24th CG Boost Art Challenge for 3D Artists - Improve your 3D Skills!
For our 24th challenge, we received 91 submissions and discovered an incredible amount of different and great folklore stories and traditions.
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 Kay John Yim for winning the first place!
Follow Kay:
Website
“Magic and alchemy flourished in the early days of the Grand Ducky of Tuscany, when the laws of free of religion were promulgated and the study of science was popularized.
Tuscan folklore has it that the Sammezzano Castle, an Italian palazzo located in the town of Reggello constructed during that period, occupies an incomplete ancient Alchemical door that could be traced back to spiritual alchemy from the Roman times.
The White Rotunda in particular, out of the 365 rooms within the Sammezzno Castle, is overlaid with delicate ornaments shaped like plants and elaborate geometrical carvings. These ornaments are believed to be enchantment symbols that complete the ancient Alchemical door – a gateway where undying spirits were conjured during enchantment ceremonies, possessing mortal “hosts” in return of immortality.
The Sammezzano Castle was abandoned in World War II; the key to immortality may have been left untouched since then, but the undying spirits and immortal “hosts” have been passed on as Tuscan folktales of legendary creatures and vampires living among the rest of mortal beings like us.
This piece marks a huge milestone in my 8 years of CG self-learning journey.
Having to spend more time at home due to the COVID lock-down last year, I set myself a goal to learn, create and post CG art online on a regular basis. I gradually progressed from creating CG architecture to landscape, creatures to human beings. This piece took me about 17 days to finish – my first project completed mostly procedurally. It is a culmination of a whole year of non-stop practice, a CG rendering that embodies every bit of my heart and soul.“
Created using Houdini, Redshift, Cinema4D, ZBrush, Rhino, Character Creator and Marvelous Designer.
Lukas Walzer: “This piece is not only impressive in terms of lighting and composition, it also delivers an epic amount of details! Awesome!”
Cedric Van der Kelen: “cool concept, materials, but composition is very unreadable, mostly cause of the noise detail in the dragon, structure and subject. Less is more!”
Aidy Burrows: “This image has a great energy to it, yet the figures seem so still, it’s a great contrast in dynamism as well as many other aspects of the composition. There’s so much fine detail in this it’s hard to keep the eyes from searching through the image, great work!”
Ewa Wierbik: “Overall I like the details and point of focus in this one. The dragon-like creature made out of swirling pieces of lace in the air looks very nice, you can definitely see a some kind of ritual going on there. The only thing that does not match to the composition and color in the artwork is very colorful stained-glass in the back. But other than that, impressive details and good storytelling.”
Christoph Werner: “I like Kay’s attention for details in this image and the realistic lighting. Great architecture.”
Martin Klekner: “An outstanding work on this one, I especially love the amount of detail that went into this piece. I also enjoy the subtle bluish hues mixing with intense orange and gold. The characters are very well done too. The only criticism I have is the bright red and green spot below the floating lady – it almost seems like a glitch, and it takes away too much attention. Nevertheless, really like this one!”
Darko Vucenik: “Lace dragon enveloping his bride is so well done. Lace material gives to the dragon the right balance between ethereal and solid presence. Architecture is detailed continuing the lacy motif and frames the scene well.”
Ken Liang: “Simply magical! I like the great composition and contrast in lighting that truly brings out all the details in this artwork. Really really loving the design of the dragon, never seen anything like it before.”
Joseph Nickson: “Beautiful attention to detail here paired with sublime lighting framed all together in a well-thought-out composition, fantastic work all around.”
We’re congratulating Malte Lenz for winning the second place!
Follow Malte :
Instagram
“I’ve long been fascinated by the story of the pied piper, and living pretty close to Hamelin at the moment I decided to take it as the topic for this challenge.
Being usually depicted in bright colors I wanted to give the piper a darker tone to fit the sinister undertone of the story. The use of colors here is inspired by the fantastic works of Lenka Simeckova and though it is hard to carry over that style into 3D, I’m quite happy with the result.
The mystical always had a strong allure on me, so I’ve decided to present the piper as not quite human, but batches of rats piling together to create the impression of one.
Never forget to pay the piper.“
Created using Blender.
Lukas Walzer: “A very interesting and mysterious depiction of the famous fairy tale. Nice use of NPR shading, I’d love to see a movie in this style!”
Cedric Van der Kelen: “sublime color use, concept and style! The distribution of rats could’ve been a bit more natural”
Marius Iatan: “I like this take on the Pied Piper story. It’s very suggestive, and illustrates the grim mood of the tale very well.”
Eugenia Peruzzo: “I love the character design of the pied piper and the silhouette it creates with the rats. Great use of the shader which is a very fitting choice for the subject.”
Ozana Nemčanin: “The Rat-Catcher is the story that has been read to me as a child. Very much like the interpretation here, and the way the dynamic between the main character and the rats is presented.”
