ArtStation’s eighth Community Challenge, Grand Space Opera: Light Age, launched in November 2020 with industry-based challenge hosts, and thousands of excited artists. Like all our community challenges, the submission process was entirely open, and close to 4,000 artists took up the challenge to imagine the human race’s future in space. Submissions across all categories approached the levels of quality you’d expect in game or film projects, with hosts and fellow entrants providing the encouragement and feedback to push artists to create their best work.

An all-star judging panel took on the difficult task to sort through the very strong entries in all categories. Huge thanks to: Christian Alzmann (Lucasfilm), Sparth (343 Industries), Terryl Whitlatch (Freelance), Philip Boutte Jr (9B Collective), Gaelle Seguillon (Freelance), Alex Jay Brady (Freelance), Liz Kirby (343 Industries), Finnian MacManus (Terraform Studios) and Paul Jones (Cloud Imperium Games), and our amazing challenge hosts Grace Liu (Monomi Park), Suzanne Helmigh (Freelance), Randall Mackey (Freelance), Marina Ortega (Freelance), Satoshi Arakawa (Amazon Games), Gavin Goulden (Insomniac Games), Mathew O’Halloran (Epic Games/Quixel), Karen Stanley (Ubisoft Toronto), Hasan Bajramovic (Blur) and Dorine Laplanche (Cyanide).

The challenge winners each receive a virtual ArtStation Challenge trophy, designed with meticulous attention to detail by industrial designer Ivan Šantić (check out the process of designing the Awards). 1st, 2nd and 3rd Place winners also receive a free 12-month ArtStation Pro subscription.

We’re very pleased to present to you the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners in each of the categories along with the Honourable Mentions. 64 amazing artists received awards in the Grand Space Opera: Light Age challenge!

VIZ

Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Keyframe Design

1st Place Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Keyframe Design: DOFRESH

2nd Place Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Keyframe Design: Ayan Nag

3rd Place Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Keyframe Design: Kevin Le Moigne

Honourable Mention Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Keyframe Design: Ihor Tovstohan

Honourable Mention Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Keyframe Design: Lap Pun Cheung

Honourable Mention Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Keyframe Design: Qiming Kuang

Honourable Mention Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Keyframe Design: Matteo Paolini

Honourable Mention Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Keyframe Design: Florent Boston

Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Character Design

1st Place Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Character Design: Raphaëlle Manière

2nd Place Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Character Design: Alessandro Pizzi

3rd Place Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Character Design: Félix Donadio

Honourable Mention Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Character Design: Daniel Hiew

Honourable Mention Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Character Design: Ognjen Sporin

Honourable Mention Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Character Design: Zhuo

Honourable Mention Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Character Design: Mole Wang

Honourable Mention Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Character Design: Qi Ze

Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Environment Design

1st Place Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Environment Design: Alexandr Melentiev

2nd Place Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Environment Design: Edward Barons

3rd Place Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Environment Design: Chaehyeon Ra

Honourable Mention Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Environment Design: Marina Nechaeva

Honourable Mention Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Environment Design: Darius Cheong

Honourable Mention Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Environment Design: Victor Fritsch

Honourable Mention Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Environment Design: Fernanders Sam

Honourable Mention Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Environment Design: Sebastian Luca

Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Prop Design

1st Place Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Prop Design: Robert Eul

2nd Place Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Prop Design: Himesh Anand

3rd Place Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Prop Design: Egor Kudashkin

Honourable Mention Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Prop Design: Pan Ping

Honourable Mention Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Prop Design: Reza Abghari

Honourable Mention Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Prop Design: Michał Sałata

Honourable Mention Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Prop Design: e Eule

Honourable Mention Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Prop Design: Kameliya Minkova

PRODUCTION

Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Game Character Art (real-time)

1st Place Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Game Character Art (real-time): Juan Novelletto

2nd Place Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Game Character Art (real-time): Yumi Batgerel

3rd Place Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Game Character Art (real-time): Oleksandr Zapisochnyi

Honourable Mention Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Game Character Art (real-time): Olya Anufrieva

Honourable Mention Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Game Character Art (real-time): Carrie Warwick

Honourable Mention Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Game Character Art (real-time): Ksenia Shumikhina

Honourable Mention Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Game Character Art (real-time): Alla Shustova

Honourable Mention Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Game Character Art (real-time): Emily Harrison

Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Film/VFX Character Art (rendered)

1st Place Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Film/VFX Character Art (rendered): Ellie Dupont

2nd Place Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Film/VFX Character Art (rendered): Reinaldo García

3rd Place Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Film/VFX Character Art (rendered): Amany Ragab

Honourable Mention Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Film/VFX Character Art (rendered): Mikel Rekondo

Honourable Mention Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Film/VFX Character Art (rendered): Thibaut Granet

Honourable Mention Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Film/VFX Character Art (rendered): Mark Henriksen

Honourable Mention Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Film/VFX Character Art (rendered): Henrique Tomé

Honourable Mention Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Film/VFX Character Art (rendered): Stephen Anderson

Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Game Environment/Level Art

1st Place Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Game Environment/Level Art: Christoffer “Chris” Radsby

2nd Place Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Game Environment/Level Art: Ben Keeling

3rd Place Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Game Environment/Level Art: Angelo Tsiflas

3rd Place Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Game Environment/Level Art: Angelo Tsiflas

Honourable Mention Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Game Environment/Level Art: Glen Fox

Honourable Mention Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Game Environment/Level Art: Glen Fox

Honourable Mention Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Game Environment/Level Art: Lea Kronenberger

Honourable Mention Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Game Environment/Level Art: Dean Scott

Honourable Mention Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Game Environment/Level Art: Dean Scott

Honourable Mention Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Game Environment/Level Art: Alex Osborne

Honourable Mention Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Game Environment/Level Art: Alex Osborne

Honourable Mention Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Game Environment/Level Art: Omar Souissi

Honourable Mention Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Game Environment/Level Art: Omar Souissi

Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Prop Art (rendered)

1st Place Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Prop Art (rendered): Anton Fomenko

1st Place Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Prop Art (rendered): Anton Fomenko

2nd Place Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Prop Art (rendered): Lucile Thyrard

2nd Place Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Prop Art (rendered): Lucile Thyrard

3rd Place Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Prop Art (rendered): Dorin Jannotta

Honourable Mention Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Prop Art (rendered): Sascha Hoffmann

Honourable Mention Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Prop Art (rendered): Chris Vasquez

Honourable Mention Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Prop Art (rendered): Vlad Prokudins

Honourable Mention Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Prop Art (rendered): Raphaël Alegria

Honourable Mention Grand Space Opera: Light Age – Prop Art (rendered): Krunoslav Covran

Check out the submissions

You can see all of the entries for the Grand Space Opera: Light Age Challenge here:

• Keyframe Concept Art
• Character Design
• Environment Design
• Prop Design
• Game Character Art (real-time)
• Game Environment/Level Art
• Film/VFX Character Art (rendered)
• Prop Art (rendered)

Huge thanks to Sergey Grechanyuk for permission to use his beautiful Exploration of planet Adena-61 artwork.