That aside, we had a cracking year here at The Rookies, and it was all thanks to our amazing community, our partners and the team here that makes it all possible.
What a year it was, unfortunately it never really lived up to the expectations we all had of flying cars and holidays to the moon. That aside, we had a cracking year here at The Rookies, and it was all thanks to our amazing community, our partners and the team here that makes it all possible. We thought it would be a good idea to look back and celebrate all the good parts and get pumped for 2021.
Major Milestones
Our community is growing at a solid rate, and it's been amazing to welcome so many new members with the passion and motivation to improve their creative and technical skills.
1,346,449 visitors viewed your work
14,548 new members joined the community
3,767 members joined us on Discord
Member Portfolios
10,469 projects were uploaded to portfolio pages
Sharing your digital creations online is a big call. It takes a lot of confidence to put your skills out there, especially when you can see all the small things you want to change next time. Congratulations to everyone who uploaded work and shared work on their portfolio pages this year, we loved checking out all the different styles of work.
Top 10 Portfolio Projects
Below is a list of the Top 10 most popular projects uploaded by members. These projects received a huge amount of traffic and there is good reason why.
Member Contest Entries
6,381 entries were uploaded to contests
25,289 reviews of work by contest judges
During 2020, we started to increase the number of contest in order to keep you motivated and challenge your skills. Members participated in the:
Ranked from 1-10, these are the most popular entries that members uploaded to all our contests for 2020.
Top 20 Software Titles
With so many options out there to choose from, it's often hard to figure out where to start. The good news is that data is our friend, and we have pulled together the Top 20 Software titles for digital artists in 2020.
Consistency is the key with learning any new skill, and our Weekly Drills proved a huge success for members that got involved.
We completed #39 drills in 2020 and the results were super impressive. A massive shout out is needed for Tom Römer - a 'Contender' member and student from PIXL VISN | media arts academy. Tom has entered every single Weekly Drill which is an incredible feat and something worth celebrating. Make sure to check out his portfolio to check out all his projects.
Top 10 Weekly Drills
The most popular weekly drills submitted by members are listed below from 1-10. Congratulations to everyone that participated, we can't wait to see what else you create this year.
We Went Live
It was all about going live in 2020. Not only were we forced to do this, but we actually enjoyed the opportunity to reach more people that running events in cities around the world.
Justin Mohlam
Justin started reviewing Weekly Drills live on Twitch. Each week Justin has been going through entries, selecting his winners and giving feedback along the way.
Robyn Daly
Our resident rockstar animation guru has been jumping on Twitch to live stream reviews of projects uploaded to The Rookies. These have been a huge hit and looking forward to more of these this coming year.
Christina Ryan
Our resident texturing and look development guru, not only shared an incredible Kombi asset in our latest contest, but she has also been jumping on Twitch each week to review entries.
School Interview Series
Alwyn Hunt and myself jumped on and ran our first Live Interview series where we talked with founders of the Top Schools to Learn VFX Online. This was such a cool experience, being able to dig in and ask some big questions to these humble entrepreneurs.
In Closing
Thanks for being part of our small world. We really did have a great year in 2020 (pandemic aside) and we appreciate your support, because without it, this place would be pretty boring and uninspiring.
As always, we have some ambitious plans for 2021 and are doing everything we can to bring them to life. Stay tuned, stay motivated and keep working hard. We know you will get where you need to go, it's just going to take a little more time.