I was involved with Sascha's "moai" submission in the last round, and was
quite suprised to find that points were taken off for having used sound.
I'm not referring to the sound _quality_, as one of the judges rightly
complained:

   "I was disappointed in the sound."

That complaint was spot-on: the audio was muddy and difficult to understand.

What I found disappointing was that judges deducted points from the
animation _because_ it used sound. Specific comments include:

   "Baffling without sound."

   "The words may have been great but the guidelines are to judge without
sound."

In fact, the guidelines say the exact opposite:

   "MPEG audio streams are allowed in the animation file, but not everyone
will be able to hear them; also remember that judges are instructed to
focus on the rendered animation. For the time being, audio streams will
probably be just a waste of space."

Note the use of audio is specifically _allowed_ as part of the submission.
Since it's allowed, the animation must be judged _with the audio_. The only
instruction to the judge  is to _focus_ on the animation.

Am I missing something obvious here? If there's another set of rules the
judges are using, I've been unable to find them.

My hope is that, in future rounds, the judges follow the letter (and spirit)
of the rules, and not take off points for the use of audio.

Post a reply to this message