{"id":1227,"date":"2010-05-28T19:36:32","date_gmt":"2010-05-28T23:36:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=1227"},"modified":"2010-05-28T19:36:32","modified_gmt":"2010-05-28T23:36:32","slug":"10-fractals-and-a-movie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=1227","title":{"rendered":"10 Fractals and a Movie"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have I mentioned what a great addition to the fractal world Fractalforums.com is?\u00a0 As someone who likes to review exciting new things in fractal art it’s really made my job much easier.\u00a0 Before, I used to wander around Flickr or check out links on the UF mailing list or just stumble on something while surfing around.\u00a0 I’ll probably have to go back to that again sometime, but until then I’ve got this alien planet filled with fractal treasure to report and review on.<\/p>\n

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It's more than a forum, it's a wild alien planet of the UNEXPECTED (image from Coverbrowser.com)<\/p><\/div>\n

There’s been a lot of development in the area of 3D fractals and the results, as I’ve been saying lately, have been impressive.\u00a0 But one can still create interesting 3D work with some of the older methods.\u00a0 The Stone Path<\/em> is a good example of one of the older 3D techniques called height field (or something) and gives the impression of perspective though a special rendering trick.\u00a0 These sorts of images aren’t usually very interesting, but this one by the username, Duncan C<\/em> is a tasteful combination of subtle coloring and a well chosen perspective.\u00a0 It’s not a marvel of cutting edge fractal rendering, but that makes it even more of an accomplishment because Duncan C is using well established techniques to produce an image that is equal to the others in it’s overall impression.<\/p>\n

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Stone Path by Duncan C, 2010<\/p><\/div>\n

Buddhi seems to have created his own unique style of fractals in these smudgy, glowing 3D creations.\u00a0 If you look carefully you’ll see lines on the x or y or z or whatever axes.\u00a0 It’s a nice, technical, lab-diagram, touch in an image with such strong artistic style.\u00a0 I reviewed one of these types of images before.\u00a0 They’re really stylish and not like anything else I’ve seen.<\/p>\n

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Trigonometric 3D Mandelbrot by Buddhi, 2010<\/p><\/div>\n

Here’s an interesting Mandelbox by Dave Makin created in Ultra Fractal and titled New Rome detail<\/em>.\u00a0 The name I’m sure comes from the similarity the image shares with the ruins of the Colosseum in Rome.\u00a0 The three dimensional details in this, and the excellent coloring which makes them stand out and look like such a carefully constructed and ornamented building is what caught my eye in this one.\u00a0 It’s got amazing photorealism and shows how vivid and tangible these sorts of 3D fractals can be.<\/p>\n

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New Rome detail by Dave Makin, 2010<\/p><\/div>\n

Elephant Canyon<\/em> by bib, is another example of the older 3D style –or at least what appears to be the more traditional 3D style in fractals.\u00a0 I think this is actually a “slice” of a Mandelbulb.\u00a0 The contrast between the smooth, golden plain of the slice and the rough, craggy cliff of the edges is what gives this image its effect.\u00a0 To me it almost suggests something about fractals themselves; that one often discovers things by accidentally falling off the edge or by traversing some huge empty plain and discovering at the horizon an abyss filled with rich and limitless detail.\u00a0 This image was actually posted in a thread, Re: Problem replicating Mandelbulb power 2<\/a> and intended to be merely an additional illustration of the problem.\u00a0 This comment by bib, accompanied his posting of the image: “Yes it’s always difficult to properly render the power 2, there too many chaotic shapes and calculation artifacts. When I saw this post I wanted to try again, so I did this image called “Elephant Canyon”. Nothing very original, but I like it \"smiley\" “<\/em><\/p>\n

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Elephant Canyon by bib, 2010<\/p><\/div>\n

Frozen in space.<\/em> That’s what I think when I look at this one.\u00a0 Another by Buddhi and having the same touch of the schematic<\/em> style to it.\u00a0 There’s an interesting structure formed by the repeating “bits” that form in a line off the major “pieces”.\u00a0 Although this one is relatively monotone (one color), the lighting and surface texture effects are actually enhanced by the simple coloring.\u00a0 That’s what makes art such a strange bird to capture and study: sometimes simpler things have a more powerful effect and sometimes they’re just simple<\/em>.\u00a0 The central core of the main object, back in the dark area, has an almost paint brushed appearance.\u00a0 I guess that dark shadowed area is what draws our eye into it, but who can really say?\u00a0 Trying to explain what makes an image impressive can often be futile as well as not being terribly exciting to read.<\/p>\n

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Hypercomplex Julia by Buddhi, 2010<\/p><\/div>\n

