Saturday, May 17, 2008

How To Create a Fractal

So...out there, you often see really cool fractals and think those people are absolute whizzes for being able to create that. Actually, it's not that hard. Seriously.

Here is an example of something that can be rendered.

You need a special program called Gimp to do this. Download it here. This program does not belong to me in any sense so do not credit me for this program.

So, here we start. After you've downloaded Gimp, run the program. After the long time it took to load, this is what it should look like:



Now, open a new document:



After you have done that, a window will pop up for you to specify the settings you want.



Click okay. Now...time to render!

Filter >> Render >> Nature >> Flame


(Click the above picture for bigger)

This is when creativity kicks in. A window should pop out like so. Don't worry if the image at the top isn't the same as mine. It seems to change every time.



Click Edit. And now, a window like so pops up.


(I did the red boxes, by the way. Lol)

So, the center image of the 9 images is your current render. Click around and you'll see that the one you have selected now moves to the middle and new renders are generated. The bottom variation drop down box allows you to choose different styles. I don't really know how to explain it but just play around till you find something you like. It's a creativity thing.

The variation drop down (or up) menu:


Now, this is what I end up with.



As you can see, the middle one (which I stroked in a black frame) is my render. Now, click okay.

You return to a page that now looks like this. It has a preview of your render at the top.



Play around with the Brightness, Contrast and Gamma settings till you like it. You can even change the "colormap" of your render. It doesn't really matter though, seeing as you can edit the colours more comfortably in PS later.



Now, click the camera tab (I stroked it in the above picture).These settings set the zoom and positioning of your render. Play around with the settings till you like the preview of your render/fractal. Here's what I got:



Click okay and wait for GIMP to render it. Once it is done that, we must save it! I find this part incredibly tricky because GIMP is just . . . =.="

Ctrl-S and a settings window will pop up Here is the top portion of my window.



Now, when you save, remember to add the extension of the type of image you want to save in! I'm saving mine in jpg so I added the .jpg ending to the name of my image. (See above image)

Hit the enter key (or click save). With the window that pops up, just make sure your quality is set to 100%. Hit enter again.

Go to wherever you saved your image (I saved mine onto my Desktop) and open it. Are you satisfied with it? No? Render again if you want. If it is just the colours and things that bother you...move on to the next portion (which is optional). If you are satisfied, stop reading and start using what you just rendered!

[Optional]

Open your rendered fractal in Adobe Photoshop.

For colour changes, click Ctrl-B on your keyboard. A window will pop up about colour balances. Move the bars along and until something you like. (Make sure the "preview" setting is checked)



Mine went from a boring old nearly colourless render into a green one.

My Final Product

Both of the fractals (used as the first example and the one rendered in the tutorial) are for use and download at Cursed. Feel free to use but you must credit =)