FIRST Just posted the rules for their 2014 Safety Animation Contest:
Very interesting theme: “Driving Safety”. The deadline is December 12, but you can upload your entry as early as October 10.
Team 3489 just finished our entry:
The topic seems a bit more specific this year, and I enjoy that. What I don’t like is that the winner won’t be announced at kickoff 
Regardless, time to get to work on our submission.
The Kickoff is 3 1/2 months away. Maybe we can convince FIRST to show the winning animation. Safety is very important to them, right?
I think the main problem is FIRST having enough time to do/show everything on the morning of the Kickoff - welcome, intros, VIP speeches, game animation, game walk-through, Q &A, etc.
Maybe they can announce the Safety Animation winner at the end of the webcast, then show the animation at the same time they’re displaying the game manual unlock code?
Hello, me and my teammates have been working on the Safety animation for quite some time now and we have been wondering - are there any limitations on the working methods? can 2D Animation or stop motion involving people be used?
In their PDF announcement FIRST was pretty vague about the type of animation we must submit.
The definition of Animation according to Wikipedia: *“The process of creating the continuous motion and shape change illusion by means of rapid display of a sequence of static images that minimally differ from each other.” *
So it seems like both 2D and stop-motion would be okay.
My team submitted a 2D animation last year, and plans to do so again this year. We have a lot of fun with this project.
Willy the Chili! Video Link
Thanks a lot everyone! We’ve been struggling with our options as of late and this is really helpful 
Thanks for being so communicative in such a short span of time.
Please don’t forget about the Deadline, coming up quick!
“Animations must be submitted by your team’s student award submitter in STIMS https://my.usfirst.org/stims/site.lasso between Noon Eastern Time on Thursday, October 10, 2013 and Noon Eastern Time on Thursday, December 12, 2013.”
Team 4765 uploaded our entry as an ISO image last night, as specified in the Contest Information pdf:
Be submitted electronically as a region one .iso image of a dvd
However, on the upload web page, the student noticed that AVI files may be allowed:
Please upload a 40-second or shorter animation in ISO DVD image or AVI format (filename must end in .AVI or .ISO)
We are interested in the AVI option because our animation was produced in high definition, which is noticeably lower quality in the standard-defintion DVD format.
I’ve submitted these questions to firstteammembers & frcteams @usfirst.org:
What options are available for re-submitting the file as high-definition?
What file formats and codecs are allowed, and what is the maximum file size & resolution.
But haven’t heard back yet. Anybody here have an official answer for HD submissions?
Thanks,
- Dean
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Team 359 has submitted as of yesterday.
I haven’t heard anything official about teams being allowed to submit HD resolution animations. But please don’t take a chance; you might be disqualified if you don’t follow ALL the entry rules. Maybe you could upload the DVD version now & if you get an okay from FIRST before the Dec. 12 noon (Eastern) deadline, upload the HD version.
That is what I was thinking. The ISO is already posted and looks right, so I won’t mess with it unless I get a clear answer regarding an HD alternative (which I’ll also post back here for the benefit of the forum).
It isn’t that it looks bad in SD, it is just that it looks so much better in HD 
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I got an answer from FIRST - there isn’t an HD option:
… unfortunately there are no other options available in order to re-submit the file as high-definition. We are very sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. In addition, a standard definition DVD AVI file is what should be uploaded, so please keep in mind that the judges will use VLC for viewing the video and that it needs to be compatible.
Cheers,
- Dean