Why you should enter the NVIDIA RTX Summer Showcase competition

If you’re a UK university student with a passion for 3D art, CGI, VFX and or digital art, you’ll want to know about NVIDIA’s RTX Student Summer Showcase. Spearheaded by one of the biggest players in the creative tech industry, this competition offers you the chance to have your creative work judged by some of the most well-known professionals in the industry, win some epic prizes and, of course, showcase your work. 

NVIDIA wants students to create a 30-second long VFX scene based on the theme of ‘summer’ or ‘summer holidays’. Your piece must be made using a GeForce RTX desktop or laptop combined with Unreal Engine 5 – and there are extra points for submissions that integrate elements of ray tracing. 

Whether it’s an action-packed summer adventure around the world or a dreamy beach sunset that inspires you, the RTX Student Summer Showcase is the perfect way to bring your ideas of summer to life. Here’s all you need to know about the showcase, and how the NVIDIA RTX platform could elevate your creative process.

What you could win

So, what are the prizes? Well, the three top submissions all win purpose-built GeForce RTX 40-series Studio laptops. The creator of the winning piece will win the powerful and ultraportable ASUS Zenbook Pro 14 OLED with GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU, while two other scenes will be awarded an ASUS Vivobook Pro 16 OLED with GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPUs. These tailored machines provide the perfect tools for your process, empowering you to create on a whole new level.

NVIDIA Studio laptops are the ultimate creative tools for accelerating your creative ideas. Supported by the NVIDIA Studio platform, these laptops deliver the ultimate in performance thanks to dedicated ray tracing, AI and video encoding software, and gives you the means, knowledge, and know-how to enhance your workflow and help you realise your most ambitious projects yet. 

Added to that, you'll also get your work in front of the judging panel – a tantalising prospect for any student embarking on a career in these creative industries. The panel consists of major players in the creative tech industry, including top names from NVIDIA and DNEG, and the Editor of our sister magazines, 3D World and ImagineFX. 

Sound good? If you want to get involved, you’ll need to submit your entries by 11.59pm BST on September 17 via social media, tagging @NVIDIAStudio and @NVIDIAGeForceUK with #RTXSummerShowcase (more rules and conditions at the end of this post). 

How NVIDIA’s RTX platform will supercharge your creativity

The NVIDIA RTX platform is a game-changer for digital artists working on VFX – there’s a reason over 250 top-class games and apps use this revolutionary technology. RTX empowers artists to deliver realistic graphics with incredibly fast performance, using cutting-edge new AI features like NVIDIA DLSS 3.

NVIDIA Studio is a hub that brings together all the powerful software and hardware creators need to know about, like the purpose built Studio powered laptops that are the prizes for this competition. You’ll also find NVIDIA Omniverse, which is the place to be if you want to create and operate metaverse applications. Omniverse interconnects existing 3D workflows, enabling live-sync creation due to the revolutionary Universal Scene Description (USD).

Feeling inspired?

If all that has inspired you to get creative, you should be entering the NVIDIA RTX Student Summer Showcase competition. Winners will get the chance to add to their own portfolio, have their work judged by the biggest names in the industry and featured by NVIDIA, win those awesome laptops and showcase their talents with an industry powerhouse behind them. 

So what are you waiting for? Read the rules below then get creating. Good luck!

Rules for competition entry:

• You must be currently enrolled at a UK-based university to participate
• Your work must be centred around the theme of ‘Summer’ and ‘Summer Holidays’
• Entries must be made using GeForce RTX Desktop or Laptop hardware in Unreal Engine 5
• Submissions must be uploaded to social media, tagging @NVIDIAStudio and @NVIDIAGeForceUK with #RTXSummerShowcase
• Entries must be exactly 30 seconds long
• Scenes that incorporate ray tracing will be given extra points when moving through the judging process
• The deadline for submission is 11:59PM on September 17, 2023
• One (1) winner and two (2) runners-up will be contacted on or around September 29th where you will be asked to submit a zip file of your Unreal Engine 5 project files to verify winner eligibility
• Winning entries will need to provide full name, university you are enrolled in & details of GeForce RTX hardware used to create submission
• The winner and runners-up will be revealed on or around October 9th, 2023