Full Sail Digital Arts & Design student James Rydesky was recently named the grand prize winner for Adobe’s 2008 Webby-In-Motion contest. This is the second year of the competition, which calls for contestants to create an animation or video introduction for one of the Annual Webby Awards 10 category clusters.

Rydesky’s winning motion graphics piece was entered into the Connections category, which covers websites that help bring people together through online news and entertainment communities. These include blogs, student sites, celebrity news portals, podcasts, and social networking sites.

For his 20-second submission, Rydesky blended abstract shapes, quirky characters, and fast-moving action to convey the feeling of connection these sites provide. The resulting piece offers playful visuals that incorporate the iconography and buzzwords that populate the social networking community – from friend requests to viral videos.

“Full Sail’s Digital Arts & Design program teaches students to merge technical and aesthetic elements and create something new and exciting,” offers Bill Galbreath, Program Director for Digital Arts & Design and Graphic Design. “James proved his understanding in these areas and produced an incredible piece for his submission. We are all extremely proud of his efforts.”

As the competition’s grand prize winner, Rydesky was awarded $10,000, as well as a trip for two to the 12th Annual Webby Awards in New York City – where his piece will make its public debut. Other prizes include the Adobe Creative Suite 3 Master Collection, a prize package from Stash, and a featured interview on Feed.com.

The Webby Awards were launched in the mid-‘90s as a way to honor excellence in Web design, and have been cited by the New York Times as “the Internet’s highest honor.” The 12th Annual Webby Awards ceremony will be held on June 10.