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Fractal Zooms

Suggestions for new features for Magic.
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AniRhythm
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Joined: Thu May 29, 2014 10:36 pm

Fractal Zooms

Post by AniRhythm »

Not sure if this is possible, but something like this, where the software procedurally generates a fractal world , and you can zoom infinitely. Then add random lights to make it look like the lights in the distance are pulsating on beat, or even having the fractal change shape to the music :idea: would be awesome for making sci fi'ish city footage for film. throw in some audio activated particle effects too for fog or lightning!! lol ^.^
there's a bunch of open source software that do this,
like - http://gnofract4d.sourceforge.net/

and - http://www.mandelbulber.com/

http://mandelbulb.com/2014/mandelbulb-3 ... -software/
Magic
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Re: Fractal Zooms

Post by Magic »

Those are pretty cool! I'm not sure I'm smart enough to implement something like that though :). But I'll see what I can do.

Do any of those programs render the fractals in real-time? The videos seem sufficently complex that it might be hard for most computers to keep up at 60 fps.
Magic
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Re: Fractal Zooms

Post by Magic »

p.s. There are a lot of great fractal shaders on http://shadertoy.com if you just search for "fractal" in the search box.
AniRhythm
Posts: 22
Joined: Thu May 29, 2014 10:36 pm

Re: Fractal Zooms

Post by AniRhythm »

sweet, thank you.

That's actually why I brought it up, I noticed how great the fractals look in the shader, but it would be nice to be able to journey through it, as opposed to just a hypnotic loop. It's what reminded me of this other software.

and yeah, the software is a bit complex, I'm learning how to use it now ...it's a relatively fast render - but not real time like the shader...

I know how to generate fractal models also, that would probably do it, the problem though, is that for all the great detail that make fractals cool, the face count runs in the hundred thousands to million polygons - when I decimate it , it's a cool shape, but no where near the detail that make fractal zooms cool to begin with.,

If I were into coding, i'd investigate more of the shader options. Everything I searched for related to shading was all coding, which i don't know.

with the fractal zoom in the software, I can pretty much just zoom into any preset formula, and it has so many diverse details, that one shape looks like a universe. I wonder if a combination of the shading and the infinite detail can be made hybrid ? If at all possible, maybe the formulas generated in the fractal software can be interpolated to the shader software ? the mandibulb 3D has an option that copies parameters to the clipboard - and just add an infinite zoom camera to that in magic ?

also, hitfilm, http://www.hitfilm.com - just announced a new upgrade, one of the new features they are doing is very cool - they are somehow mapping a regular 2D image , to have 3D depth - it's on their feature page ....

I'm just sharing cool eye candy stuff I use that ( if possible ) could be incorporated into Magic - I really like magic's workflow and it's got my imagination going lol :)

Cheers!

~Ricky
Magic
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Re: Fractal Zooms

Post by Magic »

Ok no problem, I appreciate the heads up.
That's actually why I brought it up, I noticed how great the fractals look in the shader, but it would be nice to be able to journey through it, as opposed to just a hypnotic loop
Yeah that's up to each individual shader I guess. I think I remember from a long time ago that unless you use some mathematical tricks, zooming into a fractal will eventually require such small decimal numbers that you'll run into the digital limits of floating point calculations... So I'm pretty sure it's not as simple as just an infinite zoom camera... but I'll look into it again to remind myself. :) Fractals on the GPU are pretty sophisticated these days.
AniRhythm
Posts: 22
Joined: Thu May 29, 2014 10:36 pm

Re: Fractal Zooms

Post by AniRhythm »

i suppose a simple work around, would be to film the footage from the fractal software and just run an infinite 10-20 second loop or just program a longer loop with the shader, it doesn't have to be controllable in the zooms - what I'm really aiming more for is a longer loop - something more of a journey than just a hypnotic loop.

another thing that might be a cool option is maybe a slider panel that allows us to alter an existing shader in real time - then we can morph existing fractal shaders. the shader slider / morph panel would be recording 10-20 second segments and looping that segment independent from real time, it could have it's own clock / timer and loop based on that since a morph wouldn't have to follow a beat. it should allow overlays also, so i can record in layers. hehe :)

I know all this is easier said than done, but one can dream! ;)

its a music recording approach - record, loop, overdub!

ps - check this out - webgl - http://alteredqualia.com/xg/examples/deferred_skin.html
Magic
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Re: Fractal Zooms

Post by Magic »

Holy shit! That is ridiculous! :shock: Do you know if the texture is mapped to a polygonal mesh in real-time? Or is it pre-rendered somehow?

Wow, the other examples are pretty amazing too.
AniRhythm
Posts: 22
Joined: Thu May 29, 2014 10:36 pm

Re: Fractal Zooms

Post by AniRhythm »

I have no idea to be honest, you can view the page source and code - I was able to see the whole script - but had no idea what I was looking at lol - I found it doing research for an artificial intelligence software company - they were looking for new ways to make talking heads for their chatbot without the need for plug ins. If they can mix that style web gl, with their ai module, that would be hot - glad you enjoyed it - i tripped out too when I first saw it, you can just shave the link to see their main page, and twitter info etc :D
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