December 31, 2020 1:00 PM
by Editor in Chief
What would be the purpose of setting up an CG award? Some do it to promote the organizers or sponsors' needs: promoting their products to enhance their monetary gains. As such, it's inevitable that quite often--if not at all--the best gets put aside to make room for another that helps to meet theirs need. Sometimes the organizers have done it so blatantly that they have destroyed their year-long reputation and never recovered.
What is the goal of BlenderNews.org's Render of the Year Awards, then? Not for monetary gains. Blender is free anyway and the organizer(s) for this awards doesn't rely on any sponsorship even from the Blender Foundation.
Render of the Year Awards--along with its weekly Render of the Week Awards--seek to help commissioners to identify competent artists or studios to realize their visions. It's time consuming to review all the portfolios of thousands of artists and even verify their claim of competence.
Congrats to all winners and thank you all--winners and candidates--for your amazing and stunning works done in 2021!
1. Best Blender Render
Lone Monk
by Monorender studio
2. Best Concept Art (Environment):
Layered World
by Yanick Dusseault
Check out the story of the creator of this concept art.
Details: http://blendernews.org/xe/Feature_Articles/21100
3. Best Concept Art (Props):
Smoking Pirate
by Nikolay Kvartnikov
4. Best VFX:
Layered World
by Yanick Dusseault
No, it's not a mistake. Double win! Check out the video version
https://www.flickr.com/photos/157499770@N03/51050049911/
5. Best Concept Art (Stylized):
The 4th Wall
Roman work demontrates a never-before-seen style that Bender can be used to make stop-motion-like animations.
Details: http://blendernews.org/xe/Feature_Articles/21033
6. Best Character Art (Realistic):
Mundane Render
by Jeff Miller
7. Best Character Art (Creature):
Dilophosaurus wetherilli
by Joanna Kobierska
Recreating a convincing and extinct animal involves more than recreating using a photo reference. It takes more than modeling skills.
In that regard, Joanna continues to be one of the best Bender artists you can trust for designing and recreating creatures!
8. Best Industrial Render:
umble Motors “One” conceptr
by Lee Rosario Jr.
9. Best Food Render:
Steak with Fries
by Fabio Martich
CG foods are always in demand. Fabio work shows how good Blender can be in filling that need.
7. Best Architectural Render (Interior):
Private Flat
by Flavio Della Tommasa
Flavio's work has been featured as a demo for Blender.org and for good reason. You can download his project file and check out his masterful use of Blender for archviz.
8. Best Architectural Render (Exterior):
Triangle Cabin
by Nguyen Nong Ngoc Khanh
Check out Nguyen's portfolios. Obviously he's one of the best artists to depend on for exterior archviz.