Orbit Trap

On Style 4

2012-01-20T03:28:42Z

The Listening Heaven by Elizabeth Mansco I Know What I Like My aesthetic sensibilities apparently run counter to the prevailing grain when it comes to my personal taste in fractal art. Photography, especially the digital variety, naturally appears to be a closer cousin with fractal art than does painting. Both digital photography and (software-based) [...]

Phase Two: Byte 2

2012-01-04T06:49:07Z

Three Gravity Stools by Jólan van der Wiel [Click on images to view full size.] Tim’s third eye opened (again) and recently puzzled out the mysteries of fractal art’s Phase Three. But I’m still mired in the cryptic borders and physical parameters not found in strictly digital renders but made possible only in Phase [...]

“Special” Holiday Fractal Finds

2011-12-29T07:08:01Z

There is fractal art and there is the analysis of fractal art, and then there’s fractal events: contests, calendars and the occasional news item. But then there are those occasional “things” that just don’t fall into the usual categories. Here are some of those high points –special finds– of this 2011 holiday season on Deviant [...]

Phase 3: The Relentless Pursuit of Color, Shape and Pattern

2011-12-20T22:02:54Z

We’ve all watched or taken part in, at sometime or another, that great quest to “define” fractal art. Although few members of the fractal world seem very interested in this sort of “constitutional debate” everyone operates with at least some sort of understanding of a boundary around fractal art. The boundary is where fractal art [...]

Phase Two: Byte 1

2011-12-13T17:23:30Z

Fractal Alchemy (Detail) by Carl Scrase Now that the decorative dust has settled from the most recent (and oftentimes lamest) iteration of the Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest (BMFAC), I figure it’s time again to revisit the notion that the competition (and fractal art in general) ought to think outside the program and envision our [...]

Best Fractal Calendar Ever!

2011-12-06T17:10:06Z

Christian Kleinhuis of Fractalforums.com has just published a 2010 fractal calendar. Featuring the best artwork form Fractalforums.com and printed large size and spiral bound, it hopefully marks a new era in fractal art publishing. A review of the images and background on how the project came about.

Apophysis + Deviant Art = Flaming Piles of Garbage

2011-11-30T21:43:30Z

Let’s just jump to the heart of the matter: Why is Deviant Art such a garbage dump? What is it about fractal art, and especially the flame fractal category in particular that leads to the creation of these huge online wastelands of worthlessness? It’s not all bad Oh yes, I have to acknowledge that there [...]

The Echo of El Greco

2011-11-24T20:38:01Z

"Sheeny", distorted and shadowy: Is it not the echo of El Greco? I like the simple title, too. The image is simple but potent. In this tiny drop of formula there is river, desert, mountains, sky, clouds and eternal silence.

Flame Fractals: Get the Fire Extinguisher!

2011-11-22T19:56:29Z

My continuing Odyssey in the seas of Deviant Art has brought me to what I shall refer to as the island of Apophysis, that being the great flame fractal program created by Mark Townsend which utilizes the “flame algorithms” discovered or invented by Scott Draves, the author of Electric Sheep, the original flame fractal application [...]

Fractal Paintings of Tralfamadore

2011-11-21T05:04:28Z

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 fractal-ness. There's something to be learned from Brummbaer's fractal artworks.

My Deviant Art Odyssey

2011-11-18T05:31:01Z

“A lot of the people I hang out with at dA are the same people that are at Fractal Forums…” Hal Tenny said that in a comment here on Orbit Trap recently. After my recent posting, Renderfeast, which featured an number of Deviant Art folks (DAers) I saw people on Fractalforums.com remarking that they had [...]

Renderfeast!

2011-11-09T16:26:04Z

A collection of uniquely rendered fractal things. And a few that are just traditionally intriguing.

