YTO: cut&paste

15 minute rounds of pure short-key brawn. You got your CMD+C, then of course CMD+V. Mistake? Quick, CMD+Z! Now with a bit of CMD+A, C, CMD+D, B, SPACEBAR, Z, ALT-CLICK, and before you know it, the round is over. Cut&Paste spent its first time in Canada at the Sound Academy on Saturday night. Not seeing too much press around town and feeling an overwhelming responsibility to "represent", I rounded up a small group of ID'rs to hit up this first-ever event in the land of tundra.

For those unfamiliar with Cut&Paste, C&P is an international competition where 2-D, 3-D and motion graphic designers compete against each other in a series of timed rounds, cheered on by large audience, pumped by the sounds of a live DJ, and of course, a full bar. Participants are limited to a bag of props that they may or may not have packed that day and photographs that were taken that day during the event. The prizes included Adobe software, Wacom-products, Pantone colour guides, and similar design-related miscellaneous loot (which seemed somewhat minor since most of the people competing probably own half of the prizes already). The main prize of the competition though, was bragging rights and a trip to compete in the international finale at NYC in June.

Standing a little tired and shaky after a impromptu night trip to Ottawa, I was witness to three hours of pure visual pornography and chaos. I saw defrosted bacon, ketchup, and fish, flinging about their juices alongside a row of 21" Cintiqs (*droooool...for the tablet, not the food). I saw defeat and conquer. I saw embarrassing hasty typos ("Never enogh"), I saw nervous competitors sit helplessly as their renderings appeared pixel by pixel with 1.38 minutes to render, but only 8 seconds left in the round. I saw Apple iLife ads pop-up when participants were uploading their photos to iPhoto, and watched their confused faces as they, in dispair, tried to close the Apple trial-ads in pure haste. I saw 2D vomit, and saw what looked like 3D vomit on the huge projection screens.

All in all, the Cut&Paste competition, for the first time in TO, was pretty good. The announcers were....okay, is WACOM pronounced WAAH-COM, or WAY-COM? Maybe WAY-COM is a Canadian thing? Strangely, all the competitors were all male, so next year my goal is to compete in the 2D section. Excuse for a Cintiq purchase? Most definitely.

NOTE TO READERS: My birthday is coming up this weekend......if you happen to have Cintiq laying around?