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The Future Competition Results

Since the blender community thinks a little differently to the general public, I was excited to see what they had in mind for the future. I was not disappointed.

From futuristic cars, to alien invaded planets their were entries of all kinds. 87 people in total stepped up to the challenge and presented their predictions for The Future.

Of those entries I selected 4 Honourable mentions and One Winner. Check ‘em out:

All Entries

Here are all 87 entries in alphabetical order:

Honorable Mentions

Created by Nathan Wilkinson

The style and subject of this image remind me instantly of Half Life 2 and the Star Wars prequels. I like that you have real human characters in the scene. Not only does it give the viewer a sense of scale, but it adds a human element that helps the viewer relate to it. The ‘greebles’ on the wall and ceiling look great, making the scene even more interesting to look at. However, the bottom right hand corner of the image is a little bare. I would have liked to see either a better texture or a new object to add make the scene more balanced. But overall you’ve done a fantastic job Nathan. Well done!

Created by Oana Vinatoru

This almost won. The only thing letting it down is the lack of a story, and/or human element. Everything else is wonderful. I love the beautiful integration of nature and technology. Unlike most people’s predictions of the future, you’ve envisioned a future where we rely more on nature and less on man made cities. Inviting the idea that the future may look like this, if we play our cards right. Well done on this beautiful optimistic approach at the future :)

Created by kimballdenetso

This gets a mention for its informative and unique approach to the subject. Your image gives as a glance at the possible infrastructure of the future and how we could use the resources at our disposal for energy. I can imagine this image being used to pitch an energy saving idea at G20 or TED. Some of the textures are a little stretched and the characters on land could use a bit more focus, but it gets the point across. Well done on creating a thought provoking and well presented idea :)

Created by Maenny

Powerful storytelling. This image made me wonder how I would feel witnessing the destruction of the earth. Would I miss it? That to me is what makes great art: when you start to relate to the feelings of the character in the picture. The expression on the astronauts face is perfect and the lighting is great. However the earth and it’s explosion is it’s only downfall. The colors don’t really compliment each other and the explosion isn’t immediately clear to the viewer. If you were to fix that, you would have a fine piece of artwork that would look great on a wall. Excellent job Maenny!

Created by Jonathan Hodges

The reference may be lost to some, but I recognized it as the scene from the 1927 sci-fi film, Metropolis. Whilst there are elements of it that could use some work (smoke, shading on the top of the building), overall I thought it came together nicely. For a film that is mostly destroyed from age, you’ve restored it beautifully. When you compare it to the original scene, you can see how much effort went into getting all the details just right. From the control panels down to the rivets on the engines, it’s almost perfect. Well done on bringing this iconic sci-fi movie scene to life!

Winner

Created by "Square"

Congratulations Square! Your image of a lost robot trying to get home is a touching look at a future where technology has taken on a life of it’s own. The texturing in the windows is fantastic, as is the rubbish and wear and tear to the rest of the station. Trying to convey emotion through a bulky robot is difficult, but you’ve done a great job, capturing the helpless pose and empty stare. The bouquet of flowers is icing on the cake.

Whilst the lighting is a little unbalanced in the background, it wasn’t a deal breaker, and overall I thought the scene came together great. Well done on a fantastic image Square!

As the winner of the competition, you’ve won:

A big thank you to everyone else that joined in the competition. I’m hoping that by entering you were able to learn a couple of new tricks and improve your skills.

Unfortunately I don’t have time to go through each entry and explain why it didn’t win, so if you’d like feedback on your image, just post your entry in the comments below and ask for feedback. I’m sure the community would be happy to give you a few pointers :)

Thanks for playing!

The next competition will be announced on Tuesday. Can you guess what the topic will be? ;)

About Andrew Price

User of Blender for 9+ years. I've written tutorials for 3d World Magazine and spoken at three Blender conferences. My goal is to help artists get employed in the industry by making training accessible and easy to understand. I'm an Aussie and I live in South Korea ;)
View all posts by Andrew Price →
  • Owldude

    Lots of people put images of edited monkey objects as their renders! Quite a clever way to fit that in.

  • FreeMind

    I find Oanas Vinatorus Image to be WAY WAY better then the image that won.
    That architecture image is spectacular, very refreshing.

  • http://www.isee-t.com Trond

    Grate work and congrats Square

  • http://fulloutstudios.weebly.com Kenny White

    I didn’t have enough time to finish my scene this time but I have lots of free time over fall break so I’ll participate next time!

