The CGSociety is proud to present the winners of our largest challenge to date: CG Challenge XXI - 'Strange Behavior'.
From the beginning we defined the topic for this challenge as: 'Strange Behavior' - "The unexpected can delight or shock. It can be exciting or frightening. It's often funny. It's never boring!"
The global CG community rose to the challenge and responded with enthusiasm, generating some of the most imaginative and entertaining work we have ever seen.
The CGChallenges organised by the CGSociety have always been the largest competitions of their kind in the world.
We dramatically expanded the scope and prize pool in this the Strange Behavior challenge with over US$90,000 in prizes for 15 winning entries.
Traditionally CGChallenges have been illustration based. In the previous challenge (EON) we introduced a film trailer category and were astounded with the quality of entries. Inspired by this we elevated Animation and Short Film to join Illustration as major categories with Master and Excellence awards in each.
As well as this we introduced 9 special categories to recognize a wide range of additional skills: Modeling, Texturing, Lighting, Visual Effects, Art Direction, Cinematography, Matte Painting, Compositing & Editing and Screen Play adaption.
The Strange Behavior Challenge was sponsored by BOXX Technologies, NVIDIA, Autodesk, Softimage, Pixologic, Luxology, e-on Software, Maxon, REALVIZ, Corel, Stash, Gnomon Workshop, MudBox, and Ballistic Publishing.
With so many outstanding entries the judging was difficult, but the jury selected the 15 entries that stood out as truly world class. On behalf of the Judges, sponsors, our staff and the whole CGSociety I would like to extend our warmest thanks to all the entrants who join us now in congratulating the winners.
Mark Snoswell,
President of the CGSociety.
Choosing a challenge topic is a difficult task. Strange Behavior was a reflection of the type of work the digital community favors and appealed to the mischievous side of us all. This topic also offered a broad theme as an alternative to the focus of the previous challenge on a single blockbuster book, EON. The community was thrilled with the topic and the choices it offered. As a consequence we have seen some of the most bizarre and entertaining work to date.
The challenges would not happen without the support of sponsors. Fortunately the sponsors are as geeky and into art as the entrants. This is an industry that everyone enjoys being a part of. The sponsors were very enthusiastic when we showed them the concept of Strange Behavior and the new categories. From everyone here at Ballistic and the entire CGSociety we thank our sponsors.
In addition to previous winners, we were privileged to have three outstanding external Judges. Jinko Gotoh [1], Film Producer; Dan Curry [2], Film producer/director and Paul Gulino [3], Head of Screenwriting at Chapman film school.
We thank all of our judges for helping out in our most ambitious and complex challenges to date.
4. Mark Snoswell
5. Emiliano Colantoni
6. Marco Stellabotte
7. Gianfranco Sgura
8. David Bonelli
9. James Kaufeldt
10. Torsten Wolber
11. Leigh van der Byl
12. Dehong He
13. Damian Bajowski
