Wow! In just 3 weeks, there have been 284 entries! That makes this the most popular Blender competition to date!
I was blown away by the quality of entries. Have you all been saving up your talent for the end of the year? 
Let’s start with the entries, the Honorable mentions and then the Winners.
All Entries
In reverse alphabetical order:
Honorable Mentions
These entries caught my eye and deserve to be seen at full size:
Created by DerekG1080
The attention to detail is what makes this. The frozen texture on the letterbox, the icicles and the imperfections in the snow all show that you put a lot of thought into this. At first I thought the footprints were too small, but then I realized they are from elves! Nice touch Keep up the good work!
Created by saikafu
From a purely technical viewpoint, this is almost flawless. The modeling, skin shader and lighting are spot on. You’ve demonstrated that blender really is capable of professional, studio quality results. However subject wise… I found it a little inappropriate. I won’t go into detail, but for obvious reasons I can’t award this a prize. You’ve got some serious skill saikafu, and I hope everyone notices the amount of work you put into this!
Created by wjbarber
This certainly isn’t the cheeriest of stories, but it does show a Christmas that some people experience. You’ve done a great job at portraying a grungy, ghetto styled apartment, whilst also using the Christmas elements to tell an interesting (if depressing) story. Great job!
Created by OscarM
Everyone’s favourite childhood memory of Christmas: a big jolly Santa. I particularly like the cartoonish feel and warm lighting. I can see this being used in a TV commercial or Christmas card. Well done!
Created by Reynante
Another depressing one! Traditionally Christmas doesn’t usually involve nooses, jail cells or death notes. But then that’s what I like about the freedom of art. It allows non-traditional ideas like this to make it’s way to the forefront. I’d never really given much thought to people who are in jail over Christmas, but it is a very real story. Well done Reynante for bringing this to life! The lighting and colors are fantastic. Keep it up!
Created by Damien
Technically this entry doesn’t qualify, as the you admitting that you “used ZBrush for modelling”. But I’m giving it a mention here anyway as it’s a great image. The cold blue winter environment goes well in contrast to the glowing yellow heart. The modeling on the characters is some of the best in the competition, and the out of focus background really helps draw you into the scene. Great!
Created by Milksnake12
I love the childhood innocence and colorful lighting that the lights paint on the walls. The characters aren’t perfect, but if you can look past that it’s a great image. The scene has a very cosy and comforting feel that makes it a pleasure to look at. Great job!
Winners
This time round there are three places.
Winners were selected based on the following 3 criteria:
- Technical – Lighting, modeling, composition etc.
- Story – Told an interesting story
- Relevance to the theme
Third Prize
Created by Pratik Solanki
Congratulations! You’ve won any item from the Blender Store!
Another amazing entry from Pratik Solanki! For those that missed his last work, he previously won the Slum competition.
This is another solid entry, showing a comic story of mishaps and hijinks. I particularly like the detail that you put into the snowy environment and the aurora lights. It makes the whole thing feel more “complete”. I like the way that you used Christmas lights to add lighting to the key areas of the scene. Very clever. At first the story is a little unclear, so that could have perhaps been portrayed a bit better, but overall it’s a great image. The expression on Santa’s face is priceless
Second Prize
Created by Robo3Dguy
Congratulations! You’ve won an iPod Nano! 
This image just makes me feel happy. Aliens aren’t a traditional theme for Christmas, but it’s done in such a colorful, cheerful way that it just looks right. The wacky characters and surreal city give it a very Dr Seuss feel. You’ve done an excellent job at getting the cartoon-ish mood just right. Congrats! Hope enjoy the Nano
First Prize
Created by eisklotz
Congratulations!! You’ve won a Kindle Fire + $100 Christmas spending money + a permanent spot in the Winners Hall of Fame!
This image portrays the Christmas that we all want to subscribe to: a warm Christmas morning, opening presents under the tree.
Choosing to make a dog the focus of the scene is a daring, but excellent move. Animals are notoriously difficult to create, and furry ones even more so. But it looks fantastic, and so does the rest of the scene. The out of focus Christmas tree in the background look almost photo realistic.
Overall I thought your image best portrayed the atmosphere of Christmas, whilst also being an excellent stand alone piece of work. Congratulations! Enjoy your prizes
To everyone else: Thank you so much for entering! With 284 entries, you’ve made this one of the biggest Blender competitions in history!
Unfortunately I don’t have enough time to personally critique each artwork, but if you’d like feedback, post a link to your image below and I’m sure others will be more than happy to chip in with advice.
Have a very Merry Christmas! See you all in the New Year
It would be much appreciated if someone would like to criticize my entry:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/60045802@N06/6539844889/in/photostream/lightbox/
Thanks
Awesome Oli,
I would have given it 4th place after several honorable mentions. The winners did a very nice job… but art being a subjective thing I would prefer …
1st place: DerekG1080 … For capturing the mood and for tech ability. It’s totally Christmas!
