Rookie Awards 2020
The 10th Annual Rookie Awards is open to young creatives in visual effects, animation, games, virtual reality, motion graphics and 3d visualisation. There is simply no better way to launch your career and start sharing your amazing work online.
Major
Autodesk
Autodesk is a leader in 3D design, engineering and entertainment software. Customers across the manufacturing, architecture, building, construction, and media and entertainment industries—including the last 22 Academy Award winners for Best Visual Effects—use Autodesk software to design, visualize, and simulate their ideas before they’re ever built or created. From blockbuster visual effects and buildings that create their own energy to electric cars and the batteries that power them, the work of our 3D software customers is everywhere you look.
Unreal Engine
The Unreal Engine is a game engine developed by Epic Games, first showcased in the 1998 first-person shooter game Unreal. Although initially developed for first-person shooters, it has been successfully used in a variety of other genres, including platformers, fighting games, MMORPGs, and other RPGs.
Platinum
Adobe
Adobe gives everyone, from emerging artists to global brands, everything they need to design and deliver exceptional digital experiences.
Creative Cloud delivers the world’s leading creative desktop tools, mobile apps and services, enabling users to work effortlessly across devices for connected creative workflows.
Pixologic
Founded in 1997, Pixologic Incorporated develops and markets innovative software tools for the film and video, games, graphic design and illustration markets. ZBrush is a graphics application aimed at simplifying the science behind generating computer graphics. ZBrush appeals to a wide audience by providing empowering tools that give users intuitive and visual control over the digital images they create. By providing a unique synthesis of 2D and 3D capabilities in a single stand-alone tool, ZBrush collapses economic and ease-of-use barriers to creating stunning images.
Substance by Adobe
Substance, an Adobe company, is the industry standard for texturing and material authoring. Substance develops the new generation of 3D texturing software: Substance Painter, Substance Designer and Substance Alchemist. With most AAA game studios using these tools, Substance has become the industry standard for creating next-generation PBR (Physically Based Rendering) assets. These tools are also rapidly expanding to the VFX/Film and Design industries.
Gold
Chaos
Chaos is a world leader in computer graphics technology, empowering artists and designers to create photorealistic imagery and animation across all creative industries. Chaos develops 3D rendering and simulation software that is used daily by top design studios, architectural firms, advertising agencies, and visual effects companies around the globe. In 2017, the firm’s physically based renderer, V-Ray, was honored with an Academy Award for its role in the widespread adoption of ray-traced rendering for motion pictures. Today, the company’s advancements in ray tracing, cloud rendering, and real-time visualization are shaping the future of design communication and storytelling. Founded in 1997, Chaos is privately owned with offices in Sofia, Prague, Seoul, Tokyo, and Los Angeles. For more information visit chaosgroup.com.
Foundry
Foundry designs creative software technologies used to deliver award-winning visual effects and 3D content for the design, visualization and entertainment industries. Foundry’s software advances the art and technology of visual experience in partnership with creative leaders across the globe. It enables clients like Pixar, Mercedes-Benz, ILM, Weta Digital, The Moving Picture Company and Sony Pictures Imageworks to turn incredible ideas into reality by solving complex creative challenges.
Maxon
Maxon makes powerful software solutions for content creators working in 2D and 3D design, motion graphics, VFX, visualization, and games. Maxon’s product portfolio includes the Cinema 4D suite of 3D modeling, simulation, and animation technology, the Forger mobile sculpting app, the diverse Red Giant lineup of revolutionary editing, motion design, and filmmaking tools, the leading-edge, blazingly fast Redshift renderer and ZBrush, the industry-standard digital sculpting and painting solution.
SideFX
SideFX is a world leader in the development of 3D animation and visual effects software for use in film, commercials and video games. SideFX’s Academy Award-winning Houdini software utilizes a node-based procedural approach which provides digital artists with an unprecedented level of power, flexibility and control.
Houdini’s comprehensive feature set includes modelling, rigging, animation, particle effects, dynamics, compositing, integrated rendering, and more. Houdini is available for the Mac OS X, Linux and Windows operating systems.
Unity
Unity is the world’s leading platform for creating and operating real-time 3D (RT3D) content. Creators, ranging from game developers to artists, architects, automotive designers, filmmakers, and others, use Unity to make their imaginations come to life. Unity’s platform provides a comprehensive set of software solutions to create, run and monetize interactive, real-time 2D and 3D content for mobile phones, tablets, PCs, consoles, and augmented and virtual reality devices. The company’s 1,800+ person research and development team keeps Unity at the forefront of development by working alongside partners to ensure optimized support for the latest releases and platforms. Apps developed by Unity creators were downloaded more than five billion times per month in 2020.
Wacom
Inspired by natural human abilities to create, our patented pen and touch input technology allows freedom of expression, inspired creativity, and drastic improvements in productivity, control and comfort. From product development and graphic design to the media and entertainment sectors, Wacom facilitates the work of individuals and workgroups with truly natural ways to work with digital content.
At Wacom, we believe that technology should be easy to use and simple to understand. With products that rely on human intuition and natural movement, we strive to bring people and technology closer together.
Weta FX
Wētā FX is the standard-bearer for creativity and innovation in visual effects and animation, attracting talent, partners, and clients that seek to push what is possible in pursuit of their artistic vision. Based in Wellington, with offices in Vancouver and Melbourne, they are roughly 1,500 of the most ambitious artists, engineers, and executives you’re likely to meet.
Over the last 30 years, Wētā FX’s ground-breaking work has earned them six visual effects Academy Awards®, twelve Academy Sci-Tech Awards, and six visual effects BAFTA Awards, in addition to the 34 Visual Effects Society Awards awarded by their peers. They are known for performance-driven animated characters such as Neytiri, Gollum, Kong and Caesar, as well as the worlds they create, including Pandora, Middle-earth and countless others. Most recently, Wētā FX’s work on Avatar: The Way of Water amazed audiences with never-seen-before innovations in water, facial performance, and real-time depth compositing.
