===== From jasondinger@hotmail.com: a definite classic. the focal blur was great. the concept was great. the animation was great. the smoke was beyond great. great, simply great. ===== From clem@dhol.com: Dynamite. Story, humor, excellent modelling, characters with expression. Very nice, detailed background. Great smooth motion. Cigarette smoke is a good touch. Hard to show effectively with mpeg compression. Shiner on the big bruiser after the ball fell was a great detail. Very minor complaints - I didn't like the focal blur during the shot, title and ball-in-eye scenes were static too long. Animating fingers would have been a nice touch. Nonetheless, a great little cartoon style animation. ===== From djconnel@flash.net: Incredible!!! I am in awe... I think I've watched this one 50 times so far. The little details are what take it from excellent to a masterpiece. The eyebrows. The chalk. The smoke. The defocus. The concentration. The drop. The splash. The scowl. The zoom. The stars. The struggle for balance.... I am missing a lot here. It could be better (everything can) -- you use a lot of static non-motion like Saturday morning animations from the 70's.... but this perhaps only focuses attention on what deserves the focus, and thus is a feature as much as a limitation. This is my choice for #1 -- it is one of the best short computer animations I've ever seen, from any source. Well done!!!! ===== From Martin.Magnusson.7121@student.uu.se: LOL. Excellent! Great lighting, very good movement and use of the camera. This is the first time a see motion blur in an anmination. ===== From gregj56590@aol.com: Excellent characters! You say you did it all with CSG? That's impressive! Nice touch with the blinking eyes: it really added realism to the characters. ===== From PovRayGuy@aol.com: WOW! You had me rooling on the floor! WELL DONE! ===== From Alain.Culos@bigfoot.com: A really good one that rivals with ping-pong and the chess game. A lot of expression, very artistic. Very good use of focal blur. The cartoony effect is perfect. Why is it not the best in my opinion ? I don't really know. Some things are beyond rationalisation, I just prefer the chess game that bit more, a question of feeling more than thinking. One of the best in the lot. Hard to say which is the best between the top three really. ===== From bill@apocalypse.org: Wonderful stuff, this has all the elements of a real winner. My only complaint is that it's too short - I want more! I noticed the beer foaming up, and some other nice touches. The characters are wonderful - it's very clear what their personalities are. Nice job with the fight-aftermath shot too! ===== From r@203.102.72.229: That's so cool!!! I think that you've done extremely well Neil! In fact, I think that you're a winner! What more can I say? EXCELLENT WORK!!! :-) Notable for originality ===== From r@pa-ppp31.hevanet.com: I liked this, except for the Guiness advertisments. I wonder if Guiness knows it got this kind of free advertising...... Notable for textures, lighting, modelling ===== From r@dirt.trimble.com: I thought this was truly excellent. The cinematic effects, and the facial expressions were nearly perfect. I felt that the focal blur didn't quite work, although I can't put my finger on why. I thik the best feature of this entry must be the field-of-view angle shift. Superb! I wish I could vote in this round! Notable for originality, composition, modelling ===== From r@proxy.cowan.edu.au: Extremely funny, great humanoids. Excellent in the way the camera focuses. Perfect length Notable for lighting, modelling, originality ===== From r@207-172-73-182.s182.tnt1.man.erols.com: The change of focus was great! A little more motion in the skinny guy while he was chalking would have made this one shine. Notable for originality ===== From r@proxy.mch.sni.de: absolutely great! If this is really your first anim, you should really try to get into the CG business! Notable for textures, lighting, modelling, originality, composition ===== From r@kol44.kauhajoki.fi: Doesn't look too bad. Funny, ahhahaha. Notable for lighting