Mandelbulb/Mandelbrot/fractals for beginners.

3D Fractal Art (Mine and in general)

2012-01-28T11:03:00.000-03:00

So I thought I should finally share some of my favourite pieces that I've done so far, and also talk a bit about how I go about the creation process. The first issue on my mind is something that came up in an e-mail with a new friend of mind, Jing-reed, who has recently left a few very kind comments at the bottom of my Mandelbulb 3D tutorial pages. I told him that I've had a rule, since I

Mandelbulb 3D Tutorial: The 'DE combinate' button

2012-01-22T16:32:00.000-03:00

Right! Back again for another tutorial page. I'm much more experienced now with Mandelbulb 3D, and have thought that I should do a revision of much of what I've already posted, but as that's not terribly exciting, and as I feel like doing something exciting, I'm going to try out the DE Combinate feature of the formula box. I learnt about this from two of my favourite 3D fractal artists,

Escher

2012-01-14T08:34:00.002-03:00

I was recently introduced to the artist Escher. His work is amazing... And why am I posting about it here? Well, have a look for yourself: Double Planetoid by Escher Gravity by Escher Stars by Escher Metamorphosis II by Escher (Click on below link to view full size) http://uploads6.wikipaintings.org/images/m-c-escher/metamorphosis-ii.jpg So there you go =) ... They are sooo

My Mandelbrot Set Tattoo

2011-11-13T18:27:00.001-03:00

I did it, at last :) And despite the misgivings of some, it came out beautifully. What do you think? : Mandelbrot Set Tattoo I'm extremely happy with it :) ... I intend on getting it worked on further, when I'm able to afford it. "The possibilities are infinite" :P ... Well, as infinite as the skill of the tattoo artist allows. I worked on an idea and showed it to the guy who did mine before

Fractal World: 35th Century Earth

2011-09-28T12:53:00.000-03:00

These images I happily found quite by accident, in the initial stages of my exploration into other realms. In this one, I am almost sure I found a future Earth. I do not know whether this future is absolutely certain, or whether I'm only glimpsing at a possibility... Either way, it's fascinating, and I can't wait to explore it more. 35th Century Earth The year is 3553 ... Earth still spins,

Mandelbulb 3D Tutorial: Julia Mode

2011-09-24T15:45:00.000-03:00

Ok, back once again for another M3D tutorial page! I'm going to assume that most of you already know what a Julia fractal is. (Not that it is vital for you to be able to use the Julia mode tab in M3D ... But if you're one of those people who dove straight into M3D and 3D fractals because of how cool they look, and understand little else about Mandelbrot, or Julia, etc, go have a look at my

But is it art?

2011-09-21T13:22:00.000-03:00

The question of whether fractal art is real art has sometimes, sort-of, come up in my mind, but always was disregarded for "Of course it is!", and then I got back to exploring. But really... It seems to be a bigger issue, worthy perhaps of more than one blogpost. So from now on I'll be looking out for interesting articles/comments about this all over the place, and will post about it here.

Fractal World: Organic

2011-09-20T01:58:00.001-03:00

Here I discovered something extraordinary... Though only showing these three images, I've seen so much more... Entire planets that seem to be alive. Pliable, almost fleshy rock. Gigantic structures that seem to be breathing. Alien life, but extremely difficult to recognise as such. A lot more observation is needed. Mitosis Exodus 17:6 Osmosis

Fractal World: Fuzzy

2011-09-15T01:00:00.000-03:00

These first three images mesmerised me when I first encountered them. Upon applying my IDC's PCA (Probable Colour Approximation) function, I gained vision over the initially perplexing world and flew over fields and fields of what you see below. As you can see, the scenery changed quite drastically the further I explored. Spore Pollen Seed

Fractal World: Mechan

2011-09-14T00:09:00.000-03:00

The first few 3 images I've managed to capture, of dubious quality, from the Mechan Universe. I have no idea of the nature of the locations, nor have I any idea whether the colours are accurate or not. With time, I expect to gain a deeper understanding of this fascinating world... Perhaps even capture images of a few living entities. Antechamber This is the first image I captured. I called

Fractal Worlds

2011-09-04T00:20:00.001-03:00

Hello! I'm back. As you all may have noticed, I've not been posting things. Actually, probably, none of you noticed that :P ... But that's ok. It's been a combination of personal life problems and a flood of work I had neglected which I had to catch up on. I have been doing bits of Fractal Art here and there though, which you can see at my deviantArt account. Out of everything I've done, I

The Wonders of Fractal Geometry, and my Tattoo

2011-08-25T13:53:00.000-03:00

I just watched this awesome 1 hour documentary about the Mandelbrot set, and how fractals are making things possible that otherwise simply could not have been possible, from computers and communications technology, to understanding nature itself more completely. For these reasons and more, I will soon be getting my first tattoo, on my back: This will be the first step in the process..

Interview with DavidMakin!

2011-07-24T15:47:00.003-03:00

David Makin is another fractalnaut who frequently haunts the hallways of fractalforums.com ... Here are his answers to my 8 question interview. Pandora's Box ~ See more at David's dA page What first got you into Fractals? In April 1999 I had some free time and was just browsing the web and came across Fractint. I had heard of fractals and vaguely recalled some psychedelic imagery being

Interview with bib!

