Ringling College of Art and Design’s Motion Design students won first place in the 21st annual 24 Hour Animation Contest. The winning team, “FinalFinal.mp4,” was made up of Anastassia Kovach ’24, Hei Kuok ’24, Hannah Nguyen ’24, Sehee Kim ’24, and Alex Cho ’24, all Motion Design majors.
The contest challenges teams of five students each to produce a 30-second animated short in under 24 hours. Each year the students are given a prompt for their short. This year, the teams were invited to produce 30-second animated films showing the potential of animation as a ‘thank you’ to the incredible art form. From art direction to movement to unique design and subjective storytelling—students were asked to use all of the elements animation has at its disposal to demonstrate what makes it such a powerful and creative medium.
This year there were a record 431 teams from 104 schools (2,155 students!) that participated, and all of the films were judged by a panel of industry experts. Over $160,000 in cash and prizes were awarded to the top seven teams. Sponsors for the competition included Nickelodeon, Wacom, DreamWorks, Cartoon Network, Walt Disney Animation, Pixar, ILM, and Sony Pictures Animation. The contest was created in 2002 by animation professor Aubry Mintz from California State University Long Beach.
Ringling College’s cross-disciplinary Motion Design major was created from the convergence of animation, graphic design, advertising, and filmmaking. The program was rated #1 Motion Design program in the world in 2023 by The Rookies, and Motion Design seniors have won Rookie of the Year for three out of four consecutive years in a row.
