to any teams that have sent in money to first. The animation isn't required is a secondary and more commonly, overlooked activity in first. The purpose of this animation is to show what first means to your team and how first impacts you. This animation may show anything, but it will not be gauranteed to win. No, good teams do not all have good animations. I can think of plenty of teams that have terrible robots but good animations, and teams that have good robots but terrible animations. This animation, no matter what anyone else says is the most difficult challenge in first. Most teams are completely student run with little or no mentor support. (much like our team) As a result, students must learn to manipulate this program by themselves. All in all, animation is very fun, but it does have it's demands.

[Ryan Dognaux]

In case you did not know, FIRST is much more than just building robots. Animation is one of the other aspects of FIRST. The above posts have basically explained it... Building a robot is a challenge, but making an animation is also a challenge. Would building a robot without any adults, engineers, mentors, etc. be easy? That's how it is for me, so it is a challenge but it's well worth it after seeing the finished result (I just got it done today ) Anyways, try it out next year, you might be suprised. We need more animation people!!!!