Posted March 08, 2017
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We're excited to announce the winners of the Marvelous Machines Contest! There were lots of great entries and congratulations to everyone who entered. The winning entries are a testament to the talented artists using Houdini to create their art.. 

Launched in the fall of 2016, the Marvelous Machines Contest gave artists the chance to win awesome prizes from our sponsors at Dell, AMD, Intel, Allegorithmic, 3D Artist and Pluralsight.

BEST OVERALL | Niels Prayer



Niels is a french motion designer and director. Constantly looking for new ways to create images, he finds inspiration in humanist and naturalist themes. He has a background as a FX Technical director and has worked for companies such as Framestore, Illumination MacGuff and Supamonks Studio. He is now working as a freelancer, taking jobs from art direction to motion graphics. 

Best Overall Prizes

Dell UltraSharp 30" Premier Color Monitor that delivers every creative professional their ideal color space. With 1.07 billion colors, you can see more details in higher clarity, even across an ultrawide viewing angle.

Houdini FX / AMD Fire Pro W8100 / Intel SSD 800GB / 

3D Artist Subscription / Pluralsight


BEST ANIMATION

1st Place | Krzysiek Kozlowski



Krzysiek is a 3D Generalist who focuses on simulation. He has three years of experience in gamedev and eight years in postproduction. He is an occasional sailor, sculptor and scriptwriter, a keen cyclist and lover of cinema.

Best Animation | 1st Place Prizes 

AMD Fire Pro W7100 professional graphics card delivers exceptional performance and special features designed to accelerate high-end workflows for design, engineering, and media and entertainment professionals.

+ Houdini FX / Intel SSD 800GB / 3D Artist Subscription / Pluralsight Subscription




2nd Place | Mehdi Salehisaki



Mehdi is a freelance artist based in Australia. He has worked as a CG artist and a VFX instructor for more than 14 years. During his journey to the mysterious world of 3D and VFX, Houdini has always been the main tool and program for him. Currently, he is working and helping other Houdini fans under the name of "VFXHOMELAND".

Best Animation | 2nd Place Prizes 

Houdini Core / 3D Artist Subscription / PluralSight Subscription / Substance Designer


BEST IMAGE

The three artists awarded Best Image prizes include Serjan Burlak, Akimoto and Yi Zhang. These images show the power of Houdini's Mantra renderer and Houdini's procedural node-based workflow. 

Best Image | Prizes 

1st Place - Houdini FX / AMD Fire Pro W5100 / Intel SSD 800GB / 3D Artist Subscription / Pluralsight Subscription
2nd Place - Houdini Core / 3D Artist Subscription / PluralSight Subscription / Substance Designer
3rd Place - Houdini Indie / 3D Artist Subscription / Substance Painter


Honourable Mention | Natalia Loktionova



Since the Houdini 16 splash screen was created by one of our interns for the Amarok theme, we did not award a best splash screen image, but awarding it to Natalia Loktionova as an Honorable Mention, with the same prize - a Houdini SWAG Pack.

Honorable Mention | Prize 

Houdini SWAG Pack