Without borders 3D Challenge Winners Announcement!

We are very happy to announce the winners of the Without borders Challenge.

Participants were to create a 3D work with a famous building from their country, that would be the best place to visit by a traveler. Environment in the work should be made in 3D. You can see the rules here.

Made with using 3ds Max and Corona Renderer.

Also Ramees gets a Special prize from Corona Renderer team for the best work made with using Corona and a Special prize from Nevercenter team for the Best sky in a work.

Nevercenter team: “The sky in this render is full of a mood, and illuminated nighttime clouds like this are a sky worth taking time to pause, look at, and escape into”.

Corona renderer team: “This work nails everything, from mood and atmosphere, composition (we love how the tower “reaches beyond the moon”), to rendering quality”.

Comments from the Jury:

Yurii Lebediev: “Symmetrical composition is boring in most cases (for me personally). But Moon and all other elements that break this symmetry make this render special. I love the night lighting and the position of clouds in the background too”.

Martin Krasemann: “Lot of work on this one, creating a nice night scene is a complex task and the tower is really well lightened. Composition works also very well. The reflection on the water looks nice also”.

Alessandro Maniscalco: “Great architectural rendering with amazing modelled and detailed structure. I was shocked about environment crispy details. Great night atmosphere”.

Agnieszka Klich: “Realistic image, nice composition, interesting lighting setup! A great way of using the contrast between cold and warm lights to balance composition and focus interest on the main subject of the image – the tower”.

Kenny Zou: “Excellent rendering and mood-setting, especially with the moon so big, nice work!”.

Calvin Bacon: “The lighting, composition, and mood that this render portrays are fantastic. The incredibly high level of detail and realism make this my top pick”.

Jonathan Holmes: “Eye-catching design with beautiful lighting and a very melancholy atmosphere. Loving it!”.

Jacob Norris: “Fantastic mood and the minimal use of colors really helps to highlight the shapes of this beautiful architecture”.

Emanuele Serra: “This work attracted my attention, simple in its composition, but very interesting in the use of night lights, expressing the intense strength of the structure. I like how the colors and contrasts of the composition have been balanced”.

Paul Roberts: “The main building is very well modelled with an atmospheric mood and detailed context. The composition is strong with the form defined by using a predominantly dark building defined against the lighter sky. Modelling is to a good standard with a good amount of information communicated in the surrounding site without it distracting from the main focus”.

Nicolas Wirrmann: “I particularly liked the mood, the lighting work and subtle post processing. The result is an elegant photorealistic render. (The moon might be a bit too much though 😉)”.

Quick interview with Ramees:

Made with using 3ds Max, V-ray, Megascans and Photoshop.

Also Todor gets Special prize from Exlevel team for the “Best Environment”.

Exlevel team: “Very realistic image. Render looks like a photo!”

Comments from the Jury:

Lynette Clee: “The composition of this piece is wonderful, using the pathway to draw our eye into the frame and up to explore the details of the tower. The balance of architecture and nature seems very thoughtful, and the lighting and reflections help to bring this scene to life with great photorealism”.

Martin Krasemann: “The only reason this one didn’t end up in the 1st place is because the walkway in front of the camera feels really empty, I would have loved to see people and bicycles”.

Alessandro Maniscalco: “Amazing dusk environment render with amazing modern architecture. Very good composition”.

Fabio Allamandri: “Very nice shot. I like the composition of the image”.

Maciej Ptaszynski:” Very cool image! I love the lighting and the materials. One of my favourites. Congrats!”

Calvin Bacon: “The composition does a great job of drawing the eye to what should be in focus, which is clearly the powerful skyscraper. The final result is a render that is executed beautifully and to a very high technical level”.

Tom Grimes: “Have to admit it was the wet ground and blurred lighting that rounded out this image for me, giving a sense of early morning perhaps, or after some light rainfall. The sharp detail of the tower then contrasts nicely”.

Jonathan Holmes: “Nearly a photograph” render that really impressed me. Fantastic lighting and composition skills here!”.

Jacob Norris: “A great choice for a very interesting building and presented in such a beautiful way in this simple, yet exciting piece”.

Paul Roberts: “A strong architectural render with some excellent modelling of the main building and texturing of the surrounding environment. Good use of light to create some interesting reflections”.

Arseniy Korablev: “Professional and realistic artwork. I like the city feeling here”.

Stephanie Schenck: “Great photo-realistic render of the scene; we especially like the reflection of the sky textures and surrounding elements on the curved parts of the tower, and the feel of the sidewalk tile. You can feel the slight-slipperiness, the gentle imperfections within the uniformity, the transition to rougher textures for the raised bumps. Well done”.

Quick interview with Todor:

Made with using Redshift, Cinema4D, Rhino, Speedtree and ZBrush.

Comments from the Jury:

Yurii Lebediev: “I adore pictures with soul. And this is the case. Not just hyper-realistic render but great attention to the mood and vibe of the moment”.

