Look at Miss Loi.
Trapped in a GIF file
Cute, sweet and affable with a smile that’s frozen for eternity.
Having been trapped in such an inanimate state since the beginning, however, her face is suffering from cramps from all that smiling.
Thus she yearns for the day when she can free herself from the shackles of her static .gif file and get herself featured in a Youtube movie − where her mathematical adventures would be retold in an engaging fully-animated manner (must be in full HD), and where the world would see and hear how she scolds her students conducts her joss sticks sessions in full 3D surround sound.
And so the avatar Miss Loi could only watch with static envy and jealousy when the real (flesh & blood) Miss Loi received an invitation to blog about N.E.mation! (pronounced ann-nee-mation not nee-mation) − a yearly competition where groups of highly-creative students come together to see who can come out with the next Initial D anime series best one-minute animation clip.
Started in 2007 and now back for the 5th year, N.E.mation is a competition for youths to express their notions on Total Defence through animation.
What’s interesting about this competition is that the contestants themselves are no budding Pixar or Dreamworks wizkids, but are instead regular students with no prior experience in animation. Given only 3 weeks of training to equip themselves with the necessary skills, they are tasked to create their very own one-minute animation clips to be judged by a panel of industry professionals and voted by a very demanding and yim chim armchair public (i.e. all of you reading this :P)
Winning teams have had the ultimate honour of having their masterpieces screened on major TV channels – viewed by excited parents who would then hao lian to aunties/uncles that “MY SON/DAUGHTER DID THIS!!!“, by coffeeshop bookies waiting for their next football match, and by a Miss Loi pretending to look at the TV screen to avoid the guy peeking at her from the next treadmill when she’s working out in the gym.
This year in N.E.mation! 5, students are asked to use their creativity to produce storylines centred on the theme of “Home – We make or break”. The animation clips of the top ten finalist teams will be judged by a panel, including industry professionals from DreamWorks and Bluesky Studios. In addition, the public can now vote for their three favourite clips at www.nemation.sg or via SMS. The winning team will win a coveted trip to visit DreamWorks Animation in the USA!
After a long and grueling selection process, we are now down to ten finalists who will battle it out among themselves for that free USA trip. Check out each finalist’s interesting promotional videos where team members talk about their project, experiences, how their holidays got burnt etc. etc. (as an added incentive to click, there are many handsome guys and pretty girls in the videos too :P)
- Bamm!
- Cancer Patients
- XJST
- The Spectators
- Sock Bulls
- Search Our Souls
- Phoenix
- Con Bravura
- Carpe Diem
- Little Bopeepz
So please support these students’ hard work (and make the burning of their holidays worthwhile) by casting your votes on your favourite animation clip! Click the image below to view the clips and vote:
Voting period from 22 Jan to 6 Feb 2011.
And perhaps, whoever the real Miss Loi voted may even get to win an exclusive contract from The Temple to bring Miss Loi’s avatar to life 😛
