EVENT: The 24 HOURS Animation Contest for Students Shatters New Records

EVENT: The 24 HOURS Animation Contest for Students Shatters New Records

October 15th, 2024

Lauren Ashton

Taking place on October 4th and 5th, the 24 HOURS: Animation Contest for Students enjoyed its 22nd year. This free contest challenges students to create a 30-second short animated film in less than 24 hours and invites participants from around the world. Hosted by animation professor, Aubry Mintz, the event took place at CalState Long Beach and smashed its previous record. With 559 teams from 107 different schools, a total of 2,155 students arrived from 23 countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Chile, Germany, Great Britain, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Israel, Mexico, Philippines, Russia, Scotland, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, and the United States!

Of the participants, 89 colleges were present, as well as 17 courageous high schools and 1 very brave middle school. More and more industry support has been shown for this contest through the supply of additional prizes and financial backing for students, such as an equipment request program for underserved communities. This program not only allows them to participate in the competition, but it aims to offer tools to assist in their learning. This year, this free international competition’s prompt was: In 24 HOURS make a 30-second film giving your team’s vision for the future with AI as a friend or a foe and show how our world might fail or benefit from its evolution.

The films consisted of an amazing variety of styles, from hand-drawn to CGI, and even stop-motion animation. Thanks to the generosity of the sponsors, Mintz added another award this year, as a nod to the innovation of the students. In total, eight teams were awarded cash prizes, studio merch, art books, software, drawing tablets, festival tickets, and more (totaling around $77,000 in value).

Sponsors for this year include Toon Boom, ASIFA-Hollywood/Animation Educators Forum, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar, Netflix, XPPen, Sony Pictures Animation, Illumination, Bento Box, Animation Magazine, Nickelodeon Animation Studios and NICE, DreamWorks, Titmouse, Animation is Film, X in a Box, TVPaint, TAAFI, Wacom, DigiCel, CRC Press, Mac Hollywood, Stuart NG Books, Legends Animated, and Indee.

Director at Sony Animation, Maggie Kang, started things off at this year’s contest with a video message for students, motivating them to plan ahead and do well under extreme pressure.

The final 30-second contest submissions were judged by a volunteer panel of acclaimed industry professionals:
Shannon Prynoski, (Titmouse co-founder and vice president), Evally Owo Aguila (Director and Storyboard Artist (Disney), Wilma Miranda – Animation Director, Animator (The Boys), Angela Abeyti – Prop Design Supervisor and Character Designer (Nickelodeon, Titmouse, Bento Box), Alex Smeaton – Animator (Apple TV+, Cartoon Saloon, Titmouse), Ryan Stapleton– Storyboard artist
(Netflix, DreamWorks, Nickelodeon, Warner Bros), Khoa Le- Animation Director, Lead Cinematics Editor (Insomniac Games, Sony Interactive Entertainment), Amelie Le-Roche – Senior Animator (Sony Interactive Entertainment, Infinity Ward) and Romney Marino – Associate Producer, Director of Development (Bento Box, Titmouse).

Watch the films in order here, starting with the 1st place winner from Sheridan College:

Here are behind the scenes from some of the participating schools:

Here are the winning teams and their prizes:

1 st place
School: Sheridan College
Team: What Are We
Points: 314

-First place winner prizes: Toon Boom Prize: $2500 ($500 ea team member)
-Wacom -Movink Wacom Cintique tablets
-5 x pro licenses of TVPaint Animation for each team member of one team
-5 Harmony Premium / 5 Storyboard Pro 1 yr license for EVERY winning team
-Walt Disney Animation Studios each member will be invited to participate in a one-hour
“coffee and chat” session with members of Walt Disney Animation Studios
-5 CRC Press “Ideas for the Animated Short , 2nd Edition” for each winning team
-Full student passes to TAAFI for each team member
-X in a Box – team will participate in Story Xperiential
-5x pro licenses of Digicel’s Flipbook software
-Animation Magazine 2-year Digital subs for each team member of all winning teams

2nd place
Team: Move it Move it
School: Ringling College of Art and Design
Points: 310
-ASIFA-Hollywood/AEF prize for 2nd place winning team: $1500 ($300 ea team member)
-Pixar prize pack for each team member
-Stuart NG Books – 5 x $100 gift certificates for one winning team
-5 Harmony Premium / 5 Storyboard Pro 1 yr license for EVERY winning team
-Walt Disney Animation Studios each member will be invited to participate in a one-hour
virtual “coffee chat” session with members of Walt Disney Animation Studios
-5 CRC Press “Ideas for the Animated Short , 2nd Edition” for each winning team
-Full student passes to TAAFI for each team member
-X in a Box – team will participate in Story Xperiential
-5x pro licenses of Digicel’s Flipbook software
-Animation Magazine 2-year Digital subs for each team member of all winning teams

