Sixteen teams from around the world competed in the event, which was sponsored by SIGGRAPH, DreamWorks Animation, HP and AMD. Judges selected Team Mocap from Bowling Green State University as the winners for their animation Switch. The team consisted of Jim Levasseur, Tomas Jech, and W. Jacob Gardner. Picture This, a team from Miami International University of Art & Design came in second place, and Impulse from The Illinois Institute of Art-Schaumburg, came in third.
"The response from the animation community surpassed all expectations," says Patricia Beckmann-Wells, FJORG! chair. "All the teams did a fantastic job throughout the competition and it was clear early on that is was going to be very difficult for the judges to select one winner. The winners ended up having just a slight edge from a humor, technical, and creative perspective."
The three winning teams will be treated to lunch with top Sony executives and animators. The first and second place teams will also be given an all-expenses-paid trip to DreamWorks Animation headquarters that includes a sneak preview of the new movie, Bee Movie, a tour of the facility, and dinner with DreamWorks execs.
The teams were supplied with limited resources during the event including: sound and voiceover selections; a rigged model for Maya; 51 HP xw9400 workstations with Dual Core AMD Opteron processors; Autodesk 3DS Max and Maya; Adobe Photoshop and After Effects; Macromedia Flash; and Softimage|XSI. Food, drinks and a rest area were also provided.