Fitz vs. The BMFAC 2011

2011-11-03T14:39:55Z

As the Robin Hood of the Fractal Kingdom, I feel compelled to take up the cause of our fellow countryman, “Fitz” and right the wrongs of the evil Prince John and his minions, the various Sheriffs of Nottingham known in today’s Sherwood Forest as “The Selection Panel”. Fitz’s claim is that –well let’s let Fitz [...]

Wormhole!

2011-10-31T21:36:06Z

Fresh and only recently uploaded to Fractalforms.com, the Times Square of Fractalville, comes this modestly named image, Stable Wormhole. Created by none other than the author of the famous Mayan-something images, Reallybigname… ~Click on images to view fullsize on original site~ It’s part of the ever enduring mystery of art that images like this rarely [...]

Hello Everybody!

2011-10-26T23:17:39Z

Sometimes I just like to share interesting things that I find online that I think will be of interest to Orbit Trap readers who are “on the same wavelength” as me. Perhaps that’s only one or two people but so be it. Lindelokse, an established Deviant-artist decided to join the gang at Fractalforums.com and announced [...]

A Golden Straight-Jacket for Madman

2011-10-23T05:06:38Z

It’s not often I click on fractal videos these days. Video is just tricky with fractals, especially when you’re trying to combine it with music or some sort of meaningful sound. But when I saw Madman’s posting on Fractalforums.com today, when he said, “This one took 10 days to render @HD quality, no anti-aliasing.” …I [...]

Why the Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest 2011 Won’t Work

2011-10-21T13:56:46Z

Or: Why the Offline Promotion of Fractal Art is a Waste of Time Here are 6 reasons: There is no such thing as “Great” Fractal Art This is the key problem, really. I didn’t understand this myself until just this past year. Fractal art is a limited medium and it just can’t make the kind [...]

Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest 2011: Judging Part 2

2011-10-20T22:51:29Z

And another thing… If you’ve only got one or two judges then there’s nothing that really needs to be explained. But when you’ve got 12… one would naturally wonder how a much more complicated scenario like that would actually work. How do a dozen people from all over the globe select a group of 25 [...]

The Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest 2011: Judging the Judging

2011-10-20T04:27:20Z

If they’re going to… not consider a second artwork by any artist rearrange the judging results to include a “wider range” of styles declare in the rules they don’t want “garish” art let the Honorary members influence the results have a discussion to decide the final winners …then why do they have all those judges [...]

Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest 2011 Losers Announced

2011-10-17T20:15:40Z

In case you haven’t seen them, the winning images are all here. Of the 25 winning images which will make up the entire exhibit shown sometime within the next year, there’s only really one good one: Aztec Flying City by Bernard Bittler. They messed up his name on the official website. I know because this [...]

The 2011 BMFAC Winners Are Announced

2011-10-16T15:14:13Z

Why don’t I ever seem to get better, Dr. Jones? [Image seen here.] I feel strangely unmotivated to write about the 2011 Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest (BMFAC) "winners" this go-around. I’m tired of BMFAC as a topic — maybe because while the competition makes changes that should improve it, it never really improves. [...]

An Art Form of Shape and Color

2011-10-05T04:57:14Z

By looking at all these weird fish images my hope is that you’ll stop seeing them as fish and start seeing them simply as objects of shape and color. ~Click on images to view full size on original site~ They have no need of being real, we can relate to them entirely as manifestations of [...]

Image Spam vs The World! -some advice for Fractalforums.com

2011-10-04T04:44:34Z

It had to happen sometime. Fractalforums.com is a wide-open, free access forum that allows image uploads. And many fractal artists subscribe to the old belief that if you throw enough “stuff” at the wall eventually some of it will stick. Well, 65 clumps on the wall in one day was just too much for the [...]

A Fractal Made Me Smile!

2011-09-29T20:01:21Z

If you’ve been following my recent revolutionary thoughts about fractal art you may have noticed a few comments posted by readers here and in other venues relating to emotional experiences and feelings triggered by fractal images. Such things are important from my revolutionary perspective because they appear to refute my theory that fractal art is [...]