I guess it wouldn’t be called Mandelbox castle if it wasn’t a Mandelbox.\u00a0 Once again the title really catches the essential quality of the image.\u00a0 I particularly like how the moonlight (it’s nighttime) shines on the floor under the arch in the area to the right of the center.\u00a0 If you’ve ever played Prince of Persia: Sands of Time <\/em>(video game) then you’ll probably immediately think of the part of the game where the Prince had to walk along the tops of stone walls, fight big birds and then get into the room above the gate where the gate opening mechanism was.\u00a0 Or others.\u00a0 There were so many nighttime scenes in that game featuring different parts of an Indian castle.\u00a0 Maybe game developers will pick up on the Mandelbox and produce a game that actually takes place inside one.\u00a0 You could change the castle just by starting the game with a new set of parameters.<\/p>\n

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Mandelbox castle by bib, 2010<\/p><\/div>\n

A pretty unusual color palette in this one by Jesse entitled Teeth<\/em> but it works really well.\u00a0 I would never have thought florescent yellows and greens could look so natural.\u00a0 This is the “S2 cube”, which I assume is a variety of the Mandelbox.\u00a0 Reminds me of a man-made planet in a sci-fi story.\u00a0 Here’s another one<\/a> with the same coloring and looking just as natural and appealing too.\u00a0 Jesse seems to make some of the most unusual and offbeat versions of these 3D fractals.\u00a0 He’s obviously experimenting with more than just the coloring, although he’s done a great job just with that alone.<\/p>\n

\"Teeth,<\/a>

Teeth by Jesse, 2010<\/p><\/div>\n

This is another by Jesse taken from his Supercubes gallery<\/a> section on Fractalforums.com.\u00a0 Have you ever seen such a freaky fractal and with so much bizarre and yet carefully constructed detail?\u00a0 They’re like egg cannisters and they grow on the sides of the bigger egg things in strange patterns and all over the place too.\u00a0 I remember back in my early days of using Sterlingware, I was zooming into a fractal that seemed to be made of red velvet curtains.\u00a0 The “curtains” were quite intriguing but then while zooming in further I discovered shiny eggs growing under them.\u00a0 All this makes it rather difficult to define what a fractal is or to explain to someone what fractal graphics look like.\u00a0 There’s just too many freaky things to be found.\u00a0 There’s fractals and then there’s “freak-tals<\/em>“.<\/p>\n

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Birth by Jesse, 2010<\/p><\/div>\n

Xenodream has not been left out of the 3D fractal craze here.\u00a0 This one is by xenodreambuie and had the label, Triplex Z=rcosphi Julias<\/em>.\u00a0 I think a better title would be Catalog of the Fractal Brain<\/em>s.\u00a0 They’re all very rich in well rendered, three dimensional details and colored well even though I think the method is a fairly basic one.\u00a0 The numbers are in there for technical reference of course, but I think they add a nice artistic touch as well.\u00a0 This would make a very appealing wall poster.\u00a0 I’ll bet if you showed this image to people and asked them what kind of textbook it came from they’d all guess it was Biology and not Math.<\/p>\n

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Triplex Z=rcosphi Julias by xenodreambuie, 2010<\/p><\/div>\n

Arch detail<\/em> by Tglad (2010 Nobel Prize Winner, incidently) is interesting for the, well, details of this arch it shows…\u00a0 Another great title.\u00a0 See how the section in the lower right appears to be eroded away?\u00a0 That’s all algorithmic.\u00a0 The main arch structure off center to the left is interesting too with its floating triangle center.\u00a0 The coloring gives it all the impression of being carved from wood or some sort of soft stone.\u00a0 There’s always something new to see in the Mandelbox.\u00a0 I think it’s going to be a popular formula for some time.<\/p>\n

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arch detail by Tglad, 2010<\/p><\/div>\n

I said 10 fractals and a movie and here’s the movie.\u00a0 I forget how I stumbled on this one.\u00a0 I think I saw it amongst the entries in the current Fractalforums.com contest in the animation section.\u00a0 However I didn’t actually view it right away (that’s a problem with animation, you can’t just take a quick glance at it).\u00a0 I only looked at it for the first time while visiting subblue’s website (subblue.com<\/a>).\u00a0 For those of you who often skip videos if you don’t happen to like the title picture, this video features a very good soundtrack which straddles the categories of sound effects and slow paced instrumental music.\u00a0 Also featured is some of subblue’s special, black and white, polished steel renderings of the Mandelbulb.\u00a0 It’s some of the best video rendering of the Mandelbulb actually.\u00a0 Anyhow, with good graphics and a smooth professional soundtrack, it’s worth taking a look at.<\/p>\n