Darko Vucenik: “Excellent use of cell shader. I very much like the style of this piece. Although the 3d geometry is somewhat simple, the artistic choices made make this image so much fun to look at.”
We’re congratulating Fred Soub for receiving the third place!
“There are legends so old that it is impossible to know since when they are being told. Yet there must be a source, there must be some truth, hidden behind the myth.
I tried to imagine a place where people worshiped giants. These ancient gods were gone but not forgotten. Decade after decade, they slowly became part of folklore.“
Created using 3ds Max, V-Ray and Photoshop.
Lukas Walzer: “I just love the goofy Sci-Fi approach in this one! This vehicle’s design is crazy for sure, but nonetheless perfectly executed and striving for plausibility. And then the setting itself is also very charming!”
Marius Iatan: “I like the ‘trike’ bus concept with the driver sitting in the front wheel. The vehicle looks futuristic enough, and yet the scene as a whole is familiar and doesn’t look out of place.”
Ozana Nemčanin: “I adore this image Benedicto made. Such a warm story behind it. It is well done. Great model, texturing, and surroundings.”
Wybren van Keulen: “An original design presented in a beautiful surrounding! The warm summer evening atmosphere really comes across with the warm lighting. Spot on!”
We’re congratulating Carlos Alejandro for receiving an honorable mention!
Follow Carlos :
Artstation
“According to Czech legend, the remains of the Golem are still kept in a coffin, and it can be brought back to life … when needed.
I sculpted the soldier over a skinned model of Makehuman. Once finished, I posed him and sculpted the Golem adding some particles and a bit of chromatic aberration in the composer. 10 days were enough to complete the whole piece.“
Created using Blender.
Lukas Walzer: “You really nailed the expression on that soldier’s face! All this grime and dirt almost transforming him also into a stone creature!”
Ewa Wierbik: “The storytelling on this artwork is just amazing. You need only one look to know that the man is in the big danger. I love the face of this soldier, and dark and dirty atmosphere.”
Christoph Werner: “I’m not sure what kind of folklore story this image represents, but it is very funny and well-made. I love the expression of the soldier.”
Ozana Nemčanin: “The expression of this character is priceless. You notice immediately his stiff posture and fear, but on the other hand, the style makes it kind of funny and inviting to observe more on other details.”
Eugenia Peruzzo: “Great storytelling, I can almost hear the creature breathing and the soldier’s teeth creaking.”
Martin Klekner: “Great atmosphere in this render, I especially like the model of the soldier, the grit and dirt all over. The mud shader on the monster maybe could use some more work, but that’s a minor criticism of an overall great piece!”
Darko Vucenik: “All around excellent piece that scores high on all fronts in both storytelling and technical execution. The Soldier clutching his gun with scared shitless expression on his face is just awesome. I love how all surfaces are smeared with mud from the golem. Golem himself is so menacing and the posing in relation to the soldier is spot on.”
Ken Liang: “Wow! That look on his face certainly sells it! Love the texture work on the character. It’s already a great piece of artwork, but I’d add some motion blur to the falling debris and add some sweat/wetness onto the soldier’s face to help enhance it. The glowing eye could also serve as a good source of rim lighting for the character.”
We’re congratulating Peter Černý for receiving an honorable mention!
Follow Peter:
BlenderArtists
“I was enjoying this topic and I chose a topic from local legends of slavic myths and fairy tales. This is a “Rusalka” a water nymph who seeks and attracts the victims with their beauty into the swamps, where deceived by their beauty there they found their death.
I learned new things like create my first character, use and texturing a curves with traditional symbols and embroidered ribbons and I improved my skills in composition, lighting and texturing new kinds of materials at all.
I was working on this topic during one week, and it took me about 30 hours with the preparatory work and concepts.
All is made in Blender 2.92 and render in Cycles render engine. The character is modeled with Manuel Bastioni LAB add-on for Blender, trees are made with the Sappling tree add-on. And the rest are some traditional symbols and water plants in this beautiful deadly swamp.
Texture editing and creation with Blender and Gimp.“
Created using Blender and Gimp.
Lukas Walzer: “I really love how all those natural ornaments are flowing like garments and jewels. Great work!”
Ewa Wierbik: “In the context of reference to the theme of the competition, the artwork is great. It brings me memories when we said goodbye to the winter and welcomed the spring back at school. The idea is very nice, I like all the details on her body, but adding slight post process to the whole image could make it even better. Her face, especially eye area is a little bit to smooth but other than that, it looks mysterious, and I’m sure a lot of work was put to create it.”
Ozana Nemčanin: “The colors are so inviting and warm. I like this semi-realistic style that was well executed.”
Ken Liang: “Interesting juxtaposition between the beauty of the woman and the vibrant plants dressed on her against the misty, murky, mysterious, dull swampy background. The expression on her face seems to tell a lot too. Great character design overall.”
