Hello folks,

The Bricks in Motion Twenty-four Hour Animation Contest (THAC 7) will begin on 12:00 noon (GMT) January 2nd, 2010.  This is the first official BiM THAC contest, though it will be the 7th THAC for the community, originally started by David West.  I will be providing prizes and overseeing the contest; forum member Cheshire will run the contest on the day of and also assist in overseeing the judging process.

Rules

• Starting at 12 noon GMT on January 2nd, 2010 (Greenwich Mean Time), you will have 24 hours to script, animate, edit, and upload a film. Any entries not received by the end of the 24 hour time period will be disqualified.  Here is a list of cities and their corresponding times, all set to noon GMT.

• The theme will be announced in a thread titled "THAC 7 Starts NOW!" in the Contests & Community Projects Projects forum.

• To prevent entrants from creating their films ahead of time, the contest theme, a crucial thematic aspect that entries should include, will not be announced until the contest begins.

• In addition to the theme there will be two "mod" elements. The mod elements are visual elements that must be included in every frame of your film to ensure that nothing is animated before the beginning of the 24-hour time period; they are different for every THAC and will be announced at the start time.  There will be two kinds of "mod" elements, and entrants only need to ensure that one of the two elements is present in any frame of footage for their film.  The two elements may be used interchangeably throughout the film, and must be physically included in the set, not added in post-production.

  
  

  1. The first element will be a letter of the alphabet or a numeral.  This symbol will not need to be used as letter or numeral in the context of the film, though it can be; a clear effort to include something in the shape of the letter or number will suffice.

  
  

  2. The second element will be two LEGO (or other plastic brick) components of two given colors connected to each other, whether by locking into each other by the studs of the brick, or as pieces in a minifigure or technic construction.

  Baseplates and floor pieces will not be allowed to count.

  
  

  Note: It is not original to make a film about how the element changes from scene to scene and appears in every shot. The element is not intended to be the focus for the film, just a way to ensure entries are made within the 24-hour time period.

• Entries must be animated and must be primarily composed of stop motion animation. 3D, Flash, or other animation techniques

  may be used to supplement the stop-motion but may not be the main focus.

• The film should contain LEGO or similar 'brick' construction toys, such as MEGA Bloks.

• There must be at least 30 seconds of animation in the entry.  There is no maximum length.

• Joint entries are allowed, as are multiple entries.

• Entries may not contain adult language, graphic violence (blood and/or gore) or sexual themes.

• While copyrighted/trademarked properties are allowed, you are discouraged from basing your movie off of preexisting films

  or franchises (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, etc.). It's not original, and will hurt your chances in the judging process. Copyrighted

  music may be used, but if you do not wish to do so, you are permitted to create original music beforehand; music does not have

  to be created within the 24 hour time limit.

Length and Format

• To ensure that all entries are viewable by everyone, a version of the video with a maximum file size of 10 megabytes per minute must be submitted within the 24 hour time period. For compatibilty and consistency entries must be encoded using one of the following codecs:

  Realvideo (Realmedia), DivX (in a .avi file),.wmv Windows Media or .mov (Quicktime).

• You may upload a high quality version if you want but your film thread must contain the one you submit in the e-mail as

  well.

• You may also upload a version to youtube.com or dailymotion.com or any other website once the 24-hour time period has passed, and include this when you submit your film to the Releases forum.

• Entries will be submitted by email to Cheshire, at an address to be announced at the start time.  You will need a working email address in order to submit your entry.

Prizes

The prizes for THAC 7 will consist of a prize pool of three SpongeBob SquarePants LEGO sets.  The 1st place winner of the contest will get first choice, 2nd will have 2nd choice, and 3rd will receive the remaining set.

SpongeBob SquarePants Chum Bucket (337 Pieces)

SpongeBob SquarePants Emergency Room (236 Pieces)

SpongeBob SquarePants Rocket Ride (279 Pieces)