Announcing The CG Whiz 2011 Shortlist!

After two intense weeks of judging, the CG Whiz finalists have been decided! This year’s talent crop was the best we’ve ever seen, proving it was the right move to open up an entire category for Young Pros in addition to uncovering talented beginners in the Amateurs category. 

Our diligent panel of judges carefully reviewed each and every entry this year, taking time to critique both categories equally. At last count the judges had reviewed more than 205 entries in total. No less than 12 gallons of coffee will be consumed by each judge before judging period is over! 

The results of the judges hard work is the shortlist below of the highest quality and most imaginative entries from both our categories. 

So what happens next? The judges will now consider each of the shortlisted showreels in more detail, before meeting to decide who deserves the winning prizes. If the heated discussions of previous years are anything to go by, it promises to be a difficult decision and a colorful debate, but at the end of it we’ll have the winners and runner ups for CG Whiz 2011. 

If there’s an entry that deserves your vote, don’t forget you can still vote in the Viewers' Choice Awards on Facebook and see how your choice compares to our panel of judges’. 

Remember, this is the first time we’ve ever opened our entries to a public vote, and we’re offering some great prizes for the winners of this category too. You don’t have to be a CG expert yourself, you just have to have an opinion on what makes great CG art, so we want as many people as possible to get involved and get voting!

We’ll be announcing all our 2011 winners at our London Reveal Event, December 14. In the meantime, be a judge yourself and check out our shortlisted entries below. We’re very proud of these CGers and their efforts, so a BIG thanks to everyone who entered, and congratulations to our shortlist – good luck for the next stage!

Amateurs Category

• Elizabeth Muhm: VFX Demo Reel
• Angelo de Witt: Visual Effects Reel
• Shaun Seong-young Kim: Ballet of Unhatched Chicks
• Leanne Towers: Enid
• Jean Bennamias: Showreel
• Daniel Danielsson: Still Motion - Autumn Reel 2011
• Arnoldas Vitkus: DemoReel 2011
• James Tomlinson: Showreel
• Jason Huang: Lighting Reel 2011
• Kaine Van Riel: VFX Showreel 2011
• Jaume Creus: Demo Reel 2011

 Young Professional Category

• Silvia Bartoli: Modelling and Texturing Reel
• John Beckers: Showreel 2011
• Jose Manuel Linares Lopez: Modeling Subdivision works
• Nathan Rule: 2011 Showreel
• Oliver Kentner: Olika 3D showreel 2011
• Stefan Susemihl: Stefan's Reel
• Yunsung Cho: 3D Generalist YunC
• Dominic Edwards: Lighting Showreel 2011
• Mathias Herbster: Demoreel 2011
• Gilberto Gavidia: Astrotrain
• Dean Wright: Animation Generalist

But what do you think? Have we missed your favorite?