{"id":3392,"date":"2011-11-03T10:39:55","date_gmt":"2011-11-03T14:39:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=3392"},"modified":"2011-11-03T10:39:55","modified_gmt":"2011-11-03T14:39:55","slug":"fitz-vs-the-bmfac-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=3392","title":{"rendered":"Fitz vs. The BMFAC 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

I hear shouts! It's Prince John's men attacking our good forest folk again!<\/p><\/div>\n

As the Robin Hood of the Fractal Kingdom, I feel compelled to take up the cause of our fellow countryman, “Fitz” and right the wrongs of the evil Prince John and his minions, the various Sheriffs of Nottingham known in today’s Sherwood Forest as “The Selection Panel”.<\/p>\n

Fitz’s claim is that –well let’s let Fitz speak for himself:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Screenshot of Fractalforums.com thread, "The BMFAC 2011 results..."<\/p><\/div>\n

“Reflecting sphere hovering over chess board…”\u00a0 Ouch!\u00a0 You know what he means by that, right?\u00a0 Cliche shiny stuff that comes from safe, elementary choices.\u00a0 But let’s consider his claim for a moment, not whether it ought to be in the winner’s circle or not, because my review of the 11 “losers” in the winning circle shows that Fitz’s entry is certainly better than any of them; but rather lets ask something much more radical, something Fitz probably would not even have suggested himself: Was it not in fact one of the best<\/strong><\/em> entries?<\/p>\n

Here’s Fitz’s entry that he’s referring to as “my best entry” in the screenshot above which forms a hyperlink to this image:<\/p>\n

~Click on images to view full-size on original site~<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Biomass by Fitz (NoEyedSquareGuy on Deviant Art)<\/p><\/div>\n

In Fitz’s comment he was comparing his image with another which he referred to as “this” which is a link to MarkJayBee’s (Mark J. Brady’s) winning image:<\/p>\n

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CupreousComplex II by Mark J Brady<\/p><\/div>\n

Judging art always has a subjective aspect to it because we don’t all “like” the same sorts of things (i.e. taste) but I’d say that Fitz’s image is superior to Marks simply by virtue of the complexity and variety of imagery found in it.\u00a0 Mark’s is still a good one and he makes a lot of good images like this, but I think Fitz’s is just more interesting and presents much more “fractalness” in it.<\/p>\n

Note the top left area in Fitz’s image shown here in a detailed screenshot from the high res version on his Deviant Art site<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Detail of Biomass by Fitz (NoEyedSquareGuy)<\/p><\/div>\n

Fitz’s image is really detail-rich and the details have quite a variety to them.\u00a0 Here’s another detail from the bottom left corner:<\/p>\n

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Detail of Biomass by Fitz (NoEyedSquareGuy)<\/p><\/div>\n

Then, taking a closer look I discovered this subtle detailing in the left mid-ground:<\/p>\n

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Detail of Biomass by Fitz (NoEyedSquareGuy)<\/p><\/div>\n

Mark’s image is one which features perspective and fine metallic\/glass surface texture and as such wasn’t intended to be (I’d guess) a “rich detail” type of image.\u00a0 So in that sense we’re comparing apples and oranges, which is a pretty common occurrence in fractal art since there is such a wide variety of imagery with a similar wide variety of characteristics.\u00a0 In short, it’s not fair to compare Mark’s image to Fitz’s with respect to fine detail; one ought to simply compare them on the basis of general artistic impression.\u00a0 That is, which one do you like –more<\/em>?<\/p>\n

I like them both! –but I’d agree with Fitz that his Biomass image (he entered more than one image) is a “stronger” entry than Mark’s.\u00a0 But Mark’s entry is still light years ahead of the”losers-eleven<\/a>” group I posted about but it’s a little too plain and offers only the effect of panoramic depth to make an impression.\u00a0 Fitz’s works on many more levels although Mark’s is still a good example of 3D fractal art.<\/p>\n