  • Eka Kurniawan

    Sure, after I look at the winner’s picture, I’d like starting to cry because the robot seems doesn’t have any hope to go home. The face bring an emotional signal to me, his empty stare I mean. And also the flowers that seems to be die [ maybe :p ]. Okay, and then the light of the background shows that it’s evening. But in the train station, there is a light so it makes the judge thinks that it’s like afternoon…

    What a pity robot :[

    But congratulations to the winner and the another contestant! Keep going!
    [sorry if there are mistakes on my english]

  • davinade

    congrats to square!!
    please tell what the new competition will be…
    I’m so curious!!!

  • NathanWilkinson

    WooHoo Honorable mention!

  • Blutarsky

    congrats to square and all the other honorables. Actually this contest has more then one winner.
    Congrats to TK as well he scored himself a wife ;P. happy blender-marriage

  • vithee

    Congratulations to the Winner !!!
    … all of your very nice idea&fine works also motivated me to learn more in order to develop my jobs next time.
    Cheers :D

  • http://artscouter-yoed.blogspot.com/ naevio

    congratulation for square, amazing scene… always knew that you will be the winner… ^_^

  • http://flowxrg.com tylerjd

    Thanks guys for the crits. I definitely felt that I tried to put so many different types of things in my scene (that I’d never done before), that I got a lot in there, but wasn’t able to refine all of them and learn how to make them compelling. So I had a large number of things that were just rough first pass quality. My next pieces I’m planning on doing studies of one type of thing – “light”, “grass”, “realistic rocks”, etc, to build skills so that I can actually make a composition of high-quality components. I guess this is true of many things…

  • Shane

    Just an idea – pick a handful of good entries and do a critique video on them after each competition – maybe make it part of the entry conditions (You agree to allow your image to be used in a follow up critique)

  • http://blendercycles.com Kelvin M

    Any crits on the Space Probe scene? (6th row from the bottom)

    • Ilo

      The bits to improve are the low-resolution texture on the planet to the right, the background stars, and the lack of detail on the probe. I don’t know how you achieved the solar flare effect on the suns but that’s really cool. It might be better with less elements, and a stronger focus on the probe, with maybe a single sun and planet. Also, it burns my eyes a little, but I guess that’s what you get for looking at suns. :D

      • http://blendercycles.com Kelvin M

        Thanks! Can you point me to somewhere where I can get even higher res texture for the planet? It’s 4096 x 2048. That’s about as hi-res as they come. ;)
        Yeah, I know about the lack of detail on the probe. I don’t know how to texture it, none of the ref-images I looked at were any help.
        I made a tutorial on the stars, if you’re interested. :)

        • Ilo

          It’s okay, I found your procedural texture wizardry from the link in your name. Will check that out later. :)

          If the planet texture is actually high res… hmm, I think bump, normal and spec maps would help improve the detail. If that’s not enough I think you would have to find a cheat of some sort, since we only see a sliver of the texture on the final image, perhaps tiling a seamless planet image as necessary and then using another non-tiled texture on top, just on the area that is visible, to hide the fact that the texture is tiled.

          http://www.celestiamotherlode.net/ has some textures if you don’t know about it. Might be of some interest to you.

  • http://flowxrg.com tylerjd

    If anyone wants to throw some feedback on mine (8th from last, with the grass and vernal pool et cetera) I’d love to hear it.

    As my first Blender still it was a really ambitious scene to attempt, but I learned a TON and am thankful for this competition to get me off my ass! I definitely endorse Andrew’s statement that you just need to jump in as a participant and the motivation will snowball.

    I’m looking forward to future competitions and the opportunity to refine and build my skills.

    Congrats Square, that is a fantastic image! A tut or walkthrough of your workflow would not go unwatched. :D

    • UFOzendo

      I really like the look of it. Kind of like a painting, Kind of not. The grass needs more work. If you can perfect this kind of “Look” and keep trying to improve, the results will be amazing.

    • Dragos Ionita

      I thought yours would have won, actually. Really nice, I guess Andrew wanted something more of an Art Work piece than a realistic scene. It seems he is looking for creativity, not knowledge in creating something realistic. (Not to mention it seems much of the things created were from the Nature Academy)
      = Personally I love it, and am jealous that i cant touch that far on the realism, but there were a few issues with the image if you don’t mind me POINTING OUT.
      - on the trees to the left, you can see a gray outline, im pretty sure it’s from the alpha of the image, and checking “Premultiply” should fix it.
      - the tree on the right has its leaves facing up, and with the angle to the camera doesnt work much, makes it look unnatural and 2d. They are leaves not blades lol.
      that’s mainly what pops up, maybe you can also make the water more reflective, the brown metal bars more of a metal color, and the person and animals more rounded with slightly more form.

