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Over a thousand digital artists competed for big prizes in the latest CGChallenge. Their mission was to create characters and stories worthy of a James Bond or Bladerunner spy thriller.

Adelaide, South Australia, October 9, 2009  The winners of the CGSociety’s CGChallenge XXIV: ‘Secret Agent’ have been announced. Digital artists, from around the world, used their skills to claim more prizes than an evil henchman could carry on his burly shoulders. Over $100,000 worth of software and hardware were on offer in many categories, including Video, Animation, Modeling and Illustration. To win, the artists’ task was to depict characters and events, which involved espionage, gadgets, guns and evil geniuses, via a still image or video.

The Master Award winners of the three main prize categories – Individual Video, Team Video, and Image – all showed not only outstanding technical ability but were also able to successfully delve into the daring and dangerous world of Secret Agents.

The Image Master was awarded to Portugal’s Jose Alves da Silva (Zeoyn) for his ‘Mouse Love’, a whimsical tale of lab rat revenge. ?Good lighting and a nice story twist,? said judge, Mark Snoswell. ?There’s a wonderful mood in this piece,? added Jon Rush. ?Lots of nice details to look at, but they don’t derail the composition.? The excited artist replied that this ?eight week journey with my fellow challengers definitely pushed me to the limit
if you are willing to listen to what other people say, your work will rise to a whole new level. Knowledge and a great brotherhood spirit are the prizes that all contestants can be sure to take from these Challenges.?

The Individual Video Master Award went to France’s Aurelien Rantet (Aurel0988) for his ‘Run for the Artifact’, a futuristic tale of a bumbling spy and his tenacious attempts at securing a curious object. Hal Milton exclaimed ?Wow! Great gags, great designs … This tells an amazingly satisfying story by brilliantly squeezing meaning into every single second on screen. Once again, you individual contributors scare me with your giant, assumed to be pulsing, brains!” Marc Mordelet added: “Amazing sense of colors. How can a young man do all of this professional work alone? I am feeling old now.” The winning artist said “I’m pretty new in the CG world so this award is a real honor for me, especially considering the level of the other participants…Thanks to everyone who offered me encouragement and critiques during my work.”

The Video (Team) Master Award went to Germany/Japan’s ‘Agent Omicron’.The team consisted of Goro Fujita (Goro), Kory Heinzen, Nico Sanghrajka and Ryosuke Fujita. This campy masterpiece features characters from an imaginary 80s TV show, and has a pulsating jazz soundtrack. Alexandra Ciolac judged it as having a ?lovely graphic style. I believe this piece is the best expression of the classic secret agent concept. Nicely timed animation consistent with the style, full of life characters. Great eyes and facial animations.? Marc Mordelet thought it was ?something between Cobra and Dirty Harry. Great animation and beautiful music. I wish to see this on TV!?

A full list of winners for the Secret Agent CGChallenge and their winning entries can be viewed at The CGSociety website ( http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/secretagent ). Previous CGChallenges can also be viewed at The CGSociety website (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/).

Prizes were awarded in Video, Animation, Art Direction, Best Character, Compositing and Editing, Concept Art, Digital Painting, Landscape/Matte Painting, Lighting, Modeling, Sculpture, Texturing, VFX and Illustration categories.

The prizes were sponsored by BOXX, Autodesk, Wacom, NVIDIA, Luxology, e-on Software, stash DVD Magazine, Maxon, Corel, Craft Animations, Side Effects Software, The Gnomon Workshop, Zbrush, ImagineFX, 3dvia, Ballistic Publishing, and CGSociety.

The judges came from the film, game and illustration worlds, past Challenge winners, and leading luminaries within the CGSociety community. Judges were David Wright, Jeff Mottle , Hal Milton, Coro, Brom, Coro, Sasha Ciolac, Marcin Jakubowski , Vasile Brovcenco, Thiago Pires, Arthur Mirzoyam, Tomasz Jedruszek, Marc Mordelet, Martin Köhler, Yap Kun Rong, ru | bonsaininja, David Luong, Don Seegmiller, Jon Rush, Todd Widup, Bryan Silva, Boaz Livny, Roger Cusson, Mark Snoswell, Leigh A. van der Byl, and Anton Fletcher.

Mental Roy – issue 95

If you’ve seen 3DW 95′s Rick Baker’s cover image, you already know what can be achieved with ZBrush 3. Resident columnist Mental Roy has a love-hate relationship with ZBrush: he loves the software – he just hates the fact that students can use it. I…

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I just love it when I come across a bunch of relevant articles to put on IZ. Here’s one from 3D World that talks about character modelling ultra-realistic characters in Zbrush.

http://www.3dworldmag.com/page/3dworld?entry=character_building

Character building

Six leading artists provide their tips for modelling ultra-realistic characters in ZBrush, Mudbox, modo and Silo. When digital sculpting tools were first developed some ten years ago, they reinvented the way 3D modellers work. Instead of painstakingly…

So I know we all have those spare computers laying around collecting dust and doing nothing. Why not put them to good use and create your own render farm! This article from the guys over at 3D World tell you how to set one up!

Build your own render farm

Don’t let your old PCs gather dust – turn them into a powerful render network instead. Our starter guide tells you everything you need to know

We all need all the power we can get when rendering large images or animations and most of us have old computers knocking around the house or office. So why not use them to build your own render network?

Our guide to setting up your own render farm, originally published with issue 94 of 3D World, shows you everything you need to know, from basic network structure to choosing a render queue manager.

The article also includes a complete step-by-step guide to setting up network for free with Blender and Farmerjoe.

You can download the article in PDF format below. Once you‘ve mastered the basics, check out issue 121 of 3D World, which includes 10 tips for streamlining your network structure to boost the efficiency of your farm.

Download the article here

Well I was browsing the appstore today and noticed autodesk released a slick app called ‘Sketchbook Mobile’. Overall for the $4 or so, it’s pretty slick. Mind you, my poor iphone 3G is acting a bit slow so drawing has a bit of lag, but overall, it allows me to sketch while on the go which is cool!

Now when’s Zbrush mobile coming out?