{"id":5366,"date":"2014-04-04T12:45:47","date_gmt":"2014-04-04T16:45:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=5366"},"modified":"2014-04-04T12:45:47","modified_gmt":"2014-04-04T16:45:47","slug":"fuh-fuh-fuh-fractals-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=5366","title":{"rendered":"Fuh, fuh, fuh… Fractals!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I apologize in advance if this post seems like nothing more than a roundup of fractals recently posted to Fractalforums.com<\/a>, that mega mecca of all things fractal, but that forum site just seems to have the right formula for their fractal flypaper that makes the job of roving scientists like myself so much easier.<\/p>\n

Here’s a couple that give me the heebee-geebees…<\/p>\n

~Click on images to view full-size on original site~<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Memnon<\/a>

Memnon by hebegebe<\/p><\/div>\n

The synthetic power of fractals is really seen in this one.\u00a0 It’s simple and iconic and yet filled with little details and subtleties.\u00a0 It looks a lot better in full-size which you can see by clicking on the image.\u00a0 These sort of images remind me of coats-of-arms, the heraldic imagery<\/a> of medieval kingdoms.\u00a0 They have the cryptic combination of lines, circular elements and colors that look very deliberate and symbolic and yet… drawn by a fractal formula and not a king’s legal representative.<\/p>\n

\"How<\/a>

How to read the herald…<\/p><\/div>\n

Fractals like Memnon suggest some kind of alien heraldry, or a world as strange and exotic as some kind of Tolkien trilogy set in the land of fractals.<\/p>\n

\"FlyingShip_Red<\/a>

FlyingShip_Red Mask by Hebegebe<\/p><\/div>\n

The details are quite interesting in this one too.\u00a0 Hebegebe has a good eye for color and combined with the fine rendering of the 3D fractal program, makes for some nice details, like this in the bottom middle:<\/p>\n

\"FlyingShip

FlyingShip Red Mask (detail)<\/p><\/div>\n

How convenient to have a tool-tip in one’s screenshot that displays the image notes…\u00a0 Well, you can see the notes Hebegebe has included.\u00a0 I need to do a little tweaking with my screenshot program.\u00a0 I like the color for the tool-tip though; it goes with the orange-red background.\u00a0 The digital medium is a living thing.<\/p>\n

Anyhow, this FlyingShip is not your usual 3D fractal and in fact, resembles more one of those gymnastic, contortionist quaternions.\u00a0 I saw something somewhere once that reminds me of this…<\/p>\n

\"Firefox_wallpaper\"<\/p>\n

Isn’t the internet a much better place for just about everything?\u00a0 Although I forgot where I got this from<\/a>… it’s (as you can easily see) an old, 20s or 30s illustration for a sci-fi story.\u00a0 Do you see a startling, “family resemblance” between it and Hebegebe’s FlyingShip?\u00a0 If you do, then you’ve developed that artistic 3rd eye, like myself, that I suspect may also be associated with the early stages of either a real understanding of art or some sort of mental illness.\u00a0 Fractal art is the crazy spaceships of today.\u00a0 Note even the rich texturing and also, consistent, almost mechanically produced shading that appears all over the images.\u00a0 This actually looks like it was computer drawn.<\/p>\n

I’ve always felt that there’s a common link with computer art and art from the pre-digital age, but it requires a little bit of a leap to make the connection.\u00a0 Mental connection.\u00a0 Psychological.<\/p>\n

\"Supraterranean<\/a>

Supraterranean Pipelines V by JoeFRAQ<\/p><\/div>\n

Have I become Joseph Presley’s biggest fan?\u00a0 It gives me a chuckle how things can change in the fractal art world.\u00a0 The medium is a slippery thing and one can go from making one kind of thing to something quite different.\u00a0 The power of the medium allows artists to do things with their style that no other medium can.<\/p>\n

Once again you need to look at the fullsize to share my excitement with this one.\u00a0 JoeFRAQ is one of those rendering perfectionists and in the realm of 3D fractals the payoff for that kind of obsession is huge.\u00a0 I always wonder what sort of rendering time it takes to make some of these images and what the specs on the computer hardware used is.<\/p>\n

I should say something about the image:\u00a0 Nice composition, but Joe’s always good at that; the colors are rich, complex and make the numerous details of the pipeworks much more exotic.\u00a0 Up in the middle at the top there appears to be some lively bit floating by.\u00a0 It almost seems to be moving.\u00a0 And with the stars in the background, there’s a strong feeling to this scene.\u00a0 Look how sophisticated the world of 3D fractals has become.\u00a0 Wasn’t it just a year or two ago that the whole mandelbulb and mandelbox thing was invented?<\/p>\n

\"Eternal<\/a>

Eternal repeating by abbaszargar<\/p><\/div>\n

It’s a Symphony in Sand.\u00a0 Unfortunately the 500px version above has smoothed out all the sand.\u00a0 That’s usually a good thing in fractal art –anti-aliasing– but in this case it erases the Valley of the Kings majesty to abbaszargar’s work here.\u00a0 In fact, this one’s so gritty that most people would consider it a rough draft, no pun intended, but I think this is a great example of how less can be more, that is, less rendering can produce something more artistic.\u00a0 Here’s a lossless jpg crop of the original in one of my favorite “gritty” parts of the image:<\/p>\n

\"Eternal

Eternal repeating (detail)<\/p><\/div>\n

Here’s where we separate the art folks from the science fair enthusiasts.\u00a0 The graininess of the imagery accentuates the eternal repeating –endlessness– of the image in a powerful way<\/em>.\u00a0 There are probably many images like this produced by other artists that being (too) well rendered don’t have this Valley of the Kings effect.\u00a0 Maybe abbaszargar is not you average fractal artist?\u00a0 Or did he intend this only to be a trial render?\u00a0 Well, one way or another he made something remarkable and out of the ordinary.\u00a0 The full-size really shows that much better; hint-hint.<\/p>\n

I don’t watch a lot of fractal videos.\u00a0 But I found this one posted to Fractalforums.com and something just drew me to click on it.\u00a0 After watching the low-res version I soon jumped to the Vimeo page to see the hi-res one and it was certainly worth it.\u00a0 Surprisingly, the author, Julius Horsthuis has managed to put the fractal imagery in a real narrative context of shipwrecked sailors wandering around in a state of semi-delirium.\u00a0 It kept my attention as well as made me want to see it again in HD, and that’s a real accomplishment since I’m not the most friendly audience for fractal videos.<\/p>\n