3D World CG Awards 2011: The best of the CG industry

Winner: Sculptris (Pixologic)

http://www.pixologic.com/sculptris

This award recognises the best new asset-creation applications that have been released over the past year, which provide stable, useful and usable tools for the CG artist.

We are delighted that Sculptris has been voted number 1 in the New Software of the Year category. Thanks to the voters! Pixologic is recognised as a ground-breaking innovator in the world of digital art. The development of Sculptris is consistent with the Pixologic spirit of helping artists create without technical barriers.

Jimmy Golding, director of marketing, Pixologic

Winner: Blender 2.5 (The Blender Foundation)

http://www.blender.org

This award is open to any existing application that has received a sizeable update, introducing useful new features and new technologies to its user base, while maintaining stability and usability.

We've had many compliments for delivering this UI and tools redesign project. It's been a huge task - over three years of work - something free or open-source projects typically are advised to never even attempt! An official recognition from 3D World readers means a lot to us: thanks!

Ton Roosendaal, chairman, Blender Foundation

Winner: Lagoa Multiphysics (Lagoa Technologies)

http://www.vimeo.com/channels/lagoausers

In this category, we're recognising the work done by smaller teams of developers working to add functionality to existing applications. It's to reward plug-ins that deliver new technologies or features that enhance the host program.

We are once more overwhelmed with all the recognition and support given to Lagoa Multiphysics. Huge thanks to everyone that gives us the opportunity to contribute to this great industry! You make our dreams even bigger!

Thiago Costa, programmer, Lagoa Technologies

Winner: Genesis figures (DAZ 3D)

http://www.daz3d.com

For this category, we're looking at software that breaks new ground, delivers new techniques or algorithms, and provides a clear benefit for artists in the creation or implementation of CG assets.

We are grateful to 3D World and to the 3D community for their recognition of the tremendous effort we have put into the new Genesis series of figures and all its supporting technology.

Our goal was to provide maximum flexibility and extensibility within a single figure, while maintaining the highest degree of realism possible.

The developers of several of the mainstream 3D applications are already planning to support the Genesis framework in their applications. We would love for everyone to have access to this framework no matter what toolset they choose, whether through native support or plug-in architecture.

We believe the Genesis framework will open up limitless possibilities for users creating custom 3D figures and characters, and make transporting these unique creations to other 3D applications much simpler. We are very excited to see what the community will do with this new platform for 3D figures

Dan Farr, president and co-founder, DAZ 3D

Winner: Intel iCore i7 processors (Intel)

http://www.intel.com

Each year, we see huge advances in hardware technology. The Hardware Innovation of the Year category is dedicated to those companies who bring new physical products to market, from processors and graphics cards to input devices and the latest gadgets.

It's great to win the 3D World Hardware Innovation of the Year award for the Intel Core i7 CPU, particularly in light of the focus we have on visual computing.

That these innovations have been recognised from a publication like 3D World means just that little bit more in this context. Our thanks go out to all those who have paid us a welcome compliment.

Dan Belton, retail director, Intel UK

Winner: Rango (ILM/Paramount Pictures)

http://www.rangomovie.com

This hotly-contested award goes to the animated feature film that, in your opinion, delivered the best use of CG - through stylish visuals, dynamic camerawork, top quality character animation and good old-fashioned storytelling.

Many thanks to 3D world for this great honour! Rango was truly a unique experience for ILM. Wrestling an animated feature through a primarily live-action visual effects facility was a great learning experience for all of us.

This film helped us explore everything from technical pipeline changes to recalibrating our ideas about visual storytelling.

I'd like to congratulate all of the amazing artists at ILM for their hard work, dedication, and most of all artistry and fuzz. And many thanks to Gore [Verbinski], Crash [McCreery] and all the Blind Wink crew for their guidance, partnership and inspired film-making.

Tim Alexander, visual effects supervisor, ILM

Winner: Sintel (The Blender Foundation, dir. Colin Levy)

http://www.sintel.org

It's not just the Hollywood elite who are up for an award: this category is in appreciation of indie, hobbyist and student shorts, which showcase their technical prowess, animation technique, direction and editing skills.

Our open movies are always exciting experiments, trying to push Blender beyond boundaries. For Sintel, the team was extra-challenged by having to use the alpha version of Blender 2.5 from scratch.

Technically, the film had to accept some glitches, but in its creative execution - especially direction and storytelling - it's outstanding. Thanks for the CG short film award!

