It's officially summer time! That means free time is going through the roof for a lot of ambitious animators right now, so why not spend some of it making some money doing what you love? We are finally kick starting a brand new animation competition THIS FRIDAY with an absolutely massive $5,000 in potential prizes to be won! This is the largest amount we've ever put towards a competition, and with good reason. We want to help inspire creativity in young animators and give them as many opportunities to build their skills as we can. So, we've been rethinking the way we've normally run competitions and decided to try something different this time around to give more people a chance to get something for their efforts. There will be a total of 15 placements in which you can earn some money, as opposed to our normal 3-5. With $5,000 being spread across 15 placements, there is a much higher chance you'll walk away with something!

That's not all though, this first competition actually marks the beginning of a series of competitions we will be putting on throughout the year from this point forward. In total we are aiming to have 4 major competitions occur every year - with one happening every 3 months, each with a different theme and a cash prize. That means that after this competition is finished, a brand new one will take it's place THIS October! So even if you're busy for this one, another one is just around the corner! We will also be announcing the theme of the next competition 2 weeks before it's set to begin, so you will have time in advance to prepare.

Excited yet? There's still more. Due to the increase in potential placements, we have also decided to get rid of the "animator rank" for this competition - everyone will be considered on the same level. In the past we saw that the difference between "Intermediate" and "Pro" was not always so black and white. Occasionally an intermediate entry was actually better than it's pro counterparts, and might have won more money if it was entered at the pro level. Having more potential prizes means that you're far more likely to earn more if you put in the effort, but still feel comfortable knowing you likely won't walk away with nothing.

So what about beginners? Doesn't this make it harder for them to get anything? We're ahead of you on that! Starting Friday, July 15th - two weeks after this first competition is set to begin - a secondary beginners competition will start along side this one with it's own $1,000 in potential prizes across 5 placements, it's own set of rules, and maybe even it's own theme! It will also kick off an additional set of 4 competitions per year for beginners only. That's right, in total we will be running 8 separate competitions - all with cash prizes - every year. This is our investment in you as a community. We believe you can do great things, and we hope this will help serve as incentive for you to build your skills and accomplish your goals as artists and creatives.

Check out these animations to see some good examples of previous competition favorites:

• Evangelion by TheExxceld
  
• Minecraft: Stickman Showdown by Resh
  
• The Hobbit Duel of Fate by Barthimo
  
• Skyrim Tribute by Rythm
  
• Avatar State by Danmark
  
• Kingsman: Secret Service by JanRavnik

Also please check out these schedules to see our currently planned competition dates for 2016 & 2017:

Main Competitions [table="width: 600, class: grid"]
No.	Date	Theme
1.	Friday, July 1st, 2016	Video Game Parody
2.	Saturday, October 1st, 2016	To Be Announced Saturday, September 17th, 2016
3.	Sunday, January 1st, 2017	To Be Announced Sunday, December 18th, 2016
4.	Saturday, April 1st, 2017	To Be Announced Saturday, March 18th, 2017

Beginner Competitions

No.	Date	Theme
1.	Friday, July 15th, 2016	Bringing a Knife to a Gun Fight
2.	Saturday, October 15th, 2016	To Be Announced Saturday, October 1st, 2016
3.	Sunday, January 15th, 2017	To Be Announced Sunday, January 1st, 2017
4.	Saturday, April 15th, 2017	To Be Announced Saturday, April 1st, 2017

[/table]Did you know we're also sponsoring individual animations for money?
See this thread for details!

:O
Beginner competition?
:D
I'll still participate in the other competitions tho

Sounds exciting. Good luck to all ye animators out there!

YES IM IN DIS~

OH YES IM IN DIS 2

Good luck! I expect to see some epic stuffs as always.

It would also be nice to create a collab out of all the entries once the competition is over. And something tells me you'll need to take measures against HyunsDojo members that come over, win the competition and then immediately go back to their own forum, rinse repeat.

I think not allowing the promotion of other communities in any way in the animation would do well. Of course it won't stop the animators from going somewhere else, but at least those who do watch those animations will go to stickpage instead of anywhere else, and some of those might possibly stay.

Quote from Jeff

Due to the increase in potential placements, we have also decided to get rid of the "animator rank" for this competition - everyone will be considered on the same level. In the past we saw that the difference between "Intermediate" and "Pro" was not always so black and white. Occasionally an intermediate entry was actually better than it's pro counterparts, and might have won more money if it was entered at the pro level. Having more potential prizes means that you're far more likely to earn more if you put in the effort, but still feel comfortable knowing you likely won't walk away with nothing.

