Photoshop fractal animation generators. Fractal graphic editors

Last year, especially in autumn-winter, when, due to personal circumstances, I turned out to be the farthest from fractal graphics and everything connected with it, they began to ask me questions about writing formulas for generating fractals on my own. Once I had an interest in this area. Probably, if there was additional time, and more - a great desire, then I would have gone headlong into this issue. But I understood that the programming knowledge that I once had during my studies at the university was safely forgotten because it had not been used for too long. Having the most powerful tools for creativity in the form of programs already studied and loved, I did not see the point in looking for something that might not live up to expectations in the end. However, I cannot stay away from the topic, which personally seems to me largely symbolic, since it can become decisive. This is an interest and craving for something new, for development, for uniqueness.
Today I will tell you about one interesting program designed for people who are good at programming.

So - Fractorama. freeware. Program author John F. Dumas is a software engineer, teacher, and has a degree in applied mathematics. The program interface is quite concise. There are two windows in front of you. The first is a text editor in which you need to write formulas, and the second is designed to visualize the result of your work - your own finished fractal.
Let's look at the works from the program gallery:

How are you? It reminds me of three programs at once, but it looks very nice.
Some features of the Fract-O-Rama! (that's what the author calls it).
All fractals are created using the Fract-O-Rama fractal scripting language, which allows you to explore a wider range of fractal types than a number of other fractal generators. The program can run on both win32 and Unix environments due to the fact that it was written using Qt. Comes with complete source code. Each download contains documentation and a large number of example formulas. There are different download options available - choose the one that suits you.
If you are interested in the process of creating a fractal in this program, take a look at "About Us".
Here is the gallery: https://fractoramafractalart.com/
Project page on deviantart http://fract-o-rama.deviantart.com/
Let me summarize. Before us is a curious program designed for those who know programming or want to learn. It is difficult to judge the state of the project today, since the latest fractals in the gallery are dated 2015. In any case, the program is worthy of attention.

fractal graphics

Fractal graphics are based on mathematical calculations. The basic element of fractal graphics is the mathematical formula itself, that is, no objects are stored in the computer's memory and the image is built solely on the basis of equations. In this way, both the simplest regular structures and complex illustrations that imitate natural landscapes and three-dimensional objects are built.

Fractal graphics programs

Art Dabbler Program

It is best to start your acquaintance with the basics of fractal graphics with the Art Dabbler package. This editor (by Fractal Design and now owned by Corel) is actually a truncated version of Painter. This is an excellent program for teaching not only computer graphics, but above all the basics of drawing. The small amount of memory required (only 10 MB is needed to install it), as well as a simple interface accessible even to a child, allow it to be used in the school curriculum. Like the raster editor MS Paint, the fractal editor Art Dabbler is especially effective at the initial stage of mastering computer graphics.

The main attention of the developers of the Art Dabbler package was paid to two factors:

Creation of a simplified interface, the main element of which are toolboxes (here called drawers);

Possibilities of using the package as a training program. To realize this goal, along with the program itself, the "Learn to draw" tutorial and a training film on a CD are included in the package. The drawing lessons offered in them allow you to observe step by step the process of creating color images by experienced artists using the Art Dabbler package.

The menu bar includes six items: standard for most programs - File, Edit and Help, as well as Effects, Options and Tutors, which are present in most graphics programs and do not need additional comments.

Art Dabbler provides a set of effects (Effects menu) that can be used to alter or distort images. For example, the Texturize effect creates textures for paper, canvas, and more, expanding the artist's creative options.

It should be noted that in Art Dabbler all tools are called drawers in the same way as, for example, similar tools are called palettes in Photoshop, and dockers in CorelDRAW. They store brushes, pencils, an elastic band and other tools, to activate them, just click the icon corresponding to them. On the front walls of the drawers, a small number of buttons and a handle are displayed, by pressing which the user gets access to the entire set of operations carried out through it thanks to the additional buttons that open.

Ultra Fractal Program

Ultra Fractal- the best solution to create unique professional quality fractal images. The package features a user-friendly interface, many elements of which are reminiscent of Photoshop (which makes it easy to learn), and is accompanied by incredibly detailed and beautifully illustrated documentation with a series of tutorials that walk through all aspects of working with the program step by step. Ultra Fractal is presented in two editions: Standard Edition and extended Animation Edition, the capabilities of which allow not only generating fractal images, but also creating animation based on them. Created images can be rendered in high resolution, suitable for printing, and saved in the program's own format or in one of the popular fractal formats. Rendered images can also be exported to one of the raster graphic formats (jpg, bmp, png and psd), and finished fractal animations can be exported to AVI format.

