4th CG Boost Art Challenge for 3D Artists - Improve your 3D Skills!
Cuteness overload! We had so many cute, funny and also weird characters for our 4th challenge.
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 Kenji Aito for winning the first place!
Follow Kenji:
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“Teddy The Halberdier Bear”.(try to say it! fast ! or is it me only ?)Yes, it started from the sound of it “halberdier bear”. I was not sure I wanted to try my luck with a character as this is my first time !
I went deeper into the armature system in Blender and it rocks…after sculpting roughly, retopo in Instant Mesh. etc. As for the fur/hair/particles, I painted different “length maps” for the fur, and also the “clamping” of hair at specific places. It was very nice and smooth. Finally, I did the armor, the “Morion helmet” and the rest. The halberd was quickly made from scratch. Fully textured in Substance Painter.
This guy has a serious look. He’s proud. See the sigille on the breastplate ?
I will try to add more shots of Teddy the Halberdier Bear on Arstation and maybe something on Sketchfab if I can deal with the fur.”
Created using Blender, Substance Painter and Photoshop.
Chris Plush: Extremely well executed idea in all aspects. Great armor and weapon design, and awesome attention to detail especially on the fur being worn down in some areas.
Aidy Burrows: Nice clear and readable character! Liking the semi-realistic super clean rendering style too. Nice design on the armor – holes for the ears for example and subtle but effective details!
Gregory Smith: This is a great entry; it hits the topic perfectly, and the technical execution is excellent. The presentation is clear and readable, whilst the attention to detail gives it that extra visual interest.
Ebrahim Umar-Khitab: The accuracy of that grim expression has done me in! Great work.
Lukas Walzer: This piece stands out as being technically incredibly well done. Modeling, fur, texturing and posing are top-notch!
Marius Iatan: his little guy checks all the boxes, down to the pin that holds the bandage. Has the right attitude, too. Very nice character!
Julien Kaspar: There clearly has been a lot of focus on polishing the character itself. This is the one I found myself looking at the most, looking at the details as well as the broader decisions of for the character model. Also, really great grooming and materials throughout!
Zacharias Reinhardt: This plushy character has probably the best technical execution I saw in this challenge. From the great looking metal, the perfect looking fur with the worn out spots, down to all the fine details, everything very well executed. A good dynamic pose and a proper lighting shows the character in fully glory. The only thing I wished here, would have been to see this little guy in an environment with a bit more storytelling context.
We’re congratulating Michael Brandstetter for winning the second place!
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“This is Tin. He has been training all his life, to master the arts of bush craft and weapons of his choice. Now he is on his ritual quest to become a full-fledged member of his tribe’s warriors. He has to survive 21 days in the viscous environment of the jungle, relying just on himself.“
Created using Zbrush, Blender and After Effects.
Wybren van Keulen: A truly cute character! Original design and fine details like the blowpipe and darts all finished with high quality shading and a striking rim light that strengthens his pose – this subtle hunting pose, and bold colours make this warrior come alive!
Julien Kaspar: For me, this entry has one of the most consistently high qualities in every aspect. The lighting, character design, storytelling, shading, environment, etc, etc, all makes it a captivating image to look at.
Zacharias Reinhardt: The character design and technical execution here is fantastic. Everything fits well together, the colors, the setting and the character feels really alive, and I love the plush look of the fur. The one little thing that can be easily improved is a slight brightness adjustment, since it seems a bit too dark for my taste.
We’re congratulating Daniel Aubert for winning the thrid place!
Follow Daniel:
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Instagram
“I was very inspired by the collection of owl toys my girlfriend has, which she loves. So I created this strong and brave owl warrior, who’s fighting her way through the forest, defeating some slimes!I always love to give her owl things, so I thought this challenge would be a good opportunity to create another one for the collection. It turns out, that I really enjoyed creating this piece, as I learned to use Pablo Dobarro’s amazing sculpt mode build, which he is improving continuously.
Anyway, thanks a lot for the opportunity! Amazing to be part of this community! Cheers!”
Created using Blender 2.8 (Sculpt Mode features version by Pablo Dobarro)
Aidy Burrows: Very nice composition, adding depth and a dark background to help the character pop, and framed at a slight angle to emphasize the action.
Gregory Smith: The thing that most strikes me in this image is the energy of the character – it’s practically jumping out of the frame. The image as a whole is really well-designed to show the warrior in its world.
Ebrahim Umar-Khitab: Fantastic work! Excruciating attention to detail, consistency in depth and composition.
Julien Kaspar: Even though the overall execution is minimalistic I do like the staging, poses, lighting and characters a lot. It shows you that it’s one thing to add detail to make an artwork look better, but another to get the broader principles of the artwork right.
Zacharias Reinhardt: This little owl character looks super cute but also badass at the same time. Great dynamic rendering, with some funny wobbly enemies. I especially like the lighting, colors and composition here.
We’re congratulating Anton Ivichev for receiving an honorable mention!
Follow Anton:
Artstation
“Thank you organizers for this awesome contest. And thank you Blender developers that give me free tools in time when I deadly need it.
It is my third work made with Blender, I learned how to better handle the hair system (adding hair on skinned mesh and made two particle system in one object for adding some single long hair etc.), and made next step with my workflow.
I spent around 40 hours on this artwork. During the process, the Facebook community of this contest was really motivating me and helped!
The idea grows by itself. After first 3d-blocking, I felt that a pattern of chain armor on the mouse would have fractioned the composition and I wanted to add a something special instead. After drinking a Cola, I found the right solution…”
Created using Blender and Krita.
Chris Plush: Really creative and adorable usage of objects as weapons and shield. Everything is well modeled and textured, and the fur has a paint-stroke feel to it which I love. I feel like this style and the story of the character could easily translate into a fun children’s book.
Ebrahim Umar-Khitab: This lone warrior looks ready to take on the world! The tattered cape, the lid shield…all tying in beautifully!
Lukas Walzer: The grooming could have been a bit smoother and clean in this image, but it appealed to me at first glance because of its very cozy color palette and lighting. And of course a mouse warrior is always a good idea to come up with nice ideas for props and weapons.
Julien Kaspar: Mouse warriors never get old for me to look at, and I do particularly like how the equipment of this one is made of real tiny object. Overall very cute and well done character.
We’re congratulating João Filipe Santiago for receiving an honorable mention!
Follow João:
Artstation
“This is the “Helpless Warrior”, my entry for the CG Boost Challenge. I wanted to fit right in the theme with a cute warrior.
With this artwork I tried to have a good storytelling and feeling, the “Fallen Soldiers”, the Rabbit shadow coming like a monster, the “scar” in the warrior, the symbol in his helmet and his expression lead to feel compassion for the main character, and understand what happened, what it’s happening and what will happen soon.
When people see this artwork, I don’t want people to see only a frame of that reality, but the whole history with pass, present and future. I started to work on that on June 14 and I recorded almost the full progress. I plan to edit it, add some notes and share soon to help other artists and to show how to create a full artwork from modeling and texturing to rendering and compositing in Blender Cycles.
One of the biggest issues I had with it was the concept, warriors are generally associate with strength, angry, power, etc. To make it look cute was a challenge and to make a carrot look as a warrior and at the same time feeling cute, was another challenge. But fortunately I could arrive in the deserved point with this artwork and hope you like it.”
Created using Blender and Photoshop.
Lukas Walzer: Storytelling is king in this image! A very minimalistic scene, yet very powerful in terms of composition and posing!
Julien Kaspar: I love the idea and the storytelling on this one! It’s the aspect that outshines everything else.
