My teamates and I were brainstorming ideas for the animation, and we were wondering if we are strictly limited to only one of ideas mentioned on the website. We obviouslly plan to stick with the general enviromental theme, although it would be helpful to know whether the actual content of the animation could be open to interpretation. 
You are open to any ideas. The three pointers as said are ideas to help you out to understand what they mean by the topic.
Have we heard anything from autodesk?
They say “To help you… here are 3 options.” But then “Pick your favorite option and get started saving the planet” seems to mean use ONE of these three.
FWIW That’s how our team is taking it. We’re sticking to the list
I’d be very surprised if they limit it to those three prompts… The judging criteria simply says “Illustrate the concept of Thinking Green” and doesn’t mention anything about the prompts. Besides, I’d guess that if required to do so, most teams would be able to fit their animations to the one of the prompts without too much extra work…(either that or you’re a LOT more creative than my team haha)
Personally, I thought the little example ditties given to us were rather cheesy or cliche. Who hasn’t thought of the generic “superhero” idea before? Yeesh.
I enjoy this year’s theme though. It just seems so organic, you know? Fresh. Green.
are team is done with the animation and we didnt go with any of the prompts. We thought they werent good ideas about thinking green
Where did you find the themes for this years animation?
Thanks
-Zak
http://firstbase.autodesk.com/?nd=first_competition_visualization
Right there.
This year is a very… different theme, a large number of teams are having problems due to the fact they are most likely outdoor scenes, which many people try to avoid, and it is much harder to incorporate the robot into the animation. Since the subject is not directly about FIRST.
They don’t necessarily have to deal with outdoor scenes, but robots can definately still be incorporated into the picture. Robotcs cleaning up, recycling, being efficient and all you know? 