It’s done! Our first large-scale challenge is over and I was floored by the number and the quality of the entries.
After two rounds of voting, the judges (see their names here) settled on the final scores for the winners. And even after they were known, we asked them to remain silent until they had booked their trips to BCON. That moment has now arrived and it is with great pleasure that I can announce who will be joining us at the Blender Conference later this month!
Huge thanks to Sketchfab for sponsoring this event and to @ogbog for handling the day to day of the event, chasing the judges (and me!) and everything else!
Okay, let’s do this:
1st Place: Flying Boat by @Newen
Here’s what our judges had to say about this work:
- Animation, cartoony shading, great color scheme, composition, custom made
assets. - Color palette and originality
- An amazing scene with so much to discover! Creating cell shaded models is not easy but Newen did an amazing job on this one - I don’t think I have seen many models on Sketchfab that have this much detail and subtle colors. Great use of the viewer’s animation capabilities too and I really enjoyed the annotations in this scene.
- This is my favorite ! It is a complete remake of the original splash, with a new mood and new style, but keeps the main idea of the original. Or at least one possible interpretation of the original : the arrival of a boat, and a person waiting on a dock for the journey. It gives fresh and nice new interpretation and a whole new universe to the splash.
Newen wins:
- EUR 2500 travel/lodging
- EUR 500 cash
- Full Conference Ticket including dinners, value of EUR 345
- 12 months of Sketchfab Premium, value of EUR 930
- Total value: EUR 4275
In a reaction, Newen writes:
I’m very grateful that my work was chosen and I want to thank Sketchfab and the judges for making this wonderful experience possible.This contest was an opportunity to challenge myself to do a scene much more complex to the ones I did until now.
I never uploaded any work to Sketchfab before but it was something that I wanted to do since long time ago. It was amazing to see that my very first uploaded work had such an awesome reception, thank you very much!
In this piece I included all elements that I usually use in my work such as: low poly aesthetic, videogame vibes and objects representing my own culture. One of my favorite parts of this piece is the little fox cooking “choripanes” (meat sausages) on a “chulengo” (grill built on a metal barel) in the back side of the ship.
The opportunity to travel to Amsterdam and assist to the Blender Conference is a dream come true! I never traveled so far from home and I am very excited to meet the community in person.
See you all soon!
2nd Place: Fishy POV by @Homspau
The judges said:
- Creative take on theme, great custom made assets, great composition and lighting, looks great from different angles, looks professional
- Character design
- Wow, Homspau turned this cute kitty into a burning flame of mayhem! Great use of the Sketchfab viewer that reveals the terrified look on the fish’s face
I was hoping for some more annotations to tell more of a story. - The artworks looks like a continuity of the original splash, but with a big twist, with a funny interpretation and an mood change that is well done !
Homspau wins:
- EUR 2500 travel/lodging
- Full Conference Ticket including dinners, value of EUR 345
- 6 months of Sketchfab Premium, value of EUR 465
- Total value: EUR 3310
In a reaction, Homspau created this awesome video:
Congrats everyone! Enjoy, and I’ll see you soon
I was hoping to win but after seeing your 3d art , you guys absolutely deserve it!! I will try to learn lots from both of your 3d arts and will try to compete in the next upcoming challenge by 
Enjoy Amsterdam, you two did a great job. 