The principle of creating fractal images is quite traditional, the simplest thing is to use one of the formulas included in the delivery (the built-in browser will help you navigate the possible type of image generated by the selected formula), and then edit the formula parameters in the desired way. And if the experiment was unsuccessful, then the last action is easy to cancel. There are a lot of ready-made fractal formulas, and their number can be expanded by downloading new formulas from the program website. Advanced users can try their luck in creating their own formula, for which the package has a built-in text editor with support for basic templates based on standard fractal formula programming language constructs.

However, one should not think that the mystery of a fractal image lies only in a successful formula. Other aspects are no less important. For example, color tuning, which involves choosing a color option and fine-tuning its parameters. Color adjustment is implemented at the level of solid graphics packages, for example, gradients can be created and adjusted independently, adjusting many parameters, including translucency, and saving them in the library for future use. The use of layers with the ability to change their blending modes and adjust the translucency allows you to generate multilayer fractals and achieve unique effects by superimposing fractal images on each other. The use of opacity masks provides masking of certain areas of the image. Transformation filters allow you to perform various transformations on selected image fragments: scale, mirror, crop according to a pattern, distort by means of a swirl or ripple, multiply according to the kaleidoscope principle, etc.

Fractal Explorer

Fractal Explorer is a program for creating images of fractals and 3D attractors with quite impressive features. It has an intuitive classic interface that can be customized according to user preferences and supports standard fractal image formats (*.frp; *.frs; *.fri; *.fro; *.fr3, *.fr4, etc.) . Ready fractal images are saved in *.frs format and can be exported to one of the raster graphic formats (jpg, bmp, png and gif), and fractal animations are saved as AVI files.

Fractal generation is possible in two ways - based on basic fractal images built according to the formulas included in the delivery, or from scratch. The first option allows you to get interesting results relatively easily, because it is not difficult to choose the appropriate formula, especially since a convenient file browser will allow you to evaluate the quality of a fractal from the database even before creating a fractal image based on it. For a fractal image obtained in this way, you can change the color palette, add a background image to it, and determine the blending mode of the fractal and background layers, as well as the degree of transparency of the fractal layer. Then it will be possible to transform the fractal image, scale it if necessary, determine the size of the image and render it. Creating an image from scratch is much more difficult and involves choosing one of two methods. You can choose the type of fractal from almost 150 options. And then move on to changing various parameters: setting the palette, background, etc. Or you can try creating your own custom formula using the built-in compiler. Before rendering the finished image, it may be necessary to perform automatic color balance correction and / or manual correction of brightness, contrast and saturation.

ChaosPro Program

ChaosPro is one of the best free fractal image generators with which you can easily create an endless number of amazingly beautiful fractal images. The program has a very simple and user-friendly interface and, along with the ability to automatically generate fractals, allows you to fully control this process by changing a large number of settings (number of iterations, color palette, blur degree, projection features, image size, etc.). In addition, the created images can be multi-layered (layer blending mode can be controlled) and a whole series of filters can be applied to them. All changes applied to the fractals under construction are immediately reflected in the viewing window. The created fractals can be saved in the program's own format, or in one of the main fractal types thanks to the built-in compiler. Or exported to raster images or 3D objects (if a three-dimensional representation of the fractal was previously obtained).

In the list of program features:

Accurate color adjustment, providing smooth gradient transitions of colors into each other;

Simultaneous construction of several fractals in different windows;

The ability to create animation based on fractal images with the definition of key animation phases, which can differ in any variable parameter: rotation and rotation angles, color parameters, etc.;

Creation of three-dimensional representations of fractals based on ordinary two-dimensional images;

Support for many standard fractal image formats that can be imported and edited within ChaosPro.

Apophysis Program

Apophysis is an interesting tool for generating fractals based on basic fractal formulas. Fractals created according to ready-made formulas can be edited and unrecognizably changed by adjusting various parameters. So, for example, they can be transformed in the editor, either by changing the triangles underlying the fractals, or by applying the transformation method you like: wave-like distortion, perspective, Gaussian blur, etc. Then you should experiment with colors by choosing one of the basic gradient fill options. The list of built-in fills is quite impressive, and if necessary, you can automatically select the most suitable fill for an existing bitmap, which is important, for example, when creating a fractal background in the same style as other images of a certain project. If necessary, it is easy to adjust the gamma and brightness, change the background, scale the fractal object and clarify its location on the background. You can also subject the result to various mutations in the desired style. Upon completion, you should set the dimensions of the final fractal image and save its rendered version as a graphic file (jpg, bmp, png).

