‘From Paper to Screen’ | The Mill’s Concept Car Challenge | Winner revealed!

Thank you to all of the kids, adults and everyone in-between who entered our Concept Car Challenge and congratulations to the winner, 7- year-old Max from the UK.

Our panel of judges consisted of Creative Director Ross Urien, Joint Head of 3D Ed Shires and 3D Artist Andrew Bartholomew. The judges carefully reviewed all of the entries and there was a unanimous decision.

Andrew was also The Mill artist who had the pleasure of turning Max’s dream Concept Car (above) into a 3D model. We caught up with him on the project…

Why did Max’s design stand out?

Max had such great imagination designing this car, with the rockets and vibrant colours – this style of car would be an asset to the Formula One team! We particularly liked this design due to it’s exaggerated features such as the huge wheels and also his eye for detail with the striking decals and driver behind the wheel.

Talk us through how you turned Max’s dream car into a 3D model

When creating this model, I decided to reference Max’s concept alongside photographs of Formula One cars in order to ground it into reality. Texturing in Substance Painter allowed me to experiment with a palette of materials before breaking up the surface with dirt in areas such as the wheels and imperfections/wear on the glass. Additional touches such as the objects in the background ,including barriers and traffic lights, were placed to provide context for this car and tell a simple story. My main goal was to replicate the spectacular energy portrayed in this drawing which inspired my decision to incorporate the smoke and fire bursting from the vehicle – giving it an extra sense of movement and power. It was a privilege to bring Max’s design to life in CG and I hope my interpretation does it justice!

We had a number of fantastic submissions for this project. You can check them out below! Keep your eye on our channels for other creative competitions in the future.

Below: Milo Glover’s Milomobile, Maya, Mia in Sweden, RF365, Maks Trofimov

Our panel of judges: 3D Artist Andrew Bartholomew, Creative Director Ross Urien, Joint Head of 3D Ed Shires