Behind the Scenes of PWNISHER’s Chasm’s Call Challenge David Sujono breaks down his stunning second-place-win in the contest and shares how he brought his project to life using Cinema 4D and Redshift.

Maxon is thrilled to congratulate David Sujono on winning second place in Clinton Jones aka PWNISHER’s latest 3D community creative challenge: Chasm’s Call. This global event continues to push the boundaries of digital art, inspiring artists around the world to showcase their creativity and technical skills. 
 
This year’s challenge invited participants to craft a unique 3D render from a template scene, place a character on a provided foreground shelf and create a sense of depth in their project. More than 3000 artists from over 100 countries answered the call and the jury selected the top 100 entries, featuring them in an impressive 3D art montage on PWNISHER’s YouTube channel.

We talked with David, who created his project "Offside" using Cinema 4D and Redshift, about his creative approach to the contest’s rules and how he created his project.

Sujono: My first reaction was a mix of excitement and disbelief. I woke up at 4:45 a.m. to catch the stream live. I'm glad I did, as my submission was the second entry they reviewed! I then watched the stream live for another few hours and during the winners' announcement I was out on a day trip in the countryside with my girlfriend, who was rooting for me. When the judges said "from Australia," my heart started racing — and then they said my name. I couldn’t believe it, all the hard work had paid off!

Sujono: The inspiration behind my entry, titled “Offside,” was to visually portray the wealth discrepancy between the upper and lower class, while subverting expectations and highlighting that true freedom, happiness, and contentment are not found in status or material possessions, rather the simplicity of enjoying community and sharing with others. This is also reflected by the central character being trapped by her circumstances. I used soccer as a universal language that would rise above class divisions. The destroyed bridge below tells the story of how the lower-class citizens attempted to reach the other side, but could not due to a lack of resources. You can also spot one of the players waving toward the girl. 
 
I was inspired by USSR architecture, Art Deco design and video games such as "Atomic Heart" and "BioShock".  

Sujono: I approached the challenge with the understanding that time constraints would require shortcuts in modeling and texturing. However, I had to balance this because I needed to create a hand-crafted environment that could be art-directed into the exact composition I had in mind. I ended up modeling the foreground architecture from scratch. I also made extensive use of instances, deformers, and cloners to speed up the process. Since there wasn’t enough time to UV unwrap everything, I leaned heavily on triplanar mapping, procedural textures, and other techniques to streamline the workflow. I also made sure to use existing/purchased assets where I would not have time to hand-model.

Sujono: I began the creation process with concepting and sketching out initial designs. I used Miro to keep track of all of my reference images and thoughts. I found it challenging to land on a composition that maximized the feeling of depth while also working with my concept of rich versus poor.   

After this, I blocked out the scene using basic primitives and rough shapes where I wanted the main elements to be. Cloners and instances proved to be vital for making this efficient. I then started the next detail pass, modeling in more of the distinct Art Deco architecture. Before I began animation, I wanted enough complexity in the scene so I could get a better idea of how the final render would look. I used my Rokoko Smartsuit Pro to create the character animations, refining and animating additional tweaks to the motion capture in iClone 8. For the main character’s base I used Character Creator 4, ZBrush and created the clothing in Cinema 4D and textured the different layers in Substance 3D Painter. The cloth was simulated in Cinema 4D. I utilized Quixel assets for the scatters and added animated displacers and shader effectors to the vegetation to create a living environment. I used After Effects for compositing and kept the render passes minimal, only having a depth pass and black-and-white mattes for different materials.  

Sujono: The biggest technical challenge was finding the right composition. I tackled it by seeking feedback from others on how best to convey depth and a strong sense of story. I had to ensure that the kids playing soccer below felt distant and unreachable, yet remained clearly visible and identifiable to the audience. I think it is important to trust the process and have faith that, if you have a solid idea, the visuals will follow. I doubted myself many times, struggling to imagine whether the final result would look good because of how many different ideas I tried.

Sujono: The epic scale and limitless possibilities were what drew me to the project in the first place. From the start, I knew I wanted to lean into my signature style — a blend of retro-futurism and Art Deco. I was playing "Atomic Heart" at the time and was fascinated by the art design in the game, which was inspired by Soviet-era architecture. I decided to combine these different art styles for my render. My goal was to create something hyper-real, with a sense of grandeur, flair, and opulence that instantly captivates audiences with stunning architecture.

Sujono: One of the main things I learned was how many different ways there are to approach a creative brief. It was incredibly eye-opening to see how each artist brought their own interpretation to the concept, especially in how they achieved a sense of depth in their renders. What really stood out to me was the sheer level of skill in the simulation work — from detailed rigid body destruction to dynamic pyro effects. It made me realize how much I want to dive deeper into that world. Simulations have so much potential to enhance my storytelling and have a bigger visual impact.

Sujono: My advice would be to participate and give it a go! Even if you might be constrained by time, you will learn so much through the process. It’s incredibly valuable to be given a common brief and to see how other artists interpret it. Joining the Discord and getting feedback from fellow artists will help you grow and improve your work.

Participating also gives you an opportunity to try out new workflows, test new tools, and explore fresh ideas. The Judgement Day stream is another exciting part of the experience. Hearing why the judges chose each top 100 render is incredibly valuable for improving your own work and leveling up your skills.