World of Warcraft Student Art Contest 2025

Using your creativity and ability to work within the World of Warcraft art style, create a small environment diorama that would fit well in the game world. Your quest: Concept, model, and texture an environment piece that you could imagine stumbling upon during your travels across Kalimdor, the Eastern Kingdoms, Outland, Northrend, Pandaria, the Broken Isles, or Argus.

Required elements are trees, rocks, grass, and props, plus a small structure (such as a shrine).

Your final piece should have a structure similar to the example provided below. We're looking for models with lower polygon counts (e.g., around 1,500 polygons for a mature-sized tree), so please keep that in mind when creating your environment.

The final submission should be a high-resolution JPEG file no larger than 5MB.

Submit Your Entry

"Bastion Merchant Hub"
Sarah Krystallia Johnson
College for Creative Studies

Using your creativity and ability to work within the World of Warcraft art style, concept, model, and texture a non-player character (NPC) or creature that you could imagine roaming the plains of Durotar, exploring the depths of Deepholm, or just sitting in the Pig and Whistle Tavern knocking back a mug o' Thistle Tea.

Required elements include the character or creature, along with some form of clothing or armor. Feel free to go further by adding weapons or other accessories.

The final piece should have a structure similar to the example provided below. Stay within a budget of 6,000 polys with one 1024x1024 texture for the finished character.

The final submission should be a high-resolution JPEG file no larger than 5MB.

Submit Your Entry

"Crimson Dream Gorger"
Drew Mitchell
DigiPen Institute of Technology

Using your creativity and ability to work within the World of Warcraft art style, create a player ability that could be added to the kit of one of our existing classes. You could conjure up anything from the power of the void for a massive flying ball of death, call upon the elements of nature to ensnare an entire mob, or wield the power of the Light to rip a giant fissure through the ground.

Required Elements:

• Buildup of the ability, impact of the ability, and the aftermath.
• Feel free to go further by adding characters, creatures, props, or other 3d assets if needed.
• No frame length required.
• Submit a movie file (format can vary) as your final submission.

Submit Your Entry

"Chains of Annihilation"
Amanda Yinan Wang
ArtCenter College of Design

Using your creativity and ability to work within the World of Warcraft art style, create a unique combat animation from one of the three choices listed. Imagine entering a dungeon, battling against the Lich King and his undead army, or traveling deep beneath the Firelands to take down Ragnaros.

Required elements:

• Weapon (rig) of your choice, can be a character or creature.
• Feel free to go further by adding weapons, additional characters/creatures, or other accessories.
• Provide video(s) from 3 different angles: side view, back view (player view), 3-quarter view.
• Must be animated at 30 frames per second (fps) and set to meters.
• No frame length required.
• No motion blur or camera movement.
• Submit a movie file (format can vary) as your final submission.

Animation Choices: Please choose one

1. Two-hit (combo) attack
   • Must start and finish in the same pose.
   • The model can move away from the starting area if necessary.
2. Weapon spell attack
   • Must start and finish in the same pose.
   • Should include a charge up/precast and release/spell cast.
   • The model can move away from the starting area if necessary.
3. Summon and transition
   • Example: Emerging from the ground or entering a room.
   • Should transition into a passive or combat stance.
   • Should have lots of personality.

Submit Your Entry

"Abyss and Moth Two-Hit Combo Attack"
Justin Nguyen
University of Southern California