Mystica program

Mystica is a universal generator of unique fantastic 2D and 3D images and textures that can later be used in various projects, for example, as real textures for Web pages, desktop backgrounds or fantastic background images that can be used, for example, when decorating children's rooms. books. The package has a non-standard and rather complex interface and can work in two modes: Sample (focused on beginners and contains a minimum of settings) and Expert (designed for professionals). Created images can be any size and then exported to popular 2D graphics formats. Directly from the program window, they can be sent by e-mail, published in an Html gallery, or based on them, create a video in divx, mpeg4 formats, etc. The built-in 3D engine of the program can be used to create 3D scenes for computer games, such as fantastic backgrounds and landscapes .

Images are generated based on the fractal formulas embedded in the package, and the image preparation system is multi-level and includes a very detailed color setting, the possibility of simple transformations of the generated elements and a lot of other transformations. Among them are the use of filters, changing lighting, adjusting the color gamut, brightness and contrast, changing the material used in the generation, adding "chaotic" structures to the image, etc.

Three-dimensional graphics (3D)

From advertisements and dynamic intros to disaster simulations, 3D computer graphics and animation are used everywhere. Today, three-dimensional graphics are capable of producing special effects in a matter of days, which, with the help of physical models, transparent photography and optical printers, until recently, were created for months. You no longer need to spend thousands of man-hours building models that you then need to set up on stage, light, shoot and combine with the rest of the participants in the episode. It is enough to put one person at the PC to create special effects that give a complete sense of reality.

The modern world is unthinkable without 3D technologies. But three-dimensional graphics have heard a lot of reproaches in their address of complete inapplicability. It is strange to remember that 3D computer graphics once bore the ironic name of "solution in search of a problem."

The method of three-dimensional graphics today works wonders: it has become possible to "shoot" TV shows exclusively with the help of computer models. The “live” presenter moves freely within the scene, which is modeled using exclusively three-dimensional graphics, walks around objects and can interact with them.

But now three-dimensional computer graphics allows you to admire such effects not only on TV screens - our studio will apply the latest achievements in this area to solve current presentation problems. Even an ordinary project presentation can become just such an interactive shooting if not only 3D graphics and animation are involved, but also the Quest3D program. The level reached by the three-dimensional graphics of such presentations is also not inferior to the best gaming products.

No longer a television character, but you yourself will be able to “walk” along the graphic ladder or open the door of a virtual house - just like it happens with a computer game user. The picture itself will actively "react" to your actions, changing depending on them. This level of realism was not available until recently, but digital technology does not stand still, and three-dimensional graphics are constantly being improved, taking into account the changing and increasingly complex demands of modern design. Look into the world of the future with us - three-dimensional computer graphics will bring you closer to it!

bitmap graphics editor vector three-dimensional

Basic fractal generators
Good day, dear lovers of fractals!

I am often asked what program is better to start learning fractal graphics with. There is no answer to this question. You must decide for yourself which fractals you like and start studying, namely, with the program that makes the fractals you like.

In this topic, I will talk a little about my impressions of working with different programs, and also tell you where you can download them.

fractal explorer.

In my opinion, the easiest program, both in study and in weight. Very user-friendly interface, you almost immediately see how your picture changes. But despite the fact that the program is easy, it produces very interesting fractals. The program often brings surprises. The main thing is to see these surprises.

The essence of working with the Fractal Explorer program is to find an interesting element in an unattractive picture.

Here is a small example of what was at first and what came of it

And a few more fractals made in this program

If you like the fractals made in this program, you can download it from Ya.Disk. The program is free.

For example, some work done in the Apophysis program

JWildfire.

The program is very similar to Apophysis only with more features. You can work with layers in it, lighting and blurring are more interesting. I noticed that recently many are switching, namely, to this program. All plug-ins are immediately installed in the program, unlike Apophysis.

What I do not like? The program itself generates quite nice fractals. On the one hand, there is nothing wrong with this, on the other hand, beginners begin to be lazy and pass off the fractals generated by the program as their own ...

Here is one of the fractals that I made in this program. There are three layers

Now about sad. I could say that the program has no flaws. But they are, just one, but significant, Ultra Fractal is a shareware program. You can download the demo version on the website

Mandelbulb3D.

Program for generating 3D fractals. Very interesting. You can create entire worlds, with due diligence and patience. The program has many formulas that can and should be combined. Just like in the Fractal Explorer, you need to find an interesting element in an uninteresting, at first glance, picture.

Here is a small example of what happened and what came of it

And a few more pictures to illustrate.

