Oh my gourndess, look at these pumpkins!
With October in full swing, we decided it's time to pumpkin spice things up with a friendly challenge.
The rules were - no prizes, just challenge yourself for fun (and, of course, tons of street cred).
Well, you guys really squashed it this year!
Even though the challenge was just a week-long, you pull out all the seeds stops and delivered an orange extravaganza which took the CG Cookie gallery by storm.
Meet the judges
Kent Trammell has been with CG Cookie since 2013, masterminded some of our most iconic courses to date (sci-fi helmets, anyone?) and created Blender videos that reached tens of thousands of Blender learners around the world.
Jonathan Lampel has produced super-comprehensive courses like his most recent Fundamentals of Digital Lighting and currently supplies CG Cookie's YouTube channel with fresh Blender videos.
Wayne Dixon is spreading Blender gospel from Australia and putting the "mate" in animation. Wayne is the author of CG Cookie's animation curriculum -- including his recent Fundamentals of Animation or the experimental crossover course Acting for Animators.
Wes Burke, the founder of CG Cookie, is steering the cookie ship while supplying fresh Tron references and making sure the coffee never runs out.
These pumpkins were ahead of the carve...
As agreed, our panel of judges picked their favorites (in no particular order).
"Bad Idea" by Cannon Raymond
Roasted pumpkin, anyone? This little guy is positively glowing!
"It's easy to feel like this jack-o-lantern tyke is enjoying every moment of his mischievous scheme! The playfulness, story-telling, and technical execution is fantastic," said Kent Trammell.
"Protecting Those You Love" by Bennie Griffin
Nothing comes between mama pumpkin and her litter of pumpklettes.
This ominous-yet-cute work took Bennie just 12 hours to complete and is fully sculpted.
"This is such a good one," said Jonathan Lampel. "The concept is immediately clear and hits home, the expression and details on the face are spot on, and it's an overall good composition with good lighting and colors. I need more thumbs so I can give this extra thumbs up!"
"Halloween Time" by Yonatan Rodriguez
Two orange buddies hanging out in the attic on Halloween: a study.
Yonatan sculpted all the main details and painted the UV textures in multiple layers in the node editor.
"I'm loving their expressions and the hand-painted textures," said Jonathan Lampel, and Kent added: "The details of the sculpt are showcased well and the glow of the lights a pleasing atmosphere to everything."
"Pumpkin Mirror" by Ghis
Who's taking a dip in this lake? Yeah, I'll pass...it looks like a one-way ticket to scuba-diving with Jason Voorhees.
As Ghis explains, this is a take on "the subject in its natural state vs. its representation in pop culture through pareidolia made by light."
(I totally didn't have to look up what pareidolia means. It's basically your toaster smiling at you.)
"I love the concept and it's beautifully executed," praised Jonathan Lampel. "I thought it was a solid still-life render at first - took me a while to notice the reflection which I think is quite clever," Kent chimed in.
Everyone else - thank you for the fun!
The challenge spawned many more stunning pumpks and it was tough to pick the top 4.
Majors props to everybody who joined us, you guys are the best!
Still feeling hollow inside? Join the challenge round #2
If you can carve a little time in the next weeks, why not continue the orange-themed fun?
Be prepared to get smashed...well, at least your pumpkin will be getting smashed.
Even if you didn't partake in the first challenge, you can hop aboard the pumpkin express and challenge yourself in the next round.
It's go big or gourd home! #squashgoals
My pumpkin will certainly fight back before being smashed and Cannon Raymond's pumpkin is heavily armed 😉😁!