This week we review the winner of the 2022 Kitbash3D moving image challenge contest, based on their free Mission to Minerva asset pack. The film is called Secret Moon by Orencloud, and what a visually stunning and ethereal representation of Minerva this is, with a clear trajectory between this piece and Orencloud’s portfolio. We discuss some of the ways in which the film works and works less well for us, and note that at least one of us missed the ending!
YouTube Version of this Episode
Show Notes and Links
Secret Moon, by Orencloud, released 1 December 2022, film link –
This week’s #MondayMotivation gives you a selection of more projects to take a look at, these are from recent contests and challenges that have been taking place across different platforms.
Unreal Short Film Challenge: Australia & NZ
This is an annual contest that provides two weeks of training on Unreal, followed by eight weeks in which to create a film. We reviewed some of the films emanating from last year’s challenge and this contest resulted in some equally stunning films. Here’s the highlights reel –
But do check out the films too. Two we particularly loved are narrated, which is not a method we see used all that often in shorts these days. This one is Revolver and Heckler’s Black Wing –
and this one of a solo dancer is beautifully done, by Adam Walker Film, called vQsv –
This one mixed 3D and 2D, mentored by Spectre Studios, who’s 2020 Roborovski we shared a couple of months ago, is also very well done – Robo Ramen, by UTS Animal Logic Academy –
There are numerous other to check on Unreal’s channel too, link here.
KitBash3D: Mission to Minerva
Another time delimited contest, KitBash3D launched a free asset pack, its Mission to Minerva, and 40 days later, 32,000 entries from 174 countries answered the call to ‘create a new Galaxy’. Films were made using Blender and Unreal for the ‘in-motion’ category, and another category of concept artwork just required stills. What an astonishing feat to go through all those entries and select just a few winners! Here’s the sizzle reel –
In-motion winners compilation –
and here’s the winner, Secret Moon by Orencloud. This is stunning to say the least and we’ll be reviewing this as part of our February podcast film review too –
In the meantime, KitBash3D’s Mission to Minerva world kit is stil available as a free download, you can access it here.
Second Life Showcase
Not a contest as such, but we wanted to share a site that’s produced by a group of SL Video Creators, aimed at inspiring residents to create. Each month, they select the best films and share them on their website – check it out in the link here
SLVideoGroup website screencap
MacInnes Studios Dance Challenge
Following hot on the heels of the outcome of the Mood Scene challenge, John MacInnes launched a TikTok challenge to create an avatar dancer. TikTok is an interesting choice for video sharing for machinima, and its one we’ll be commenting on more over the coming weeks. This contest was won by a virtual Freddie Mercury, created by Jean Campos (feature image) –
There are a growing number of ‘challenges’ that we’ve been finding over the last few months – many are opportunities to learn new tools or use assets created by studios such as MacInnes Studio. They are also incentivised with some great prizes, generally involving something offered by the contest organizer, such as that by Kitbash3D we link to in this post. This week, we were however light on actual live contests to call out, but have found someone who is always in the know, Winbush!
Mission to Minerva (deadline 2 Dec 2022)
Kitbash3D’s challenge is for you to contribute to the development of a new galaxy! On their website, they state: ‘Your mission, should you choose to accept, is to build a settlement on a planet within the galaxy. What will yours look like?’ Their ultimate aim is to outsource all the creatie work to their community, combining artworks contests participants submit. There are online tutorials to assist, where they show you how to use Kitbash3D in Blender and Unreal Engine 5, and your work can be either concept are or animation. Entry into the contest couldn’t be simpler: you just need to share on social media (Twitter, FB, IG, Artstation) and use the hashtag #KB3Dchallenge. Winners will be announced on 20 December and there are some great prizes, sponsored by the likes off Unreal, Nvidia, CG Spectrum, WACOM, The Gnoman Workshop, The Rookies and ArtStation (platforms). Entry details and more info here.
Pug Forest Challenge
This contest has already wrapped – but there are now a few of this type of thing emerging – challenges which give you an asset to play with for a period of time, a submission guideline process, and some fabulous prizes – all geared towards incentivising you to learn a new toolset, this one being UE5! So if you need the incentivisation to motivate you – its definitely worth looking out for these. Jonathan Winbush is also one of those folks whose tutorials are legendary in the UE5 community, so even if you don’t want to enter, this is someone to follow.
McInnes Studios’ Mood Scene Challenge
John McInnes recently announced the winners of his Mood Scene challenge contest that we reported on back in August – we must say, the winners have certainly delivered some amazing moods. Check the show reel out here –
Tracy Harwood and Ben Grussi’s Machinima Book, On Sale Now!
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