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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 Digital Animation 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: “Quarantine/Lockdown”
2021 will continue to present new challenges to FRC teams, but we have never let that stop us in the past … So … this year’s theme “QUARANTINE and or LOCKDOWN” is your chance to share with everyone how you are dealing with it.
You can interpret this theme however you wish. It could be about creative ways your team deals with Quarantine/Lockdown restrictions; An anecdote about something funny that happened to your team and how you dealt with it; A funny story about how robots deal with it; How your Team used or could use Robots to work around Quarantine/Lockdown; How you adjusted your outreach to work around Quarantines and or Lockdowns. It’s completely up to you, Use this opportunity to help inspire other teams in these difficult times.
What you choose for a story is not nearly as important as the skill and expertise you use to tell the story.
Hint: Animations that use the theme and provide a positive inspiring message will be prioritized over animations that don’t.
Reference: 2021 Submission Guidelines
2021 Winner: Team 8592
Judges Comment: “Great lighting and rendering, really visually beautiful. Well done.”
Special thanks to Theory Studios for doing the Judging again this year!
Theory is an international team of animators and special effects artists.
The Judges asked us to pass the following comments along for some of their favorite animations becasue they all started where you are and remember how much they valued constructive critique along the way (These are team number order, not ranking order):
Team 0008: We like cats around here – good gag!
Team 1153: Cool characters!
Team 1317: Great character animation, pacing, and clear editing. Lighting and shading could use work.
Team 1405: Clever, unique play on the pandemic – loved the story!
Team 4804: Really impressive stop-motion animation. Great use of medium.
Team 5190: Beautiful assets, lighting, and shading.
Team 5436: Beautiful 2D animation – really needs sound to pull it together – and a little bit more clarity in the editing.
Team 5945: Loved the 2D hand drawn animation – real heart tugger.
Team 6004: We loved the adorable character design!
Team 7428: Adorable character – great lighting and shading. Composition and camera moves could use some work.
Team 8248: Funny and great character. Maybe a LITTLE bit too random.
Team 8592: Great lighting and rendering, really visually beautiful. Well done.