It was the first of its kind for UTAR Marketing Society when they virtually organised “The Mind Craft 2021: 3D Modelling Competition and Workshop” on 21 March 2021 via Facebook, and attracted over 100 participation from students of various faculties.

The virtual event aimed to expose students to the rising marketing trend of the industry, especially on digital marketing and the use of 3D modelling in business. “Today, digital marketing is one of the major trends to market your business and idea. One famous tool used in business currently is 3D modelling, which is a descriptive advertisement format that is able to provide customers with an interactive experience. It is done by allowing users to explore a product from every angle, using a 360-degree product view. Through this event, participants get to apply their skills and enhance their knowledge on digital marketing and 3D modelling’s application,” said Faculty of Business and Finance Department of Marketing Head Choy Johnn Yee.

Enlightening participants on 3D modelling was invited speaker and Founder of Hide and Seeds Production Chew Kin Lek, who shared extensively his eight-year experience working in the 3D modelling field. He also provided tips and ways on balancing work and life, a life as an individual artist, and monetisation of the artwork and model character.

Using his 3D creation to educate participants, Chew spoke about the process, which began from idea generation and finally to monetising the artwork. His artwork “Biji” speaks length of a mother’s love and how she expresses that love to her children. On this note, Chew advised participants to use the story to inspire children, while educating parents on love.

The interactive session with the participants saw Chew creating a character based on the ideas and suggestions from the participants. This provided participants an opportunity to witness and learn first hand from Chew in creating a character. It only required Chew to create the character in less than an hour, using various tools, such as Zbrush, Keyshot and Mixamo. He also recommended Maya, Blender and 3D Max tools for 3D modelling and animation, and named a few platforms used to publish created artwork, namely Patreon, Etsy, Kickstarter, Youtube and Webtoon.

The highlight of the event was the award ceremony. The winners of the competition were selected based on the top three highest votes collected from Facebook and Instagram. The winners were:

Champion: Leong Pui Yin – Centre for Foundation Studies
Artwork title: Renaissance with 644 votes
Awards: T2-TWS Wireless Bluetooth Earphone and postcards

Second place: Tan Chuan Han – Faculty of Information and Communication Technology
Artwork title: Han the Builder with 106 votes
Awards: 911 Wireless Bluetooth Headset and postcards

Third place: Yap Wei Jien  - Faculty of Engineering and Green Technology
Artwork title: Pennywise with 105 votes
Awards: iTreasure Wireless Bluetooth Earphone and postcards

Quizzes and lucky draws were also organised for participants. Choo Ching Szen, Calvin Kong Kah Mun and Cheah Jun Shen won first, second, and third places respectively, based on their speed and accuracy in answering the questions during the quiz session. Meanwhile, the lucky draw session saw lucky winners Chan Jing Herng, Yong Zhi Ching, Kow Jie Ying, and Ng Warren Cin Yen winning iTreasure Wireless Bluetooth Earphone, 911 Bluetooth Wireless Headset, Redmi Smart Band, and postcards. All the prizes for the competition, quiz, and lucky draw were sponsored by Yunique Tea Kampar, Wenalucard Tech Enterprise, and Hide and Seeds Production.