Animation09 logo,
School of Computer Science UK Schools Computer Animation Competition 2009

Competiton rules

  • The competition opens on Monday 19 January 2009 and closes at midnight (GMT) on Friday 1 May 2009.
  • The competition is open only to students enrolled at schools and other educational institutions in the United Kingdom (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland). SSAT schools outside of the UK, since these are inspected by OFSTED and follow the National Curriculum, are also eligible to enter.
  • Entries must be original works created by the individual or team submitting the entry. However we do realise that it is entirely appropriate that children entering may receive professional support from teachers/classroom assistants, as part of the usual teaching and learning process.
  • The duration of an entry must be no more than 1 minute. There is no minimum length.
  • There is no restriction on the number of separate entries an individual or team may make. However, if an individual or team submits multiple entries, each entry must be substantially different.
  • Entries can only be accepted if submitted by a teacher at the student's or team's institution, using the official competition entry form webpage.
  • Entries must be submitted online at http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/animation09/.
  • If your entry incorporates music or sound samples, you must own the rights to use that material. For ideas about sources of freely-usable music, this article from The Guardian has lots of pointers
  • The University of Manchester reserves the right to reject any entry which, in its view, contains inappropriate material.
  • All submitted entries, both movies and entry forms, may be exhibited at the Computer Animation Festival on Friday 26 June 2009 at the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry, and displayed on the Animation09 webpages, which will also contain entrants' and schools' names (but no further contact details).
  • When you submit an entry you grant the University of Manchester permission to make unrestricted use of the entry in future, for publicity or educational purposes. In any such use, the University will ensure that the author/school is clearly acknowledged.
  • The University of Manchester will keep your contact data confidential and will not release it to any other parties.

Judging criteria

Entries will be judged within their category. There are 8 categories:

  • Age 7-11 (Key Stage 2) - individual or team
  • Age 11-14 (Key Stage 3) - individual or team
  • Age 14-16 (Key Stage 4) - individual or team
  • Age 16-19 (studying in sixth form/college) - individual or team

Each entry will be reviewed by a panel of judges. The judges will not know the entrants' names or their schools' names. The judges will award points for each of the following:

  1. Originality
  2. Creativity
  3. Technical quality, use of Alice features
  4. Relevance to the National or taught curriculum
  5. Overall directorial quality as a movie

In each category there will be one Winner, and one Runner-Up, each of which will receive a prize. Within each category, the judges will also identify a number of entries as "commended" for their quality. All prize-winning and commended entries will be exhibited at the Animation Festival, and displayed on the web.

All entrants will receive a certificate acknowledging their entry to the competition.

The decisions of the judging panel are final, and no correspondence will be entered into.