After the relative easiness of last month’s competition, I decided to throw a curveball to the blender community: Make an Underwater scene.
Some people flat out refused claiming that it was above their skill set, but 120 brave people rose to the challenge and submitted an entry.
The winner is revealed at the bottom of the page.
All Entries
Here are all 120 entries (hover over the image to see the artist’s name):
My Favs
These are the entries that stood out to me and almost won:
Created by ClaytonJ
You almost had me convinced this was a photo! I even did a search on Tineye to check. Wow! The caustics and murky atmosphere make this image super realistic. The only thing letting it down is the texture stretching near the mouth. I know that’s caused by the caustic lighting, but it still looks odd. To make the scene even better a few light streaks shining through the water would add some much needed “wow”. But as a photorealism artpiece, it works amazingly well. Well done Clayton!
Created by Falksen
In regards to composition, detail and completeness, you win. The turtle alone is a huge task, let alone the coral reef and fish. It falls short of realism however when inspecting the turtles skin and also the lighting on the underbelly. But it’s almost there! I could definitely see something this hanging on the wall of someone’s house. Just a little bit more detail and this will be amazing. Great effort.
Created by Pratik Solanki
The winner of last month’s competition returns for another shot at the title! Ha! Well this is another fine image. The detail and depth separates it from others. From the rusty chain to the schools of fish swimming around, you can see the amount of work that’s gone into it. The low camera angle assumes dominance, and makes the sea god look big and powerful. Nice! However, artistically I think it fell short in the composition. The bright light in the background draws the viewers attention more than the main figure, which is wrong. It’s tricky to create backlight shots, so I don’t doubt you spent a while on this. But in future, high levels of contrast (ie. bright lighting) needs to be on the main area of focus (the sea god’s face), not the background. But overall this is a fine image. Great attempt!
Created by Tonituo
This one is just cool. The smug look on the octopus’ face makes it easy on the eyes. It’s far from realistic, but I’m sure that wasn’t your goal. I like the natural frame that the ground provides and also the caustics shining through the water. Definitely an ambitious project to attempt with Luxrender! The repetitive texturing and lack of detail on the octopuses (or is it octopods?) are it’s biggest downfalls, but overall I like the simplicity of it all. Well done!
The Winner
With 121 entries, deciding on a winner wasn’t easy (as every judge inexplicably states), but I finally narrowed it down to my favourite:
Zagupi!
You sir have talent. I almost skipped this because I thought it was a real photo! You’ve done exceedingly well in getting the mood and lighting just right. Most artists (myself included) would be tempted to add environment lighting, but you kept it true to life by leaving the backdrop a terrifyingly black. It’s exactly the way real photos from the deep look, so it looks very realistic. If I were to critique anything I’d say that the scene is a bit simple, and could use some more objects. But maybe it’s the simple-ness that makes this work.
Congratulations Zagupi! You’ve won your pick from any item in the Blender e-Shop + $500 donated to any charity of your choice + a permanent spot in the Winners Hall of Fame 
Thanks!
A big thank you to everyone who participated in this competition! As much as I’d love to give feedback on each individual entry, it would take up too much of my time. So if you’d like to know why you didn’t win, leave a comment with your name, and ask the community for feedback. I’m sure they would be more than happy to provide it.
I hope you got something out of this competition! The next one will be announced in a week from now. They will no longer be monthly, but instead 6-weeks in length. This is to give people with jobs and school (and a life) more time to compete.
interesting. I was looking at the blog posts when this post suddenly poped up. I thought the whale one would win, but I guess not.
I have awhile to go to get my images better i hope someone could help me on how to make coral in blender or make that murkiness in the water .
Great submissions. I thought the Wale shot would win too… until I saw the real winner. Really amazing work… It grabbed my imagination for quite a while and I guess that’s what images like this should do.
That winning piece is stunning! So realistic!
The winner is a totally amazing image! Congrats! even though the shark whale is still my favorite.
PS: A lightbox would have done better to check all the images in hi-res.
Yeah I would agree with you, the shark whale is totally awesome. And of course the winner image is absolutely awesome too. And yeah Andrew should ask his web developer to add lightbox to preview image a lot easier.
Congrats for the winner and favorited.
Regards.
Hm… my contribution isn’t even listed….
Can you post a link to it here? Sorry for missing it. I’ll add it straight away.
me too! it was a very sad thing….
here is mine : http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?230780-Blender-Guru-Competition-Underwater!&p=1959874&viewfull=1#post1959874
Now it’s there! I’m happy …
Sure – here it is: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kjelle392/6214245062/
Hey Kjell,
My assistant checked through the blenderartist thread twice, but couldn’t find your entry anywhere.
Are you sure it’s there?
I remember seeing it submitted for a Nature Academy certificate, but not in the competition thread.
Thanks
(psst..Andrew, I tried to leave you a message on blenderguru.com, since there seems to be some problems while trying to reach you via blenderartists private messaging..)
Nice contributions!
I’d say the winner deserves it technically, but there’s no story to the image like many of the other entries.
