Another thing; I noticed that Luke Roberts’ images were mostly “stripy” looking, which suggests to me the technique is rather limited. I guess the file format works in stripes or bands. I’ll probably stick to filters. But the concept is interesting.

I remember coding up a .BMP file from scratch using nothing but hexadecimal values, just to get an image to appear. Never thought about doing such a haphazard type of alteration to an existing graphic.

Now, graphic “filters” do something similar, but they are using specific algorithms to make the modifications.

Good luck when you “try it out”, and play with other file formats as well.

For the benefit of anyone else that is interested, Scott has poured _far_ more money into making and running Electric Sheep than he has ever earned back from it or his art. The vast majority of his work is either open source or free. Your accusation of profiteering is off base, although your accusation of advertising is right on target. I am Scott’s business manager and it’s my job to let people who are using and displaying his work let them know they’re using it – and that they are welcome to do so.

There are thousands of “fractal animations”, and many programs have been used to produce them. Tim was only presenting one small particular area. It would take a small book to cover every such application.

Check out the hi definition 1080p animated flam3s here: http://www.archive.org/details/HighFidelityDemo — 4:30 length video clip, it’s the first time we’ve released this resolution to the public

Many of the videos featured above use the well-known flam3 algorithm invented and released by Scott Draves in 1992, which he started working on in 1986. The Electric Sheep uses the same algorithm.

For those not in the know, Apophysis is based on a translation of Scott Draves’ open source flam3 code into Pascal. Scott runs electricsheep.org which has for over 10 years been delivering animations based on his flam3 algorithm to a worldwide audience.

Qosmic, Fr0st and Oxidizer are the other well known flam3 editors.

It’s great to see so many people enjoying the fruits of the Flam3!

For example, in “Julia’s Revenge”, where the “the dreamy, spacey, driftin’ to alpha centauri on the old man river of the milky way music” is really a digitized version of a classical piece, should have given credit to the original composer as well as the revised version.

And yes, anyone with a FREE screen-saver creation application can produce videos like the “Fractale” one. At least they left some of the original “signatures” on those images appropriated images.

When I first started making animations, I was blown away. Every time I watched one I was just amazed. But I soon came to realize this is not how ‘non-fractal’ people see them. Usually they watch for a little while and then lose interest. So as I continued to make animations, I started trying to see them as a non-fractal person would; and more and more I just began to feel that animated fractals are not good for general consumption. Even as musical accompaniment I don’t think they are particularly good (although this is probably their best use). For example, I think that Winamp’s ‘MilkDrop 2′ visualization is far superior for watching along with music.

And the problem is basically as you have said: a fractal is like a background. You don’t really want to watch a background move around for 3 minutes, even if it is beautiful looking and keeps zooming or morphing or whatever. In a fractal animation, nothing meaningful ultimately happens. The Mandelbulb zoom is a good example of an animation which succeeds in making something happen: a journey into a huge unknown alien structure.

Although I think it will remain a curiosity, I think there will always be a few hardcore fractal folks out there willing to wait weeks and weeks (months and months, if you are doing HD — my current render has been going about 3 months now) to get 3 minutes of video; if for no other reason than it looks cool. I keep making them just because I still love watching animated fractals.

For a while, I was an honourary member of a band. We did this at trendy bars and pubs. The projection equipment is expensive, so it helps if someone works for a company that doesn’t mind lending it for the show. When we started, the projectors were about $6000 for a good one. I think nowadays, you’re looking at about $1000, which is still pricey. You can rent, but then you’re spending more than the incoming beer money!

But there is another purpose for the ordinary zooms and parameter variations. And that is to use the animations as backgrounds for rock concerts, raves, and other gatherings, where the main focus is not on the animation but on the performance and music.

Fractal videos are perfect for such things, and there need be no story line or plot to follow. Just a projection on some wall or screen to further bend the minds of those that have already taken something for such a purpose.

But it would be nice if the stand-alone animations did progress to something more than what we have been seeing lately.

I guess everyone wants to see Janet’s efforts with compiling these ebooks pay off. Personally, I think she should have just given them away for free. Not because she isn’t entitled to some financial compensation or anything like that, but because of piracy. Knowing what I do know about how socially connected everyone is in the fractal world (UF folks) and how “situational” their morals are, once a few copies are purchased they’ll be redistributed faster than anyone can buy an honest copy.

Digital publishing can be brutal like that for authors. Even super-sophisticated DRM doesn’t seem to offer much hope. In fact, I’ll bet the same could be said of UF itself. If Photoshop gets cracked then what program can’t be?

PS: Is there a problem with your email address?

Here is someone that has produced fractals for many years, created new formulas, found many interesting areas, and has used UF for a long time (and quite good at it) prior to the ebook/s. But felt a need to make such a purchase so he could be “helped”.

Personally I question such a statement as to its truthfulness. Why next you will be seeing “Slick Freddy” himself buying these ebooks so he will know how to create better fractal images.

Happy New Year peeps!!

That aspect of the art world is something I’ve never been able to explain. One would think people would be *dis*-believing of artwork they don’t understand. Instead, they are more confident to say they Emperor has clothes than to say they don’t see any. I guess they don’t trust their own judgment