ESMA alumni dominate Pixar's RenderMan Art Challenge 2025

The RenderMan Art Challenge: a world-renowned competition

Every year, Pixar organises the RenderMan Art Challenge via the teams behind the RenderMan rendering engine , now recognised as a benchmark in 3D. Open to artists from all over the world, it is a veritable creative laboratory where artistic innovation, storytelling and technical mastery come together.

For the 2025 edition, the proposed theme was “First Contact”, centred on encounters with extraterrestrials. Inspired by Pixar’s latest feature film and some of the iconic characters from the Toy Story saga , which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, the theme invited participants to imagine encounters with the unknown through their own eyes.

Artistic freedom and technical rigour

Although the theme left plenty of scope for creativity (from realistic images to cartoons, from alien invasions to peaceful encounters), the technical constraints were very strict.

Competitors had to work with RenderMan, which is compatible with software such as Maya, Blender and Houdini. Using 3D models supplied by prestigious partners such as Adobe, KitBash3D, Greyscalegorilla, Ozone3D and Pixar, they were responsible for all the shading, lighting and final rendering of their scenes.

The competition also offers prestigious rewards: professional equipment (including a Dell Pro Max 16 equipped with an NVIDIA GPU), software licences (Nuke, Houdini), mentoring, Xencelabs pen displays, rendering credits and other Pixar goodies. These prizes make it a real springboard for young 3D artists.

A podium entirely occupied by ESMA alumni

Among the forty international finalists, the 2025 edition delivered an exceptional result: the first three places were won by ESMA alumni.

• 3ᵉ prize: Elio Humbert (class of 2024) – The Patient X
  Elio Humbert, who graduated in 2024, stood out with his project The Patient X, which earned him third place.
• 2ᵉ prize: Noémie Layre (class of 2022) – Starry Eyed
  Noémie Layre, from the class of 2022, takes second prize with Starry Eyed. Already awarded third place in the previous edition, this performance confirms the consistency and maturity of her artistic work.
  

• 1st prize: Felix Gourlaouen (class of 2022) – Something’s Fishy
  Last but not least, first prize went to Felix Gourlaouen, also graduating in 2022, for his Something’s Fishy project , which stood out against some particularly tough global competition.
  

A source of pride for ESMA

This historic treble illustrates the excellence of ESMA’s training and the ability of its graduates to stand out in the most demanding international competitions. Each of the three winners interpreted the “First Contact” theme in a unique way, while respecting the technical constraints imposed by RenderMan.

This performance underlines their artistic mastery, their sense of innovation and their ability to create striking visual universes. ESMA warmly congratulates Elio Humbert, Noémie Layre and Felix Gourlaouen on this exceptional achievement, which represents a major step forward in their professional careers.