2025 Recap: The Best 3D Artworks of the Passing Year

2025 is coming to its end; it was full of grand events and fantastic 3D projects. Many artists achieved new heights in their craft, and we were honored to feature some of them on 80 Level.

Let's see what 3D works you, our readers, appreciated the most in 2025!

Fan 3D Take on Shadowheart from Baldur's Gate 3 Rendered in Unreal Engine 5

Baldur's Gate 3 keeps inspiring 3D artists, and Natallia "BLU1304" Sudas's version of Shadowheart was the most captivating of all. The artist used textures from Symbiote Studio and Texturing XYZ, Unreal Engine for rendering, and Groomer's Tool for Maya to make the hair.

Realistic 3D Take on Shadowheart from Baldur’s Gate 3

Surprisingly, the second most popular 3D work of 2025 is also Shadowheart by Sudas's. She is made more realistic to look like Jennifer English, the character's voice actress. The creator turned to ZBrush, Houdini, and Unreal Engine 5 this time.

Final Fantasy's Tifa Lockhart Recreated With ZBrush & Unreal Engine

Another lady from a video game, another stunning project. This Tifa Lockhart was shaped by Zhong Q with help from 龟龟li, modeled and sculpted in Maya and ZBrush, textured in Substance 3D Painter, and rendered in Unreal Engine 5.

Jinx from Arcane Reimagined in Modern Setting

Arcane will not stop occupying fans' minds any time soon, and this modern Jinx is the proof. Arnaud Jézéquel was inspired by josival_art's concept and added volume to the girl with ZBrush, Maya, Substance 3D Painter, and Blender.

Breakdown: 3D Take on Steel Inquisitor from Mistborn Series

It's always a pleasure to see our interviews with talented artists helping people. Konrad Hetko's Steel Inquisitor definitely commanded attention. In this article, Hetko explained his views on the model's anatomy and showed the texturing process in detail.

It's Almost Impossible to Believe That This 3D Maomao Model Is Actually 3D

This year, we saw a lot of 2D-like works that were actually 3D, and Takuya Igarashi's Maomao from The Apothecary Diaries definitely deserves the praise it received. Her facial expressions are crisp and clean, and it's hard to comprehend that they were made in Blender. 

Stylish 3D Model of Hornet from Hollow Knight

2025 finally blessed us with the long-awaited Silksong, but even before its release, Hornet was a popular subject in art. A 3D character artist known as indifference presented their own version, giving the protagonist some curves, inspired by Suahh's concept.

Realistic Model of Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther Made with Maya

Here is one more incredible portrait, created by artist CYYY, who depicted actor Chadwick Boseman, who played Black Panther. The realism of the image was achieved thanks to CYYY's talent and their work with Maya, XGen, and Mari.

200 Trillion Polygons Scene With Nanite Foliage Voxelization In UE5.7

This enormous scene is slightly different from all the other projects on the list, but it definitely deserves attention, as Dylan Browne tested Nanite Foliage on an RTX 4090 with Nanite Voxelization, with over 200 trillion polygons distributed across a 16K-resolution landscape made in Houdini.

Using Blender For Crafting 2D Magical Cave Illustration

Blender is known as a great 3D software, but it can also create 2D-like illustrations, as proven by R.A. Marsh, who showed his workflow in the Merlin's Cave project, demonstrating that you can craft stunningly magical images using its tools.

That's it for this year's best 3D works, but we have more surprises for you, so stay tuned!

What is your favorite 3D piece? Don't forget to check out 80 Level's new digital art courses, subscribe to our Newsletter, and join our 80 Level Talent platform, follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, and Instagram, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.