    • http://www.blendermama.com oana

      I like your image very much, the grass colors and all the nature detail, and the concept. On the critique part, two things that I think could improve the image are the angle – the camera is not level and you have a really wide angle, so the buildings look distorted – and the sky compositing – right now the compositing is too obvious, even without the trees on the left. Maybe finding a different sky, with more whitness to the lower part, more clouds formed at the horizon would make it blend some more with the rendered landscape?

    • mrmowgli

      Hi Tylerjd :) I really thought your should get an honorable mention, it was a very nice piece. I went back and looked at it a bit more and came up with some hopefully useful feedback :)

      The overall look was very nice but the colors of the tower have too much color contrast. This partially has to do with the lighting, but also you should run a pass through color balance in the post processing nodes to get a common tone to your image. The buildings in the back don’t look like they quite belong.

      Grass in the foreground looks well done as well, but you need another variety of grass or other plant life, perhaps dead versions of the previous plant (Most bushes/grasses have the previous years growth interspersed)

      The lighting overall for the daylight was well done, but since it is so strong it should be washing out your image more (It looks to be about 11:00 in the morning) and creating more contrast in the shadows. Also the specular on a few of your materials isn’t reflecting the daylight sharply enough. Perhaps run some of the specular on the materials like the glass in the background through a composite pass of rgb curves and then a guasian blur?

      The greenhouses don’t necessarily make sense with such strong lighting from above. Perhaps youcould go for a dusk look and have lights on in the greenhouse, the buildings etc? Might make the scene stand out more?

      Perhaps you could also add some foreground element that helped tell the story?

      Just some thoughts, hope they help. Really like your piece so far!

  • fusobitc

    Not even honorable mention, again? *Sigh* well I guess you guys don’t get to have the model or a in depth tutorial from me, wish I could have had more time to make an insanely complex scene (as that’s what you judge by I’m assuming, instead of outrageously detailed character models). Then again you were always one that appreciates inorganics and architecture more than anything else, but seriously did you even look at the WIP thread? (http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?233883-Overwatch-futuristic-project) I spent nearly all of my free time over the past month on this character. I mean, Square even thought it was cool! :P I don’t know if I’m even going to bother investing hundreds of hours into the next competition, if it comes to something like this. I do understand that my final render, granted, wasn’t the best, but at least a little appreciation for all the work? I’ll probably make a Blender Internal render sometime soon, with a extensive scene for the character, something I didn’t have time for given a month. Anyways, good luck with the rest of your competitions, it’s too bad this one didn’t have as many participants… :)

    • Shaeope

      awesome job.

    • Ilo

      To be honest, Andrew shouldn’t need to be aware of your WIP thread to be able to appreciate the final render. Also, I must have only glanced at your final submission for a second before moving on to the next.

      You mention Andrew’s preference of inorganics and architecture, and it’s true that people may simply not be interested in your subject, but the winning entry was a robot too, and two of the honorable mentions had strong human elements. The truth is that your image lacks a discernible story, and didn’t really relate to the ‘future’ theme in a thought-provoking manner. Beyond the literal image, there isn’t much going on, unlike in say walrus92′s Asimov-inspired piece (fifth from last), for example, which really makes you think about the advances of artificial intelligence and the implications it could have for us in the future.

      It’s not just that either. If I were critiquing the image, I would say that the composition works for showcasing a model, which is what this clearly is, but not artistically – the camera is straight on, the background is blurry and the colours don’t complement the model, and its abstractness means I don’t have any idea of the subject’s scale – it could be an action figurine for all I know. The actual model isn’t in an interesting pose, the visor looks messed up, and the textures look very clean in contrast to the plane. It looks, as you suggest, a little rushed.

      I’m sure you’re very aware of this, and I don’t mean to come across as dismissive or harsh – or rather it’s not personal but to make a point. You sound like we should be able to see from the final image all the hours of work you put into it, but how can we when you hide it so much? The final image is king, which means not spending an inordinate amount of time on things that won’t make much of a difference in the final render (especially if other aspects are clearly neglected), and staying focused on the goal (you ended up with something different).

