3D Awards by CGarchitect

The “official rules” for CGarchitect 3D Student Awards 2024.

No purchase necessary to enter or to win.
The 2024 CGarchitect Student 3D Awards Contest (the "Contest") is sponsored by CGarchitect Digital Media Corp. (the “Sponsor”).

Submissions are now open

From Apr 16 to May 13
Submit your work
Submissions for the 2024 3D Student Awards are now opened
  • Apr 16 - May 13
    Submissions are opened
  • May 13 - Jun 01
    Judging round
  • Jun 10
    Official nominees announced
  • Jun 26
    Winners announced

Submission Deadlines / Important Dates

  • Call for Submissions: 15/04/2024 00:00 - 12/05/2024 23:59 (GMT -03:00)
  • Judging Round: 13/05/2024 00:00 - 31/05/2024 23:59 (GMT -03:00)
  • Official Nominees Announcement: 10/06/2024 00:00 (GMT -03:00)
  • Online Awards Ceremony: 26/06/2024 13:00 (GMT -03:00)
  • Winners Announced Online: June 26, 2024
The 3D Awards will be announced during a special online event to be broadcasted live on YouTube on June 26, 2024.

Category Types

The CGarchitect Student 3D Awards have 3 separate individual categories (Image, Film/Animation, Academic Presentation) and one "School of the Year" category. In the Film/Animation and Image categories, participants must necessarily be currently enrolled in an accredited course (Architecture, Design or similar). No free courses will be accepted to ensure all students have equal chances. Participants who do not meet this criteria will be automatically disqualified.

Image & Animation/Film Categories

These categories are meant for images of film/animation work created by a student as part of their studies or educational program. Even if the work was not specifically required as part of your program, if it was created for a school project, please submit it to this category. If you are a student, but created the work outside of your program and were not specifically for a school project, do not submit.

Works created by students for this category must have been completed entirely by the student. No assistance from school staff or other professionals is allowed other than providing basic general guidance.  Pre-made scenes provided by the school, scenes that are used as part of a teaching plan or curriculum, and scenes that are not an original creation of the student are not allowed. Scenes found to be in violation of these criteria will be disqualified.

In order to submit to the student category, you can not have worked professionally in any field or any capacity where you were being paid to create visualizations, prior to your submission being created. This includes working as an instructor or professor. The sole exception to this rule is paid internships as part of your education. The intent and spirit of this rule are to ensure you have not gained an unfair advantage over other competitors. As a student in this category, you should be a novice to the visualization side of the industry.

School of the Year


The School of the Year is automatically granted to the school with most participants + winners, according to these criteria:
  • points awarded according to the number of participants (x1)
  • points awarded according to the number of nominated participants (x2)
  • points awarded according to the number of winners (x2)
Only accredited schools are eligible to this category. No free or short-term courses are eligible. Schools mentioned by their students at the time of registration for the contest will be considered participants. It is not necessary for the school to be registered separately.

General Rules

  1. By submitting you agree that CGarchitect Digital Media Corp. (CGarchitect.com/CGarchitect) and its designated sponsors may use your submission(s), fully credited, for promotional purposes on their websites and/or marketing collateral. You will retain all copyrights to your work.

  2. As a condition of awarding a Prize, winners grant to Sponsor the right to use his/her full name (first and last), image and likeness, voice, and comments for advertising, publicity, and promotional purposes without territorial, time or use limitations, including without limitation online announcements, without additional compensation or notice, unless prohibited by law.

  3. Any submission must have been created in 2023 or 2024 or made public in 2023 or 2024. There are no restrictions on submitting entries that have been submitted to other competitions or previously published in public.

  4. By submitting to the 2024 CGarchitect Student 3D Awards Contest, you warrant that you have obtained permission to submit the works for public display. If your submissions are selected they will not be displayed publicly until June 26, 2024.

