Generation Z Dominates SIGGRAPH: When Young Talent Eclipses the Giants
The SIGGRAPH 2025 has written an unprecedented chapter in the history of animation: for the first time, students took all the major awards at the Computer Animation Festival, leaving established studios in the background. The short Trash from the French ESMA, created by just eight students, not only won the Best in Show (qualifying it for the Oscars), but redefined what we expect from independent animation 🎬✨.
"It's not about the software, but what you do with it" – it could be the motto of this generation that dominates professional tools like toys.
The Shorts That Changed the Rules
- Trash (ESMA): Trash with soul, modeled in Maya and simulated in Houdini
- The Mooning: Fake lunar documentary with absurd physics in Unreal
- Jour de vent: Aerial choreography of bodies in Blender
Lessons for 3D Artists
These students demonstrated that the professional workflow is within anyone's reach:
- Characterful Modeling: Exaggerated silhouettes in Blender/Maya
- Narrative Textures: Substance Painter to tell stories through details
- Emotional Physics: Houdini for simulations with personality
- Strategic Rendering: Arnold to maintain the artistic essence
While DNEG and Weta showcased their technical advances, the audience went wild for a dramatic washing machine and animated lunar theories. The paradox is delicious: in the era of machine learning and metaverses, what truly moves us remains... the human 🧑🎨.
For the artists of foro3d.com, this SIGGRAPH leaves a clear moral: the tools are there, waiting for you to combine them with bold ideas. Because as Trash demonstrated, even a toaster can be a protagonist if you give it the right soul. And yes, we're probably witnessing the birth of the next great animation directors 🚀.