A digital effects artist has organized a massive art contest based around one simple theme.
Clinton Jones put out a call for other digital artists to send in submissions for the contest. Now that the submissions are in, we can view some of the incredible artwork and marvel at the amount of talent out there that we otherwise wouldn’t know about.
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Jones opened the contest up back in February.
Jones received sponsorships from various brands to provide prizes to the winning entrants. The theme of the contest was “Infinite Journeys,” with artists creating an animated video based around the theme of moving.
This animation kicked things off.
Jones created this animation, of a driver in a race car speeding past an arid landscape, to provide a basis for the contest. Every animation submitted mirrored this theme, and the creativity was truly off the charts.
Many entrants went for a space theme.
This animation, which shows a boy watching the cosmos go by while an older man is zoned out on a VR device, gives a taste of what’s to come. Some animations had a message, others were just pretty, but all were flawlessly executed.
Serious Pixar vibes from this one.
Entries were incredibly diverse, but many of them followed the modern CGI animation trend started by Pixar: cartoonish characters based in a realistically rendered and shaded world. The common theme was that all scenes were set in front of a window.
Some artists went in a different direction.
The Pixar-ish art is impressive in its own right, but some artists really thought outside the box with their entries. I particularly enjoy this scene of two nuts snoozing as their train takes them through the forest.
In all, 2,448 people submitted entries.
This gave Jones quite a few animations to sift through. While we don’t have a montage of every single one of the entries, Jones did post a nine-minute montage of the top 100.
Video games were a clear influence.
Whether the scene was merely inspired by video games or, in this case, shows people literally playing video games, it’s clear that many modern digital artists have taken at least some of their cues from video games.
Other entries contemplated the end times.
This is a truly haunting scene, showing a massive meteor impacting Earth as astronauts float overhead. The Game Boy floating by with ‘game over’ on its display is definitely a nice Easter egg here.
This is modern art.
Since the entries are so diverse, they can’t really be lumped together under one category of art. But the fact that all of them were created digitally is a theme in itself. Many artists today never use a pencil or paper.
Here’s the winning entry.
Kris Theorin won the grand prize with this impressive animation. The cartoonish style and bright colors bring to mind a modern-day Nintendo game.
While this is impressive and worthy of the top prize, every single one of the top hundred entries is incredible in its own right.
You’re going to want to watch this video.
Jones’ video showing the top 100 entries is an absolute joy to watch, both thrilling and soothing in equal measures. Be sure to check out his Twitter for more info on the contest.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments!