2nd place: Reynante … For pure artistic/philosophical creativity. Daring and moving. WOW
3rd place: saikafu … That’s honestly what I (most of us) like for Christmas! Great color and lighting.
4th Oli: … A very creative and very artistic perspective. Excellent!
Too bad this isn’t a voting event but even then it might not reflect the actual artistic value over social/philosophical/political values. Still… there are so many excellent entries here. I’m so impressed, I don’t see a stinker in the lot and there are at least a dozen more that could be strong contenders for winning positions. Great work ALL and happy holidays.
Thanks for the vote Breg:) I’d agree but I’m a little bias….haha
Thanks andrew for this contest!
i also made an entry but my Macbook was stolen from my car (Smashed windows)
anyway i would not win the contest…
(To all the people who made Christmas trees) How do you make a realistic tree? I tried and the thing barely had any needles on it.What am I doing wrong.Btw Merry Christmas to everyone!!!
I used the particle system with a group af different leaves
How did you make the branches? I’m kinda having trouble making the branches turn out right.
I watched the tutorial for it on blendernation
Well done, eisklotz, I think you desered first place, your render was flawless! Can’t wait to see the result of the next competitions!
Great job, everyone! I think that Andrew should make a tutorial on christmas trees. It’d be good for people who aren’t that familiar with particles and hair, and it’d be a perfect Christmas tutorial!
The 1st prize entry is soooo realistic that if I had been you (A. Price), I would have requested a copy of the original .blend to compare it with. I mean this by way of agreement with your award and judgment.
I really think DerekG1080 should have been 1st prize, or the very least second. There is just so much attention to detail there. It’s breath taking.
When I look at the actual winners, for the most part all I see is issues with the image. #3 has all sorts of unrealistic issues with the particles on the hair, and there are a lot of issues with the area they crashed that make it both esthetically unpleasing, and confusing. #2 looks nice, but it’s rather simple and would take (relatively speaking too many other renders here) very little time to actually make; plus all those small artifacts from the render are a little distracting. #1 is excellent, accept for the dog. Major Uncanny valley issues there, and I’m wondering what exactly is going on with that yellow and lime green branch about 2cm to the right of the dog’s head.
Thanks for the support phildog. “Letters to Santa” was one of my favorite projects to date and it seems a lot of others have liked it as well:) Again I was honored to be near the top and also to have my image used as the competition link image hehe! Anyways happy holidays guys!
I have to agree qith phildog in most of the points. I mean, the winners made all great images but in the the guidelines and on prior competitions Andrew mentioned quite a few times that qualitiy of the image goes over storytelling.
Looking at the results I don’t feel, the competition got judged that way. The winner, eisklotz, i have to agree, has a great render. But I personally think, the whole image is too simple to be the winner.
As well for the second price. The modelling and texturing is very simple and as is the render. What stands out is the composition which is great.
And as a sidenote to Andrew: As far as I understand it, this is a Blender-only competition. And I think I speak for a lot of contestants when I say, that even if we don’t win, a special mention means a lot. You gave 2 spots for a special mention to people who admitted that they used zBrush for parts of their image. I think it is not fair for all of us who used only blender.
This said I still like your competitions and I will still compete because they improve me as an artist. I just hope that the guidelines for further contests will be a little better defined. “Christmas” is a REALLY wide topic and makes it even harder to judge.
Thomas M. aka mitti2000 (http://www.blenderguru.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/mitti2000.jpg)
I know its not blender so i didnt enter but i thought i might spread a little holiday joy. it took about a month i hope you all enjoy it. I love this site and wanted to share something
http:/thomaswornall.com/snowman.php
That was an awsome collection of pictures, you had a difficult task I can see.
I liked W J Barber, Tim Dickens and NBCO11795 as they give me a more defined image that I have in mind based on an adventure story I am writing. I made it up for my kids when I was 27, i am now just over 2.75 times that age.
I also realy like the selected group, great work all you guys.
Thanks
The image with the woman is one of the best. And the subject not that problematic, I think, but we europeans tend to be a little bit more liberal with “sex” than the rest of the world, I believe(or at least more than america, australia,…).
The image misses something though. It is a little bit too, let us say “dry”? It is mature, it is not “erotic”, so it has something to it. But it lacks something!
Why Andrew! Why! Why did you have to remove the charity prize? How do you think our art will benefit the world now? We _are_ greedy SoBs, but I could do with feeling all warm inside, which even a Kindle Fire or an iPod cannot do. So again, Oh Why??
Nice work everyone! They are all winnners in my opinion because they all represent the power of a free program that anyone can get and learn to use. I mean seriously who has 4000 to blow on 3d software, besides too big to fail companies who are too stupid to take advantage of freeware. I would like to thank the developers of blender and all the free training by the members of the blender society. Keep up the good work. Keep blending. Good work everyone on your pictures. Keep it up. Have a good year!
cya
Hey Andrew, when is the next competition?
como puedo participar del concurso