I'd like to credit myself for this new change/breaking the rank system by pumping out an animation in 2 days to win 1st place by default during GTL2. I'll do something actually good this time I swear.

Also, personally, I'd like to just add my impinging opinion. I believe there is no really need for a beginner animation bracket. As harsh as that sounds, I have to just reiterate that sponsorships used to be dealt in regards of content and merit, not just equality and inclusion. It's just throwing away money that could be used elsewhere or just pocketed. Stressing only an intermediate and pro bracket will incentivize new animators to hone their skills and practice religiously to make the cut, not just to complete 2 minutes of animation and be dealt a gold star, an A for effort, and a husky sum of cash. These animations, unfortunately, will garner no attention as their shadowed by larger, more complex animations, and just don't really serve any purpose, so I doubt it'd be in the best interest of Crazy Jay either. It may behoove the showrunners to consider amending the beginner animation bracket to a more humble list. That said, I don't want to just disregard the new animators, because that's not fair. But at the same time, I think we should be focusing on reestablishing friendly competition (helpfully ignited by money), inviting higher-skill animators to lead as role models, and to reignite traffic through mutual interest, for all parties---staff, content creators, and audience. Honestly, I believe this site could use a moderate amount of elitism, not to exclude, but to encourage.

My body is ready.

i'm still curious of what the new portal will look like

Quote from Externus

Stressing only an intermediate and pro bracket will incentivize new animators to hone their skills and practice religiously to make the cut, not just to complete 2 minutes of animation and be dealt a gold star, an A for effort, and a husky sum of cash.

This just isn't true, and this is not what would happen.

Sure, a few here and there might be incentivized by being thrown in with the sharks, but for many, many new animators, (or people who hone any skill for that matter), being thrown in with the best of the best is extremely discouraging and only guarantees that most will quit, thinking that they don't and won't have what it takes to succeed. It's the same reason why videogames don't put you at the highest possible level to start with.

Throwing people in who just downloaded flash and watched a tutorial on how to make a stick figure run in with people who have been animating for 5+ years will just spell disaster.

Glad to see some enthusiasm so far! Is it Friday yet?

Quote from Smile

I think not allowing the promotion of other communities in any way in the animation would do well. Of course it won't stop the animators from going somewhere else, but at least those who do watch those animations will go to stickpage instead of anywhere else, and some of those might possibly stay.

Quote from Cronos

And something tells me you'll need to take measures against HyunsDojo members that come over, win the competition and then immediately go back to their own forum, rinse repeat.

These competitions are open to any animator who wants to participate, regardless of affiliation. It would be nice if they stuck around and contributed back to our community, but I didn't set up this competition with that expectation. My main goal with both of these competitions is simply to encourage animators to build their skill. I don't want this to devolve into a xenophobic grudge match against communities, my friends at Hyun's Dojo are welcome to join like anyone else as long as they're prepared to work for it.

Quote from Externus

I believe there is no really need for a beginner animation bracket.

Like I said above the point of these competitions is to encourage people to animate. Skill level shouldn't matter. My own research into past community behavior suggests that by ignoring those who are just starting out we would be actively working against that goal and instead creating a divide between skill levels. People don't always do what seems like the most logical thing to do, and I don't want to create an atmosphere of "if you were this good you could be making money but you're not" because I found most people saw this as discouraging. The best thing a beginner can do is to practice, practice, practice. There are no shortcuts to getting good. However, if we can make that process a little less arduous then I think it's a good thing. Instead of lamenting the amount of work they have to do, my hope is beginners will focus instead on winning money, which will eventually give them enough practice to move on to the main competitions. It's the difference between, "practice for the next hour and maybe you'll get good" and "practice for the next hour and maybe you'll be paid for it". Both take some discipline to do, but this way you'll also be paid for your time. We are also using these competitions as a learning opportunity to refine our process and make future competitions better. If the beginners competition ends up being a bad choice then we will try something different. Right now we fully understand that it's a risk and we're doing it anyway. In the end, if at least one person makes an attempt then either way they are actively animating and that makes it worth it for us.

Yay its summer for you guys hehe. Too bad I can't join cuz of school cuz my school system is crap woohoo it came at the worst time of my year. Damn the Philippine Summertime hehe.

By the way,

Can you guys allow people having the same game as entry this year? Its super annoying to think of an other game if someone else already took it while you just really wanted to do for example, Undertale or something.