  5. Any award category that does not receive sufficient applicable entries will be removed from the competition or merged with another applicable category at the Sponsor's sole discretion.

  6. By entering this Contest, entrants agree to abide by these Official Rules. The decisions of the Sponsor and its appointed judges with respect to all aspects of the Contest are final and binding.

  7. By entering the Contest, entrants thereby release the Sponsor, their parent and affiliated companies, their advertising and promotional agencies, and their employees, representatives, agents, partners, shareholders, officers and directors (the “Releasees”) from all liability including responsibility for any loss, damage or injury, caused by participating or their attempt to participate in the Contest or resulting from acceptance of the Prize or participation in the Event.

  8. The Releasees assume no responsibility for any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to, or alteration of, entries. The Releasees are not responsible for any problems or technical malfunction of any telephone network or telephone lines, computer on-line systems, servers, or providers, computer equipment, software, failure of any entry to be received by the Sponsor on account of technical problems, human error or traffic congestion on the Internet or at any Web site, or any combination thereof, including any damage to participant’s or any other person’s computer and other property relating to or resulting from participation in this Contest or from downloading any materials in this Contest.

  9. CAUTION: ANY ATTEMPT TO UNDERMINE THE LEGITIMATE OPERATION OF THIS CONTEST MAY BE A VIOLATION OF CRIMINAL AND CIVIL LAWS AND SHOULD SUCH AN ATTEMPT BE MADE, CGARCHITECT DIGITAL MEDIA CORP. RESERVES THE RIGHT TO SEEK DAMAGES OR OTHER REMEDIES FROM ANY SUCH PERSON(S) RESPONSIBLE TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW. Any attempt to circumvent any of the competition rules or voting systems will result in you and your company being disqualified and permanently banned from all future awards.

  10. The Sponsor reserves the right at all times at its sole discretion to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the Contest, in whole or in part, in the event of any cause beyond the reasonable control of the Sponsor that interferes with the proper conduct of the Contest as contemplated by the Official Rules, including, without limitation, any error, technical problem, computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failure, or any other cause including the cancellation or postponement of the Event.

  11. The Sponsor reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to disqualify any individual who (i) tampers with, or attempts to tamper with, the entry process; (ii) enters the Contest or tries to do so by any means contrary to these Official Rules or which would be unfair to the other entrants; or (iii) violates any of these Official Rules.

  12. By entering this Contest, each entrant consents to the collection, use, and disclosure, by the Sponsor, of the following personal information: full name (first and last), submitted entry information,  and contact information (telephone number, address, and email address) for the administration of this Contest including, but not limited to, the announcement of winners and awarding and delivery of a Prize. No commercial or other communications unrelated to the Contest will be sent to entrants unless they have otherwise agreed to receive such communications.

  13. This Contest is subject to all applicable laws and regulations and void where prohibited. All issues and questions concerning the construction, validity, interpretation and enforceability of the Official Rules or the rights and obligations as between the entrant and the Sponsor in connection with the Contest will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the province of Alberta, including procedural provisions, without giving effect to any choice of law or conflict of law rules or provisions that would cause the application of any other jurisdiction’s laws. If a section of the Official Rules is declared illegal, unenforceable or invalid by a competent court, that section shall be considered invalid, but all unaffected sections will be applied within the limits of the law.

  14. By submitting to the 2024 CGarchitect Student 3D Awards Contest you agree to create a "Making Of" article for the Sponsor if requested.



How to Enter and be Eligible for a Prize

  1. To enter the Contest and be eligible for a Prize you must have a CGarchitect account and submit an image or film to one of our three (3) individual categories or any special categories. Participants may submit up to 2 submissions per category.

  2. Competition judges or their respective companies may submit to the competition, however, they will not be able to vote on their own submissions. In the event that a judge's submission is selected as a category nominee, all of their competition votes for that category will be removed from consideration. In the event that more than three judges' submissions are selected as category nominees, replacement judges may be selected to vote in their place.

