Team Jellos putting together their set for their short animation ‘Dig In’.
STORY BY CATARINA MUIA
For the first time, Sheridan’s animation program competed in a 24-hour film project and brought home fourth place.
The 24 Hour Animation Challenge started in the U.S. in 2009 and was only open to American colleges until this year, when Canada and Australia were able to participate, bringing the number of competing schools to thirteen, and 53 entries.
On Sept. 26 at 8 p.m., six teams of five from Sheridan’s Animation program discovered the theme of the contest, and had until Sept. 27 at 8 p.m. to complete a 30-second short animation, upload the link to YouTube, and send it to organizers of the challenge.
This year, the theme was from “George Orwell’s Animal Farm: ‘All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others,’” said Nancy Beiman, a professor in the Bachelor of Arts Animation department in an email interview.
The students participating were not allowed to work on the project before the challenge started and they had to stay overnight on campus to complete their films.
“I’m delighted that we not only won a place in the Top 5,” said Beiman, “but also had three more films in the Top 10.”
Team Jellos – Lilja Pétursdóttir, Sarah Goran, Joe Marcy, Louise Liu, and team captain Eustace Ng – won the fourth place prize with their film, Dig In.
“For our film, our team decided to try something we had never done,” said Ng, 31, a second-year student in the Animation program in an email interview.
“We were aiming for a contrast of ‘real world vs. fake world’ feeling,” he said.
Ng explained that the contest was beneficial because “we got a real crunch-time experience.” There were many “snap judgments” he said, and got to see how the team’s ideas would change and evolve as they worked.
“In a strange way, it’s kind of like I learned to put my faith in my team members’ judgment and just got with it,” he said, “I started to see cool stuff that I didn’t notice before about the story.”
Although the team faced challenges throughout the competition, “coming up with a good story idea was definitely hard,” said Liu, 19, a second-year Animation student in an email interview.
She explained, “24 hour animations are all fun and games in theory, but in reality, it’s quite some dedication and endurance.”
Team Jellos was awarded with Stuart NG Books, $50 gift certificates and Disney Feature Animation prize packs, TOONBOOM Storyboard Pro and Animate Pro for winning fourth place.
