Fractal Effect


24 Bit

The Fractal Effect is a powerful 32-bit fractal generator to insert Mandelbrot fractal patterns into your images. The Mandelbrot set is the most complex shape in mathematics, and by exploring the set you can find an infinte variety of images.

Normal fractal generators apply colour mapping with a palette. The Photogenics Fractal effect produces a 24-bit colour range by using smootly adjusting cyclic ranges in the red, green, blue colour channels, which can be further adjusted with the hue, saturation and value sliders. Do not worry if you don't understand what these terms mean, just play with the sliders until you get a pleasing colour range.

The transparency option allows you to make portions of the fractal transparent. The offset allows you to shift the transparency position through the fractal.

Options provide control for red, green, blue, hue, saturation, value, transparency and transparent offset. You can load and save preset files. These files are standard ASCII files, and can be edited by hand (to input precise coordinates, for example)

The preferences option in Fractal allows you to change the number of iterations used in the calculation. The more iterations the more accurate and complex the image is, but the longer it takes to calculate.

The Fancy GUI

The Iteration slider in the new GUI (Courtesy of the Photogenics Companion Project) also allows you to alter this feature

You can render a preview of the current options by clicking on the "Preview Button" in the GUI.

Zooming in and out of fractals can be achieved by dragging a box over the desired area in the window. This will draw a box over this area. Then re-preview the fractal to get your new area. If you are unhappy with this new zoom simply press Right Mouse Button to undo the change.

If you wish to adjust the position of the current previewed fractal you can do so by holding down the SHIFT key and clicking and dragging the preview window. Once you are happy with the "shifted location" release the mouse button to redraw

To fully Zoom out press SPACE to reset all the options.

By default the fractal effect renders MandelBrot fractals. This can be changed to Julia fractals easily. First render a mandelbrot fractal and select a small area on this fractal which you which to base your Julia fractal on. Then change the cycle gadget to "Julia" and click preview. This enables the easy rendering of Julia fractals based on Mandelbrots

You may wish to play with the data in the fractal by hand. This can be done by clicking on the "Advanced Options" button. Have fun!

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