heavenriver

Since the UF contest that I'd set up as the last Redux challenge ended up not getting entries, I refunded the Points to their respective owners. Unfortunately, some donations were anonymous and thus couldn't be paid back... if you can come forward and prove (somehow) the amount you donated, I will be happy to give it back. Thank you for your generosity either way

Yes, I know, I haven't been artistically active at all. I still visit this website every day (no joke), but my creative juices are not flowing. I've been absorbed by my daily activities ever since I moved out and the new job takes a lot out of me. I'll get back here someday; I just don't know when.

Take care and thanks for your continued appreciation of my fractals! If you want to keep in touch, feel free to reach out.

Hello everyone! As promised, here is the glorious opening of the Ultra Fractal Redux: Contest!

I'll try to keep this simple and short. Here you go


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------------------------------------------------------ PARTICIPATION ------------------------------------------------------
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This contest will ONLY be open to the people who participated in at least two of the Ultra Fractal monthly challenges I previously held. In order to enter, please post at least two of your previous contest entries, as proof of your participation. Please note that this applies to participating entries, not winning entries. You can enter this contest even if you never won a challenge!

If you need help tracing your contest entries, have a look at the challenge compendium here:

Links to ALL UF challenges (updated periodically!)Since the UF challenges are growing in number, instead of linking them all in each new one, I thought I'd make a collection journal for all of them. This will contain all challenges held so far, from the newest (top) to the oldest (bottom), all conveniently thumbed for you! It will also be updated each month so that ALL challenges are reachable from here, even the newer ones. And this journal will of course be linked in every challenge, to keep them all connected
Here we go!










Ultra Fractal monthly Challenges Redux ~ Vol. 48 by heavenriver
Ultra Fractal monthly Challenges Redux! Vol. 47 by heavenriver
Ultra Fractal monthly Challenges Redux! Vol. 46 by heavenriver
Ultra Fractal monthly Challenges Redux! Vol. 45 by heavenriver
Ultra Fractal monthly Challenges Redux! Vol. 44 by heavenriver
Ultra Fractal monthly Challenges Redux! Vol. 43 by heavenriver
Ultra Fractal monthly Challenges Redux! Vol. 42 by heavenriver
Ultra Fractal monthly Challenges Redux! Vol. 41 by heavenriver
Ultra Fractal monthly Challenges Redux ~ Vol. 40 by heavenriver


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------------------------------------------------------- HOW TO ENTER -------------------------------------------------------
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The contest will be open from February 1st, 2016 to March 31st, 2016 inclusive. The deadline is at 23:59 UTC.

Participants may enter up to two fractals. All submissions must be raw, and fractal manipulations will NOT be accepted. Adding your signature or a frame to the image doesn't count as manipulating a fractal.

Submit your fractals by posting a comment on this journal and linking them. You may change your entries until the deadline, so if you previously entered a fractal that you want to swap for another, you are free to do so until April 1st rolls around.

ALL PARTICIPANTS MUST VOTE FOR THE WINNERS. IF YOU DO NOT VOTE, YOUR ENTRIES WILL BE DISQUALIFIED. Please read below, in "Prizes", for further details.


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------------------------------------------------------------ PRIZES ------------------------------------------------------------
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1st place: 250 Points + journal feature from heavenriver 
2nd place: 111 Points + journal feature from heavenriver 
3rd place: 50 Points + journal feature from heavenriver 

There's time until the deadline to donate prizes, so this paragraph will be updated accordingly.

HOW TO WIN: After the deadline rolls around, I will make a post that contains ALL of the entries. ALL CONTESTANTS - and only the contestants - will need to vote their 1st, 2nd and 3rd favourites. Contestants cannot vote for their own works. If you have entered the contest but have failed to vote, your entries will be disqualified!

VOTING IS PRIVATE - please send me a Note with your votes! Your 1st place will be awarded 10 points, your 2nd place will be awarded 5 points, and your 3rd place will be awarded 2 points. After everyone is done voting, the points will be tallied and the three top rated fractals will win.

Each person may only win one prize, so in the event that, say, Artist A made both the 2nd and 3rd most voted works, then Artist A will get the 2nd prize and the 3rd prize will go to the 4th most voted artwork. (If Artist B who won first prize has made the 4th most voted artwork, then the 5th will receive the 3rd prize, and so on until there are three different winners.)

The voting deadline is April 30th, 2016 at 23:59 UTC.


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-------------------------------------------------------- THE CONTEST --------------------------------------------------------
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The theme of this contest is Change and Departures.

That's it. Open as can be. Do your best to make it fit evidently into your work and you will be prized! Probably, that is, because the winners are decided by the participants.


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------------------------------------------------------ Closing thoughts ------------------------------------------------------
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Thank you for having participated in the UF challenges for all these years! My work wouldn't have made sense without you. Enjoy the contest

Greets everyone, I hope you're spending great Christmas holidays (if you celebrate)

Things have been crazy for me, thankfully in a good way. In the past month I've moved out and started a new job (my first one in my field of choice). It's a lot more demanding, but also a lot more satisfying than what I was doing before. I live in a city called Bologna now, much colder than the Rome I was used to, but also much better in a lot of other ways; my commute to work has been cut to one fifth of what it was before, and the huge saved time really makes a difference. (Doing chores is still very boring, though.)

That aside, the important announcement that I wanted to make with this journal is that I'm suspending my involvement with the fractal community permanently. The reason is that, for everything I did, I feel damn underappreciated. I never got to be a fractal CV, despite trying for years, and never got an interview, a mention, ANYTHING besides (of course) the due credit when I was asked to do work. My motivation used to be incredible, and it has slowly sunk into a hole until I completely stopped caring. I don't want to be a CV anymore. I don't want to do anything. I will still be making fractals - I'm currently taking a break to adjust to my new life, but I expect to get back to them in early 2016, around late January or maybe February - but I won't be participating in groups, making articles, or holding contests anymore. That also means that the UF Challenges are over.

As a grand closure sort of thing, I'll be holding only one last UF Challenge, which will last three months and be a contest with Points as prizes, starting February 2016, which would have been the fifth anniversary of the UF Challenges in their whole. Participation will be open to everyone who has entered AT LEAST two UF Challenges Redux in any edition from #1 to #58. (Please link two of your entries so I can remember them!) You can donate to my donation pool, always open on my profile. The current balance is 6,178 on the clock, but I spent those Points, so I don't have them now. Every single point past 6,178 will go to the contest prizes! I will update this journal with the accrued Points amount. If you want to donate features instead, you are welcome to do so! Post here and tell me what you're willing to contribute. I'll keep track of the prizes in this list.
Also, by all means post if you want to be a judge! Depending on the number of people who offer to judge, I may or may not have to reject some applications, but I'm not expecting to do so a lot (if at all). Please chip in if you feel like! Otherwise it would be just me evaluating the artworks, which doesn't feel fair.

Points donated so far: 411 (to be split between the first three winners)
Winning artists will get featured by: heavenriver
Judges: heavenriver

Special thanks to all of my fractal friends for all these years of merry fractal-making. You know who you are

Please don't make comments or send me Notes trying to make me change my mind! My decision is FINAL. I have been thinking this for a LOT longer than just the time needed to type it out. I would like to keep the journal discussion to life events / contest preparation / other topics of interest that aren't about how much I need to think it over. Thank you.