Update: see the winners!
It’s been one year since we launched RenderStreet One, our flat fee rendering program, and it was a great experience to see it evolve and attract more and more users. We decided to take a risk when we came up with this program, and we’re glad to see that it paid off and the program provides real value to budget-conscious users.
Contest and prizes: We decided to celebrate RenderStreet One’ anniversary together with the Blender community and have a little get-together in form of a skill contest. The challenge will bring the winner a one-year subscription for (what else?) our all you can render—RenderStreet One—program. For the second and third places, the prizes are 6 months and respectively 3 months of access to RenderStreet One, and we’re also giving a one-month subscription for other 3 mentions. In total, this adds up to 24 months of free rendering for some talented people looking to get the rendering stage out of their mind and out of their homes or offices. And to top that up, The Cycles Material Vault is sponsoring the contest and granting to the 1st place winner a copy of their all-new materials library. How does that sound to you?
Long story short, here’s what the contest is about.
Mission: Usually, contests have a general theme, and you need to model something fitting that theme. We decided to up the challenge for a bit and let you demonstrate your finesse skills. So this contest’s theme will be to create a render based on a concept art created by our partner Oana (aka BlenderMama). The starting concept is the one below. And if you’re wondering why a cat, we’ll explain it all.
You have complete freedom in creating the final art. Freestyle, manga, lots of fur, lots of fluff, a technopunk duck, whatever floats your boat. And then we’ll see how much the jury likes it.
The winners will be selected by a three-person jury: two of them are members of the RenderStreet team, Oana/BlenderMama who also signs the original image, and Marius. The third jury member is Reynante Martinez, the guy who always amazes us with his compositions. And we’ll be featuring the top entries here after the contest ends.
The flying cat
Ok, let’s get to the organizational part. Here are the contest’s rules:
—Download the concept image here. Create your scene using Blender. You have more than two weeks ahead.
—Send us the image before Sunday, March 27th 00:00 at contact@render.st, along with your name. Alternately, you can upload it in the comments below.
—The entries will be assigned points based on the following criteria: Interpretation – 35%, Model – 30%, Render – 35%
—Winners will be announced on Wednesday, March 30th. All winners will need to provide the source blend file to validate the entry.
—For questions, please use the comments, so we can get things clear for everyone
—Clarification following a question in the comments: you may submit more than one entry for the contest if you wish. However, only one prize can be awarded to a person, regardless of the number of entries they submit.
So why a cat? Because cats are cool. And brave. And have 9 lives. And they will do everything – even learn to fly, as you can see – to get to what they want. We dig that, it’s a nice attitude, and kinda looks like what we’re trying to do. And…did we mention cats are cuddly and fluffy?
If you’re not in it to win it, please share the challenge on Twitter. Give your friends a chance to win one year of free rendering and a cool materials library. They’ll love it all.
Before announcing the winners, I would like to thank every one of you who entered the contest. It wasn’t the easiest of themes, and I’m glad to see that you put your skills to good use and created original works based on the contest idea. Congratulations for participating!
And now, the jury has spoken. Here are winners, with a direct feedback from Oana Vinatoru, author of the contest image concept.
1st place: one year of free rendering with RenderStreet One, plus a copy of the Cycles Material Vault: Dirk Wachsmuth
Dirk Wachsmuth – 1st place
Oana’s feedback: “This steampunk-flavored chase takes the concept to an epic dimension and it was an uncontested winner, both in idea and execution. In this setup, Duck has a good chance of escaping and I almost wish for a sequel to find out what happened. Just to show my critical side, I wish the balloons were used in a better way rather than just floating around but otherwise I love every detail!”
2nd place: 6 months of free rendering with RenderStreet One: Fernando Telles
Fernando Telles – 2nd place
Oana’s feedback: “This is a good, well-constructed image that won by checking points in all departments. The expressions on the characters are funny and the posing looks convincing and balanced, and that outweighed the less successful fur and feathers attempt. I felt it captured well the spirit of my drawing.”
3rd place: 3 months of free rendering with RenderStreet One: Jason Moon
Jason Moon – 3rd place
Oana’s feedback: “This image bursts with energy and a good epic feel. The colors are outrageous but do work rather well with the composition and idea, and this is what propelled this image to the front over some technical minuses. I hope the balloons don’t burst at that altitude :)”
Honorable Mentions: one month of free rendering with RenderStreet One: Shadrack Munene, Robert Gutierrez and Mrityunjay
Shadrack Munene – mention
Oana’s feedback: “This is a funny cartoony interpretation, with a nice color scheme and composition. With a bit more work on the materials and modeling this cat could fly high!”
Robert Gutierrez – mention
Oana’s feedback: “This dreamy scene puts the cat-duck relationship in a new perspective. It’s an inspired original interpretation of the concept that would have marked higher with more detailed modeling and materials.”
Mrityunjay – mention
Oana’s feedback: “Another fun take on the concept makes this image stand out. The plot turns against the cat this time, as a whole fleet of birds heads towards him. I would have liked a closer look at the cat’s details, the scene is too wide and the ground below does not help the overall effect.”
Congratulations to all the winners, good job!
Important: Those of you who haven’t submitted the blend file, please do so as soon as possible, so we can validate your entry. You will receive details regarding prize activation after the validation.