The program is free. You can download it.

If you scroll through the site to which I gave a link, then in the gallery you will find very interesting works.

I found only one work done in this program

This is how I got a small overview of the main fractal generators. Of course, there are actually many more, but these are the most popular and most interesting, in my opinion.

That's all! I wish you creative success!

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In the world of fractal graphics

Svetlana Shlyakhtina

It is probably difficult to find people who would not be fascinated by the contemplation of fractal graphics - in its mysterious elements, someone may imagine the night flame of a fire, someone - long lashes of swaying algae in the water column, someone - the whole mystery of the Universe.

But one way or another, fractal graphics definitely attract our attention, and software packages for its creation can become the stepping stone that will allow you to get closer to real fractal creativity, especially since all of them are relatively easy to learn.

Using fractals, not only surreal images can be built, but also quite realistic ones (for example, fractals are often used to create clouds, snow, coastlines, trees and bushes, etc.). Therefore, fractal images can be used in a variety of areas, from creating ordinary textures and background images to fantastic landscapes for computer games or book illustrations. And such fractal masterpieces (as well as vector ones) are created by mathematical calculations, but unlike vector graphics, the basic element of fractal graphics is the mathematical formula itself - this means that no objects are stored in the computer’s memory, and the image (no matter how intricately) is built solely on the basis of equations.

There are not so many programs for generating fractal images on the market, and it is problematic to find them in popular software catalogs. Existing solutions are mostly free and developed by enthusiasts (of course, very unstable), although there are quite solid commercial options. Let's try to cover the most interesting of them.

Ultra Fractal

Developer: Frederik Slijkerman
Program website:
http://www.ultrafractal.com/
Distribution size: 5 MB
Distribution method: shareware (watermark demos: Ultra Fractal Animation Edition - http://www.ultrafractal.com/uf403ani.exe, Ultra Fractal Standard Edition - http://www.ultrafractal.com/uf403std.exe)
Price: Ultra Fractal Animation Edition - $129, Ultra Fractal Standard Edition - $59
Work under control:
Windows 98/2000/XP/2003

Ultra Fractal is the best solution for creating unique professional quality fractal images. The package features a user-friendly interface, many elements of which are reminiscent of Photoshop (which makes it easy to learn), and is accompanied by incredibly detailed and beautifully illustrated documentation with a series of tutorials that walk through all aspects of working with the program step by step. Ultra Fractal is presented in two editions: Standard Edition and extended Animation Edition, the capabilities of which allow not only generating fractal images, but also creating animation based on them. Created images can be rendered in high resolution, suitable for printing, and saved in the program's own format or in one of the popular fractal formats. Rendered images can also be exported to one of the raster graphic formats (jpg, bmp, png and psd), and finished fractal animations can be exported to AVI format.

fractal explorer

Developer:
Sirotinsky Arthur, Olga Fedorenko
Program website: http://www.eclectasy.com/Fractal-Explorer/index.html
Distribution size: 1.46 MB
Distribution method:
freeware (http://www.eclectasy.com/Fractal-Explorer/download.htm)
Price: is free
Work under control:
Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP

Fractal generation is possible in two ways - based on basic fractal images built according to the formulas included in the delivery, or from scratch. The first option allows you to get interesting results relatively easily, because it is not difficult to choose the appropriate formula, especially since a convenient file browser will allow you to evaluate the quality of a fractal from the database even before creating a fractal image based on it. For a fractal image obtained in this way, you can change the color palette, add a background image to it, and determine the blending mode of the fractal and background layers, as well as the degree of transparency of the fractal layer. Then it will be possible to transform the fractal image, scale it if necessary, determine the size of the image and render it. Creating an image from scratch is much more difficult and involves choosing one of two methods. You can choose the type of fractal (classical Mandelbrot, cubic Mandelbrot, etc.) from almost 150 options. And then move on to changing various parameters: setting the palette, background, etc. Or you can try creating your own custom formula using the built-in compiler. Before rendering the finished image, it may be necessary to perform automatic color balance correction and / or manual correction of brightness, contrast and saturation.

ChaosPro

Developer: Martin Pfingstl
Program website:
http://www.chaospro.de/
Distribution size: 5 MB
Distribution method: freeware
(http://www.chaospro.de/cpro32.exe)
Price: is free
Work under control:
Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP

In the list of program features:
- accurate color adjustment, providing smooth gradient transitions of colors into each other;
- simultaneous construction of several fractals in different windows;
- the ability to create animation based on fractal images with the definition of key animation phases, which can differ in any variable parameter: rotation and rotation angles, color parameters, etc.;
- creation of three-dimensional representations of fractals based on ordinary two-dimensional images;
- support for many standard fractal image formats, images in which can be imported and edited in the ChaosPro environment.