Martin Krasemann: “Love the poetic atmosphere that is getting out of this image”.

Alessandro Maniscalco: “We love the happiness and colors of this picture. The beautiful atmosphere is everywhere and the compositing is very good. Great compositing and environment objects…”.

Agnieszka Klich: “The image of the palace drew my attention instantly. It tells a story about the place – thanks to this the author added extra value to the visualization. The building not only has a monumental look but the composition of the image also gives an impression of some mystery behind it (by giving us – the viewers – the possibility to be unseen observers) which we are willing to uncover. The soft color palette gives the place the ‘inviting to visit’ look. Great framing, nice color balance, and story included… all the aspects that make the image successful”.

Fabio Allamandri: “This image is a little bit over exposed for my tastes but I like the easter feeling very much. Lots of details! Very good job!”.

Maciej Ptaszynski: “Great mood and very nice composition. Beautiful render!”

Jacob Norris: “Fantastic work on the architecture and atmosphere in this piece. The flower petals floating in the air and the strong glow from the lighting help to make the artwork feel magical”.

Emanuele Serra: “This work is immediately caught my eye, I did not know Dolmabahce Palace, but as soon as you look at this work, you can feel the history and magic of that place. I like how the author reinterprets that place, using a very poetic light, increasing this feeling even more by using petals that rest on the water, while a sailing ship plows the sea towards the palace”.

Arseniy Korablev: “Festive and solemn artwork. And besides, beautiful and very detailed!”

Nicolas Wirrmann: “The amount of modelling work is impressive”.

Stephanie Schenck: “This render is more like a painting, effectively capturing the *feel* of visiting the space, with all of the dreams, immersion, swept-away-ness of the scene”.

Ralph Huchtemann: “This one has a very special composition with the boat at the bottom and the tree branches coming from above, which give the palace a frame. Another special thing about this one are all the falling leaves. Very unique composition”.

Quick interview with John:

We congratulate the winners!

Special prize from Otoy team for the “Best render that made with using OctaneRender” gets “Christ The Redeemer” by Marcus Rizzo.

Otoy Team: “We selected Christ the Redeemer by Marcus Rizzo because of the mood that the artist managed to capture – the scale, detail and general balance was nicely executed. Overall it’s uplifting and at the same time well composed”.

Special prize from Rebusfarm team gets “The Luz Station” by Phillip Schmidt.

RebusFarm team: “This place is a starting point to cross borders. It shines in the grey city and gives a cozy feeling with all the lights on the platform and also a feeling of excitement as one train is already leaving. Very nice composition”.

Special prize from Teya Conceptor developer for the “Most detailed modeling” gets “Golden Temple” by Praveen Nayak.

Teya Conceptor developer: “We love how the golden temple is made. It looks very detailed, the ornament’ bump complements this feeling without getting out of the big picture”.

Special prize from InstaLOD team for the “Most detailed 3D model” gets “Malaga Cathedral Gardens (Andalucia, Spain)” by Simon Streater.

InstaLOD team: “This render is packed with beautiful and well-implemented details. The variation in plants, the different building structures that break up the repetitiveness, and the stained-glass pictures in the windows make this render an exploration with new findings popping up every time you look at it”.

Special prize from iToo Software team gets “New Philharmonic (Szczecin, Poland)” by Adam Siuchninski.

iToo Software team: “This standout feature of this building is its illuminated facade, and that’s exactly what the artist has convincingly communicated. Sometimes reigning in the temptation to overpopulate a scene with details can be the hardest thing, and here the artist has managed to remain true to the central message of the image”.

Special prize from Fox Renderfarm team gets “Siegessäule” by Achim Schröder.

Fox RenderFarm: “Who does not want to see a live musical event while travelling! Especially we are WFH for so long, a live concert is exactly what we want! The crowd is massive in this piece, the lights are good but can have a lot more like those virtual EDM concerts, sunset is excellent to start the concert!”

Special prize from Marmoset team gets “NGV International – Great Hall” by David Greco.

Marmoset team: “Our team really enjoyed the stained glass reflections on this one. The artist also kept the texturing tiling in the proper scale”.

In addition, we’d like to point out the works which were chosen by Hum3D team.

“Alexander Palace” by Alireza Seifi.

“Ponte 25 de Abril (Lisbon)” by Antonio D’avolio.

“Ancient Ruins in Greece” by Adrian Kulawik.

“Skytree Tower (Tokyo)” by Alessio Pitto.

“Walt Disney Concert Hall” by Dorin Jannotta.

For those who like statistics:

42 artists took part in the competition. 33 members of jury chose twenty seven renders to the short list. You can see votes here (each place in top-five gives special amount of points: first place – five points, fifth place – one point. All points/votes are sumup).

Special thanks to the sponsors who support our event and help 3D artists to create their masterpieces. Each of them is the best in their field. You can always count on their quality service, and so we are happy to recommend you their products.

Would be great to see your comments and thank you all for amazing challenge.