{"id":195,"date":"2007-06-23T11:35:00","date_gmt":"2007-06-23T15:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=195"},"modified":"2007-06-23T11:35:00","modified_gmt":"2007-06-23T15:35:00","slug":"why-i-dont-use-ultra-fractal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=195","title":{"rendered":"Why I don’t use Ultra Fractal"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In a nutshell, it doesn’t do what Inkblot Kaos, Sterlingware, Tierazon or Xaos does. I want something that sprouts artwork after a couple of clicks. Ultra Fractal? It’s just too much work. Too many layers. Too many moving parts. Too many moving parts that I<\/i> have to move.<\/p>\n

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My first attempt at Ultra Fractal was three or so years ago. I don’t remember what version. I didn’t seem suited to it, but I didn’t think much about it at the time because I had plenty of other new fractal programs to work with. I didn’t know much about fractals in general, so I discounted my doubts about Ultra Fractal figuring I just didn’t understand it.<\/p>\n

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I picked it up again a year later because I had seen some really awesome artwork made by Paul DeCelle<\/a>. I looked at Paul’s work and thought, “I want the machine that made that and I don’t care if I have to pay for it”. Well I downloaded some UF parameter files by Samuel Monnier (thanks, Sam) in hopes of getting some insight into the secrets of making these intriguing images. I have never seen anything take so long to render. It had something like 18 layers or parts to it.<\/p>\n

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Yes, some of you may be thinking, “Only 18?”. Well, I got Paul’s machine all right. What I didn’t realize at the time, but I have now come to understand, is the machine doesn’t make the artwork, the artist uses UF as a tool to make the artwork with. The program doesn’t come with an artist.<\/p>\n

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You see, that’s the whole problem. There’s no digital Rumplestiltskin inside UF like there is in most other fractal programs. Stop me if I’m wrong, but UF is all about layers, and layers are chosen and positioned by a human mind and not a computer algorithm, although an algorithm may have made each layer, separately. This may explain why there is very little really “freaky” stuff made in UF: there’s too much artistic control.<\/p>\n

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To borrow an expression from the Bible: Freaky is begotten,<\/i> not made. It comes from chaotic and mathematical algorithms, not from human hands, not even talented human hands. (And your own skill and talent is the key requirement for making good artwork in UF.)<\/p>\n

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Even Gertrude Stein agrees with me. Here’s what she had to say about UF; “Freaky is not as strange as we can imagine. Freaky is stranger than we can<\/i> imagine.”<\/p>\n

Tim Hodkinson<\/a><\/p>\n

Technorati Tags: Ultra Fractal<\/a> Bible<\/a> Gertrude Stein<\/a> Chaos<\/a> Artist<\/a> Fractal Art<\/a> Digital Art<\/a> <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a nutshell, it doesn’t do what Inkblot Kaos, Sterlingware, Tierazon or Xaos does. I want something that sprouts artwork after a couple of clicks. Ultra Fractal? It’s just too much work. Too many layers. Too many moving parts. Too many moving parts that I have to move. My first attempt at Ultra Fractal was … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":324,"url":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=324","url_meta":{"origin":195,"position":0},"title":"Layering the Lily: Ultra Fractal 5","author":"Tim","date":"30 June, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"\"See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.\"That Biblical quotation is where the expression, \"gilding the lily\" comes from. To \"gild the lily\" is to obscure\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=324#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":376,"url":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=376","url_meta":{"origin":195,"position":1},"title":"Is Ultra Fractal Really a Fractal Program or Is It a Bold New Spaceship By Which To Explore the Algorithmic Heavens?","author":"Tim","date":"22 March, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Consider this:And about these continuous and pointless attacks against Ultra Fractal, maybe you should just start displaying some fractal images that obviously cannot be realized in Ultra Fractal. I haven't seen any on your blog so far. The ease with which it is possible to implement ideas into algorithms and\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=376#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":202,"url":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=202","url_meta":{"origin":195,"position":2},"title":"Has Ultra Fractal become the Walmart of fractal art?","author":"Tim","date":"4 July, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"\"So radically innovative are Ultra Fractal's capabilities that they have literally redefined fractal art since the program's debut.\"(From Ultrafractal.com)It's complicated. Believe me, it took me a few years to come to such a radical and harsh conclusion. I mean, what could be bad about a program that has been used\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 16 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 16 comments","link":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=202#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":267,"url":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=267","url_meta":{"origin":195,"position":3},"title":"Beware of the Anti-Fractal","author":"Tim","date":"26 January, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I know this will probably crack some folks up at first, but bear with me as I tell you about something that came to mind just recently while browsing the big page of \"winners\" at the 2007 Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest site.First, let me draw your attention to the\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 9 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 9 comments","link":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=267#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":359,"url":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=359","url_meta":{"origin":195,"position":4},"title":"Classic Fractal Art by Jock Cooper","author":"Tim","date":"30 December, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"fractal-81786 by Jock Cooper (click for full-size image)I've reviewed Jock Cooper before. But for those artists who are multi-talented, I simply have to have multiple reviews. Previously I reviewed Jock Cooper the Innovator; the artist who created surreal machines and leading edge fractal animation in full multimedia. This time it's\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=359#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":418,"url":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=418","url_meta":{"origin":195,"position":5},"title":"Sheets in the Wind and Rings of Gold: The Ultra Fractal Style","author":"Tim","date":"2 October, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Whether you're a fractal artist or simply just a fan of fractal art, you're bound to eventually notice similarities in style and develop preferences for this kind of art or that kind of art. Fractal art is still what I would consider to be something of a niche art form,\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}