Footloose 3D

September 10, 2022 9:09 AM

"During August I challenged 3D artists to create their best work from a simple, barebones template file." These are the top 100 from the 3,600 entries.

Earlier challenges:

https://www.metafilter.com/194747/Rooms-with-a-view
https://www.metafilter.com/191818/100-x-3-second-3D-Renders
https://www.metafilter.com/192416/Ball-drop

posted by Gyan (14 comments total)

When I was young I imagined myself an artist. I drew a lot of cartoons and there were people who liked them. Then I saw what real artists do, on a dare, and just gave up. I'll never have the imagination of a true artist.
posted by SPrintF at 9:28 AM on September 10, 2022 [2 favorites]

I liked the BoJack Horseman one.
posted by Catblack at 11:55 AM on September 10, 2022

I always enjoy seeing these. It's fun to see the different themes that come up - as well as the commonalities. People who make 3D art dig robots, it seems.
posted by entity447b at 12:17 PM on September 10, 2022

Animating a robot is a lot easier than animating a living creature. Actual robots kind of are an animated creature.
posted by straight at 12:32 PM on September 10, 2022 [1 favorite]

I always love these. I think this one would benefit from just one tiny extra constraint. Having to make the ball start and stop in particular places or having a giant sphere in the sky that the character is straining toward made those sequences a little more compelling to watch together.

But the individual creativity in each of the scenes and the variety of ideas and styles is every bit as glorious in this challenge as in the previous ones.
posted by straight at 1:00 PM on September 10, 2022

Was not expecting to see Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter.
posted by straight at 1:04 PM on September 10, 2022

I love the one from the set of an Ultraman movie.
posted by straight at 1:13 PM on September 10, 2022

And there's four in a row here with fantastic ideas/execution that I loved.
posted by straight at 1:16 PM on September 10, 2022

I had to watch this one several times in slow motion before I really grasped what was being shown. Incredible.
posted by straight at 1:23 PM on September 10, 2022

I'll never have the imagination of a true artist.

We are all true artists.
posted by aniola at 1:40 PM on September 10, 2022 [1 favorite]

One of the mechs from Pacific Rim was also in one.
posted by Spike Glee at 1:43 PM on September 10, 2022

These seen to get better and better! also, the fourth one seems to feature opne of my goddaughters!
posted by Fuchsoid at 4:18 PM on September 10, 2022

It's kind of fascinating how many of them have similar ideas or themes, like the marionette ones, or the stop motion maquette armature ones, or robots, or, of course, cyberpunk themes and so on.

It would be interesting to see a breakdown of how many of these repeated themes were in each general category out of the 3600 entries, because I bet there was a whole lot of them.

Which is fine. It's just a fun exercise focusing more on animation skills like texturing, motion, lighting and so forth, it's not exactly about world building or telling a complicated story.
posted by loquacious at 9:06 PM on September 10, 2022

Full montage of all entries - 4h30m.
posted by Gyan at 9:25 AM on September 17, 2022