Questions

Technical 3D Animation and Competition
#1

Hey,
I know I’m behind but I’m starting my teams animation hopefully this weekend. I just need some clarification. I’ve already asked some of these questions but I just want to be 100% sure.

  1. We can use copyrighted music as long as we get permission?

  2. Animation should be compressed to 640x480 Radius Cinepack 100%

  3. “What FIRST means to you” is the topic? What are peoples take on this? Should we just state it blatently? or possibly make it a hidden message and hope the judges pick up? Anyone doing an advertise this year?

  4. Anyone going for realism?

  5. Do we turn in a CD for teh regional competitions as well as the national one?

  6. I saw last years winning animation, what did everyone here think of it?

#2

Well, music can be used for up to 30 sec with out permission, this voids the copyright law, (correct me if I’m wrong) but I would suggest you make your own music and sound effects, that’s what we are doing on team 384.

Yes the maximum size is 640X480.

As far as I know, it is about what FIRST means to your team.

Realism is key in my eye, but hard to obtain, I made a max file that had over 3 million, yes 3 million polygon, but it took almost 2 hours to render one frame and at 5 million, my comp just restarted once I hit “Shift E (render hot key).”

I don’t think there is a regional, but just a national do on march 15th or 18th, one or the other, in California.

I think last years winner had real footage, personally real life video has nothing to do with 3D animation, but it is a good effect if you can do it right.

Team 384
Animation Team Capitan

#3

Mmm… I’d say skins are what create the bridge from fake to reality, but anyway:

Which animation was the overall winner? apparently I mixed em up. I thought the one with that guy with glasses in the abandoned warehouse was the winner. Or at least that is what it looked like on the video tape.

#4

The guy with glasses in an abandoned warehouse was last year’s winner. Tech got picked up by the group that did the arena but had spotlights throwing sponsor logos around.

#5

  1. The music area is always a little shady. I know that the judges don’t go around and check for copyrights so the only reason they have that rule at all is so if they air your animation and someone states that the animation used music without persmission, they won’t get in trouble.

  2. The requirements are stated as 640 x 480 Uncompressed Avi, 640 x 480 Cinepak Codec, or the final area is you are disqualified.

  3. That depends on what you think it means. I don’t want to say too much about ours just yet but we do make it obvious what first says to us but we don’t just flat out say “First means all nighters in a dimly lit room with many geeky guys” or something like that.

  4. We are going for realism to a certain degree. We don’t want the animation to look like it is Final Fantasy real but we do want it look more real than say Crayola colored boxes.

  5. I am not sure about this one but I think you turn in a CD for national judges and California is having it’s own little Regional animation thing which you submit seperately for.

  6. I liked last years winner (except for the fact that it wasn’t us) because they pulled their animation off with no visible detractions or errors and they took a “cool” looking animation and added humor to it. There have really been three types of animations I have seen for the most part: basic (just starting out teams), special effect (firey explosions and such), and humor filled animations. Last years was a cross between special effects (character and modeling) and humor (the ramp not balancing) and because of that it scored buca points.

#6

Most of the other questions have been answered, so I’ll just chip in what people missed.

“What FIRST means to us” is the topic, yes, and it should be communicated in the animation. However, your team’s focus is to be included in the short screen to be displayed before the animation begins. Don’t confuse this screen with the credits, because the team info screen is to be on BOTH CDs.

I really wish that we had a regional animation competition down here in KSC.

And I thought that last year’s animation was pretty darn good, although I have some doubts about whether or not the team modeled the driver. If anyone from that team reads this, I’d be glad to have you dispute me. If you did model it, then awesome job!