The music is actually not by subblue but by The Formula<\/a>.\u00a0 Here’s a link to subblue’s blog<\/a> which has a larger version of the video and has a bit more information as well as a very long string of glowing comments.
\n<\/object><\/p>\n

The Formula<\/a> from subBlue<\/a> on Vimeo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Well, there you go; 10 fractals and a movie.\u00a0 And it didn’t even cost you 10cents like Tales of the Unexpected<\/em> comic books did fifty years ago.\u00a0 The internet is just a such a great and wonderful thing.\u00a0 Let’s hope it stays that way<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have I mentioned what a great addition to the fractal world Fractalforums.com is?\u00a0 As someone who likes to review exciting new things in fractal art it’s really made my job much easier.\u00a0 Before, I used to wander around Flickr or check out links on the UF mailing list or just stumble on something while surfing … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1229,"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-1227","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\/2010\/05\/tales.jpg?fit=420%2C607","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4552,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=4552","url_meta":{"origin":1227,"position":0},"title":"3D Printing: Will this be Fractal Art’s Big Break?","author":"Tim","date":"7 March, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"With 3D printing technology, fractal art can cheaply and easily enter the domain of sculpture.\u00a0 It's an exciting development and offers the ever dazzling world of fractals another venue in which to capture that proverbial and elusive, \"mainstream\" audience.\u00a0 Will this be fractal art's big break or just another demonstration\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=4552#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/674x501_897361_839458_1361914708.jpg?fit=447%2C494&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5625,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=5625","url_meta":{"origin":1227,"position":1},"title":"Place: Where Art and Fractals Overlap","author":"Tim","date":"23 June, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"As I concluded in my previous posting, there are only two art genres which fractals are capable of contributing to: Abstract Expressionism and Landscape\/Place. Everything else created with the fractal medium is what I would call snapshots: interesting, even fascinating imagery but lacking in expressiveness or the portrayal of a\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/pollock.number-8.jpg?fit=1058%2C850&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/pollock.number-8.jpg?fit=1058%2C850&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/pollock.number-8.jpg?fit=1058%2C850&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/pollock.number-8.jpg?fit=1058%2C850&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/pollock.number-8.jpg?fit=1058%2C850&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2769,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=2769","url_meta":{"origin":1227,"position":2},"title":"Will the Old-Timers at the BMFAC accept the new breed of 3D fractal artists?","author":"Tim","date":"16 July, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Responses at Fractal Forums.com to the recent announcement of the Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest 2011 suggest to me that a lot of things have changed in the fractal art world since the BMFAC was initiated back in... \u00a1Ay, caramba!\u00a0 --2006! ~ Click on images to go to original site\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 8 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 8 comments","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=2769#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/comment1.png?fit=580%2C244&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/comment1.png?fit=580%2C244&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/comment1.png?fit=580%2C244&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3498,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=3498","url_meta":{"origin":1227,"position":3},"title":"Fractal Paintings of Tralfamadore","author":"Tim","date":"21 November, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The intersection of Brummbaer (he doesn't use a first name) and fractal art is something worth taking a second, and more careful look at. Brummbaer brings with him several decades of graphical and artistic experience and his \"Tralfamadore\" series of images are worth studying as well as appreciating for their\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/tralfamadore01.jpg?fit=400%2C320&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1809,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=1809","url_meta":{"origin":1227,"position":4},"title":"Mixed Media Fractals","author":"Tim","date":"19 November, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Although some fractals today can look extremely realistic, I find they don't usually mix well with photographic elements. Computer-made imagery just seems to clash --aesthetically-- with imagery from the real world. But just recently I discovered a few examples of just the opposite; harmony and synergy in a image mixing\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=1809#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Cherry-Blossoms-by-brutaltoad.jpeg?fit=600%2C450&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Cherry-Blossoms-by-brutaltoad.jpeg?fit=600%2C450&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Cherry-Blossoms-by-brutaltoad.jpeg?fit=600%2C450&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":134,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=134","url_meta":{"origin":1227,"position":5},"title":""Fractals Don’t Look Like Anything"","author":"cruelanimal","date":"15 January, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Alien Supplicant (2007) I go on a quaternion fractal kick for a few weeks almost every year. There's something very special about these sculpted, rolled in Play-Doh, Tootsie Roll forms. I find them fascinating because they seem more tactile and three-dimensional than most other kinds of fractals. They can also\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=134#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"Beyonce","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/01\/beyonce_BV.jpg?fit=450%2C600&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1227"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1252,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1227\/revisions\/1252"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}