CLERMONT-FERRAND, France, Jan 31, 2019 – Allegorithmic has announced the winners of the “X-TAON Art Car Texturing Contest,” a challenge to professional and student artists to create the most imaginative and technically proficient car designs they could dream of using Substance Painter. With big prizes (and bragging rights) on the line, the response was incredible. More than 600 entries were received between November 27 to December 18, 2018, running the gamut from pop culture and cartoonish to stylish and production-ready.
Today, the jury announced six winners – along with two entries that were so impressive they earned their own “special prizes.” The entries were separated into two categories – professional and student – with the first, second and third place artists in each group taking home prizes from contest sponsors like Wacom, NVIDIA, Sketchfab, and Car Design News.
“Helping judge entries for the X-TAON contest was a blast. It was inspirational for me to see how the artists treated their car surface in so many fun and interesting ways,” said Pixar’s Jay Ward, a creative director on the “Cars” franchise and a judge for the contest. “Some submissions were beautiful in their color and design, where others really played with fun surfaces and materials. All of the entries showed the power of technology and creativity coming together!”
The subject of the contest, the X-TAON concept car, was modeled by 3D modeler Frederic Gasson and designed by famed auto designer Takumi Yamamoto, creator of the “GT by Citroën Racing” for the Gran Turismo series. The X-TAON, which is an acronym for “The Art of the Noise” debuted in July 2018 as part of the Substance Source automotive drop, giving Substance users a taste of what was possible in the realm of digital auto design. Following the introduction of a David Bowie-themed car at the International Motor Festival’s concept cars in Paris, Yamamoto returned to his digital model car to help choose the winners.
Along with Yamamoto, the jury consisted of seven industry professionals, each with unique experience with car design and Substance. The jurors included:
- Takumi Yamamoto – CEO of Takumi Yamamoto Design and exterior designer of the X-TAON
- Jay Ward – “Cars” Creative Director and Legacy Guardian at Pixar
- Gabe Garcia – Forza Vehicle Art Director at Microsoft Studios
- Paul Braddock – Senior VFX Artist at Animal Logic
- Sebastien Deguy – Founder of Allegorithmic
- Pierre Maheut – Strategy Director, Architecture and Design for Allegorithmic
- Nicholas Paulhac – Content Creation Director of Substance Source for Allegorithmic
The jurors spent weeks going through the entries, selecting six winners and 14 runners-up. The submissions came from around the world and featured a mixture of influences and styles. The winners were selected, in part, by their ability to tell a story.
The winners in the professional category are:
In first place, Ispais Sedano of Malta, who earned a Wacom Mobile Studio Pro 16, a Quadro RTX 5000 by NVIDIA, a year’s access to the Car Design News and a Substance Indie annual plan. Guilherme Marconi of Brazil came in second place, and JianYou Dong of China took third.
The winners in the student category are:
In first place, Zack Romiz Izzuddin, Indonesia, who earned a Wacom Cintiq Pro 16, a GeForce RTX 2080 by NVIDIA, a year’s access to the Car Design News and a Substance Indie annual plan. Ilai Perez of Israel came in second, and Isaac Zuren of Canada placed third.
In addition to the six winners, “special prizes” were awarded to Sri Lanka’s Chamishka Gamage for “Best Staging,” and the Germany’s Ronan Mahon for “Best Storytelling.” Their prizes will be announced soon.
“When we first introduced the ‘Substance Showcar,’ in the corner of our minds we had this idea to use the car as a canvas for 3D artists to see how crazy and creative they could get,” said Maheut. “Now that we have this awesome car designed by Takumi and modeled by Frederic, we wanted to share it with our community and see what comes out of it. Now we know, and the results are awesome!”
A complete list of the winners and prizes can be found here.
About Allegorithmic
Allegorithmic, an Adobe company, is the industry leader in 3D texture and material creation technologies. More than 150,000 users in the domains of games and entertainment, film and VFX, architecture, and design rely on Allegorithmic’s award-winning Substance texture and material authoring software for developing the next generation of digital content. Clients include: Naughty Dog, Activision, Sony Computer Entertainment, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Double Negative, MPC, Foster + Partners, Gensler, Louis Vuitton, BMW and IKEA. Founded in 2003, Allegorithmic is based in France with offices in Clermont-Ferrand, Lyon and Paris, and has global offices in Los Angeles, Cleveland, Montreal, Singapore and Seoul.