Making of AMazeBot Animations Vinny’s Decision and Bright Idea

AMazeBot was a programming competition held at Mohawk College. In 2011 I joined iDeaWORKS and I developed three animations with multiple characters, several posters, consulted on the t-shirts, and ran the marketing campaign to promote the annual event. It has since completed after 10 years, but there are rumours it may start up again!

I thought I’d share some of my process for the making of two of the animations, Vinny’s Decision and Bright Idea. I’ve broken this post into small sections:

• Background
• Characters
• Storyboard
• Animatic
• Animation
• Lighting & Rendering
• Post-work
• Summary

Background

The Amazebot competition was created by Mark Yendt of Mohawk College, ran by Aravin Duraikannan, and was to teach students a programming language that challenged them to design a ‘bot’ to efficiently navigate a maze. The event is sponsored by local software companies with cash prizes to top ‘bots’.