But could Fitz’s image be the best?<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 This is a somewhat difficult thing to say, but since the Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contests in general have majored on selecting minor artwork, it’s not hard for anyone to question their choices and rank a non-winner above all of the winning selections.\u00a0 Besides challenging Mark’s image, what other good images are close to being as good as Biomass that we should compare it with?<\/p>\n

Here’s one, Fractal Wasp Troll by Johan Anderssen:<\/p>\n

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Fractal Wasp Troll by Johan Andersson (Mandelwerk, Kraftwerk)<\/p><\/div>\n

I like Johan’s artwork in general and like I said in a previous post, he and the other really good 3D fractalists didn’t submit their best works to the BMFAC.\u00a0 On the other hand, I happen to know from hanging around Fractalforums.com (the Arc de Triomphe <\/em>of fractals) that this image has been particularly popular there and those folks are a tough crowd with Parisian<\/em> standards when it comes to art.\u00a0 Well, c’est dommage<\/em>, I agree it’s good but I think Biomass is better.\u00a0 I don’t care for the smeared, wispy look and prickliness of the image but a lot of other people seem to.\u00a0 Mind you, the coloring is pretty good and the detail is almost as good as Biomass’ making it a good example of that graphical aspect of fractal art.<\/p>\n

What other winners can compete with Biomass for top spot?\u00a0 Oh yes, Hal Tenny’s famous metal works.\u00a0 Undoubtedly one the the best images in the contest:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Gordian Twist by Hal Tenny<\/p><\/div>\n

Well this is a tough one.\u00a0 Who isn’t amazed when they see one of these ornate metal tube and sphere marvels for the first time?\u00a0 Totally fractal and yet it looks totally like a photograph of some wild metal sculpture.\u00a0 And lots of intricate detail; a virtual fractal pipe maze.\u00a0 Coloring is nice, too.\u00a0 Hal Tenny really is a great fractal artist even if he does hang out with complete jerks on Deviant Art.\u00a0 I’d say Biomass is tied with this one.\u00a0 I really can’t say it’s better because Gordian Twist is such a masterwork and such a unique variety of 3D fractals.<\/p>\n

Alright, a tie for first-place?\u00a0 Or second?\u00a0 Is there any other winner that Biomass needs to contend with?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Underwater by Jeremie Brunet ("bib" on Fractalforums.com)<\/p><\/div>\n

Nice one, eh?\u00a0 Jeremie is putting on a show in Paris as announced here<\/a> on Fractalforums.com from November 24-29, 2011.\u00a0 He made this very professional looking poster to advertize it which shows how eye-catching this image of his is in a different context:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Jeremie Brunet Fractal Art Exhibition, Nov. 24-29, 2011, Paris, France (not Paris, Texas!)<\/p><\/div>\n

What can I say?\u00a0 It’s a great image and it has something that many fractal art images often lack: focus.\u00a0 The multicolored deep sea base is the intended subject of the image and it just naturally works that way.\u00a0 The color couldn’t really be better.\u00a0 The overly bright yellows and reds fit in with a undersea scientific base (I’m guessing that’s what Jeremie was thinking).\u00a0 The use of fog and just about everything else at the artist’s control has been used to maximum effect.\u00a0 It’s no wonder they chose this one for the exhibition.\u00a0 Another tough decision.\u00a0 I’d like to rank Biomass just above this one because the bright coloring is just a little too much for me, but I think I’ll give it a tie with Biomass just like Gordian Twist by Hal Tenny.\u00a0 A three-way tie for first place, so far.<\/p>\n

Who else in the BMFAC winners can challenge Biomass for the top spot?\u00a0 If you read my post on the “losers” of the BMFAC<\/a> you’d already know that I’d picked Aztec Flying City by Bernard Bittler as my top choice.\u00a0 Dave Makin, a BMFAC judge, thinks it’s junk, or as he says, “bog-standard\/run-of-the-mill<\/a>“.\u00a0 Let’s take a look:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Aztec Flying City by Bernard Bittler<\/p><\/div>\n