  3. All submissions must be received no later than May 12nd (23:59 Brasilia Time / GMT -03:00). In the event of technical issues during the submission process, CGarchitect at its sole discretion may accept submissions up to 24 hours past the submission deadline. Once submissions have been released to the judges, all incomplete submissions are disqualified from consideration.
  4. Participants must be aged between 18 and 25 years at the time of entry to qualify for participation in the awards. This age requirement ensures the competition maintains its focus on fostering young talent within the industry.

Prizes

  1. The prizes awarded to each winner, nominee and participant are detailed on our prizes page.  In some cases, prize values are listed as the cumulative total and not the individual prize total for any given category or winner. Prize values are approximate.

  2. Prizes must be accepted as awarded, are not transferable or convertible to cash. The Sponsor reserves the right at any time to substitute a Prize or a component thereof for any reason with a Prize or a prize component of equal or greater value, or the value of the Prize in cash as indicated in these Official Rules.

  3. Due to embargoes and import rules, some prizes may not be shipped to the winner's country of residence. You will be notified if you reside in an embargoed country. In such an event, there will be no cash or alternate prize awarded.

  4. Some physically shipped prizes may incur taxes or import duties depending upon the winner's country of residence. The winner is responsible for all such fees and duties.  Should the winner elect not to pay those fees, the prize will not be shipped and no cash or equivalent prize will be awarded.

  5. Some prizes are awarded randomly as indicated on the prizes page.
  6. Sponsors are responsible for the delivery of their respective prizes. 
  7. If, for any reason, the winner does not claim their prizes until July 26, 2024, the prizes will be considered forfeited.

Winner Selection

Winners are selected based on scoring and shortlisting performed by the panel of expert judges and the Sponsor. Their decision is final and binding.  Shortlisted submissions will be scored on the following criteria:

  • The image categories have the following scoring criteria: “Modeling”, "Shading", "Lighting", "Post-production" and “Overall Impression”. The Overall Impression takes into consideration composition, lighting, mood, modelling, texturing, technical difficulty and overall result and impact of the work.

  • The film categories have three scoring criteria: “Editing”, "Quality of the Rendering (look dev, lighting, materials)", "Visual Quality" and “Overall Impression”. Editing is a score reflecting the editing quality of the film including but not limited to: cuts, music, timing and how the editing contributes to the overall story and film. The Overall Impression takes into consideration cinematography, lighting, mood, modelling, texturing, technical difficulty, editing and overall impression and impact of the work.

  • The "School of the Year" will be automatically granted to the school with most participants + winners, according to these criteria:
    • points awarded according to the number of participants (x1)
    • points awarded according to the number of nominated participants (x2)
    • points awarded according to the number of winners (x2)
    • Only accredited schools are eligible to this category. No free or short-term courses are eligible. Schools mentioned by their students at the time of registration for the contest will be considered participants. It is not necessary for the school to be registered separately.

Winner notification

Sponsors will attempt to contact each selected winner, nominee, entrant by email in July 2024.

The participant is the sole responsible for the accuracy of their contact information. 
 
Any winner found not in compliance with these Official Rules; will be disqualified and will forfeit the Prize and, at the Sponsor’s sole discretion, an alternate entrant may be selected until the selected entrant meets all the qualifications outlined in these Official Rules and can be declared a winner. The Sponsors will not be responsible for failed attempts to contact a selected entrant. Any prize not collected by July 26, 2024, will be considered forfeited.

