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18th CG Boost Art Challenge for 3D Artists - Improve your 3D Skills!
For our 18th challenge, we received 233 submissions, and broke the record for the most submissions so far!
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 Felipe del Rio for winning the first place!
Follow Felipe
Artstation
“I changed my idea a lot since I started, but then I decided to create a peaceful image from a mushroom village by the river with a character ready to go for a fishing adventure in a leaf boat.
I made the scene with Blender 2.91. In the beginning, I thought about sculpting the mushrooms, but eventually, I decided to go with a more procedural workflow using modifiers (a bunch of displacement maps and subdivisions) and it was a cool process. I rendered the scene in Cycles and some textures I created in Substance Designer.”
Created using Blender, Cycles and Substance Designer.
Zacharias Reinhardt: “This is a very pleasing and aesthetic render. The warm color and mood of the scene and the composition with the strong depth of field makes it feel like a miniature world you would discover through a magnifier. Fantastic work!”
Gregory Smith: “An attractive scene with bold color and strong modelling. The character adds some life and helps to build a narrative.”
Wybren van Keulen: “I’m getting a Mediterranean vibe from this image. Great work on the texture of the mushroom hats.”
Ken Liang: “This is such a well-designed render. Great composition too, the massive mushrooms on the left are well-balanced with the empty wide area on the right, makes the whole image pleasing to look at. Really love the vibrant colors, give the image a very dreamy feeling.”
Lukas Walzer: “I just love this shallow depth of field that gives this sense of a vast yet microscopic world! Also, very nice stylization on the mushroom modeling!.”
We’re congratulating Bartlomiej Papis for winning the second place!
Follow Bartlomiej
Behance
“One day in the quiet peaceful, elven mushroom village.“
Created using 3ds Max, Corona renderer.
Zacharias Reinhardt: “Very pleasing choice of color, composition and light. It feels like you could stumble across this little world while hiking through the forest. This render invites exploring. First you think these are simple mushrooms, but then you see all the tiny characters and realize that these mushrooms are actual houses. Also, great job on the fantastic execution.”
Chris Plush: “I really liked the composition of this, and the collection of fun little houses. Great attention to detail in this.”
Wybren van Keulen: “A wonderful shaded forest scene, the perfect spot for a mushroom village. I love the intense greens of the moss and the translucent leaf materials. Spot on!”
Ken Liang: “This render grabbed my attention the most when I was browsing through the submitted entries. Great composition that captures the contrast between light and dark. Also love the earthy tone to the overall image, as well as the details that are carefully planted throughout. The tiny elf fairies are a nice touch as well!”
Lukas Walzer: “A tiny world of peace! Also here, shallow depth of field and juicy rim light let the best in this scene shine brightly!”
We’re congratulating Glenn Melenhorst for receiving the third place!
Follow Glenn:
Artstation
“This took me a weekend on and off to make. I wanted to make something atmospheric using a mushroom that wasn’t the standard red cap.
I used real grass to work out my layout then hand modeled all the grass and daisies for the final. I thought about adding in a ladybug but decided against it at the last minute.”
Created using Blender & Photoshop, rendered in Cycles.
Zacharias Reinhardt: “Fantastic use of light and composition in this render with great attention to detail. The mushroom fits perfectly into this image. It feels like a nice a cozy place to live as a microscopic-sized person. I really enjoy exploring all the tiny details in this render.”
Lukas Walzer: “Incredibly well composed and an extraordinarily harmonic color choice! Everything in this image plays to the strengths of the models. Awesome!”
Chris Plush: “Very artistic presentation with a great use of lighting and colors. The textures and details are top-notch.”
Darko Vucenik: “A very nice design of the house. I like the numerous lanterns and windows all over the mushroom. Water drops on the roof are a great addition. Very good use of depth of field and use of warm colors to focus the view on the house in cool colored environment.”
We’re congratulating Manuel Köpp for receiving an honorable mention!
“I found the topic of the challenge very exciting from the beginning because it offers many creative possibilities. At the same time, I have always loved digital images that represent nature, especially in the area of macrophotography. The play with depth of field and the creation of a special lighting mood has also always fascinated me.
My approach to this challenge aimed at a more realistic representation of the mushroom. In combination with the typical elements of a house this resulted in a very special style. I also invested a lot of time in the creation of the surroundings to give the picture different levels of depth. Finally, I decided to make the whole thing a bit more exciting and added the ants watching the house. Do they pose a danger for the inhabitants? Or are they just neighbors? That’s for the viewer to decide.“
Created using Blender and Cycles.
Lukas Walzer: “Ahh, this dreamy nice rim light coming through this gently composed scene with its effectfully placed grass blades and clover, just amazing!”
Chris Plush: “Really well-made in all aspects. Every detail carefully considered, including foreground elements and the lighting especially.”
Darko Vucenik: “There is so much well executed detail in this image. From cool looking house with suspended bridge, wonderful foliage, particles in the air to menacing ants. I really like the low sun angle. It creates nice rim light on the mushroom, emphasizes the sub surface scatting on the plants and gives nice highlights on shiny ants.”
Ken Liang: “I really like the story element in this render. The ants can’t get to the mushroom house, thanks to the moat. Great lighting and realistic foliage. The dust particles in the air is a great idea. My only comment would be that the composition in the background could use some improvisation.”
We’re congratulating Jere Piirainen for receiving an honorable mention!
Follow Jere:
Artstation
“My goal was to create some kind of mysterious residence in dark atmosphere. I started modeling the mushroom and branch in Modo and created the bridge and vines procedurally in Houdini. Final scene was rendered using Redshift with heavy noise reduction to give it this stylized look.“
Created using Modo, Houdini, Substance Painter, Redshift.
Lukas Walzer: “The very dramatic composition really shows these mushrooms as some kind of fantasy castle. Great work!”
Gregory Smith: “Striking lighting and great technical execution on the mushrooms makes this image bold and engaging. The sense of scale is good, which is difficult to achieve in a scene like this.”
Aidy Burrows: “Love the composition on this one, a simple combination of elements that work super well. A great deal of realism amongst the fantasy too, a great mix!”
Darko Vucenik: “I very much like the sense of adventure in this image. The bridge in the foreground invites me to explore the house. Backlight on the house looks very cool and mushrooms are nice and slimy.”