      The telling thing, I think, is that I enjoyed your WIP thread much more than the final image, so I don’t think you should be disappointed with not getting an honorable mention. So you’ve ended up with a great model for the portfolio instead of a great artistic render? That’s not such a bad thing when you think about it. :)

      • fusobotic

        Yeah, I suppose you’re right… I wanted to do a render in Cycles, and the thing was, I couldn’t have a complicated background and a complicated character and still be able to render. Plus, I only had about a day and a half to construct a background scene, so I was stuck. Now that I have some more time, I can make a better setting in Blender Internal, and maybe you’ll even see it up on the blender artists gallery :P

        I just got done doing a turntable (which actually looks a bit better, and is higher resolution than my final render): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHXgZ35C9ZY&hd=1

    • http://www.blenderguru.com Andrew Price

      Hey Fusobitc,
      Sorry you didn’t get an Honourable mention.

      I just took a look through the WIP thread and actually really like some of the earlier concept art that you posted. It looked clean, modern and awesome. You’ve clearly got some skills in the 2D arena!

      However your final render let you down big time. This is going to sound really mean, but I want to be honest with you, when I first saw your render I barely looked at it for 3 seconds.

      Let me explain why. The biggest problem is that the subject is predominantly black, and so is the background. Which means that the eye has nothing to focus on. It bounces around the scene looking for something of interest until finally giving up and moving on. If you made the background white, then it would create a contrasting silhouette and signal to the viewer that this is the subject, and this is the focal point.

      Another massive flaw is the lighting. It’s very, very dark. I would recommend increasing the lamp energy 2 or 3 fold and also making sure that you have a clear key light (brightest source of light). If you make everything evenly lit, then it becomes flat and boring. All the fine details and texturing that you put into it was unfortunately lost in the murky, grey lighting.

      Now I just want to say that I really feel for you on this. It sucks to put in hours and hours of effort over the course of a month only to be turned down. But I want to encourage you not to give up. I’ve been where you are standing right now, and although it feels like you’ve wasted your time, it may just be one of the biggest leaps forward in your artist learning.

      A lot of artists will give up at this stage. What separates the boys from the men are the ones who keep trying.

      All the best mate!
      Andrew

  • Brad Lavins

    I liked Storrboy because they used Suzanne in it using blender to model architecture. I don’t think it beats the robot but I just thought it should get a mention for creativity. The reflections were a bit much on the walls but that may be because they are supposed to be monitors or something idk? If so, they could have made a couple other monitors in the background turned on so that would be more clear and convey that they are indeed monitors if that’s what they are? Also a slightly darker color. It look to me a bit bland in the background tho.

    I liked the fingers. Fur could use some work, it’s all about lighting with the fur. Maybe using a light group exclusive to the fur so the settings can be adjusted and not effect the entire scene. Eyes are too blurry.

    Just some hopefully helpful observations. Great work to all.

    • Mike Storr

      Thanks for the tips Brad. I never thought about the exclusive group for the fur. Originally I had other things in the background but thought it was too busy and took away from the “spartan testing lab” feel.

  • reza

    amazing.. … actually hmmm im still like with Oana pic. that really green life future. And still it is the winner made it really emotion. congrats square.
    hmmmm …. i think next is something about traditional or.. more primitive life.. ( lol.. forget it, it just my guess)

  • Thomas M

    First of all, congratulations to Square. As soon as I saw the image on Blenderartists, I knew, that you will win. Thanks to Andrew as well for doing this competitions. I’ve learned a lot doing those competitions and I for shure will continue participate as long as I have time.
    And as you offered, I’d like to get a feedback for my Image (mitti200: Alaksa Desert Scene). Maybe you can add it to your next Focused Critique Episode.
    That said, I have one point of critique to the competition. In the guidelines of the contest it says clearly: I want to see YOUR predictions for how life ON earth could look in the future. Well, two of the images that got a special mention are not fitting to those guidelines. And by no means I want to say that they are bad images (they are all fantastic), but I find it a little unfair to those who kept their work strictly to the guidelines.
    Maennys image is in space and not on earth and Jonathan Hodges image shows how they predicted the future in 1927 and it’s (hopefully) not his own prediction as well.
    So, for the next competition I wish, that the Guidelines are more clear. As well I would like a description what you are looking at when you are judging the images. How much weight does the story of the image have, how much the quality of the modelling? What about lighting and choice of colors and textures and so on.

