Polytech Hosts SkillsUSA Competition & Takes Top Honors

Flemington, N.J. – This year, Hunterdon County Polytech Career and Technical High School’s Bartles Campus not only hosted the SkillsUSA New Jersey 3D Visualization and Computer Animation Competition, four Polytech students took top honors in the onsite event. A second-place win for Polytech’s Commercial Arts & Advertising Design program in a separate competition added to the excitement.

SkillsUSA Championship competitions showcase the skills of career and technical education students. The competitions reward students for excellence, involve industry in directly evaluating student performance and ensure student training remains relevant to employers’ needs. The competitions start locally and then move to the state and national levels.

Polytech’s SkillsUSA winners in the New Jersey 3D Visualization and Computer Animation Competition were Brian Duval and Alexa Baldinger, in first place, and Julia Brock and Ross Anderson, in second place. In a separate competition for Advertising Design, Polytech’s Francesca Morella took second place.

Polytech Career and Technical High School Commercial Arts & Advertising Design and 3D Computer Animation instructor Teresa Diaz explained how the 3D Visualization and Computer Animation Competition worked. She said the students took a written exam first, which they could do together. Then, they tackled their challenge to model three different objects with three distinct textures: organic, metal and one they could select. They had to have the objects interact in some way using at least three principles of animation.

Because Polytech was this year’s host, Diaz determined the prompt with input from the judges and the advisory committee. “We went over prompts from different states and gleaned what was the most important thing we wanted students to do,” she explained.

The judges evaluated students on planning and teamwork; overall visual quality and rendering; background, staging, lighting and cameras; modeling, textures and effects; animation; and the written exam. The rubric was out of 1,000 points total.

The students who placed first, Brian Duval and Alexa Baldinger, both 3D Computer Animation juniors, qualified for the National Competition, which will be held virtually. Duval and Baldinger will prepare and submit resumes and take a written exam on June 7. They will complete their project between June 14 and 16.

Diaz is “insanely proud of the students,” noting, “even the judges were so impressed.” She explained the students only had a four-hour timeframe to complete the work, which had a broad scope.

In her competition, Morella, a senior in Polytech’s Commercial Arts & Advertising Design program, was assigned to make a logo and brochure for a travel agency for a trip to Maine.

Morella said the virtual competition started on Monday morning and ended with a Wednesday morning deadline. “They gave us more work because we had to print everything out and take pictures of it,” Morella said. “It was pretty fun and interesting. They set it up like it was a real job.”

According to Morella, organizers provided the brochure content. She had to proofread and design it as a duotone, which meant she could use only two colors. “Because Maine is near the water and a lot of the area attractions are centered around the sea, such as fishing and boating, I wanted the idea of being near the water to be the feel they got from my brochure.”

“All five Skills winners from Polytech have proven they have no limits,” said HCVSD Superintendent Dr. Todd Bonsall. “Their performances are indicators their creativity and drive will take them far. We could not be more proud of how they represented our district and know that their future successes will continue to bolster our reputation.”

Learn more about Polytech’s 3D Computer Animation and Commercial Arts & Advertising Design programs by visiting https://polytech.hcvsd.org/.