UTC students take gold for animated short

BANGOR, Maine (WABI) -TV5 caught up with a pair of gold medalists Thursday morning.

This honor came - not from the track or field - but the stroke of a keyboard.

Keegan Nilsson and Josh Gates are seniors at United Technical Center.

They recently took gold in the Skills USA National’s 3D Visualization and Animation competition.

Working in tandem the pair were given 7 hours to take a topic and basic script and turn it into an animated 3D short.

They each say clarity about the future helped to pick up the skill and excel at it.

“I think we’re, I wouldn’t say lucky but definitely better off than some others when we know what we need to do know what we want to do and more or less how to get there,” said Josh Gates

“I’ve always been kind of sure that this is what I want to do and I think that’s probably why that we did so well is because both of us were passionate about this beforehand. Both of us went into this a year knowing this is what we wanted to do,” said Keegan Nilsson

“Amazing to see what they have done and how far they have gone. And just who would have thought Maine can be represented at the national stage for a competition that we have almost nothing here in the state for but that’s one of the beauty beautiful things about this technology. Is that as long as you have an internet connection, you can do it almost anywhere,” said Stephen Wong.

Both are off to college; Josh want to animate movies, and Keegan will go into 3D gaming animation.

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