Third CG Whiz competition to reward amateurs and young professionals

CG Whiz is back for its third consecutive year and this time it’s bigger and better than ever. With over £20,000 worth of prizes and the opportunity to work with The Mill up for grabs, this competition could provide amateurs and young professionals with a passion for computer graphics (CG) the lucky break they’ve been waiting for.

Launched by Escape Studios – Europe’s leading CG academy – in partnership with The Mill, 3D Artist, Digital Artist,CGSociety, Autodesk and Hewlett Packard (HP), the competition aims to uncover future stars of the CG industry. Having kick-started the careers of the two previous winners, this year sees the introduction of a brand new “Young Professional” category in addition to the usual “Amateurs” category. There will also be the chance for the public to vote for their favourite entries with new user-voted awards, voted for on Facebook.

The top prize for the “Amateurs” category is a 12-week visual effects (VFX) classroom course, either at Escape Studios’ academy in London or Los Angeles, followed by a 12-week placement at The Mill. Runners up will also receive a selection of mentored and online courses and a license of the Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suite for Education.

The top prize for the “Young Professional” category is an Escape Studios ZBrush for 3D Artist online course, a Hewlett Packard (HP) Pavilion laptop and a showreel review by the panel of judges. This category has been introduced this year to provide an opportunity for young professionals with some experience to boost their career development.

Commenting on the competition, Dominic Davenport, CEO and founder of Escape Studios said: “CG Whiz is back and it’s bigger than ever. We’re really excited about our search to find some of CG’s brightest talent and give aspiring artists the chance to break into the VFX industry. Last year, the quality of entries was outstanding and was a testament to the hidden talent that exists, and we’re expecting this year to be even better. It is our mission to help anyone with a creative streak and a passion for computer graphics develop their skills and get them started on successful CG careers.”

Tom Bussell, Head of 3D at The Mill, added: “We’re really pleased to be supporting CG Whiz in its third year. It’s a great way to check out some of the best upcoming CG talent and offer these artists a real opportunity to build a career as a professional. We can’t wait to have this year’s winner with us on a 12-week work placement in either our London or Los Angeles studios.”

Stu Schwartz was last year’s winner. He recently completed his training at Escape Studios, and said “Winning CG Whiz is like winning the lottery – it has the potential to completely change your life. Just the experience of entering the competition was great, being able to see who had entered and the standard of work. Knowing how good everyone was made winning all the more special, and my career is poised to take off after having had the chance to study with Escape and work at The Mill.”

How to enter
To enter CG Whiz 2011, all entrants need to do is submit a show reel or set of stills compiled into a video via Escape Studios’ Facebook page.

The closing date for the Amateur and Young Professionals competition is 12th November 2011 and winners will be announced in early December. Voting for the Users Choice Prizes will commence on 14th November 2011 and will finish on 3rd December 2011.