Congratulations to everyone for getting to the end of Mardini 2026. If you have completed entries for all 31 challenges please submit them by filling out the following contact sheet template and submitting a png file to this Iron Heart forum by April 6, 2026 at Midnight EDT to win an Iron Heart prize. This forum will be locked at that deadline so be sure to submit the contact sheet on time.

Note that these entries did not need to meet the daily deadlines, only the April 7 deadline. But all entries must be posted to their respective forum so we can see the full artwork/animation.

PS - be sure to include your SideFX website avatar in the top right corner.

Download the Contact Sheet Template [media.sidefx.com]

Iron Heart!

This is the first challenge I have finished, and I'm so happy with all the progress we made on Houdini. Every submission greatly inspired me, and I really hope we can meet again next year!

I, once again, managed to accomplish it, and I feel very proud of it. It’s an enormous satisfaction to complete all 31 days of competition in this Mardini 2026, and the best part is seeing all the talent that surrounded me in colleagues who know more than I do. I learned so much from them during this Mardini, and I’m very grateful for the opportunity—witnessing so many amazing creations throughout the month is indescribable. Thank you, SideFX; it was a great joy to have participated, and I congratulate each and every colleague who achieved it as well.

Second attempt, but now my first time I finished Mardini, maybe the next year I'll made only images, this year I try only animations and was hard I learn a lot and detect things I have to learn more. Thank's SideFX team.

Although my work still has a long way to go, it was a truly wonderful experience. I really enjoyed the process of working steadily on it for a month. It was a real pleasure to see the works of such talented artists. Thank's SideFX team.

I started participating in Mardini 2026 as a way to build a habit of learning Houdini. It was my first time joining, and I had a lot of fun while learning many new things. I was also truly impressed by the high quality of the work created by the other participants. I would love to take on the challenge again next year and beyond!

finnaly ! lost tones of sleeping time this month, super cool challenge

It was such an honour that I could do this with you guys.
Now, it's time to clean up my desk🧹🧹

So many great submissions this year! The variety of entries was incredible. It was a pure joy to go through them every evening and check out everyone's work.

I learned a lot over the last 31 days and am so grateful for all the support and kind words. This challenge really reignited my passion for personal projects!

Huge thanks to the jury, too. It must be tough to go through all these amazing submissions and select just a few winners.

Thanks again!

So that's it huh, another year another beautiful journey.
I tried to get some of my projects to a higher level of polish, and my contact sheet looks better than last year so that's all I could ask for.
Big thank you to all of the participants, watching your works is an amazing inspiration. and Big thanks to SideFx for still making these.


Now just gotta keep the flow up and continue...

Done and done.
Cheers to all!

My 2nd Mardini finished (3rd if you count HOULY 2020 as one). Great to be back with this awesome software. Amazed I got this finished considering starting late, my father ending up in hospital again, switching between computers mid competition and completing a gamejam all in the time period. Well done to everyone else who took part and it was awesome seeing all your work!

This is my first time doing Mardini Challenge and the challenge is real!!!!
Really happy to get to use this opportunity to try out different Houdini tools and participate with other super talented artist! Absolutely inspiring.

Look forward to the next challenge!

my first mardini! <3333

This year I didn't have much time to do mardini, but I still had a ton of fun everyday doing it! Cheers and congrats everyone! See you next year

This was fun!

Truly impressed by the different takes on the prompts being submitted every single day, this whole experience was deeply inspiring! Thanks everyone!

First time participating mardini and I finally nail it!!
It is so fun, I'll do it better next year!

First time participating and omg it was such fun! Got challenged and learned so much! Hopefully next year we do even better Congrats everyone!

First time participating in Mardini, I had so much fun learning from and creating alongside amazing artists. Congrats to everyone who participated
The real mardini was the friends we made along the way

That's it, the end of my first mardini ! I will finally be able to sleep, have a social life, see my girlfriend, play video games, touch grass, so many wonderful things ! I learned so much during this challenge, and even if that was exhausting af, it was worth it. Seeing your creations every day with the same people reaaaaally helped going on ! Congrats everybody ! See you next year (if I have the courage again) !