Do you create your own fractals?

[4saken]

If not, aren't you tired of using someone else's fractals for your compositions, sigs etc when you can make your own with freeware apps?

You may use simple brushes and such for your backgrounds but if you integrate fractal creation into the base of your images you can have much more interesting and original images. In case someone doesn't know what a Fractal is here is a definition from Wiki. Don't let this description scare you... I just want to throw some intro information here. Skip it if you want.

A fractal is "a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be subdivided in parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a reduced-size copy of the whole". The term was coined by Benoît Mandelbrot in 1975 and was derived from the Latin fractus meaning "broken" or "fractured".

A fractal as a geometric object generally has the following features:

* It has a fine structure at arbitrarily small scales.
* It is too irregular to be easily described in traditional Euclidean geometric language.
* It is self-similar (at least approximately or stochastically).
* It has a Hausdorff dimension which is greater than its topological dimension (although this requirement is not met by space-filling curves such as the Hilbert curve).
* It has a simple and recursive definition.[2]

Here are some examples of fractals you can learn to make yourself if you continue through this post...






A great way to create them is to use this app

Download Link:http://downloads.sourceforge.net/apo...2&big_mirror=0

Their Site:http://www.apophysis.org/

and learn to use it.

So first download the app, it is free. Once you open it you will see a number of random fractals.

Now click the small button with the 2 triangles circled in the picture below.


This is the editor windows which allows you to move the triangles that are used to create the image you see. Each triangle has a primary point that will allow you to drag the entire triangle. Set up your windows so it is easy to see what is being changed, there are many options in this editor. (Don't let these triangles scare you away from this app, the app is very easy to learn and you don't need to know any math)If you make sigs/graphics and decide to give up now click here..


The other 2 points on each triangle can be moved to change the distance between each other and the main point. With a triangle selected you will see a bracket (square corners) around the square. Clicking and dragging these corners will rotate the triangle.

Try moving these points around(circled in the pic) and also the main point around.(remember ctrl+Z is undo for this app as well). You can watch the small window in this editor window for a quick preview.

Now you will see a number of tabs in the right bottom corner or the transform editor. They will edit the specific thing about the triangle you have last selected.(think of each of these triangles as one "fractal" in your image)

The drop down at the top allows you to change the selected triangle. You are going to have to just mess around with the options to figure out what they do because it would take to long for me and there are to many.

Now at the top of the Transformation editor there are a number of buttons. Leave your mouse over each to understand what they all do.

Try deleting one of your current triangles and creating a new one and changing its variables and variations(use very small number.. decimal point usage...). Remember, that if you wish to continue to the next step, to not get to crazy and large with your triangles. It all takes some getting used to and practice so try again if it gets messed up.


Now in the main windows you will see a small button with 9 squares.
This is the mutation button... It really takes some getting used to but you will want to change the trend and then the speed and hit a formation that you want it to become. This is like a shortcut for changing the numbers in the transformation editor's tabs with a preview. You can find some interesting formations quickly with this and may reach what you want more quickly like this.



You must remember that you are creating only a single portion of the final image so you may want to redo it after using a script in the next step because it may become to complex and overdone. It does take a little practice and understand of the work flow to get it the way you want.
Download these scripts
http://www.woosie.net/apophysis/pbscriptsfor203.zip
extract those scripts into the Apoph folder.

If you like what you have so far a lot I suggest saving parameters (in the File menu or Ctrl+S) because it cannot be undone with ctrl+z.

Go to Script > Open... > pbClone Batch.asc > Script > Run (or select one of the other batch scripts) Each of these scripts basically copies the triangles you currently have a number of times and changes them. A number of pop ups will be displayed with somewhat confusing questions, the numbers you enter here will be the variation between the triangles being copied. Once the pop ups stop showing up, wait a minute depending on your comps speed, it is processing.

With the right settings this is great for cloning the current flame and causing the image to become much more complete. Try using different scripts multiple times with a somewhat simple original fractal.

Now try using the gradient button and the tabs withing this menu. You can import color pallets from images to match them easily(with the lower right corner button in the gradient window that allows you to load an image and take the colors from it).


The variation drop down is another shortcut select for the numbers you can enter in the Transformation editor.


To pixilated? Change the rendering settings higher(you can even set it to above 100)..

If your fractal is very complex you may need to set this number very high to get a clean image without noise(keep in mind the image may take a while to render if it is to high and your comp is not good enough, you can see the time remaining on the bottom edge of the main window).


You may want to keep the quality setting low here because this is the quality setting for the preview only, to do a real render where you will want to put the setting very high go to Flame > Render to Disk to do actual renders.

If your fractal is being cut off by the window size like in the above image you may want to zoom out and pan using the buttons at the top of the main window to position it the way you want for rendering.


This is a basic overview of Apophysis, there are millions of other things you can come up with.

