"First Contact" Art Challenge

Greetings, earthlings, we present to you our 12th art challenge!

In the "First Contact" Art Challenge, we’re channeling the interstellar magic of Pixar’s Elio and honoring the 30th anniversary of Toy Story, with a theme of … yOoooooOu guessed it … Aliens!

With an amazing set of models from Adobe, KitBash3D, Greyscalegorilla, Ozone3D, and Pixar, you’ll get to create something worthy of your galaxy sized imagination, so don’t be a “stranger from the outside,” and join the "First Contact" Art Challenge to showcase your shading, lighting, rendering, and compositing skills for the possibility of winning amazing prizes, including a Dell Pro Max 16 mobile workstation powered by NVIDIA!

Amazing Sponsors, Mentorship, and Prizes

We are excited to have our friends at AMD, DELL, NVIDIA, Ranch Computing, Adobe, Foundry, fxphd, Greyscalegorilla, KitBash3D, Ozone, SideFX, SpeedTree, Thoughtful3D, and Xencelabs co-sponsor this community event with tens of thousands in prizes.

Challenge Summary

Theme and Style

To honor the spirit of “First Contact” the theme is Aliens. Create a visual story inspired by your favorite UFO film, a celestial civilization attempting to contact humans, UAP (UFO) folklore, an armada of invading orbit hopping aliens or a galactic-grade machine searching the stars … the only limit is your imagination.

Whatever you choose (day or night, pulp or classic), make sure the image looks physically plausible, meaning the final image needs to have physical shading and lighting.

There are different aesthetic choices which can be made within this spectrum, two of the most popular are photorealism, common in visual effects to match footage, or stylized, common in Pixar films, and you're welcome to create your own style within the physically plausible parameters in the RenderMan shading toolset.

Example of Photorealism: Andor.

Example of Stylized: Elio.

Works in Progress

Get critiques and help from Pixar’s RenderMan team who will moderate this challenge. This is an opportunity for you to learn and develop your skills. Everyone is encouraged to post works in progress and ask technical questions … the challenge is intended to let participants try out new techniques.

Format

All images must follow the following standards:

• All submissions must be a complete creation of the artist submitting, from concept to final render, including the background image used in compositing.
• No group collaborations permitted.
• All submissions must be rendered with any of the official RenderMan Plugins (Maya, Houdini, Katana, and Blender).
• Only 1 submission per participant.
• All posts must be WIP in order to verify progress.
• You must work with the existing assets. Slight modifications to existing models for efficiency or bugs are ok.
• New 3D models are permitted! ...but only if they are for support (added value). You must use the supplied models for the main storytelling. For example, you can add characters, accessories, and environment details such as lamps, garbage, rubble, props, clouds, vines, grass, etc...
• All images must be submitted in a 16 X 9 ratio. Letterboxing is OK.
• If you submit images larger than 4K, they will automatically downsized to a maximum of 3840 X 2160.
• For more details, please read the FAQ above.

Final Submission

When the Challenge is closed, all semi finalists chosen will be notified to submit their final projects. This will help us verify compliance with challenge rules. A BOX folder will be provided for submission.

Compositing

Post work is limited to:

• Color Correction and Grading.
• Compositing background (must be your background or used with permission).
• Compositing separate RenderMan rendered layers.
• Compositing with RenderMan AOVs and LPEs.
• No paint overs.
• No photo bashing.

Deadline

Monday, November 10th, 2025 - Midnight PST (Pacific Standard Time - USA).

Winners and Announcements

Winners will be announced on Monday, November 17th, 2025.

Eligibility

All participants have to be members of the RenderMan community. Commercial and Non-Commercial customers are welcome to participate.

Attribution

Please use the following attribution when showing any of your images (description or watermark):

Assets by Adobe, KitBash3D, Grayscalegorilla, Ozone, and Pixar. RenderMan "First Contact" Art Challenge © Disney/Pixar

Terms of Use

Pixar

RenderMan community account required to participate.
All decisions of the judges are final. 
Prizes cannot be exchanged for their cash value.
Prizes are non transferable. 

Contest Participants agree to comply with all applicable export control laws and sanctions. Contest Participants agree NOT TO use, export, reexport or transfer (in-country) RenderMan in or to: (1) a country or region subject to a US partial or comprehensive embargo, such as Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Crimea, Donetsk People’s Republic, or Luhansk People’s Republic; OR (2) any person or entity listed on the “Entity List” or "Denied Persons List" maintained by the US Department of Commerce, the list of "Specifically Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons" maintained by the US Department of Treasury or any other applicable prohibited party list of the US Government.  Contest Participants further agree that they are not nationals or residents of the countries or regions listed in (1) above.

SpeedTree

Assets intended for use in RenderMan "First Contact" Art Challenge only and cannot be redistributed. Please refer to Unity's Terms of Service for limitations.

Xencelabs

By participating in RenderMan's "First Contact" Art Challenge, you agree to the shipping limitations outlined  Xencelabs Giveaway Country Shipping Restrictions.

NVIDIA Data Collection | Prize Eligibility

By participating in RenderMan's "First Contact" Art Challenge, you agree to share your email with our partner, NVIDIA. Your information will be handled in accordance with NVIDIA's Privacy Policy.