Autodesk Animation Competition:

Autodesk provided each team with copies of their Autocadd, 3D Studio, Animator Pro, and Animator Studio professional software packages and challenged each team to create a 30 second animation telling a story having to do with their team.

Our team's video took well over 100 hours of work to complete and while we were very happy with the result, Proctor and Gamble's teams video done to the theme of Mission Impossible took first place in the animation competition.

The Result:

At the Regional competition in New Hampshire our team placed 14th place over all, but left us with valuable competition experience and a lot of ideas on what to change before Nationals. Competition rules do not require any minimum placement or even attendance at the regional competition in order to attend the National competition. We returned home and made some modifications before taking off for the National Competition at Walt Disney World.

After a long day of competition, only the best robots were remaining from the original 74 entering teams. Our team had already lost one match as we entered semifinals so the pressure was higher. From this point on it would be a one-on-one, best two out of three competition. We resorted to the strategy of putting out balls in the goal and then pinning the other robot to the side of the playing field until the end of the match. This got us to the finals. The final round had us matched against an equally skilled team, the Too Esy II team sponsored by E- Systems from St. Petersburg, Florida. We won the first match, but then lost the second. Just like a movie it would come down to the last match. Both robots went at it and at the end of the match it was a tie. Our ball sat about an inch higher in the goal making us the winner.

As part of winning we got a congratulatory trip to the Whitehouse to meet Vice-President Al Gore.

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