If you come up with something you really like, post it here so everyone can check it out... .

If you want to see your fractals move in high quality animations read through this. Which may even get you into the "living" fractal screensaver called electricsheep that you can even upload your own fractal animations and let them breed with other peoples.

Using all the features in this app you can create a million different beautiful backgrounds for use in your sigs or whatever editing you may do.

I hope this started out easy enough for anyone to try and ended up with enough info to make something nice. Render out PNGs and create brushes or whatever. Check out http://www.arcanefractals.com/apop_tut1.shtml for a nice tutorial..

Leave me rep if you gained something from this and liked it. Also feel free to ask questions or whatever.

[GEN]

i actually love using other peoples fractals makes it easier ^_^

but nice tut and i'll check this out

[4saken]

Originally Posted by GEN

i actually love using other peoples fractals makes it easier ^_^

but nice tut and i'll check this out

Thanks man, I hope it helps.

It sure is easier... But why take someones art when you can create something 100% original yourself with just a little knowledge? And also have it specialized to what you want making it perfect for what you're working on..

For how much you guys like making sigs and such, don't you want to make as much of it as you can yourself? Take a while to learn other apps
Most anything great takes multiple apps to create.(Including a "hero": that is the main interest of your image) but I don't expect sig makers to be drawing artists as well. But you can get as close as you can by making your own fractals and backgrounds (fractals can be used for things other than backgrounds as well).

[GEN]

Originally Posted by 4saken

Thanks man, I hope it helps.

It sure is easier, but why take someones art when you can create something 100% original yourself with just a little knowledge? And have it specialized to what you want making it perfect for what you're doing..

For how much you guys like making sigs and such, don't you want to make as much as you can yourself? Take a while to learn other apps
Most anything great takes multiple apps to create.(Including a "hero": that is the main interest of your image) but I don't expect sig makers to be drawing artists as well. But you can get as close as you can by making your own fractals and backgrounds (fractals can be used for things other than backgrounds as well).

i dont make sigs that often actually and since no one knows whether or not you actually made something yourself it doesn't matter to me but like i said im gonna check it out because well it seems like a bit of fun :yocifans008:

[Juggle]

Omg, Looking at it makes my head dizzy *Computer Noob Mode* But nice share man ... Hmm, could your other name be Foresaken? just curious hehe.

[GEN]

lol foresaken and 4saken sound nothing alike

[4saken]

Originally Posted by GEN

i dont make sigs that often actually and since no one knows whether or not you actually made something yourself it doesn't matter to me but like i said im gonna check it out because well it seems like a bit of fun :yocifans008:

It is true that it is hard to know who made what(other than the hero of the sig which is obviously made by a real manga artist). But if you look at a sig that has say a star field, grunge brush etc or any other common brush/graphic, you will know how good it is.

[GEN]

what the hell are you talking about hero (please tell me because i dont know), this isn't a manga pic or anything this is a guy from a movie called casshern, i wouldn't really call him the hero of the movie either but i guess some could see it that way -_-


are you talking about my animated sig or something else, im getting confused

and i agree that its easy to tell whether someone is good or not but you cant judge on just one sig alone

[4saken]

Originally Posted by GEN

what the hell are you talking about hero (please tell me because i dont know), this isn't a manga pic or anything this is a guy from a movie called casshern, i wouldn't really call him the hero of the movie either but i guess some could see it that way -_-


are you talking about my animated sig or something else, im getting confused

and i agree that its easy to tell whether someone is good or not but you cant judge on just one sig alone

A hero can be anything but in art it is considered the main character or interest in your image.

Say your looking at this...

What is the first thing your eye looks at? The large flower in the middle of course, not the background leaver or the smaller flower. The main flower would be considered the "hero" of this image.

The same goes for every correctly composited image or animation. There is a point that you are directed to look at, at first. Using the word Hero is a more technical term for the main interest of your image, for your sig it is the guy.

Now what I mean had to do with all sigs, and anything at all that has a main attention point.

Most anything great takes multiple apps to create.(Including a "hero": that is the main interest of your image) but I don't expect sig makers to be drawing artists as well.

This is because, say you have a video of a person, and a cg background, the CG background will be created with an app while the real human will be composited and matched to the RL camera using a different application. And in the end created a beautiful image. I'm just saying generally you need multiple apps to create more advanced things on your own.(and when I said manga artist it is because most sigs you see here are drawn by manga artists...having nothing to do with your animated sig)

The point of it was(that you seemed to have missed) that you may need multiple apps and an understanding for multiple apps to create more professional and/or better imagery.

[GEN]

you said something about manga thats what confused me

isnt most this stuff commen since considering most would think like this, ive never heard anyone use the term hero like a common thing with sigs tho (focal point is used more often where i go), ive heard hero of this piece once before, but ya you didn't need to explain so much

fun stuff