wasd is the team from Commonwealth Secondary School that never expected to make it to the Top 10. But made it they did and they’ve got an exciting animation story idea to vie for the top prize.
wasd is one of two teams from Commonwealth Secondary School that entered this year’s installment of the N.E.mation! competition, and the lucky one to make it to the Top 10. The fourth member, Niger Lim is not in this photo as he was not present during the visit.
The N.E.mation! competition is a yearly inter-school animation competition for students from secondary schools, junior colleges and centralised institutes to express their thoughts on Total Defence.
Lim Xun Yi from wasd. The team’s motto is “Expect the unexpected”.
This year’s competition is the ninth iteration since the inauguration of the series in 2007.
More than 11,500 students have participated in N.E.mation! thus far with participants comprising mostly secondary school students aged between 13 to 16 years old.
These students form teams of 3-4 members and have to go through multiple rounds of pitching and selection to beat hundreds of teams from other schools to make it into the Top 10.
wasd registered for N.E.mation! 9 some three months ago in August and it has been an incredible journey for them ever since.
The four team members – Ethan Leng, Lim Xun Yi, Niger Lim and Zi Qing are members of the school’s New Media club and were one of two teams from Commonwealth Secondary School that made it to the Top 100 back in September.
Ethan Leng from wasd. The team’s name “wasd” was derived from the default keys on the keyboard for moving around in first player shooter games – which the team members play.
Since then, they have sailed through the subsequents rounds of selection first into the Top 40 and then into the Top 22 (the judges just couldn’t whittle it down to 20) – before making it into the Top 10.
The attractive prizes at stake served as a huge motivation – the top prize is a fully sponsored overseas trip worth more than S$20,000 for the team to visit a renowned animation studio in the US.
The second and third prizes are worth more than S$6,000 and S$5,000 respectively.
Together with the other nine Top 10 teams, wasd has just ended their first of three weeks of production.
When I visited them on Wednesday, spirits were high as they went about creating the drawings that will be used in their digital 2D animation.
Ong Zi Qing, the only lady in the team.
The team is using Toon Boom Studio to produce their 1-minute animation entitled “SAF never sleeps”.
The storyline is centred around the main theme for this year’s competition – “Believing In Singapore: Because This Is Home”.
wasd intends to show – in line with the SAF50 sub-theme – how the SAF works continuously 24×7 to build a secure and cohesive nation, united with determination.
The animation clips produced by the top 10 finalist teams will be judged by a panel comprising industry professionals.
Looking at the slick digital illustrations that wasd has produced thus far, and the exciting storyboard that the team is working towards, I have no doubt that they will be strong contenders for the top three prizes this year!
Good Luck, wasd!
Tags: animation, Commonwealth, competition, education, N.E.mation!, N.E.mation! 9, wasd