It’s panoramic; nice use of color; great perspective; variety of 3D fractal imagery; excellent use of Photoshop cheating.\u00a0 Cheating?!\u00a0 Well, look at those clouds dragging and snagging on the “flying city” thing on the right side of the image.\u00a0 I don’t think any of the 3D fractal programs, including Ultra Fractal added those clouds (did you know UF can make mandelbox images?).\u00a0 I don’t want to start any fights or anything, but the use of graphical “post-processing” in the 3D fractal world is pretty obvious.\u00a0 But I guess after years of in-house UF post-processing it’s a little hard for the UFers to complain about guys like Bernard adding clouds to their “fractal” images or combining three different fractal formulas into what is really nothing short of a “collage”.\u00a0 But let’s not go there right now.<\/p>\n

Sorry.\u00a0 Bernard wins again.\u00a0 It’s the best.\u00a0 That puts Biomass<\/em> in three-way tie for second place with Hal Tenny’s Gordian Twist<\/em> and Jeremie Brunet’s Underwater<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But of course this is all simply my opinion and not that of the official Selection Panel.\u00a0 The official Selection Panel, made up of, –what does the BMFAC rules<\/a> say the Selection Panel is composed of? “The selection panel is composed of fractal experts, prestigious fractal artists, and sponsor participants.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Sorry Fitz.\u00a0 The experts have spoken.\u00a0 If Bernard’s great image is “bog-standard\/run-of-the-mill” according to just one of the “experts” and still placed in the top 25 to make it a winner<\/em><\/strong>, then I guess the judges must have really thought yours was trash to place it even lower than those 25 winners and even beneath the 10 “honorable mentions”.\u00a0 Personally I think Biomass was one of the top 4 but I’m neither an expert nor particularly “prestigious”.<\/p>\n

I think there’s a good possibility that Biomass was the victim of politics.\u00a0 The organizers didn’t want the exhibition to be completely taken over by 3D fractals and so they let in a lot of (relatively weaker) traditional images and that’s what bumped out such strong images such as Biomass.<\/p>\n

Most of the good fractal art being made today is of the Mandelbulb\/Mandelbox\/Hybrid something or other\/3D variety.\u00a0 The BMFAC despite my earlier concerns<\/a> certainly didn’t shut those kinds of images out, but did they really go far enough and give 3D fractals (like Biomass) their rightful portion of this year’s contest winners?\u00a0 They couldn’t.\u00a0 It would require passing over the old veterans (has-beens) that the BMFAC alone considers “prestigious” and “representative”.<\/p>\n

The contest has changed with the times, but it hasn’t changed as much as fractal art has –it’s not contemporary<\/em> fractal art anymore.\u00a0 The 2011 BMFAC has chosen a lot of fractal art that is old style and no longer impressive and certainly not representative of the art form today.\u00a0 2D images made with complicated layering in Ultra Fractal belong in the last decade.<\/p>\n

I wonder though; have folks like Fitz changed their mind about the BMFAC?\u00a0 I’m sure he’s not the only one who’s been left scratching his head wondering what on earth the judges were thinking when they chose so many mediocre entries and passed over so many good ones.\u00a0 In a thread on Fractalforums.com back in August, 2011 about the BMFAC 2011, Fitz seems to treat Orbit Trap’s criticism of the BMFAC as a rather trivial matter.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Screenshot of Fractalforum thread "International Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest 2011"<\/p><\/div>\n

“Hilarious mental image”\u00a0 Well, that was back in August.\u00a0 Here’s his response to the actual judging two and a half months later in October, 2011:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Screenshot of Fractalforum thread "International Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest 2011"<\/p><\/div>\n

“Pretty weak”<\/p>\n

\"\"

