Kuala Lumpur, January 22, 2014. OLDTOWN White Coffee, Malaysia’s largest white coffee café chain, today unveiled the winners of the Animaction Challenge, its inaugural design and animation contest calling for Malaysians to create the country’s next big icon. The contest, which ran over three months – from July 8 – October 31, 2013 – drew over 850 entries in its ‘2D Character Design’ student category and up to 40 entries in its ‘3D Animation’ professional category.
According to Clarence D’Silva, Chief Operating Officer, Kopitiam Asia Pacific Sdn Bhd, “Malaysia has come a long way in its creative arts journey. OLDTOWN White Coffee is pleased to play our part to nurture this progress via this stimulating and wholesome platform to identify, cultivate and support budding local talents. Judging from the quality of the entries, Malaysia clearly has got creative talent. I am personally impressed with the creativity and artistic skills of some of our young minds based on this contest alone, and am confident that we are on a course towards building a strong and flourishing creative arts industry. Congratulations to all the winners.”
Kamil Othman, Vice President of Creative Multimedia, Multimedia Development Corporation said, “It had been a challenge finalizing the winners for this competition and securing every party’s vote. The idea of Malaysia’s next big icon it itself, is a subjective concept. The designs that were submitted depicted the diversity of Malaysia’s culture in varied aspects, proving that the idea pool and skills of talent in Malaysia is on par with international standards.”
Kamil led the judging panel for The Animaction Challenge alongside the creative genius behind Hollywood feature film Life of Pi, Low Jianwei, Lighting Technical Director at Rhythm & Hues, and the mind behind our nation’s most famous animated icon, BoBoiBoy, Mohamad Safwan Karim, Operations Director and Co-Founder of Animonsta Studios.
Winning Entries Stole Limelight
The winning submission in the 3D category, ‘Coffee Cops’ by Catapult Animation Studios, comprises a 2-minute animation set in a traditional Malay kampong environment. It features an interesting twist of the ‘Malaysian next big icon’ ideal through two superhero grandparents who, while picking their granddaughter up from the airport, encountered some difficulties along the way, which required them to tap on their hidden superhero abilities. This charming and open-ended entry emerged ahead of 40 other 3D submissions to receive the grand prize of RM35,000 cash and production grant.
Team Leader and Managing Director of Catapult Animation Studios, Ambrose Solomon said, “I’m honoured that OLDTOWN White Coffee and these esteemed panel of judges deemed the animation that we created worthy for the title of Grand Prize. We fell in love with the ‘next big icon’ idea from the start and my team was very driven for the sake of this competition especially since competitions like this don’t come along very often. We are truly grateful for the opportunity and recognition. I would like to personally thank OLDTOWN White Coffee for giving us this opportunity, the judges for recognising our work, and team members involved in this project, especially our creative director, Kavitha Jaganathan for investing their sincere efforts to make this dream come true.”
According to Koh Jhee Son, winner of the ‘2D Character Design’ category, “I tried to incorporate as many Malaysian elements as I could in to the creation of my icon, Pak Uke. It was not easy as Malaysia has a broad spectrum of cultures and I narrowed it down only by visualizing what I felt would best embody Malaysia and the legacy of OLDTOWN White Coffee.”
The entries were evaluated based on originality, innovation, creativity, technical excellence and visual impact. Winners of The Animaction Challenge per category are as follows:
3D Animation – Professional Category (Individual & Teams)
Grand Prize (RM35, 000 cash + production grant): Catapult Animation Studios
First Runner Up (RM10, 000 cash): Chong Wei Hoong and team
Second Runner Up (RM5, 000 cash): Jason Ding and team
2D Character Design – Student Category (Individual)
Grand Prize (RM25, 000 cash + internship with Animonsta Studios): Koh Jhee Son (University Teknologi Malaysia)
First Runner Up (RM7, 000 cash): Lim Yin Ning (UNDO School of 3D Animation)
Second Runner Up (RM3, 000 cash): Chen Jia Zhun (In-House Multimedia College)
Each category also has 10 consolation prize winners who walked away with RM200 worth of OLDTOWN White Coffee vouchers each.
The Future is Bright for Malaysia’s Next Big Icon
During the press conference, OLDTOWN White Coffee also announced plans to work with Catapult Animation Studios to further refine and extend the lifestyle of the top two 2D winning entries, with the purpose of representing the company in its upcoming marketing initiatives.
“OLDTOWN White Coffee is dedicated to delighting all segments of our customers with our quality product offerings. With this value in mind, we will actively pursue the kids and family market segment this year. This direction is in response to focus groups that have suggested that we open up our menus to children, as well as address customers’ ongoing requests for our menu to be more kids-friendly. By continuing to emphasize on our customers’ needs, we target to launch our new menu in the first half of this year, and first-ever kids meal selection in the second half of the year. I urge you to keep a lookout for the icons as they are expected to play a key role in our next phase,” Clarence concluded.
To view the Animaction Challenge gallery, please visit www.animactionchallenge.com.my and the OLDTOWN White Coffee Facebook page at www.facebook.com/OldTownWhiteCoffeeMalaysia for more information and timely updates.