    I hope I didn’t offend anybody with my comment. I just want to give my opinion to maybe improve this contests for the future as I really like them and there a way too few of them out there.
    Thanks,
    Thomas M. aka mitti2000

    • http://www.blendermama.com Oana

      Thomas I think your scene has many interesting elements but the main thing I noticed at first glance is the cracked surface in the foreground and that lacks some more detail, though it doesen’t look tiled you can see it’s a texture where it meets the rocks and street. Maybe using some displacement or changing the scaling? The light also seems a bit dull, as it is somewhat a disaster scene some reddish or other colored light could work, the sky looks too peaceful. Some more contrast also in the lighting… Hope this helps

    • http://www.blenderguru.com Andrew Price

      Hi Thomas,
      Thanks for your feedback.

      You’re right about Maenny’s technically not being on Earth. However, earth is the central element to the scene, so I think it’s fitting enough. Also the movie that Jonathan Hodge’s image was based on was actually a prediction of the future, not actually set in 1927.

      But you’re right, I should be more clear on the guidelines for next time. Thanks for letting me know.

      Andrew

  • http://www.blendermama.com Oana

    can’t be “winter”, as summer just stars in australia

  • Gabriel Bramböck

    Hm, really difficult to guess, what could be the topic of the next comp?
    CHRISTMAS???

    No.

  • anyomouse

    :D Nice job everyone! Someday I will get an honorable mention… maybe…

  • http://www.chaitanyak.com chaitanya

    congrats to the winner
    and good job everyone else.. am motivated to take part next time :)

  • http://onetwothreesquare.blogspot.com/ Square

    Thanks a lot to everyone!!

    Good luck for the next competition

    • Andy

      Hey Square, Believe it or not, I knew you’d win before even looking at the results, in fact, you image is on my desktop background and I know it will stay there for a while :D Great great work.
      I was wondering if you could upload a .blend for us to examine.
      Anyway, congrats !

  • http://www.blendermama.com Oana

    Thank you for the mention Andrew, and the “almost won”. I’m happy with my image and the fact I could compete using BI.
    It was a fun competition and it’s always interesting to see what people will create, though I was a bit saddened of all the negative visions of the future coming from young artists.
    I also noticed a couple of entries not mentioned, but with a “livable earth” approach and beautiful images: Tylerjd, Vithee
    I might be joining the next one too (Christmas time?… The past?.. :) )

  • amine

    I was sure he’s gonna win !!!

  • http://framefloor.de Maenny

    Great entries! As soon as I saw Square’s entry I knew the Winner :-P Congrats. Learned a lot doing this and looking forward to the next “round”…

    GReetz

  • http://sydnyb.in syed nayab

    they are amazing..andrew..i wish i could even make 10% of any….

    • Ryan Smith

      haha i would go for more like 20%

  • Justin McConnell

    it is rather sad that i haven’t been more active with Blender these are really quite good regardless of relevance or qualifying elements… i would love to be able to put together works like these but these days i find all the things i have to do keep me from having much time for interests like these

    • http://www.blenderguru.com Andrew Price

      I’m sure you’re not the only one.

      The important thing is to try. If the idea of competing against loads of other talented artists puts you off, then don’t go in it to win. Just say that you’ll participate. You’ll probably find that once you get started the motivation will snowball anyway, and you’ll put in more effort than you originally planned to.

      Often the hardest thing is just getting started. Once you take the first step the rest usually falls into place.

      All the best :D

      • Ravish Malik

        Nicely said. And after reading this ^, now I am convinced enough to join the next one. Whatever it is, bring it ON!!

  • Manny Lopez

    oh i guess i am a wrong manny in there sorry about that matt

  • http://renatogsousa.blogspot.com Renato Sousa

    Fantastic image from “Square”, I didn’t look through them all but this is quite above the honorable mentions. Congratulations!

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  • http://Www.enblanch.com Alvar Blanch

    Congratulations to the winer and all entryes !!!!

  • http://www.petesplace.id.au darkphoenix

    Indeed, congratulations to Square; great image! That said, though, I really must go watch Metropolis again… :-)

  • mattt360

    Lots of good entries, but I’m surprised Manny’s didn’t get an honorable mension.

    • http://www.blenderguru.com Andrew Price

      I’m actually just adding it now. Somehow I missed it in my original assessment ;)

      EDIT: Okay, it’s added now.

    • Manny Lopez

      Wow, mattt360 i am honored to have u say that, yeah i was curious why i wasn’t in that spot but i am sure andrew could talk about that on here to see what i could do to make it better, i know maybe if i had a close up shot of the objects that might have helped show the detail i had.

  • Sam

    Really good entries there. Congrats to the winner!