Winners of the $20,000 Adobe design challenge announced

Congratulations to TJ Sochor of 3 Wagons Deep on winning the grand prize in Adobe’s "See What’s Possible" motion graphics contest:

TJ writes,

The entire animation was done completely with Photoshop and After Effects (with a touch of Illustrator for logo preparation). No 3rd party plug-ins, programs, animation, videos were used; just the tools that ship standard with Adobe software. All photos are original – taken with my Nikon D80 (organized in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom). The music is also original. No 3rd party stuff, well, except for my cheap Yamaha guitar.

Finalists

See What’s Possible — Hello Lava link
Thinking Magical — Animatório/Vinicius Costa
The Amazing Factory — Wondermint
Happy Place — Network Osaka

Participation

More than 348 Submissions from over 31 countries with over 1/3 in the last day before the deadline
More than half the submissions came from outside the U.S.
More than 5,800 registered users who contributed submissions, comments, and votes
More than 120,000 unique visitors from over 156 countries around the world

Then, of course, there were a few that remind you that "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro"

Hip hop ‘shop: Crime Scene by d.inc design ("All the other programs, irrelevant!"–or as ODB might say, "You know my name, now gimme my money")
As with the boat in "Apocalypse Now," Never Leave the Letterbox
Spazzing like the people in "Jacob’s Ladder," it’s One Man Show (known colloquially as "meth guy")
PS goes The Way Of The Stick: Designer Ninjas
And finally, Mr. Hankey would be so proud: Turning Crap to Gold

Thanks to everyone for the great entries! If you see any that strike you as particularly cool, funny, bizarre, etc., please pass ’em along via the comments.