31st CG Boost Art Challenge for 3D Artists - Improve your 3D Skills!
Challenge ends on Wednesday, October 27th, 2021 at 16:00 CEST.
Winners will be announced one week later on November 3rd, 2021.
For our 31st challenge, we received 203 submissions with many epic space stations.
Our jury had a good but also hard time judging all the great accepted submissions. Each judge voted for their own top 5 artworks. We also picked three random winners for the challenge raffle, see all the winners below.
Regrading the prizes, we will contact the winners during the next few days.
Congrats to the winners and honorable mentions, and a big THANK YOU to our sponsor and everyone for taking part!
Now scroll down to see the winners.
We’re congratulating Bert Willemsen for winning the first place!
Follow Bert:
ArtStation
“Inspired by Simon Stålenhag’s work, this scene is about the discovery of a forgotten space station that was never launched. This one took me around 3 weeks to make, with most of the time consumed by adding the little details.
When making a space station like this, I start with a primitive shape and keep adding structural elements until it looks interesting. Once the base is finished I start destroying it with booleans and add the details, textures and other supportive elements. As a last step, I do all the post-processing in Blender with compositor nodes, I like to experiment with different color styles and atmospheres and I try to learn and improve it with every new project.“
Created using Blender 2.93.
Lukas Walzer: “This image really embraces the calmness and tension that arises from the gloomy weather conditions, perfectly nailing the colors and atmospheric effects. The result feels very cinematic and tasteful in terms of color and composition.”
Darko Vucenik: “I love the atmosphere in this image, with that cloudy sky and low-lying fog. The figure in the foreground and surrounding trees are a good scale reference, making the station look nice and big. I love the design of the station.”
Ozana Nemčanin: “I enjoy the feeling of loneliness and being lost in time that this artwork gives me. The artist’s storytelling is masterful. Incredibly detailed artwork and the composition are well-balanced.”
Ewa Wierbik: “Really impressive artwork. Looks like a shot from the movie. Storytelling, mood, colors, composition – everything is very good. Post-processing added even more aura of mystery. I like the idea of placing a person standing near the abandoned space station to show how big it really is.”
Martin Klekner: “Something different from the other entries, I really like the bleak and misty atmosphere of this piece.”
Cedric Van der Kelen: “Very cinematic and realistic sense of scale, the foliage feels realistic. The human blends a bit too much with the grass, and he might be a ad small compared to the rest (scale feels off) and the rocks behind the spaceship could just be deleted. Would’ve liked a bit more storytelling.”
Amina Khan: “Wonderful oxymoronic story-telling. I feel gloomy, yet hopeful for the future with this abandoned Space Station. A novel could be written off of the narrative shown in such beautifully detailed art.”
We’re congratulating Adrian Kulawik for winning the second place!
Follow Adrian:
ArtStation
“Abandoned SpacebStation introduces the viewer to the first perspective view where you can assess the destruction of the space station. Such a scenario is possible because such a station is constantly exposed to asteroid strikes.“
Created using Blender.
Marius Iatan: “A very good photo render of a decaying space station. Very good texturing, details and lights, nice touch with the window through which someone is looking. Great job!”
Ken Liang: “Very professional render. Models and details are very realistic and gives a very clear sense of scale. I can see that a lot of thought has been put into how the scene was put together, with the pov looking out of a window that focuses on the coupling module of the space station – which ironically is the only last one that hasn’t broken into pieces. Subtle, yet strong story telling, and really rewards the viewers who look closely.”
Ewa Wierbik: “More classical approach to the topic, but it looks very good. Good storytelling, interesting point of view. For me it looks pretty realistic, as it exploded just seconds ago. I would love to see a wider perspective of the viewer, but other than that it’s a really well executed artwork.”
Aidy Burrows: “I really like how this one is framed within the hatch, really nice details throughout.”
Martin Klekner: “I really like how the images catches the station in the moment of some sort of critical failure. Also, great amount of detail in this one!”
Cedric Van der Kelen: “Nice composition and effects. Missing a focus point a bit.”
We’re congratulating Cesar Verastegui for receiving the third place!
Follow Cesar:
ArtStation
“I created several panels and cables that were the basis for the whole scene. A lot of geos, so I had to create several proxies to handle it.“
Created using 3DSmax, Vray and Photoshop.
Marius Iatan: “A place that feels huge, empty and floating in space. If an image is worth 1000 words, this is one of them. Nice work!”
