15th CG Boost Art Challenge for 3D Artists - Improve your 3D Skills!
For our 15th challenge, we received 155 submissions, with many epic steampunk devices (and some “gears”, literally).
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 Vladimír Stáňa for winning the first place!
Follow Vladimír:
Artstation
“Originally I planned to do something much simpler with focus on the cogwheels, hidden partially in spiderwebs, but in the end I decided to add some lonely sad guy to the image and placed him in a rainy weather under the umbrella. The design itself was inspirited from game Nier and works from Matt Dixon.
I made the whole scene in blender 2.79/2.82 (for the render I used cycles engine with motion blur). Texturing part was made in Substance Painter and final touches (color grading/sharpening) were made then in Affinity Photo.“
Created using Blender, Substance Painter and Affinity Photo.
Lukas Walzer: “One of the most cinematic images of this challenge! You immediately feel the story unfold in your head when looking at it. Just the umbrella lacks a bit of detail.”
Julien Kaspar: “Great artwork throughout. It really nails the essential aspects of a good artwork.”
Cedric Van der Kelen: “Great compositing lighting and story! This could easily be a screen from an animated movie. Your rain could use a little bit of work. Nice job!”
Aidy Burrows: “The emotion in the scene just hit me straightaway here. So simple but very effective!”
Chris Plush: “Very somber vibe from this one, like it’s the last surviving steampunk creation sitting in a steampunk graveyard at the end of an era. Great atmosphere, modeling, and textures.”
Darko Vucenik: “I love the cute stylized robot. It is simple but looses none of expressiveness. Materials are so appropriate for style chosen, they feel like something from stop-motion animation. Lighting and atmosphere are wonderful.”
Ken Liang: “I like the art direction with this entry. The mood that it creates with the color palette really stood out. Being the focal point, I wished that the umbrella and the hero had more details instead of the cogs and gears scattered around.”
Gregory Smith: “A great concept that hits the topic perfectly. It’s technically well executed with a smattering of subtle detail that brings the image to life.”
Christoph Werner: “Great storytelling, perspective and mood. I love the colors and compositing in Vladimir’s work, too.”
Chipp Walters: “My favorite. Great atmosphere and sense of humor. I like everything about this. Color tone, composition, special effects, sticks to the theme. Just wonderful!"
We’re congratulating Jesús Alberto Olmos Linares for winning the second place!
Follow Jesús:
Artstation
“The scene shows a bounty hunter using a special weapon connected to a series of cylinders and knickknacks located on his back. The character is imbued in armor that protects him from the most severe blows.“
Created using Blender and ZBrush.
Lukas Walzer: “A fully fledged realistic CG character with everything done that needs to be done: Modeling, Shading, Grooming, Lighting, everything has been done well in this image.”
Gregory Smith: “The main things that took my attention in this character presentation are all the intricate designs and small details, particularly on the weapon, that help bring the whole to life.”
Aidy Burrows: “Great character design here and brilliantly executed, modeling, materials, texturing, everything! The details in the gun alone is impressive. Very nicely done throughout!”
Chris Plush: “Very well-made character, and great steam punk designs especially on the pistol. I love the detail and materials.”
Darko Vucenik: “With that badge around her waist, this is one cool steampunk officer. Nicely designed and executed character. Awesome looking gun.”
Christoph Werner: “Very nice work. I like the combination of medieval and steampunk elements.”
Ken Liang: “Great character design. I can clearly see the steam powered weapon connected to the hot air pressure canister, which fits perfectly into the challenge’s team. Only wished that the materials were layered with wear and tear. Everything looks too squeaky clean at the moment.”
Wybren van Keulen: “Good work on the materials, they make her come to life.”
e’re congratulating Jan Flormann for receiving the third place!
Follow Jan:
Artstation
“Hi, this is my entry for the Steampunk Challenge. I discovered a few tricks, for example the gears were modelled by using a free dingbat font that contained a lot of gear symbols, converted to meshes I had all my gears in no time. All in all this challenge was great fun, thanks for the opportunity.“
Created using Blender.
Julien Kaspar: “A big plus for the design and level of detail on this model. A lot of effort went into this.”
Cedric Van der Kelen: “Great take on a modern product, it feels believable and realistic. Well done!”
Gregory Smith: “A great concept that hits the topic perfectly. It’s technically well executed with a smattering of subtle detail that brings the image to life.”
Marius Iatan: “Because the world as we know it would end without coffee, and because this openwork machine is a very nice piece of art. Well done!”
Ken Liang: “Very cool steampunk coffee making machine! What’s better than making a cup of coffee while generating more steam to power itself? Genius! Would look better if the materials were given the same amount of attention that it had gotten for the modeling.”
Andrew Probert: “Very cool steampunk coffee making machine! What’s better than making a cup of coffee while generating more steam to power itself? Genius! Would look better if the materials were given the same amount of attention that it had gotten for the modeling.”
We’re congratulating Denise Low for receiving an honorable mention!
Follow Denise:
Artstation
“Steampunk taxidermy case of an Emperor Butterfly that has been restored with gold and metal. As in the steampunk world, there are many airships, so the butterfly serves as an inspiration for the invention to fly, hence the name of the piece is ‘Flight’. There are gears that are supposed to represent clouds, signifying that the butterfly is flying in the sky.
Made the piece a little rusted and dusty to show that it’s been left unseen by humans for quite a while but the sun rays from a nearby window still greets it.“
Created using 3dsMax, Substance Painter and Photoshop.
Lukas Walzer: “The fragility and delicateness of this piece really drew my attention. There’s a really charming cinematic quality to this one, and I also love the uncommonly tall aspect ratio!”
Cedric Van der Kelen: “Awesome! The colors really work and the detail and lighting are very well-chosen. The shadows feel a bit heavy (not enough light bouncing?) and create a bit too much contrast and clutter in the detailed parts. Well done!”
Gregory Smith: “This entry stood out to me straight away – the colouring in particular is excellent, and it meets the topic in an original way. I also really like the framing and the way that the aspect ratio is used to support the narrative.”
Wybren van Keulen: “I would love to see this one animated. You’re using a genius composition trick here, the bell jar gives the butterfly even more focus.”
We’re congratulating Sybren Westendorp for receiving an honorable mention!
Follow Sybren:
Artstation
“For this project, I got the idea to make a scene of an engineer building his steampunk mech.
I started by creating some general shapes to get a good feeling for the scale I wanted to work on and where I wanted the camera to be.
Then I spent about half my time on designing and making the mech and trying to make it look technically plausible. I looked up both old and modern steam engines like waste heat engines to take up some inspiration of how I could fit a steam engine inside.
The other half of my time I spent on making all the factory in the background with more traditional steam engines and all the other assets, taking inspiration by gathering reference pictures of both steampunk and Victorian age industry. The last day was mostly used to do the lighting, steam effects and particles.
The scene was completely modeled/composed in Blender 2.82 and rendered with Cycles. I used this project to start learning Substance Painter and incorporate into a workflow with Blender. In the end it was quite a challenge to get it all finished in time. The steam was created by animating the smoke emitters to pulsate the density and then baking it.”
Created using Blender, Substance Painter and Affinity Photo.
Aidy Burrows: “Cool big mechanical contraption, I love it! Great work on the environment too, the big robot must have taken long enough. :D”
Lukas Walzer: “Great sense of scale and detail. I would like the floor to look more like a dirty shop floor, but the rest of the detail is superb. Bonus points for high concept! Great work.”
Andrew Probert: “Just loved the look, feel, and setting of this steam-powered mech.”
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