Digital Animation Award

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This award celebrates the art of digital animation and its close relationship to STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics) and is sponsored by Automation Direct.

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: “STEAM”

“STEAM” – you can interpret that however you want. It could be the impact Art has had on technical programs, how your STEM program has influenced your Art community, a Steam powered robot, Steam from a volcano or tea pot, a Steampunk theme.  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.

## JUDGING

Judging is purely subjective. We are looking for excellence in animation skills and in the use of animation to tell a story. The Judges will be a diverse panel of Technical Marketing, Visual Effects and Animation experts from around the world. We will be specifically looking for:

1. Mastery of Animation
	1. Quality of Animation
	2. Complexity and Presentation of Images
	3. Expertise in Medium
2. Ingenuity
	1. Originality of ideas
	2. Effectiveness and efficiency in execution
	3. Use of original 3D models and modeling technique
3. Clarity
	1. Comprehensibility and organization of ideas within the animation
	2. Pacing
4. Artistry
	1. Aesthetic Appeal
	2. Implementation of Artistic Elements
	3. Use of Medium

#### AWARDS

Official *FIRST* Trophy presented at a Regional/District event.

#### SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

The following requirements must be met for an animation to be submitted to the judges and displayed for other teams to watch.

1. A single animation may be submitted by any registered FRC team.
2. The submitted animation must be no more than 60 seconds long including credits. Animations more than 60 seconds long will not be judged.
	1. It must be relevant to the Challenge presented (see Section 2.0).
	2. 60 seconds is only an upper limit. Teams may submit an animation of any length up to that limit, and the duration will have no impact on how the animation is scored.
3. Animations must be submitted as QuickTime files, with:
	1. Animations must use the MPEG-4 or H.264 codec.
	2. The animation must have a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels (720p).
	3. The animation must be recorded at 30 frames per second.
	4. The submitted file must have a name in “Teamxxxx” format (e.g. “Team0116.mov”).
4. Title Screen
	1. The animation must begin with a title screen displayed for a 2-second duration followed by a one-second black slate, leading into the primary work.
	2. The title screen display will not be included in the total duration limit.
	3. The title screen must include your team number, team name, school/organization, title of the animation, and animation duration.
	4. Animation must be free of copyright issues.  Do not use copyrighted characters, music, or other elements, unless you have the legal right to do so.
	5. Animation must be free of any potentially offensive content.
5. Credits
	1. Credits should follow a one-second black slate at the end of the animation.
	2. Make sure to include team members, mentors, software used, list of public domain sources, and licensed sources in credits.
6. Send your video to AnimationAwardSubmission@AutomationDirect.com via a file transfer website. We like WeTransfer.com – up to 2 GB for free and you get a confirmation when we receive/download the video! YouSendIt also works well.
7. Videos will be published for public viewing approximately one week of the submission deadline. Keep an eye on official *FIRST* channels as well as unofficial channels such as Chief Delphi for the announcement.
8. All submissions must be completed by 11:59pm EST on Tuesday, Jan 31, 2017. Any entries after this deadline will not be judged. Winners will be announced before the first Regional/District events.

If there are any questions, please feel free to contact us at
AnimationAwardSubmission@AutomationDirect.com.

## 2016 Submissions

Here are videos submitted for last year’s un-official animation award for you to use as a reference:

Team 8     Team 75    Team 111      Team 166      Team 178     Team 250

Team 503   Team 694    Team 811     Team 1519       Team 1676

## COPYRIGHT

By making a submission the Submitter irrevocably grants to *FIRST* and *FIRST*’s designees the right to use any or all of the submission in any and all media for the purpose of describing the submission, describing the Award, and/or otherwise promoting *FIRST* and *FIRST*’s programs.