What is a fractal? The definition is: A mathematically generated pattern that is reproducible at any magnification or reduction.
Fractals are shapes or patterns that repeat at many levels. They are fascinating because they occur throughout the natural world, yet are rather counter-intuitive to programming environments because they involve infinite recursion. The leaf of a fern is a good example, where the fronds of the leaf are the shape of the leaf itself, and the subdivisions of the frond are the same shape again, and on, and on to beyond the limits of the human eye.
They are fun to play with in Flash because they are a quick way of producing complex, unpredictable results from very basic algorithms. The only trick is getting your head around the concept of infinite recursion, where a child and a parent are one and the same object. But as soon as you’ve mastered that, there’s nothing to it.
In terms of work however most clients dont like fractals as they are invariably complex and unpredictable…I have been reading alot about fractals lately and am would really like to share my inspiration with you.
- Zen Bullets
Here is an experiment of a fractal i just made in photoshop….I will continue to do so in Flash shortly..
The effect created above was done very easily using some filters and a basic shape. It truly is freedom of expression and the number or possibilities is infinite. Check the Mandlebrot Set for more inspiration on fractals and truly infinite algorithms! Here are some of the screens from MandleBrot.
Truly inspirational stuff! The mathematics on these babies is crazy. I would love to get running with this in the image processing classes with Flash sooner than later!!