OLDTOWN White Coffee大搜寻圆满结束，马来西亚的下一个标志终于找到了！
(吉隆坡2014年1月22日讯) 马来西亚最大的白咖啡连锁店OLDTOWN White Coffee，今日宣布Animaction Challenge的优胜者名单。这是该公司首次主办设计与动漫比赛，呼吁马来西亚人创造国家的下一个标志。这项比赛长达3个月，从2013年7月8日一直进行至10月31日，其‘2D角色设计’学生组别吸引了超过850份参赛作品，至于‘3D动画’专业组别则有多达40份参赛作品。
Kopitiam Asia Pacific私人有限公司首席运营员克拉伦斯（Clarence D’Silva）表示，“马来西亚的创意艺术之路历史悠久。OLDTOWN White Coffee很高兴能尽一份绵力，通过这个具有启发性的积极平台，促进创意艺术的发展，以发掘、栽培和支持本地人才的建设。从参赛作品的水准看来，不难发现马来西亚的确拥有创意人才。单通过这项比赛，一些年轻朋友的创意和艺术技巧就已经让我眼前一亮，我相信我们正迈向建立更强大与丰富的创意艺术领域。我要恭喜所有的优胜者。
多媒体发展机构（MDeC）的创意多媒体副总裁卡米尔奥斯曼（Kamil Othman）表示，“遴选这次比赛的优胜者，并争取其他人的认同，的确是一项挑战。什么才是马来西亚的下一个标志，是非常主观的看法。参赛者所提交的设计，从不同的角度描绘马来西亚的多元文化，这证明了无论是马来西亚的人才或构思，都符合国际水平。”
卡米尔是Animaction Challenge评审团的主评审，其他成员包括好莱坞影片《少年派之奇幻漂流》的幕后创意奇才刘建伟，他也是Rhythm & Hues的灯光技术总监；还有我国著名动画人物BoBoiBoy的幕后功臣莫哈末沙夫万（Mohd Safwan Karim），他是Animonsta Studio的营运总监兼联合创办人。
得奖作抢尽风头
由Catapult Animation Studios创作的3D组别得奖作品“Coffee Cops”是一段2分钟的动画，故事场景是一个传统马来甘榜，主角是两位具有超能力的祖父祖母，他们在机场接载孙女时遇到一些困难，必须运用深藏不露的超能力。这个充满魅力的开放式参赛作品成功超越其他40个作品脱颖而出，赢得3万5000令吉的大奖以及制作资金。
Catapult Animation Studios的领队兼执行董事安博罗斯（Ambrose Solomon）表示，“我很荣幸，OLDTOWN White Coffee以及备受敬仰的评审们选中我们的动画为大奖得主。我们从一开始就爱上‘下一个标志’的构思，我的团队为了这项比赛全力以赴，因为这种比赛并不常有。我要感谢OLDTOWN White Coffee给我们这个机会、评审们认同我们的作品，以及参与这项计划的团员，尤其是我们的创意总监卡维塔（Kavitha Jaganathan），尽心尽力实现这个梦想。”
‘2D角色设计’组别的优胜者Koh Jhee Son表示，“我尽可能把马来西亚的元素都融入我的作品Pak Uke里，但这并非易事，因为马来西亚的多元文化太广泛了，所以我把范围缩小，只呈现我认为最能反映马来西亚以及OLDTOWN White Coffee的元素。”
参赛作品是根据原创性、创新、创意、技术与视觉冲击来进行评审。Animaction Challenge比赛各组别的优胜者如下：
3D动画 - 专业组（个人及团队）
大奖（RM35,000现金+制作资金）：Catapult Animation Studios
亚军（RM10,000现金）：Chong Wei Hoong及队伍
季军（RM5,000现金）：Jason Ding及队伍
2D角色设计 - 学生组（个人）
大奖（RM25,000现金+在Animonsta Studios实习）：Koh Jhee Son（马来西亚工艺大学）
亚军（RM7,000现金） ：Lim Yin Ning（UNDO School of 3D Animation）
季军（RM3,000现金） ：Chen Jia Zhun（In-House Multimedia College）
每个组别也设有10份安慰奖，每位优胜者都赢得价值200令吉的OLDTOWN White Coffee礼券。
马来西亚下一个标志的前景光明
OLDTOWN White Coffee也在记者会上宣布，准备与Catapult Animation Studios合作，进一步完善与推展首两名2D得奖作品，并在接下来的营销活动中代表该公司。
克拉伦斯总结说，“OLDTOWN White Coffee致力于以我们的优质产品满足所有的顾客。秉持着这个信念，我们将积极在今年进军儿童与家庭市场。这个方针是根据焦点小组（focus groups）的建议，即扩充我们的菜单让儿童也能享用，而且顾客也不断要求我们的菜单更贴近儿童。我们持续关注顾客的需求，因此计划在今年上半年推出新菜单，并在下半年推出首个儿童菜单。我呼吁大家关注标志接下来的动向，因为它们将在我们下一个阶段的发展扮演重要角色。”
有意观看Animaction Challenge的参赛作品，请浏览www.animactionchallenge.com.my 以及OLDTOWN White Coffee面子书专业www.facebook.com/OldTownWhiteCoffeeMalaysia ，以获取更多详情和最新资讯。
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