Apophysis

Developer:
Mark Townsend, Peter Sdobnov, Piotr Borys, Susan Chambless, Ronald Hordijk
Program website:
http://www.apophysis.org/
Distribution size: 1.21 MB
Distribution method: freeware()
Price: is free
Work under control: Windows (all)

Chaoscope

Developer: Nicolas Desprez
Program website: http://www.btinternet.com/~ndesprez/index.htm
Distribution size: 2.5 MB
Distribution method:
freeware (http://www.btinternet.com/~ndesprez/download/chaoscope_0_3_1_setup.exe)
Price: is free
Work under control: Windows (all)

Chaoscope is a program for generating conventional 2D fractal images and obtaining their 3D representations during rendering. Created two-dimensional and three-dimensional fractal images are saved in the program's own formats or exported to bmp format.

Two-dimensional fractals can be generated in two ways. You can open one of the built-in fractal image library projects and modify it in the intended way by adjusting the parameter values and choosing a color palette. And you can create a new image based on a certain type of fractal - in this case, you will not see any image in the working window, since all parameters characterizing this type are initially equal to zero. Therefore, it is required to determine their values, which is very problematic for an unprepared user manually - there are many parameters, and their specific names (p1, p2, p3, etc.) do not mean anything, and they are not described in Help either. It is wiser to go the other way - use the Attractor=>Search command, and the program itself will find the necessary values for a possible fractal image. In this way, using the Search command a couple of dozen times, you can find some interesting option, for further refinement of which you still have to turn to the options and color palettes. At the last stage, you may need to perform color auto-correction. After that, you can immediately export the fractal image to bmp-format, or visualize it, during which its three-dimensional fractal analogue will be generated.

Mystic

Developer: Thomas Renn
Program website:
http://www.dawntec.com/mystica/
Distribution size: 4 MB
Distribution method: shareware (30 day demo that adds a watermark to images - http://www.dawntec.com/mystica/Download/Mystica.exe)
Price: $15
Work under control:
Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP

fractal extreme

Developer: Cygnus Software
Program website:
http://www.cygnus-software.com/
Distribution size: 2.95 MB
Distribution method: shareware (15 day demo - ftp://ftp.cygnus-software.com/pub/fxsetup.exe)
Price: $34,95
Work under control:
Windows 9x/Me/NT/2000/XP

Fractal Extreme is a simple and quite functional (albeit heavily overpriced) program for generating 2D fractal images, which are usually created by converting basic images or by yourself based on a suitable type of fractal. Setting the parameters of a fractal image includes adjusting the number of iterations, setting the color palette and the nature of the projection. In addition, the fractal image is easy to scale and crop, as well as fit to the required size. If desired, you can generate fractals randomly using the Options=>Plug-In Setup command. Created images are saved as projects in native format or can be exported to bmp format.

fractal world

Developer: YurkinSoft
Program website:
http://yurkinsoft.chat.ru/rus/fractal_r.htm
Distribution size: 740 KB
Distribution method: shareware (30-day demo - http://yurkinsoft.chat.ru/frac_arc.exe)
Price: 135 rub.
Work under control:
Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP

Fractal World is a simple generator of full screen fractal images that can be created either completely automatically or by defining your own initial parameters. The most liked images are easy to save and use as screensavers for your desktop. The simple interface of the program and its modest size make it possible to recommend its use in the educational process when students study different types of graphics.

Fractal Snowflake Generator

Developer: a-i-studio.com
Program website:
http://a-i-studio.com/snowflake/
Distribution size: 565 KB
Distribution method: Shareware (demo version with save limit - http://a-i-studio.com/snowflake/fsnowgen_setup.exe)
Price: $10
Work under control:
Windows 98/Me/NT4/2000/XP

Fractal Snowflake Generator is a generator of fractal snowflakes with which you can decorate your personal website on the eve of the New Year or a New Year's card created by yourself, for example in Photoshop. The program can not only work in fully automatic mode, generating snowflakes randomly, but if desired, the generation process can also be controlled by determining the size, proportions, rotation of the snowflake, the colors of the snowflakes and the background, etc. The created snowflakes in the demo version can only be saved as a bitmap image by pressing the Print Screen key. After payment appears additional opportunity saving snowflakes as a vector image in Adobe Illustrator formats, which allows snowflakes to be further processed and used, for example, when creating appropriate children's illustrations, backgrounds for Web pages, etc.