Third Place
Team: tapeworm
School: Ringling College of Art and Design
Points: 307
-Runner Up winner prize: XPPen $1250 ($250 ea team member)
-5 Harmony Premium / 5 Storyboard Pro 1 yr license for EVERY winning team
-Walt Disney Animation Studios each member will be invited to participate in a one-hour
virtual “coffee and chat” session with members of Walt Disney Animation Studios
-5 CRC Press “Ideas for the Animated Short , 2nd Edition” for each winning team
-Full student passes to TAAFI for each team member
-X in a Box – team will participate in Story Xperiential
-5x pro licenses of Digicel’s Flipbook software
-Animation Magazine 2-year Digital subs for each team member of all winning teams

Runner up
Team: Stop Mo Rules
School: PennWest- Edinboro, Pennsylvania, USA
Points: 303
-Runner Up winner prize: Netflix $1000 ($200 ea team member)
-5 Harmony Premium / 5 Storyboard Pro 1 yr license for EVERY winning team
-Walt Disney Animation Studios each member will be invited to participate in a one-hour
virtual “coffee and chat” session with members of Walt Disney Animation Studios
-5 CRC Press “Ideas for the Animated Short , 2nd Edition” for each winning team
-Full student passes to TAAFI for each team member
-X in a Box – team will participate in Story Xperiential
-5x pro licenses of Digicel’s Flipbook software
-Animation Magazine 2-year Digital subs for each team member of all winning teams

Second Runner up
Team: newBeez
School: SCAD, Savannah, Georgia, USA
Points: 300
-Second Runner Up winner prize: Illumination $1000 ($200 ea team member)
-5 Harmony Premium / 5 Storyboard Pro 1 yr license for EVERY winning team
-Walt Disney Animation Studios each member will be invited to participate in a one-hour
virtual coffee and chat session with members of Walt Disney Animation Studios
-5 CRC Press “Ideas for the Animated Short , 2nd Edition” for each winning team
-Full student passes to TAAFI for each team member
-X in a Box – team will participate in Story Xperiential
-5x pro licenses of Digicel’s Flipbook software
-Animation Magazine 2-year Digital subs for each team member of all winning teams

Third Runner up
Team: 20 piece chicken nugget meal with a medium fry, large soda, and special grade garlic
sauce
School: Sam Houston State University, Texas, USA
Points: 297
-Third Runner up winner prize: Nickelodeon $1000 ($200 ea team member)
-5 Harmony Premium / 5 Storyboard Pro 1 yr license for EVERY winning team
-Walt Disney Animation Studios each member will be invited to participate in a one-hour
virtual “coffee and chat” session with members of Walt Disney Animation Studios
-5 CRC Press “Ideas for the Animated Short , 2ndEdition” for each winning team
-Full student passes to TAAFI for each team member
-X in a Box – team will participate in Story Xperiential
-5x pro licenses of Digicel’s Flipbook software
-Animation Magazine 2-year Digital subs for each team member of all winning teams

Best High School
Team: Dummy Media
School: Orange County School of the Arts, California, USA
Points: 279
-Best High School team winner prize: Sony $1000 ($200 ea team member)
-AIF full festival passes
-5 x 1 year Student Memberships to ASIFA-Hollywood
-5 Harmony Premium / 5 Storyboard Pro 1 yr license for EVERY winning team
-Walt Disney Animation Studios each member will be invited to participate in a one-hour
virtual “coffee and chat” session with members of Walt Disney Animation Studios
-5 CRC Press “Ideas for the Animated Short , 2nd Edition” for each winning team
-Full student passes to TAAFI for each team member
-X in a Box – team will participate in Story Xperiential
-5x pro licenses of Digicel’s Flipbook software
-Animation Magazine 2-year Digital subs for each team member of all winning teams

Behind the Scenes Prize (BTS)
Team: Wouldn't You like to Know
School: OCAD (Ontario College of Art and Design), Toronto, Ontario, Canada
-Best Behind the Scenes Disney/Pixar winner prize: $500 ($100 ea team member)
-5 Harmony Premium / 5 Storyboard Pro 1 yr license for EVERY winning team
-Walt Disney Animation Studios each member will be invited to participate in a one-hour
virtual “coffee and chat” session with members of Walt Disney Animation Studios
-5 CRC Press “Ideas for the Animated Short , 2 nd Edition” for each winning team
-Full student passes to TAAFI for each team member
-X in a Box – team will participate in Story Xperiential
-5x pro licenses of Digicel’s Flipbook software
-Animation Magazine 2-year Digital subs for each team member of all winning teams

To learn more about the 24 HOURS: Animation Contest for Students, visit https://linktr.ee/24hourscontest.

Author
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Lauren Ashton

Lauren Ashton is a Los Angeles-based writer. She has also taught stop-motion animation and film history since 2020, and holds a BFA in Acting from The California Institute of the Arts. Lauren has previously worked with Walt Disney Imagineering, and since graduating from CalArts, she has worked at Spellbound Inc. (a YouTube Production Company), Gnomon School of Animation, and written plays and sketch comedy for various theaters.