Ha ha! Prince John, you rascal!<\/p><\/div>\n

Yes, my fellow countrymen of Sherwood Forest, Prince John’s Fractal Art Contest (PJFAC 2011) is not worthy of great fractal artworks like Fitz’s Biomass.\u00a0 But now “methinks” his Sheriffs of Nottingham on the Selection Panel aren’t so much a “shady board of fractal art<\/em>” so much as they are just plain bad judges of fractal art.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the Robin Hood of the Fractal Kingdom, I feel compelled to take up the cause of our fellow countryman, “Fitz” and right the wrongs of the evil Prince John and his minions, the various Sheriffs of Nottingham known in today’s Sherwood Forest as “The Selection Panel”. Fitz’s claim is that –well let’s let Fitz … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3398,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/biomass_by_noeyedsquareguy-d3a9q2w.jpg?fit=370%2C500","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2817,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=2817","url_meta":{"origin":3392,"position":0},"title":"BMFAC Announces Its Judging Panel","author":"cruelanimal","date":"27 July, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 A symbolic representation of the BMFAC judging panel. [Photograph seen here.] The 2011 Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest (BMFAC) finally got around to releasing the names of its judges. They are: Honorary Presidents: Michael Barnsley Aliette Mandelbrot Panel Members: Don Archer Javier Barrallo Cory Ench Damien Jones David Makin\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"BMFAC Judges","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/bmfac-judges.jpg?fit=450%2C348&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1260,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=1260","url_meta":{"origin":3392,"position":1},"title":"The BMFAC Exhibition Begins? Who Knew?","author":"cruelanimal","date":"3 June, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm just like the Olympic torch.\u00a0 I travel the world, and no one knows my route in advance. [Promotional poster for the 2009 Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest Exhibition.\u00a0 Image seen on Sandra Reid's blog.] Apparently, the 2009 Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest Exhibition has begun. Of course, you'd never\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=1260#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"BMFAC in San Sabastian","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/BMFAC_SanSebastian.jpg?fit=450%2C300&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":414,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=414","url_meta":{"origin":3392,"position":2},"title":"2009 BMFAC Winners Leaked ?!!?","author":"cruelanimal","date":"24 September, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"And the winner is... Elvis' alien clone better move over. What is one to make of this? Just by accident, OT wandered into the \"winners\" page of the current (and ongoing) 2009 Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest and found it active and showing thumbnails of entries listed as exhibition winners,\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Sneak Peek?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/BMFACSP_Detail1.jpg?fit=600%2C300&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/BMFACSP_Detail1.jpg?fit=600%2C300&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/BMFACSP_Detail1.jpg?fit=600%2C300&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2903,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=2903","url_meta":{"origin":3392,"position":3},"title":"BMFAC Slogs On","author":"cruelanimal","date":"21 August, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Hi there. I'm sponsoring BMFAC. Send appropriate entries accordingly. [Image seen here.] I guess the 2011 Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest (BMFAC) slogs on. Here's the latest scoops on what's buzzworthy, overhyped, leaked out, historically revised, and outright laughable on the BMFAC front. Contest Sponsors As of this writing, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=2903#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"Pinky Had Doubts","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/pinkyhasdoubts.jpg?fit=450%2C338&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2553,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=2553","url_meta":{"origin":3392,"position":4},"title":"The Roots of BMFAC","author":"cruelanimal","date":"16 February, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"It wasn't the sleep of reason that gave birth to a monster. Some of Orbit Trap's critics have taken issue with our claim that the Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest (BMFAC) is nothing more than a publicity stunt to feather the nests of its organizers and judges.\u00a0 These critics argue\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 11 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 11 comments","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=2553#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"Roots of BMFAC","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/FrontierbetweenArtandScience.jpg?fit=450%2C436&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2756,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=2756","url_meta":{"origin":3392,"position":5},"title":"BMFAC Slinks Back","author":"cruelanimal","date":"14 July, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Things More Pleasant Than Thinking About BMFAC Again Dave Makin sent me a personal email to let me know the 2011 Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest (BMFAC) has been announced.\u00a0 I guess he wanted to be sure I got the good news. 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