2011-07-24T15:00:00.003-03:00

I posted the Interview with Mandelwerk link on fractalforums.com and asked if anyone else would like to answer the same questions. Here is bib's response :) Underwater Amazing Object by bib - See more on bib's dA page What first got you into Fractals? My father bought me the famous book "The beauty of fractals" shortly after it came out, I was 13. At the same time my cousin who was an Amiga

Interview with Mandelwerk!

2011-07-21T14:40:00.001-03:00

Temple of Chaotic Borderlines (Won the Mandelbrot Tribute Contestat dA) The only reason I started this blog 2 months ago, the only reason that I became so suddenly fascinated with fractals, was because I found the 3D fractal art of Mandelwerk on DeviantArt. After going through almost his entire gallery, I got really into everything, discovered the maths behind 2D fractals, and eventually

Mandelbulb 3D Tutorial: Render Quality (those damn pixels!)

2011-07-20T17:05:00.002-03:00

Alrighty! I'm slowing down with my posts and to all who missed me, my apologies! ... I've had this Mandelbulb 3D tutorial in my head so I forgot a little that this is a blog and I can (and should) post about anything, in between tutorial pages :) So I'll do that - but for now, I'm going to share with you my discovery of how to improve the state of your fractal if it's full of annoying little

Mandelbulb 3D Tutorial: Cutting!

2011-07-11T00:00:00.002-03:00

While playing around today on M3D, on a whim I decided to click on the Cutting tab in the Render window, just to have a look. 'Turns out, cutting can be a whole lot of fun :) The Cutting Tab To best demonstrate this great little tool, I'm going to use the same formula that loads on default when opening the program, except, I'm going to change the power and make it 2 instead of 8. Now many of

Mandelbulb 3D Tutorial: Different 3D Fractal Formulas and Hybrids

2011-07-06T17:18:00.004-03:00

... or "formulae", to be truly correct ;) Up until now, you've been working with the formula that loads on default when you open Mandelbulb 3D, that is to say, the original one: Formula Tab Window But just like 2D fractals, the possibilities in the 3D realm are also infinite. The challenge is to find formulae that are aesthetically pleasing as well. Of course, actually coming up

Mandelbulb 3D Tutorial: Colour and Lighting cont.

2011-06-27T22:08:00.005-03:00

Next, the Ambient tab: I've played around with each little slide and button for half an hour and still, can't seem to come up with good explanations for all of them. I blame this on a lack of coffee. But I'll try my best and I'm sure through trying yourself, you'll get the general idea: The "Amb" colours and slider affect the colour and intensity of the all other colours. They're like

Mandelbulb 3D Tutorial: Lighting and Colouring

2011-06-27T19:37:00.006-03:00

To continue...! Once again, let me state that I've only just started with Mandelbulb 3D and thus my knowledge is still in it's nascent stage. I'm doing this tutorial at this stage deliberately, so that all you guys who need it feel that I'm on more or less the same level as you: I know nothing to nearly nothing :P Ok, on we go. To start, you need to open up your .m3i or .m3p that you saved last

Mandelbulb 3D Tutorial: The Basics

2011-06-26T20:59:00.009-03:00

Alrighty! Finally decided to get down and start documenting all I've learnt so far about Mandelbulb 3D, a wonderful program for rendering 3D fractals. First thing to say is, don't get intimidated by all the very technical math terms found when you open the program! You don't need to worry about most of it for now. (Though most of them, if you hover the mouse over them, will have a little

The True Cave of Lost Secrets, and A Dream of Death

2011-06-25T23:19:00.001-03:00

I asked some of the guys at Fractal forums what they thought of why my Cave of Secrets image from the previous post looked so different from the original one on Daniel White's site, and Jesse, the creator of Mandelbulb 3D himself, gave me the answer: I was using the default Mandelbulb that loads when you open the program, but the original Cave of Secrets was rendered with a slightly different

Mandelbulb, 3D fractal maths, and me.

2011-06-25T02:22:00.002-03:00

For the last few days, I've been trying to understand the mathematics behind the 3D Mandelbrot, the Mandelbulb. Apparently it works in exactly the same way as the 2D Mandelbrot, except where you had the "complex plane" before, upon which all points are mapped, you now have "hypercomplex space" ... But unfortunately, I have yet to even begin to understand how it all works. Hell, I'm not even sure

DeviantArt ID and fractal forums logo.

2011-06-22T12:42:00.001-03:00

I woke up early this morning and, after shaking off the last of the unpleasantly weird dream I'd had, suddenly felt inspired. Didn't I still need to create a DeviantID ? Why yes, yes I did. So I got to it. I decided I wanted an image that would truly represent me, not only as an artist, but as a person. So I got my camera, stood back, and silently said cheese. Then I sat down, opened photoshop

Introduction to Fractals Tutorial

2011-06-21T23:26:00.004-03:00

This tutorial consists of the following 4 pages (I highly recommend that you start from the first page and work your way through each, making sure you understand each one thoroughly before moving on to the next): Introduction Complex Numbers Julia sets, Functions and how Fractals are Generated The Mandelbrot Set