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This award celebrates the art of digital animation and its close relationship to STEAM (Science,
Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics).
The award is offered to help encourage students to cultivate skills in design and creation of animation including, but not limited to, storytelling, creativity, use of computer software, and an understanding of different techniques and forms of animation. This award is open to all FIRST Robotics Competition teams.
THEME: “POWER UP”
“Power Up” – You can interpret that however you want. Examples: Power up your robot, Power Up your team, Power up your community. Completely up to you. For this award, what you choose for a story is not nearly as important as the skill and expertise you use to tell the story
2018 Winner: TEAM1317: “Clever story – it was laugh out loud funny! This one was extremely well executed! Fantastic animation, timing, rendering, great demonstration of the 12 principles.”
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2018 Judges Favorites (no particular order):
Special thanks to Theory Animation for doing the Judging. Theory is an international team of animators and special effects artists. They asked us to pass the following comments along for some of their favorite animations because they all started where you are and remember how much they valued constructive critique along the way:
Team5431 – Extremely well done pixel art – so beautiful to look at! Well done! Could use more story substance – but clear interpretation of theme.
Team3646 – Very nice shaders on everything, clear story, and overall extremely well executed!
Team6101 – Would be nice to have more rendering samples, but we loved the great facial animation and laugh out loud story. Also, cool simulations!
Team1899 – We loved the motion design, camera moves, and fantastic color palette – and the memes!
Team4500 – Really well executed. Beautiful lighting (albeit noisy in some areas) – it was very pleasing to look at. Perspective and composition were great, and we loved the voxelization effect at the end.
Team4855 – Loved LOVED the story – very cute and funny (especially the stair bit) – camera work and composition could use some improvement.
Team6902 – Loved the story and the 2D animation. The slow frame rate was a bold choice that adds to the general feel.
Team6430 – Nice story and interpretation of theme. We loved the double characters. Beautiful lighting (especially the opening shot). The camera moves needed work – but really nice animation!
Team6014 – Really nice character design (we loved the robot lizard) and clever story. Overall, the composition could use improvement.
Team6184 – Great color palette and art direction! Clear story, and we loved the adorable facial animation (very expressive)
Team 1153 – Good execution. We enjoyed the transition from dark to light. The last camera move/pan-out could use work improvement.
Team0192 – Adorable! We loved the cute robot and the noises it made – more contrast in the composition would be nice.
Team6910 – Really cool style and nice cinematography – reminded us of overwatch
Team1466 – Bold, challenging choice working with a human character. Cohesive story. We appreciated the nice textures and shaders
Team 4191 – We loved the music and really cool visuals – reminds us of Animusic!
Team0250 – Great composition! Clear interpretation of theme – overall, well done!
Team5492 – Cool robot designs, and well done on the camera tracking! Could use work on composition, lighting, and character animation.
Team0224 – Simulations were good, and it was very aesthetically appealing! Composition could be improved.
Team4611 – Very cute, heartwarming story – good interpretation of theme!
Team2477 – Character design is cute – nice composition and visual style in general!
Team4330 – Clever take on a classic story, and we loved the polygonal art style! The camera direction could use improvement.
Team6519 – Bold creative choice by having human character – however, study body mechanics. Nice, clear interpretation of the theme!
Team0806 – Nice, interesting compositions and clear interpretation of theme!
Team6847 – We loved the fun concept! The animation and camera work could use improvement
Team6608 – The tone and pacing are a lot of fun! Visually, it’s very busy and could use a consistent art style
Team5243 – Nice drawings! However, it feels more like an animatic than an animation – and voice acting as opposed to text would be nice!
Team5099 – Cool simulation with nice, shiny shading! A more clear story would be nice.
Team4593 – Art style consistency would be nice – bold choice working with pixel art and 3d together
Team7228 – Nice lighting and shading! The camera work could use improvement, and the text overlays were visually unappealing
Team6024 – Nice interpretation of theme, and we liked the minecraft style! However, text took up too much (half) of the animation
Team5134 – The physics simulation was cool! The animation and camera work could use improvement.
PREVIOUS AWARD WINNERS:
2017 Winner (Team 1317)
2017 Judges Pick: Top Ten (no particular order)
Team 6184 Team 0503 Team0246 Team 2521 Team 1676 Team 0192 Team 4191 Team 0008 Team 2587 Team 5804
ALL 2017 Submissions (103 videos)