Silver
3D World
3D World is a magazine and website published by Future plc whose main focus is 3D animation, visual effects, videogame design, illustration and architectural visualisation.
BINYAN
BVN
BVN is an architecture studio with origins in Australia. Our 90-year-old heritage has allowed us to create a broad portfolio of built work internationally. We value design, diversity and innovation.
Crater Studios
Crater Studio specializes in visual effects for film, but we’ve also got our hands in TV series, animation, commercials, music videos and extended realities. Our ever-expanding family is a melting pot of creativity and innovation with nearly 50 outstanding professionals working hand-in-hand to provide our clients with a seamless experience and flawless end-product. With more than 12 years of experience under our belt, we offer both production and post-production services as well as training opportunities through our very own Training Center that holds certified courses from leading VFX software companies.
Epic Games
Epic Games’ Unreal Engine technology brings high-quality games to PC, console, mobile, VR and AR platforms. Developers also use Unreal to create photorealistic visualizations, interactive product designs, films, virtual productions, mixed reality TV broadcasts and animated entertainment.
Flipped Normals
The Only Curated CG Marketplace - High-quality training & resources by the world's best artists.
Flying Bark Productions
Flying Bark Productions is an independent producer with an impressive legacy of creating iconic entertainment since 1968. We are a full-service production facility across feature films, television and a diverse range of digital content, including both short-form and long-form, specialising in creating both our own IP and high-end service projects.
Taking great ideas, incredible stories and compelling characters from concept through to red-carpet premiere, is our passion. With some of Australia’s most experienced development and production teams, we bring both dynamic creativity and reliability to every production.
With over 40 years of experience in creating original concepts and classic properties, Flying Bark continues to succeed by evolving with the new media landscape and emerging opportunities in the global market.
LightField London
"Creativity is not just a single moment of inspiration, it is a collision of energies produced by a closely-knit team.
At LightField, we love to create, to make things and turn ideas into beautiful, meaningful forms.
For the last 20 years, we have been producing films, 3d animations, stunning visuals and bespoke music compositions, under world renowned architects Foster + Partners.
The qualities that have helped the creation of these pieces are creativity, a highly tuned understanding of the architectural and film pipelines, an ability to work fast under extreme pressure, and keeping to limited budgets despite constantly changing requirements.
Now established in Vauxhall, London, in our state-of-the-art offices, we are ready to convert your vision into the perfect communication vehicle.
We value the art and we budget so that world-class work is accessible to all"
ModelFarm
Modelfarm is a 3D visualisation company that produces world-class presentation material for the property, retail, tourism and education industry. ModelFarm is a collection of highly experienced artists and technical professionals headed up by Shane Aherne – a world leader in visual effects and 3D technology.
Ninja Theory
Ninja Theory Ltd. was formed in 2004 by four partners, including current Directors Nina Kristensen (Chief Development Director), Tameem Antoniades (Chief Creative Director) and Jez San OBE (Non-Executive Director). The studio pride themselves on striving for the highest production values and continually pushing the boundaries of technology, art and design to create evermore exciting video game experiences.
The BAFTA award-winning developer of Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, Disney Infinity 3.0, DmC: Devil May Cry, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West and Heavenly Sword.
Outpost VFX
Outpost VFX has studios in the UK, Montreal, Los Angeles and Mumbai from which it has recently delivered major film and streaming projects including The Wheel of Time, Foundation and Cowboy Bebop. Formed in 2013, Outpost is now home to over 450 people globally delivering high-end visual effects in a supportive and welcoming environment. Over recent years, Outpost has been the first VFX studio to introduce a raft of benefits designed to give the team more control over their work/life balance in the belief that happy, motivated people do the best creative work.
Rig-it
Rig-it.net provides custom face and body rigs with a variety of features for film, commercials and games.
Our partner service Polygonbay offers complete asset build with modelling and texturing.
Sini Software
Our mission is simple, we are developing world-class plugin products and tools that benefit you, the 3D artist. We are the only 3D software company resolving complex architectural visualisation workflow issues adding multi-threading functions to dramatically increase computational power to handle working on massive BIM models. Our aim is to expand our product range, supporting a wider range of 3D, BIM and Real-time softwares and deliver these products as cost-effectively as possible, offering you financial flexibility and helping you work faster and make more profit.
Sketchfab
Sketchfab is a platform to publish, share, discover, buy and sell 3D, VR and AR content. It provides a viewer based on the WebGL and WebVR technologies that allows users to display 3D models on the web, to be viewed on any mobile browser, desktop browser or Virtual Reality headset.
Toon Boom
Creating award-winning software for animation and storyboarding Storyboard Pro and Harmony software provide everyone from enthusiasts to professionals with the artistic freedom to create in any style and efficiently publish anywhere. The world’s largest 2D animation studios choose Toon Boom to bring their TV series and feature films from ideation to screen.
Unbnd
Unbnd specialise in AR, WebAR, SocialAR, VR and interactive experiences. We are an Australian creative technology company built around a team of futurists, artists, nerds and thinkers.
We’re obsessed with pushing the creative boundaries of technology, and strive to deliver intuitive and immersive experiences with purpose that entertain, invite participation and drive action.
Ziva Dynamics
Ziva Dynamics powers the most lifelike characters across Hollywood. Built on the fundamentals of engineering and biomechanics, Ziva simulation technologies are used by 200 of the leading VFX studios, including MPC, Sony Pictures, and DNEG, to generate the most dynamic and scalable character results ever. And now, Ziva is breaking into the game industry with real-time solutions for AAA titles.