Lukas Walzer: “The structure itself may seem a bit repetitive in construction, but composition and lighting do a great job in concealing it and making it an interesting vista. Despite the gloomy atmosphere, this image’s strong and calm composition is incredibly pleasing to look at.”
Darko Vucenik: “Dark and moody as a creepy abandoned space station should be. I love the level of detail in this image and industrial grungy design. Nice contrasty lighting.”
Ken Liang: “Very interestingly detailed space station. It really conveys the vast openness and scale of the scene. I could imagine how busy it is when it was still operational.”
Ewa Wierbik: “The amount of details on this artwork is humongous and a bit overwhelming, but I like the composition. Colors and contrast are also very pleasant to the eye, for sure it looks abandoned.”
Aidy Burrows: “Brilliant sense of scale here, the scene feels massive and very abandoned, nice repetitive shapes and rhythmic distribution throughout.”
Martin Klekner: “Love the amount of detail and the color palette of this piece. Great work!”
Cedric Van der Kelen: “Nice composition and color use, a simple addition of a subject in the circle could’ve really really made this a winner! Like a small drone ship with a strong headlight searching the place, a lost astronaut, … well job anyway!”
We’re congratulating Riley Ryan for receiving an honorable mention!
Follow Riley:
Twitter
“This scene was inspired by a photo of an old Soviet power station with a massive window. The combination of mid-century industrial architecture and sci-fi was unconventional enough for my taste, so I got started just three days before the deadline.
I absolutely could not have achieved this on time without techniques like Ian Hubert style modeling and texture work, where I let the image texture do as much of the heavy lifting as possible and simply compliment it with free form modeling. I decided to focus on the lighting and mood of the scene first so that I could get the cool factor and then be free to add as much detail as I had time for, which saved me a lot of stress. The plasma is a bunch of textured planes in the 3d scene. I did everything in the scene itself so that I could see what the final image would look like in the viewport as I worked, and then I just color graded the render in Photoshop.
The story taking place in this scene is that the plasma generators on the sides have overloaded, leaking dangerous plasma into the station. But the power surge also knocked out the artificial gravity and life support, forcing the surviving crew members to flee the station. The derelict station is now orbiting the earth uncontrolled, like a high altitude Chernobyl.“
Created using Blender 2.94 and Photoshop.
Lukas Walzer: “I love how the shapes and details here are Sci-Fi, but the overall composition and lighting is right out of an old-fashioned haunted mansion, complete with gothic window and corridor. A most fitting combination, and exquisitely executed!”
Darko Vucenik: “That big window, tall ceiling and metal beams give ma a sort of space Gothic vibe. Great mysterious mood in this image. I love the haze, energy effects and how weightlessness is shown with a bunch of tiny floating debris.”
Ozana Nemčanin: “I love this image. Everything is so well-balanced. I love the color scheme and its consistency, the camera angle, the engines, the view… I could list more things I like, but I’ll spare you :D. Great job Ryan!!!”
Ewa Wierbik: “Although artwork seems to be not complicated, the thing that caught my eye was great light and composition. I like the color scheme. Don’t know what happended there, but for sure it looks abandoned.”
We’re congratulating Daniel Nees for receiving an honorable mention!
Follow Daniel:
ArtStation
“I wanted to tell the story of a military commander forced to enact an order he knew was wrong. In this case, the destruction of a civilian space station. I gave him a look of sadness and remorse as he watches the civilian transports being cut down while fleeing the station.
This took me several days and I had a lot of fun making it. The main challenge for me was conveying the story that I wanted in the amount of space my composition allowed. I didn’t block much out and as a result I ended up trying to squeeze more and more into the frame, but I believe I achieved a balance that is pleasing to the eye. In the future, a bit more preparation would definitely be warranted.”
Created using Blender (Cycles) and Nuke.
Lukas Walzer: “So incredibly cinematic! If I hadn’t encountered this in this challenge, I would for sure have thought it’s right out of a movie! All things here are working for the biggest impact, not the least of them the great composition with the dim reflection of the character.”
Ozana Nemčanin: “This image is captivating. For me, the best part of this image is the lighting design and the cinematic look and feel it gives us. Everything is done with great attention to detail.”
Cedric Van der Kelen: “Very cinematic and nice effect. Storytelling feels a bit flat and part of the composition is ruined by having the lasers align with the eyes.”
Amina Khan: “The shadow of a man watching destruction explored in brilliant depth setting. Safe, yet haunting work.”
