While many of us may regard this statement with some incredulity, especially as I seem to be donning my awards' function frock with alarming frequency, Bigg claims that "most awards consist of product-led categories," and that in 1995 "there was no recognition for music or editing," for example.

While Bigg acknowledges that D&AD recognizes "best editing", "the award tends to go to the agency creative and not the editor." Bigg continues: "The BTA Craft Awards are a personal award to the craftsperson."

New categories, such as sound design and colorist, have been added to the judging since the award's nascence, as these crafts have become more significant in production and post-production. "Trends come and go, but the most apparent movement is that ads are now being produced, where it is virtually impossible to pick out each particular craft because the production is so seamless. The director used to take the rushes and put an effect on it, but now all post-production is decided in pre-production and the shoot is choreographed to aid the post process. This elevation of post-production crafts is why telecine operators are no longer the technicians but colorists. The other perceptible change is the growing importance and presence of sound design."

Mario Cavalli, project development director of animation and integrated media company aka Pizazz, was chairman of the animation jury and agrees with Bigg about the trend for invisibility of technique. "Now there are a plethora of techniques, but most directors and commissioners now aim to mix the skills so that no one knows how the resulting film was achieved."

Cavalli says that the standard of the entries was "pretty average." He adds: "There was a dearth of animation work between 1996--1998 and then the first scripts, of which Orange was one, started trickling through. Most animation scripts have abysmal budgets. You have to treat them as loss leaders, and accept that these jobs will give you the opportunity to do good work. A low number of scripts and paltry budgets has led to many animators turning to other media to ensure income. However the good scripts that have been produced such as Orange, Compaq and Nat West have created more of an awareness of animation as a grown-up medium."

Andy Lomas, head of 3D at London's FrameStore, chaired the awards' computer animation section and found the entries to be of a "variable standard." He continues: "Guinness 'Bet on Black' was voted the winner and is an excellent example of character animation, which as a theme is really popular at the moment.

"Although advances in technology and a supply of fresh talent allows more sophisticated computer animation, there is still a lot of bad work around. It's a really unforgiving medium. Whereas traditional animation has a natural charm, computer generation animation too often belies the technology and leaves the viewer cold."

Lomas believes that a revolution in software writing will occur over the ensuing years, "ending the genre of computer generated animation that looks like it was assembled on a computer."