{"id":707,"date":"2010-01-18T14:19:55","date_gmt":"2010-01-18T19:19:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=707"},"modified":"2010-01-18T14:19:55","modified_gmt":"2010-01-18T19:19:55","slug":"the-big-flat-plateau-of-fractal-animation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=707","title":{"rendered":"The Big Flat Plateau of Fractal Animation"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few years back I was excited about the possibilities of fractal animation.\u00a0 Fractal animation, as I saw it, would be literally living and moving fractals.\u00a0 Fractal artists were about to become fractal film makers and the art form would take on a whole new dimension.\u00a0 And after seeing a couple<\/a> of very exciting algorithmic but not strictly fractal animations, I was, yes, excited.<\/p>\n

These days I’m bored with fractal animation.\u00a0 It started out with a very rapid ascent and then, equally rapidly,\u00a0 reached a plateau where it is now, languishing in endless variations of\u00a0 oozing parameter transforms and deep zooms into nothing and nowhere.<\/p>\n

It’s not for lack of hard work, though.\u00a0 Fractal animation takes a lot of time and processing because, in the same way as traditional films are made, the movement is produced by sequencing many still images together to give the impression of movement.\u00a0 I mention that because some may think that digital animation is different.\u00a0 Animation is resource hungry and multiplies the work required even to the point of making thirty images for a single second of animation.\u00a0 Those brave pioneers who have been dabbling in fractal animation are hard-working and dedicated individuals.\u00a0 You have to be to take on something as intensive as animation.\u00a0 Fractal animation takes as much work as still image creation does as well as requiring a few things that still images don’t.<\/p>\n

Here’s where fractal animation gets bogged down: film making is more than just a complicated, high tech\u00a0 slide show.\u00a0 For instance, something has to happen.\u00a0 Still images only have to look good, but animation requires some sort of progression and\u00a0 development of an idea.\u00a0 People just look at still images and everything is all there all at once to be studied –nice and simple.\u00a0 But with moving images one has to engage the audience and move them along some sort of story line without leaving them all behind or without making the message so simple as to bore them.\u00a0 With more abstract content of course, the messages or ideas in the animated sequence become less of a story than simply a visual experience, but the need for some progressive, development which will engage the viewer isn’t any different than it is with producing an animated cartoon.<\/p>\n

In short, I believe that fractal animation is just too different for the old, still image visual techniques to work.\u00a0 Artists who have been successful in the still image area will not necessarily have any advantage in the area of fractal animation other than the software skills necessary to operate the program.\u00a0 What looks good as a still image can easily appear flat and boring when animated because transforming the parameters of pretty graphics to make them flow between one shape and another, while it may be a good start to an animated sequence, on it’s own is really nothing more than a demonstration of animation and not the use of it.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

An artist can get away with work of a purely ornamental character in the realm of still images, but with animation the lack of expression or message sticks out like a sore thumb –nothing is happening<\/em>.\u00a0 Instead I think animators should concentrate on simpler imagery with regard primarily to interesting shapes and structures.\u00a0 It’s a different game than the still image thing; animation is all about action.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Fractal animators need to make their own rules and be prepared to pioneer their own styles.\u00a0 It’s all crap right now.\u00a0 So go ahead and experiment and do outrageous things that only you would do and have never been done.\u00a0 Cross boundaries and mix fractal imagery with everything you’ve got in you animation spice cupboard.<\/p>\n

And now, having said all that, here’s a cool zooming\/fly-by with orchestrated soundtrack<\/em> of the late, great Mandelbulb by none other than Daniel White<\/a> who I now declare to be the first recipient of Orbit Trap’s Fractal Hitchcock award.\u00a0 Get ready to scream…<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

Into the Heart of the Mandelbulb<\/p>\n

Directed by Daniel White, Starring “The Mandelbulb”<\/p>\n

MMX<\/p>\n

More at TwinbeeUK’s YouTube page<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few years back I was excited about the possibilities of fractal animation.\u00a0 Fractal animation, as I saw it, would be literally living and moving fractals.\u00a0 Fractal artists were about to become fractal film makers and the art form would take on a whole new dimension.\u00a0 And after seeing a couple of very exciting algorithmic … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"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-707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":717,"url":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=717","url_meta":{"origin":707,"position":0},"title":"Fractal Animation: Reel #2","author":"Tim","date":"26 January, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Allow me to play Film Class Professor.\u00a0 Before we dim the lights and roll the film I will give a short lecture which hopefully will enlighten our understanding of these short animations posted below, or, at the very least, become the price of admission you will pay to sit in\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 7 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 7 comments","link":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=717#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":217,"url":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=217","url_meta":{"origin":707,"position":1},"title":"Three Cheers For Jock!","author":"Tim","date":"16 August, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Browsing fractal sites usually leaves me with a feeling best described by the fancy term, \"Ennui\". There just isn't much originality. I don't know why. Maybe most fractal artists makes fractal art for reasons other than creative expression or any of the usual motives that lead people to produce artwork.\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=217#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":335,"url":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=335","url_meta":{"origin":707,"position":2},"title":"Image of the Weak: Fractal Art","author":"Tim","date":"28 July, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I used to go hunting for exciting new images. Now I'm content if I can just find something that looks different. I don't care if it's great or not.The Golden Age of Heroes is OverGuido Cavalcante summed it up quite well two years ago while writing on a related topic,\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=335#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1962,"url":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=1962","url_meta":{"origin":707,"position":3},"title":"ASCII: Wild Fractal Typewriter","author":"Tim","date":"24 November, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"A new fractal program (alpha version) yFractalExplorer. It's real-time rendering abilities include displaying the image as color ascii art. A couple other examples of animated fractal ascii art which begs the question: \"Is fractal land ripe for an ascii art revival?\" Of course not, but it's still cool to look\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=1962#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":359,"url":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=359","url_meta":{"origin":707,"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":1851,"url":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=1851","url_meta":{"origin":707,"position":5},"title":"Hold on to your mind: Lloyd Garrick’s little video project","author":"Tim","date":"8 November, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Known as JackOTradez or FractAlkemist and probably a few others, Lloyd Garrick (a name he rarely goes by) has made a sizable collection of fractal videos using Fractint and some very effective musical soundtracks.","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=1851#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/ship-thread.png?fit=769%2C271&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/ship-thread.png?fit=769%2C271&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/ship-thread.png?fit=769%2C271&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/ship-thread.png?fit=769%2C271&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707","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=707"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":716,"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707\/revisions\/716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}