Halloween 3D Art Challenge 2026: The Winners Are In!

Congratulations to the winners of this year's Halloween Challenge! 156 artists entered There's Something in the Room, and the competition was exceptionally tough. Thank you to everyone who built a scene, posted it and tagged #CGTraderRoomChallenge.

The brief was simple: a six-second horror scene, one room, one take, vertical, with a model from the CGTrader catalog at the center of it. It was our first challenge for the people who use CGTrader models rather than the designers who make them, and you showed us exactly what our catalog becomes in the right hands.

Find out who won and who made the Top 13, which entries each judge loved most, and how we scored.

Meet the Winners: 5 Rooms You Wouldn't Want to Walk Into

1st place: @vasisht.r ($350)

Watch the entry Model: Bear doll by QAQ-Yang

A person, a teddy bear and a camera move that turns one into the other. In six seconds, @vasisht.r builds a time loop you can't escape, and the shift in perspective lands so cleanly that you want to watch it again right away.

The panel was unanimous. Pedro called it "hypnotic," adding that pulling off a narrative time loop "in just 6 seconds is truly impressive." For Florian, the craft served the feeling: "You can really feel the sense of oppression of being trapped in an endless loop."

What set it apart was its consistency. It was the only entry to get full marks from all three judges for idea and storytelling, and it scored highest of any entry for composition and camera, a reminder that the judging criteria reward the whole package, not just the scare. Below, a quick look behind the scenes.

2nd place: @_scarit_ ($200)

Watch the entry Model: Vintage Bed with Pouf PBR Game Ready by gladkaya

A flashlight sweeps an old bedroom while small bugs crawl toward a figure in the corner. It's an oppressive, detail-packed scene that rewards a second and third watch, with lighting and camera movement working as one.

Trey's favorite detail was those bugs, "all crawling over to the corner towards the figure." Pedro said: "The final result, the animation itself and the environment are all incredibly impressive, both technically and narratively."

3rd place: @adronaut_ ($100)

Watch the entry Models: Lovecraftian Monster by arisdragonis, Rigged Tentacle by maggie3d, Library by Diae, Classic Library by denniswoo1993

Shot in black and white, this one drops you into a chase already in progress. Flashes of light give you only glimpses of the monster, a flashlight rolls away, and a knife is pulled back as the creature closes in. Four CGTrader models come together into one desperate moment.

"You feel powerless in the face of this situation," said Florian. "You don't know if the person will make it out alive." Pedro was struck by how complete it felt: "Rather than looking like an animation created specifically for the challenge, it feels like a segment from a series, film, or game."

It was also the entry that stayed with Florian most. "I loved this scene," he said. Beyond the tension, he singled out the lighting, with flashes that let you glimpse the monster without ever seeing it clearly, and a camera angle that keeps the character's expression in view.

4th place: @dxordon ($100 store credit)

Watch the entry Model: Old man by noedge-sup

Someone is hiding. A flashlight falls, and its beam lands on exactly the person they were hiding from. With realistic camera work and a lens flare at just the right moment, it's a lesson in how much staging can do in a few seconds.

Pedro summed it up as "perfect storytelling, lighting and timing," while Florian called the falling flashlight "just brilliant in terms of staging."

5th place: @ezro.visuals ($50 store credit)

Watch the entry Model: Human face mask by vjeschow

A strange figure, going the wrong way up an escalator. This entry was all about mood and detail. Small touches like the poster, flickering lights, the flapping tie and a few colorful balls against a mostly black-and-white frame give it an unsettling sense of despair.

Florian loved "the gloomy atmosphere. It's not exactly horror, but it works really well, and the character's face can be genuinely scary."

This was Pedro's standout entry, and the only one he gave full marks. "It achieves so much with so little, which really speaks volumes about the artist's talent," he said. For an artist obsessed with lighting and small details, the flickering light, the smoke and the poster did all the talking.

Also in the Top 13

The margins at the top were tiny, and the competition was fierce. These eight entries complete the Top 13, in no particular order.

Masters of light

In six seconds, light is the main storytelling tool, and these two used it best.

@michaelrubinmay lets the light do the talking. God rays fall through a single window onto an empty chair, and you can't shake the feeling you're not alone in the room. Watch the entry

@raph.blend bathes the room in green and lets a single beam pick out the subject as tentacles begin to emerge, with a realism that's almost photographic. Watch the entry

A whole story in six seconds

@miguelfernandes.vfx puts a child in front of a screen, oblivious to what's waiting outside the door. A flickering light throws a dark shadow over the scene, and a tail curling around the door frame gives the creature a real sense of scale. It was Trey's top pick, the entry he scored highest: "I also really like the shifted roof tiles and tail that wraps around the door frame, very nice touch!" Watch the entry

@desocupablo_visuals fills the room with the glow of flames before you ever see the fire, then lets the camera movement tell the rest. It feels like a glimpse of a much bigger story just out of frame. Watch the entry

@millamar.404 gives us grime, darkness and "crime scene do not cross" tape, with sound design that makes you wonder what happened behind it, or what's about to. A creative use of the model at the heart of a scene built for unease. Watch the entry

Pure dread

@mattconm takes us down a dark hospital hallway toward something you can't quite make out, while a teddy bear stares straight at the camera. A bold, daring idea with dread to spare. Watch the entry

@yannblazek shoots it as found footage: a VHS effect, a backlit figure standing perfectly still, then a head that begins to shake. One of the most genuinely unsettling entries of the challenge. Watch the entry

@real_primate_s puts a dark creature in a bright, colorful girl's bedroom, with a puddle forming beneath it. Behind the scare sits a message about what younger generations inherit if we don't look after the planet. Watch the entry

How we scored

The CGTrader 3D team reviewed all 156 entries and shortlisted the top 13. Our three judges then scored the shortlist to decide the winners.

We chose a panel whose own work lives in exactly this territory. Florian Renaux is a self-taught Blender artist known for fantasy and nature environments, who teaches his process through online courses and on YouTube. Pedro J.S. Hernando creates atmospheric, surreal and cinematic worlds rooted in horror and liminal spaces, and behind most of the artwork for this challenge. Trey Cochran, a self-taught environment artist from Colorado Springs, builds cinematic Blender scenes full of mystery, discovery and storytelling.

Each judge scored every entry without seeing the others' scores, so no one's marks could sway the rest. They rated six criteria, each out of 5:

1. Idea and storytelling: does the room imply a situation, not just a set?
2. Atmosphere and tension: does it actually feel unsettling?
3. Lighting: what's lit, what's hidden, and why.
4. Composition and camera: do the six seconds hold attention from the first frame?
5. Use of the model: is the CGTrader model framed as the subject?
6. Technical execution: render quality, materials and finish.

We combined the three judges' totals, and the five highest became our winners.

Thank you

To all 156 artists who entered: thank you. Every entry was a six-second short film built in someone's spare time, and the creativity and quality made the judges' job very hard.

A huge thank you to Florian, Pedro and Trey for the time they spent watching, scoring and writing such generous, thoughtful feedback. And to the designers whose models brought these rooms to life: every winning entry above links to the model it started from.

Winners, we'll be in touch about your prizes. The full Top 13 entries are also coming together in a community montage later this month. Keep an eye out for our next challenge!

Until then, browse the CGTrader catalog and start your next scene.