And then there was one! Day 31 of Mardini 2026 is time to Refract on the experience of all the entries you created this month. Congratulations to everyone for creating such amazing work. Every day we were challenged to pick from a host of wonderful art.
The Best Image and Best Animation will be judged over the next week and if you are going to submit for the Ironheart be sure to download and fill in the Ironheart Contact Sheet [www.sidefx.com]
After the winners have been announced, there will be a form for them to claim their prize. Watch out for that post.
Until then enjoy the final challenge of Mardini 2026!
Robert Magee Senior Product Marketing Manager SideFX
Day 31 - Refract. Thank you SideFX for putting on the Mardini 2026 - learned new stuff along the way. Now for the beautiful breakdown colors of a partial prism and the refract of the objects behind the diamond glass. All work done in Houdini used COPS for most textures and a diamond glass texture from the gallery. Enjoy!!
Hello! I wish i had more time and energy for some entries but in the end i had a lot of fun competing again this year. Coming up with ideas is hard and i was really impressed by the creativity of all the participants. Insane stuff on the animationside. cant even put it into words. I learned alot, still have a lot to learn and will look forward to future contests.
So with this i wish everyone happy creating and a great year.
I will leave you with my last piece, giving my wizard another chance to finally win something xD. I love that guy
I had an amazing time taking part in Mardini 2026 as a way to build a daily Houdini learning habit. The wide range of prompts gave me the chance to explore parts of Houdini I do not usually get to work with, which was really exciting and rewarding. I hope to keep building on this experience and create even more with Houdini going forward. Great work, everyone, and thank you for an inspiring event.
Day 31 – Refract. Had some fun experimenting with the Light Filters Library. Congratulation for winners!
I'd also like to take a moment to thank my wife for her patience and for supporting me through some of the most stressful moments. Thank you SideFX for the opportunity to participate in this challenge — I hope my skills continue to grow as quickly over the coming year as they did during Mardini 2026. A huge thank you to all the participants — your work kept me inspired and motivated throughout the whole challenge. To this day I have no idea how I made it through those late nights without a single cup of coffee. 😄 I hope to see you again in 2027.
Day 31 - Refract. The month is over. It was super fun, was excited to see every single work each evening! Learned many new things and got back into more creative projects again. Thank you!
