Well, here it is. The 16th of July. The end of my contest, born from boredom and lack of creativity.

The results of my contest are in, and there were 22 submissions, a lot more than I expected and it was really, really hard and agonizing to pick the winners, and the best of the rest but here we go.

The aim of my contest was take a piece I had rendered in Vue 6 and manipped a smoke trail into, and "spacify it" - that is use it as a stock to make a space related piece of art.

The Original:


The Entries:
Last Exile by =keepwalking07
Breaking Free by ~nisht
Breaking Free from the surface by =ladydetemps
End Game by =DemosthenesVoice
Breaking Away by =FoleyPL
Houston, We've a Problem by ~D3nim
Terra Arcadia by ~lukas-Z-walker
Battlefield 2782 by ~theKonstruct
Untitled by ~RedXen
Fate by *William-Vigori
Breaking Free by =Broken-Lithium
The First Strike by *CsmcVisn
Breaking Free by ~hekvl
Breaking Away WIP by ~Jesus-Tks
Downfall by ~ChrisCold
The Beginning by ~sk8peace
Breaking Free by *freelancah
Journey to Nibiru by ~fridzalone
Dreams should come true by ~Ragebringer
Another Day In Universe by ~aRchAng3lZz
Breaking Free by ~nehas91
Breaking Free by =buildingclimber


That's a lot of entries! In a pathetic effort to build up tension I'll be saying which piece won last, but for now, here are the pieces that really stood out for me, because of the concept, and/or the execution:

The best of the rest:

Downfall by ~ChrisCold


Why it stood out for me: I presume that that is a rocket blasting a meteor to pieces and that is very well executed, the detail in the explosion and the bits and pieces flying off is excellent. As good as the foreground looks, the background lets it down a lot, this piece had huge potential, and it's kinda... (well disappointing is a harsh word, but somewhere along those lines) disappointing that laziness got in the way. Maybe add a few more stars, work on the lighting of the planet...

Breaking Away by =FoleyPL

Why it stood out for me: The execution is very well done, some great blending and effects going on there, and I like the colouring. However I feel it's just too cluttered, just too many things going on, maybe remove the ship in the foreground, make the piece a bit taller, and maybe decrease the size of the planet a bit.

Breaking Away WIP by ~Jesus-Tks


Why it stood out for me: The Nebula. That is one hell of a nebula, and the lighting is excellent too. But how sick that nebula is (I quite like the dark fractals) it's just too bright and could use some darkening. Overall, it also feels like there's something missing, it's one sick piece, but there's something I can't figure out that's missing - maybe a good starfield to complement the nebula?

Fate by *William-Vigori


Why it stood out for me: The Lighting and I particularly like the nebula and the star field, I also love the colours of the spacescape, but I'm not sure about the colouring on the clouds - feels a bit too monotone, but it still looks great.

Houston, We've a Problem by ~D3nim

Why it stood out for me: The spaceship. I love it. The detail in this piece is amazing, things like the city lights on the left planet, the lighting on the asteroids surrounding what looks to me like a whirlpool. I really can't think of any critiques for this piece, and it was hard to not make this an honourable mention ad this is one of the best spacescapes I've seen.


Untitled by ~RedXen

Why it stood out for me: The detail, and realism. RedXen took the concept of the render and made a very photo realistic piece, and the composition of this is great, The nebula and planets and the moon are awesome. A few minor details though: the horizon of the clouds at the bottom is a straight line, and needs to blend a bit bit better and there are too many stars in the middles. BUT this was also a nominee for being an honourable mention, and this is one hell of a piece.



So, that's it for the best of the rest, Now moving on to the good stuff, the first honourable mention is:


Breaking Free by *freelancah


I adore this piece, the colours are simply stunning and I love what freelancah has done with this.
Not much else to say, but congratulations, you've won a custom CSS and a stamp by me, just hit me up what kind of CSS and stamp you you want done, and Ill do it

The second honourable mention is:

End Game by =DemosthenesVoice


The nebula in this piece is simply awe-inspiring, the texture on detail on the planets are just as amazing and I like the minimalistic starfield, along with the planet ring around the small planet on the left. Need I mention that the colours are fantabulous as well?

=DemosthenesVoice wins one of the detailed, high resolution landscape stocks.


2nd Place goes to the 2nd submission I received. This person wins one high resolution landscape stock, and a planet texture stock (or another landscape stock/journal CSS


Breaking Free by ~nisht

This might be quite controversial, as this was one of the Daily Deviations for July 13th, and I really do love this piece, and Nisht does deserve the daily deviation, because this makes for a stunning wallpaper. The only reason this didn't win outright, is that it isn't spacy enough. Yes, that's the only reason why it didn't win, and if you look at the winning piece - now that's a space scene.
Congratulations, ~nisht take your pick from the available prizes, or request a stamp /journal CSS/planet texture stock/landscape stock


Terra Arcadia by ~lukas-Z-walker


Having to choose between this, and Nishts was on of the most dificult decisions ever, this piece was featured in the The Best in 3D Manipulations #19 news article and that is very deserved. The colours in this piece are brilliant, the blending between the planet and cloud is awesome and I'm trully amazed at what lukas did with this piece. The rest of his gallery is also awesome, head on over to his page and give him a watch, he deserves it because he is relatively unknown (only 2800 pageviews and if you check out his gallery you can see that he has talent. My congratulations go out to you, go on, pick which of the available prizes you want (and if you want something different than what already is available, make a request ) (from a landscape stock, planet stock, journal CSS or stamp)


Thank you everyone for participating! I'm honoured that you all submitted something for my contest, and I end this announcement with a cute, and comical submission:



And the rest: