Out-of-This-World 3D Renders Born from Andromeda Design Challenge

by Nicole Castro

Over 250 artists from around the world shared their stellar renditions of a futuristic galaxy far, far away as part of the Andromeda design challenge, sponsored by NVIDIA and PNY Technologies. 

The challenge was hosted on CGSociety, a platform where artists share their work and engage with others in their community. From cosmic worlds to extraterrestrial creatures, participants were asked to design renderings that captured what life could look like in our nearest galactic neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy. 

Artists shared unique visions by 3D modeling and rendering still images that portrayed the future of intergalactic living. A group of esteemed judges selected the top submissions from four categories.

The first-place winners for each category are:

Unknown Creatures: Matija Mladicek

Mladicek shared this rendered image of ostiophants, giant creatures roaming the vast deserts of a distant planet. This species is known for its long legs and elongated mandibles, which are used to forage for food from miles away.

Planet Perseus: Alben Tan

Tan designed this floating city surrounded by hovercrafts and inhabitants living high above the ground. The building designs are based on Mayan architecture, with tall, tree-like bases and bridges that connect one district to another.

Airship Arrival: Alan Guyant

Guyant shows his rendition of the finest skyliner in the galaxy, the USS Albatross. In this alternate future of Earth, this airship is the first to be powered by newly discovered antigravity technology.

Planet Perseus Intelligent Life: Adrian Baluta

Baluta shared this design of Unknown-Gen75, a colorful, robotic character with an internal furnace that acts as its navigation technology.

NVIDIA teamed with PNY Technologies, CGSociety, Substance by Adobe, Quadspinner, 80 Level and CGMA to provide winners with an astronomical lineup of prizes, including an NVIDIA Quadro 4000 GPU, Substance software and more.

Check out the other winners, including some of NVIDIA’s favorites, on the CGSociety website.