Results of the POVRay Fractal Raytracing Contest

Maintained by Paul Bourke

A special thanks to the panel judges: Cliff Pickover and Gayla Chandler.

What is this contest about anyway?

Click on any of the images to see a higher resolution representation.

Winning entries
First place

Title: Resurrection of Golden Section
Author: Thies Heidecke
[POVRay Source]

Panel judge
This is superb. It reminds me of something alien, something hivelike or corallike. The texture and lighting is very good, making me want to reach out and touch the object as I run my fingers lingeringly over its surface. A perfect model for the next Alien movie or hardcore science-fiction book cover.

Second place

Title: Oops, I dropped it on the floor!
Author: Juha Nieminen
[POVRay Source]

Panel judge
I enjoyed this immensely for its humor, realism, and simplicity of design. The lighting and floor pattern are excellent. The title is great. This reminds me of something that might have fallen from my soldering gun, but in reality, I suspect that it is a 3-D cross section of a quaternion fractal.

Third place

Title: Golden Section
Author: Georg Mogk
[POVRay Source]

Title: RingSphere
Author: Roel Vliegen
[POVRay Source]

Top Ten

Title: Eight Tangent Reflecting Spheres
Author: Dave Matthews
[POVRay Source]

Top Ten

Panel judge
This entry is excellent for its beauty, symmetry, and colors. I could easily imagine people hanging this in the most elegant homes. The image conjures associations with soap bubbles and stained glass windows. The harmony of the rendition is compelling, reminding me of something religious, a 21st-century God.

Title: Fire And Ice
Author: Sascha Ledinsky
[POVRay Source]

Top Ten

Title: Julia Set Isle
Author: Sascha Ledinsky
[POVRay Source]

Top Ten

Title: julia_reflect_var_02
Author: Pete Capasso
[POVRay Source]

Top Ten

Title: Anti-shadow color
Author: Robert Alzinger
[POVRay Source]

Top Ten

Title: Starfern
Author: Samuel Benge
[POVRay Source]

Top Ten

Title: Kheops
Author: Jean-Charles Marteau
[POVRay Source]

Panel judge
The regularity of the overall structure mixed with the irregularity of the sizes of the spheres that make it up creates an enigmatic effect. My favorite section is on the bottom-right where the spheres are highly irregular and interior definition is compromised.

Title: The Old Fractal
Author: Georg Mogk
[POVRay Source]

Panel judge
Initially, this entry made me think of the porcupine puffer fish, because its bones are in the shape of convex hulls, or skeletons, of irregular tetrahedra, which two years ago caused me think, for the first time, about the skeletal structure of regular tetrahedra. The Old Fractal takes this form, or a similar form, and iterates it. These fractal formations and their surroundings conjure notions of skeletal tetrahedron ships at sea, meeting in time warps. The rust on the "old" fractal is so nice. The dodecahedra was an apt choice for the center connection since the tetrahedron sits perfectly inside the dodecahedron, sharing four of its vertices. The 'modern', steel version of the fractal is consistent in this respect, since the tetrahedron also inscribes into a sphere. Overall, I find this entry to be poignant and mesmerizing.

Title: Pernelle
Author: Noe Falzon
[POVRay Source]

Panel judge
I like it that all the spheres run through the same axis. It gives a sense of order. Coloration and shadow draw attention to an imaginary pipeline of expanding spheres that give a sense of vibrational qualities, of reverberations that could potentially generate expansion, perhaps outward, inward, horizontally, whatever growth would be allowed given the constraint of the shared axis, causing the spheres to be confined yet dynamic.

Prize for the longest render

Title: Sierpinski Lens
Author: Anon
[POVRay Source]

Maintainers choice

Title: Sierpinski Gasket Study
Author: Robert W. McGregor
[POVRay Source]

Maintainers choice

Title: Julia Gold Nugget
Author: Bonsai
[POVRay Source]

Maintainers choice

Remaining entries in no particular order
Title: Hyperspace portal
Author: Rasta Robert
[POVRay Source]
Title: Protoplasm
Author: Charles McChesney
[POVRay Source]
Title: anf_02_reduced_01
Author: Pete Capasso
[POVRay Source]
Title: Mmmm... Donuts...
Author: Anon
[POVRay Source]
Title: The Chrysalis fields. Harvest time....
Author: Sean (mongke)
[POVRay Source]
Title: Sierpinski Undone
Author: Samuel Benge
[POVRay Source]
Title: Frozen Light
Author: Steve Shoopak
[POVRay Source]
Title: Six Tangent Reflecting Spheres
Author: Dave Matthews
[POVRay Source]
Title: Anti-shadow
Author: Robert Alzinger
[POVRay Source]
Title: The Gemstones Three
Author: Sean (mongke)
[POVRay Source]
Title: Infinite Decomposition
Author: Holger Bettag
[POVRay Source]
Title: Untitled
Author: Stefan Skellen
[POVRay Source]
Title: Old fashioned L-Systems
Author: Paolo Gibellini
[POVRay Source]
Title: MTness
Author: Anon
[POVRay Source]
Title: Stack of Julia Sets
Author: Anon
[POVRay Source]
Title: Cavernous
Author: Paul Bourke
[POVRay Source]
Title: Sphere, trapped in a fractal world.
Author: Paul Bourke
[POVRay Source]