Los Angeles, Calif.— The CGSociety and Nvidia have announced the top five entries in their ACCELERATE Digital Art Competition. The challenge of creating futuristic vehicle designs in the style of Syd Mead produced more than 1300 images. The five winners will share over $35,000 in prizes.
Their challenge was to create vehicle designs for a future on the move ... transport in the style of Syd Mead. The Master Futurist, famous for his concept designs in Blade Runner, TRON, and 2010, led a panel of star judges: Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman (co-hosts of Mythbusters), Mark Frauenfelder (founder of boingboing.net), Kevin Kelly (the founder of Wired Magazine), Brian Gernand (creative director of Kerner), Lorne Lanning (of Oddworld fame), David Wright (creative director of Nvidia) and Mark Snoswell (president of CGSociety).
Together these luminaries vigorously deliberated over the hundreds of worthy images, finally deciding on the five winning entries:
First Place: Crono Viper by Arnoldas Vitkus of Lithunia. Jamie Hyneman, co-host of Mythbusters, was “impressed by its massive, muscular quality ... It does a great job of blending an organic feel with the mechanical; use of earth tones reinforces this.” David Wright, creative director of Nvidia, added that its “technique and composition are serving the design, explaining it, telling a story without distracting or showing off what the artist can do with software, instead his technical skills are in full control, serving visual communication.” Kevin Kelly, the founder of Wired Magazine, felt that it was a “plausible vehicle, positioned nicely between what-could-be and what-already-is. The design of the vehicle is muscular and confident, and so is the art.”
Second Place: America’s Anthony Scime’s Ts.2850. Syd Mead said the “vehicle is startlingly geometric with a proportional flair not usually seen with this bold confidence in the design concept.” Lorne Lanning added that the “simplicity of form and grandeur of scale is striking. Great execution though I’m still not completely sure of what I’m looking at, but what I’m looking at is WAY cool and I want to see it operate!”
Third place: NASTRA 015 by Pavel Mikhailenko of Russia. Mythbuster’s Adam said “I love, LOVE this render. Everything about it is authentic, well thought out, and convincing. I can hear how it all sounds.”
Fourth place: BLACK CUCUMBER TH BIO 8000 by Roman Mrázek of Czech Republic. Adam Savage exclaimed that it was “right up there with Kanada's bike in Akira as something I wish I could ride RIGHT NOW.”
Fifth place: arrival by Dmytro Zyubyairov of the Ukraine. Syd Mead described it as “one of the most exotic, expertly convoluted use of twisted planes that I have ever seen. The front, with the two projecting flat points transpose elegantly into the vertical rear fins, enclosing the cabin as an intermittent geometric configuration. Brilliant design.”
Honorable mentions went to Neil MacCormack’s Pursuit, Andrian Luchian’s Days After Tomorrow, Jan Harcarik’s Nova Drive, Brian Sum’s The OX Explorer, Annis Naeem’s Planetary Tourism, and David Huang’s Hyper Wing Sail Vehicle. Peter Ang’s OXSYD Concept got a special commendation from Syd for integration of concept in a very cool composition.
The competition was created jointly with the sole sponsor Nvidia and had a prize pool valued at over $37,000. The first prize was $10,000 cash, plus two Nvidia Quadro FX 5800 4GB - 240 CUDA Processors . "Nvidia are a driving force in the graphics industry and this competition is a great opportunity for artists to gain global exposure and a chance to win great prizes," said Mark Snoswell, president of the CGSociety. "Nvidia have been a constant and significant supporter of the CGSociety and Ballistic Media. They are major sponsors of our CGChallenges and we are pleased to continue to expand our relationship with them."
"We owe much of Nvidia’s success to the talents of digital designers in this fascinating and ever-changing industry,” adds David Wright, creative director of Nvidia. “The NVArt competition is just one way for us to say “thank you” and to celebrate the achievements of this amazing community. We’re really pleased to have the opportunity to collaborate again with our friends at CGSociety on NVArt."