After 3 months of intense participation, the Game Character Animation Contest has now ended with dozens of awesome entries that made the overall judging process very challenging! Our judges carefully deliberated over each category, and each runner-up, making sure to consider not just the quality of each entry, but their length, effort, working in progress post, and final delivery.
So here we present to you the WINNERS of the Game Character Animation Contest:
For this category we had a tough time choosing between entries. In the end Alvin's entry won because he delivered a series of very polished character animations that often left us guessing between key framing and mocap. Alvin also created a thorough Work in Process guide on his Polycount thread. He was constantly sharing video tutorials while talking about his work in order to teach and inspire other animators. For this, we congratulate you Alvin!
Jacob's entry was by far a one-minute movie, in fact it was 8 minutes long! But special consideration was taken due to the high-quality delivery of his project. Jacob's entry paid close attention to projecting a great atmosphere and script. The entry was highly entertaining, well scripted, with a spot on screenplay that had the feeling of many video game cut scenes. Thank you Jacob for your entry, and thank you also for sharing your knowledge on using torchlights in your Polycount thread.
Adolf cleverly exploited the strengths of iClone to bring us an epic trailer. This entry did it all, from employing external characters, converting characters and clothing, to ingeniously compositing scenes, shots and assets, to adapting physics, soft-cloth, content animations, and special effects for a glorious rendition that will surely keep our eyes and attention on this promising animation studio. Their second entry HOME, also did a marvelous job at portraying the colonization of a new world. Additionally, they did a great job at teaching and sharing all their tips and tricks with the general public. Great job!
During the Game Character Animation Contest, the judging process was very difficult as it took our judges many hours of viewing and deliberation to come up with the final winners. Although the following entries did not win the top prizes, Reallusion felt the need to praise and reward their outstanding works and spirit of sharing through honorable mention. Because of this, we also decided to add post-event prizes for them! These prizes include the new iClone 6 Character Creator premium bundle for all runner-ups.
Samuel's Alien Moment from the get-go captured our attention with its the Pink Floyd-esque tunes. His Alien animations with the use of Maya were superb, demonstrating quality all around. Now here is a 'Man with a Jacket', with a 2nd awesome entry based on the game Hotline Miami. Thank you also for kindly sharing your knowledge and your free, green screen version with the rest of the community. "We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year..."
Tom Jantol has done it again with this mesmerizing entry. Prototyping, is a beautiful animation between a man and his transforming carriage. Tom's mind is never short of ideas, while his skills and talents do all the talking. He has the portfolio of a veteran and along with this entry Tom recently completed the official music video for the band, Muse's 2015 release, The Handler and their concert video backdrop. Thank you Tom!
Your entry was nothing short of a AAA studio! We thank your professional teamwork for participating in the competition and sharing your creativity. PrismArt Productions will be on our watch list for future projects.
Andre is highly skilled when it comes to iClone animations and screenplays, he is a natural story teller that left us wanting more. He made good use of shadows, lighting effects, jungle scene settings and excellent animations. We also give Andre thanks for taking the time to share his tips and tricks on how he actually created his animations in iClone. Many users will undoubtedly make good use of his Polycount thread suggestions.
A super high-quality, Hollywood cartoon-style animation!. This wonderfully fluid animation is a prime example of the talent that these contestants have. We also loved the sneezing and bonus disco dancing video! We all hoped you would teach us a bit more on how you created your animations. Thank you for participating and for sharing your progress on your Polycount thread.
SmallWonderStudio presents a big wondrous entry with their Jungle girl animation, which had a well polished atmosphere, sound and character design. Their visual quality is always top-notch, along with their smart repurposing of iClone native characters. Mark's beautiful aesthetics and attention to detail are always a treat to watch. He also made good use of his work in progress thread, providing instructional videos for his tips.
The Great Cycle is a really cool educational video that employs iClone to astutely explain the process of evaporation and condensation to young students. Luis Fernando used everything from iClone, to 3DXchange, to Maya in order to create his entry. He also used techniques employing the iClone Clone Bone system to create his water droplet characters that were essential in telling his story. Which goes to show that with a little imagination, you can create and animate almost anything!
Best known as the brilliant Norte43, Martin wished to create an animation that made reference to video games. He made excellent use of key frame animation, often leaving us impressed on the scale of his motions. Not to mention a huge array of stunningly cool game creatures. Martin often employs a sepia-ish, sort of color filter in his animations that has become his signature to all who enjoy his work. An overall impressive entry that makes us want to watch it over and over again.
Add a Xenomorph + Predator and you have a surefire winner! Stephen did a wonderful job at rigging and importing both popular characters into iClone with full body and facial morphs for easy iClone animation. He also treated us to a collage of behind the scene snapshots that included issue corrections, and a brilliant compilation of comic book-style images.
Recognition goes out to Dicoski Rade for his entry of the Big Stone Head where he used several tools like ZBrush, Earth Sculptor, 3DXchange and iClone 5 and 6! All his animations were made in iClone 5 and finalized in iClone 6 for improved visual quality. He made interesting use of fog and particle effects, demonstrating his splendid capabilities with iClone. His story is one of bravery and valor, where our hero slays nothing else but a full-sized dragon!
A nicely rendered animation and characters made with Blender and Poser! Ghidghid did a swell job at bringing fear, action, and gore to the pixel screen. An interesting animation that had us running from the ogres while calling out for a hero. I need a herooo! This entry had an entire cast of up to 9 different characters along with a storyboard taste on the Polycount thread. Thank you for being part of the competition, and we hope to see you creating more awesome stuff!
The trailer for a post-apocalyptic movie where one man, has one mission, to destroy the messengers of darkness... Alaeddine, you nailed it. A very well-done animation with creepy characters, a beautifully broken down world, and the savior it deserves. Great cut scenes, good animation and special effects. We really want to see more of this in the future! Please let us know when the final film is released.
