CSUF Students Win Top Prize in The 24-Hour Animation Challenge

Last month, Cal State Fullerton students Tony Son, Megan LeMasurier, Victoria Gould, and Ari Castleton otherwise known as “Potty Squad” competed against over 500 students from 24 universities in order to create a 30-second animation for the 24-Hour Animation Challenge. After the theme “Imagine if Technology was introduced at the Dawn of Humankind,” was announced, the team utilized the first hour of the challenge to come up with a unique story idea.

“We were throwing out a lot of ideas from 2001: A Space Odyssey and thought that instead of a monolith we should use an iPod or other advanced technology,” says post production editor Tony Son, “Since YouTube is a big hit right now, we decided that’s the technology that we decided to work with.”

After discussing various ideas, the team decided to create a short called “Caveman Channel,” centered around a Neanderthal filmmaker named Cavid. “Story wise, Caveman Channel is a parody of the generic "vlogger" on YouTube, so we drew inspiration from numerous YouTube channels who post such content,” states story artist Ari Castleton.

While the majority of contestants created 2D and 3D animation shorts, Potty Squad decided to bring their project to the next level by making a stop motion video. “First of all, Megan wanted to do stop motion,” says Tony, “We thought it was a crazy idea at first, but hey we were adventurous and we were all for it.”

As the fabricator and animator for this project, Megan LeMasurier, had to think creatively while utilizing objects around them to create the main character Cavid. “I had a bunch of different of eclectic material just ready to use,” Megan explains, “I know Tony had a box full of his toys. Sometimes we had to run to stores, and I know I made a decision at one point that he should be a potato since that would be much easier! We actually didn’t make him a potato but we used it in the background instead.”

Even though contest rules stated that the team couldn’t prepare material for the project beforehand, production manager Victoria Gould believes that their past experiences with the animation based “Pencil Mileage Club” at CSUF helped production run smoothly.

“While in the Pencil Mileage Club we’ve done so many events together, and we’ve already established how to communicate. So even though there’s no way to prepare for a 24-hour challenge we’ve already prepared in other aspects. That means that then when you’re in school then be involved. If there’s a club and other film events, take advantage of it because even if it feels like nothing you’re actually building up a skill set.”

While each team member was chosen for their strong skill-sets gained from participation in extra-curricular activities and experience from animation industry internships, their ability to work well as a team was the key to earning the grand prize. “The reason we were able to finish this project was that we all knew what we were capable of and that worked in our advantage,” says Ari, “There was a constant creative flow in our team and although we hit times of stress, we were stressed together.”

After the announcements were made, each team member received a lot of praise from supervisors from their respective internships, professors, and from committee members from The 24-Hour Animation Challenge. But despite their combined talent, the team entered the contest to have fun with it, and didn't think expect to win since it was their first time working in stop-motion as a group. "Believe in yourself and go for it," says Victoria, "What’s the worst thing that can happen right? You might win.

The Pencil Mileage Club taking a photo-op during the World Animation Celebration at Sony Animation Studios.