Image Submissions Rules

  1. Submission Limit: Each company, person, or group may submit a maximum of 2 images.
  2. Creation Date Requirement: Images must have been created in 2023 or 2024 or made public in 2023 or 2024. Any images determined to have been created before this period will be disqualified.
  3. Variations of the Same Project: Do not submit multiple views of the same project unless they are significantly different from one another.
  4. Image Size: Images must be a minimum of 1500 pixels in the smallest dimension.
  5. Watermarks and Logos: Images must not be watermarked with recognizable company logos or names. If the creator is discernible in a watermark, the image will be disqualified.
  6. Multiple Images from the Same Source: If multiple images from the same company, person, or group are scored in the top 3 nominees for the image category, only the highest scoring image will be selected.
  7. Student Eligibility: Any work created by a student for a school project (regardless if it was required as part of the educational curriculum) should be submitted to the Image category. You cannot be paid or compensated for any work submitted. In order to qualify for the student category, you cannot be working professionally in the visualization industry or have worked professionally at any time in the past within the field.
  8. Student-Generated Work: Works created by students for the student category must have been completed entirely by the student. No assistance from school staff or other professionals is allowed other than providing basic general guidance. Pre-made scenes provided by the school, scenes used as part of a teaching plan or curriculum, and scenes that are not an original creation of the student are not allowed. Scenes found to be in violation of these criteria will be disqualified.
  9. Professional Work History: In order to submit to the student category, you cannot have worked professionally in any field or any capacity where you were being paid to create visualizations, prior to your submission being created. This includes working as an instructor or professor. The sole exception to this rule is paid internships as part of your education. The intent and spirit of this rule are to ensure you have not gained an unfair advantage over other competitors. As a student in this category, you should be a novice to the visualization side of the industry.

Animation/Film Submission Rules

  1. Submission Limit: Each company, person, or group may submit a maximum of 2 film/animations.
  2. Creation Date Requirement: Films/animations must have been created in 2023 or 2024 or made public in 2023 or 2024. Any films/animations determined to have been created before this period will be disqualified.
  3. Submission Format and Resolution: All submissions must be submitted in QuickTime MOV or MP4 format. The minimum resolution should be Full HD format (1920 x 1080). If your footage was not rendered in HD, we will accept it; however, during the judging, HD resolution entries may be given preference.
  4. Single Project Per Submission: Demo reels or compilations of multiple projects will not be accepted. Only one project or animation can be included per submission.
  5. Watermarks and Logos: Submissions must not be watermarked with company logos or names. (Credits/logos at the beginning or end are accepted but discouraged.)
  6. Multiple Projects from the Same Source: If multiple films/animations from the same company, person, or group are scored in the top 3 nominees for the Animation/Film category, only the highest scoring film/animation will be selected.
  7. Student Eligibility: Any work created by a student for a school project (regardless if it was required as part of the educational curriculum) should be submitted to the student Animation/Film category. You cannot be paid or compensated for any work submitted to the student category. In order to qualify for the student category, you cannot be working professionally in the visualization industry or have worked professionally at any time in the past within the field.
  8. Student-Generated Work: Works created by students for must have been completed entirely by the student. No assistance from school staff or other professionals is allowed other than providing basic general guidance. Pre-made scenes provided by the school, scenes used as part of a teaching plan or curriculum, and scenes that are not an original creation of the student are not allowed. Scenes found to be in violation of these criteria will be disqualified.
  9. Professional Work History: In order to submit to the student category, you cannot have worked professionally in any field or any capacity where you were being paid to create visualizations, prior to your submission being created. This includes working as an instructor or professor. The sole exception to this rule is paid internships as part of your education. The intent and spirit of this rule are to ensure you have not gained an unfair advantage over other competitors. As a student in this category, you should be a novice to the visualization side of the industry.



School of the Year Rules

The School of the Year award is automatically granted to the school with most participants + winners, according to these criteria:

  • points awarded according to the number of participants (x1)
  • points awarded according to the number of nominated participants (x2)
  • points awarded according to the number of winners (x2)
Example:
10 participants = 10 points
5 nominees = 10 points
1 winner = 2 points
TOTAL: 22 points


Only accredited schools are eligible to this category. No free or short-term courses are eligible. Schools mentioned by their students at the time of registration for the contest will be considered participants. It is not necessary for the school to be registered separately.