Great stuff though
I kinda agree. its just underwater_______ not artistic at all
Haha. Thanks everyone and Andrew =)
About what Greg Zaal said..yeah, I wanted to do an underwater scene, but I couldn’t get a good idea, so I just did something from top of my head. A nice excuse to play with lighting and comp
Here’s the scene file. Feel free to do whatever you like with it.
http://sakarileppa.com/misc/underocean_v03_packed.blend
wow thanks a lot mate, much appreciated.
Oh wow, how did you deform the boat?
I want to ask you a million questions but I imagine you don’t want to answer a million questions.
Awesome the winner entry!
Hi
Nice to see all the contributions: They are really nice.
The winner was one of my favourite images also. Congratulations Zagupi! Thanks for the .blend file!
I´m amazed how there are good artits.
Congrs for all,in special for winner.
you´re the man.
73 55
The winning render has a very realistic mood and feel. So very well done there! The materials and texturing are very good, especially for the boat. However, I feel it’s too simple. A hint of something in the background to add to the eerie atmosphere could have been a good addition.
My favourite is Pratik Solanki’s image. Even though, as mentioned, the lighting draws me away from the character, I like the detail and the depth of the scene. Very nice!
This competitions are GREAT!
They are the challenge that i need to get myself into sticking onto bigger scenes and also a great inspiration!
I look forward to the next ones, i will definetly be in, whenever i find the time!
As soon as I looked at the winner I was like, YES! So many people portray the depths of the sea as something they are not, but Zagupi’s really captures the true sea floor. Great job!
congratz to the winner, and well done too the others! I’ve realy enjoyed browsing through them all.
Well done Zagupi I also thought yours was the best even though I entered,
I new I would not win but it is still great to have a go
Mark
Congrats to Zagupi, you really deserve it. I like the realism in your render. It’s a simple scene, but that`s how it probably should look like underwater. Thank you Andrew for choosing my render to one of your Favs
HUMAN characters are so hard to achieve in 3D if you can´t do it good its better not to doit, THINK of another idea PLZ, HUMAN models seens so FAKE, some scenes are good but with an artificial human in there you just ruined it.
Im not talking about the cartoon human characters
Congratulations. Very well done Zagupi.
I Cant wait for the next competition.
Amazing work everyone! I’m still a novice, I’ve only been using Blender for about 6 months or so, I feel like I haven’t the skill to compete, but why not? I don’t need to enter to win, but to learn.
Can’t wait to see more!
(Also agree on the lightbox.)
I almost thought it was a photo myself, but I noticed that it wasn’t when I took a closer look at the texture of the frame at the back, which looked as though the frame weren’t there very long. Maybe adding a fish or two would have been the cherry on the top, or even some type of small crab. Overall I think that the winner definitaly deserved the prize. Good work. (P.S. I just wanted to know how do I post a nice profile pic for myself when I leave comments?)
Congratulations to every one,
I too would have liked to browse the other entries more easily…
I probably will compete again next time, even though it seems quite clear that I am one of the weakest links…
wow the winner is top notch!!!! it really really looks real, ehhh isnt it real
@Zagupi, I am a scuba diver and you nailed that perfectly.
When will true info for the next comp be announced?
AAHHH I didn’t say “true”! I said “the” in my previous message
CONGRATS to the winner and to all. It was an interesting competition, and I learned much. Thanks Andrew!
That winning entry is amazingly realistic, congratulations Zagupi!
By the way, what criteria are you using to pick the winner?
I have to completely agree with the results of who won. Before I saw the results, I made up my mind which ones I thought were really good, and which one would win. The winner is the exact same one I’d have chosen (i’m a scuba diver, so I’m familiar with how realistic that one is) and most of the almost winners were among my favorites.
I would love it if some of the artists also posted the images of the models pre render, just so we can see some of the design without the effects. I’m talking grey models. Some great artists in this comp!
hello mr price, i’m joao victor, and i am a 3d artist, i start be used the blender at 2 years, now i do animations, and efects, on blender, please look at my cannel on you tube, and say what you think, please!!
http://www.youtube.com/user/jvictorcooco
All these entries are amazing.
Stunning work guys! I’m SOOOO jealous that I can’t (yet) make stuff like this myself.
The winning pic is simply fantastic work.
the winner’s got no story?!?!?
I tried to find the story… who may have been sittin’ in the boat bevor it sank….? Did they, she or he survive….? was it a cold and lonesome moment….? or just an old boat, forgotten by time….? See, I found myself in so many stories, this picture could well be a book’s cover,….. It tells a story, be sure!
Awesome contest, and great work all.
Sooooooooooooooooo……..
Any news on what next contest will be? Must be more than a week already
I am happy and enough for me that i participated in competition and get a name in participants. And going to participate in next one too. Yo!
No doubt the winner image looks realistic, but somehow it isn’t: a boat of such a small size is typically made of wood, plastics or other material I would expect not to sink.
By the way, Andrew, it’s octopi, not octopods or octopuses (though octopuses is an accepted term.)