Ton Roosendaal, chairman, Blender Foundation

Winner: Inception (Double Negative/Warner Bros.)

http://inceptionmovie.warnerbros.com

Visual effects - and the companies that produce them - are the new stars of Hollywood. This award goes to the technicians who film the unfilmable and represent the cutting edge of the medium, where art meets technology.

We are honoured to have been awarded VFX Film of the Year (Long Form) for our work on Inception.

We were amazed at the response to the film, and being recognised by the voters in this way caps off a tremendous year for us!

Paul Franklin, VFX supervisor, Double Negative

Winner: The Walking Dead (Stargate Studios/AMC)

http://www.stargatestudios.net

This category is designed to reward teams without the staff and budget of blockbuster movies: the studios that deliver film-quality visual effects on weekly TV shows, or amateur film-makers who ply their trade on YouTube and Vimeo.

We are deeply honoured to have been recognised for our efforts by the first-ever 3D World CG Awards.

Our work on The Walking Dead has been a source of great pride for everyone at Stargate, and we look forward to being involved in more groundbreaking projects in the future.

Sam Nicholson, CEO, Stargate Studios

Winner: Halo: Reach 'Deliver Hope' (Method Studios/Agency twofifteen/Microsoft)

http://www.methodstudios.com | http://agency215.com

With just 30 seconds or so to grab you attention, be memorable and get their message across, this award is for the team that has produced the highest-quality, most ingenious and eye-catching CG ad work.

The goal was to create a world that felt like the science fiction reality upon which the game world is based, intensely faithful to the feel and spirit of the game but more gritty and detailed than its simulation.

We wanted to literally immerse the viewer in the heart of the battle's chaos, building the scale of events and environments toward the end of the spot until we take in the full extent of the planet-wide destruction taking place.

Dan Glass, senior visual effects supervisor, Method Studios

Winner: Parliament Building, Abu Dhabi (Vyonyx Studios)

http://vyonyx.com

There are enormous amounts of top-quality architectural visualisation work generated every year. This award recognises those images that are technically excellent, artfully designed and evoke a positive reaction.

This competition project made a strong, brave and powerful architectural statement. One way to balance this was to look for the gentle and tranquil feel of a romantic evening. In our images we take an approach and techniques borrowed from classical and modern art.

For this image, important elements were a simple calm composition, the deep darkness of the background, gentle lighting and subtle reflections. The unusually dark sky contrasts with the strong lines of the building and leaves the shapes to breath and impress.

Our passion is creating through images and not through words, so hopefully our images speak for themselves. A massive thanks to everyone who voted for us.

Deyan Minchev, founding partner, Vyonyx

Winner: Silestone: Above Everything Else (Alex Roman)

As the field of arch-viz gains the technologies of the VFX artisan, so the level of quality has soared. This category is in honour of those animated films which are technically excellent, captivate the viewer and best showcase the project in question.

I've been reading 3D World for years, so I am honoured to receive this award. It has been completely unexpected and, honestly, a true honour for me!

Alex Roman

Winner: Crysis 2 (Crytek/EA)

As videogame technology marches ever onward, so do the requirements of the gamer. This award goes to the title that delivers the best art and production design, texture and shader work, character animation and visual effects.

Winning the first CG Award for Crysis 2 in the category of best in-game graphics is an exceptional honour for us, since it rewards the hard work that our team is doing every day to achieve our, admittedly, ambitious goals.

With the release of the PC-exclusive Crysis 1 back in 2007, we wanted to push our technology as far as we could. The fact that the game is still, to this day, being used for graphics benchmarks underlines our success in doing so and is the best credit that we can ask for.

However, when we began Crysis 2, we were presented with the challenge of making it look even better than its predecessor. So in this case, being called 'the leader in computer game graphics' has been a blessing and a curse.

Everyone who knows Crytek also knows that we love challenges. So we happily accepted this one, and made Crysis 2 the best-looking game to hit this generation.

Cevat Yerli, CEO and founder, Crytek

Tomb Raider: Turning Point trailer (Visual Works/Crystal Dynamics)

Pre-rendered CG footage to promote new titles or punctuate the game itself is now a prerequisite of the field. The stunning imagery in this category is being rewarded for technical excellence, production design, storytelling and overall visual impact.

The team is elated to have their hard work on the Tomb Raider: Turning Point trailer recognised by 3D World.

The three-minute trailer took over a year to develop, and is the product of a very successful partnership between the Redwood City videogame developer Crystal Dynamics and the Square Enix Visual Works Studios out of Tokyo.

To see our collaborative effort recognised as a leader in the video game space is quite an honour.

Karl Stewart, global brand director for Tomb Raider and director of Turning Point, Crystal Dynamics