To all 2006 Regional AVA winners:
It’s unfortunate that Autodesk doesn’t have the resources to judge the Regionals but we can do something to reward the creativity & hard work that goes into these entries.
What if all the 2006 Regional AVA winners sponsored an animation award at their 2007 Regionals?
We (Team 342) won the AVA at the Palmetto Regional . This year we’re going to present a trophy to the team competing at 2007 Palmetto Regional that creates the best 3D animation. Of course we’re disqualified from winning our own award!
This is not connected with the Autodesk Visualization Design Competition, but just to keep things simple we’re going to use the same rules (30 seconds long, must use 3ds Max, “Think Green” theme, same judging criteria, etc.).
So, 2006 Regional winners, what do you think? Ready to share the excitement?
We’re all for it. We were discussing about placing an animation award on our list of Team Awards. My team’s going to New Jersey and Chesapeake.
And here’s a scoring option: Get all the animation leaders from the teams at each regional to judge the animations. That would be an unofficial peer judging!
Won the Buckeye Regional last year, won’t be going there again this year, but I’m eager to join the bandwagon. St. Louis Regional and Boilermaker Regional are ones that our team will attend this year. Already have an idea planned out for the award.
Autodesk said that they would still set up a display with the Animations running at the regionals, but they would not be judging them due to a lack of manpower. Seems like we’ve found that manpower!
Looks like this grass roots competition is really taking off!
To keep it simple I suggest we keep the same judging criteria that Autodesk uses:
Concept - 35 points
Creativity - 35 points
Technical Execution - 30 points
For judges we have two options
1. Student Judges
Done at the Regional, just like last year. One student from each team that submitted an animation can judge. The Organizer (2006 Regional AVA winner) would have to find a quiet area to set up a TV/DVD player or laptop with all the animations loaded. They would have judging forms printed and arrange viewing times for the student judges. After every judge has submitted their forms the organizer will tally the results & present the trophy.
2. Professional Judges
The Organizer will find a couple local industry or academic professionals (in computer arts and/or broadcast) to judge the animations before the Regionals. The results would be kept top-secret until the trophy is presented to the winning team.
What do you guys think? The first option has more student involvement but could be very difficult to organize.
I personally like the peer reviews. I know it is hard to organize but I think most animators that submit an animation to the competition would be willing to take time to judge. Also the peer judges will know what it takes to archive the animation. They will know what the other animation team made their own models or just used the default models that came with the program. However, the professors would be unbiased, but the fact that they won’t know the program will seem to cause problems.
For example. My friend entered a Lego design competition at the fair. He spent a week coming up with his own Lego scene and he was proud of it. He took it to the fair and put it up on the table and judges started looking at all of the entries. The problem was, the judges didn’t know a thing about lego’s or any of the Lego kits that were out there and gave the awards to the kids who went to the store, bought a Lego kit, and put it together following the directions that came with it. This competition was suppose to be a creative “come-up-with-your-own-Lego-scene” but the awards were going to the kids that followed directions because the judges didn’t know about lego’s.
Thats why I think we should go with peer judges. They truly know what it took to get an animation to look the way it does. They understand the time it takes.
The animations are due before any of the regionals. If we use the FIRST site to find which teams are at each regional, we could each judge them and on thursday or friday we could get together and add up the totals to each team’s animation. The team with the highest overall score would receive the award on behalf of the other animation teams.
All a website would need to be is a page with links to the animations of each regional.
If anyone has contacts, we may be able to go onto the field and announce it during the award ceremony. Now that, might as well be a regional AVA…
I personally think that peer reviewed judging is a bit too complicated; and it would be far simpler/easier to have a vote + runoff of the top two animations.
But one thing does concern me; what if a team is to give themselves the award? Considering that these are the teams which won the year before, it wouldn’t be too unlikely for this to happen.
The host team would of course have to disqualify themselves. Which is probably very discomforting for them, as they won last year and having tasted victory, want more. Heck, it would definitely be a downside for Team 116…not winning a regional this year will end our streak :ahh: but I think it’s a great idea, and it would show Autodesk that we are more dedicated to the regionals than signing a virtual letter. Maybe it will inspire them to get that manpower they’re lacking.
I believe that the award would lose its purpose if a team were to give themselves the award. Any self-respecting team wouldn’t do something like that in public, don’t you think?
You’d have to either be excessively proud, or very misled, to give yourself an award.
Because the whole point is, animators support animators. We make animations because we learn from them, not to win a shiny trinket.
Personally, I don’t care about my team’s animation. It’ll come out the way it comes out. And you know what? I’m not very proud of it, because it was just a tool for our animation team to learn more about a very complicated subject. The illusion of life, computer graphics, crazy mouse-based user interface, whatever. It’s the learning experience that is the award.
So, I think that as long as FIRST teams are still rational, there won’t be any self-awards. And they’re a lot more fun to give out than receive.
. This year we’re going to present a trophy to the team competing at 2007 Palmetto Regional that creates the best 3D animation. Of course we’re disqualified from winning our own award!
