First, an ANNOUNCEMENT:
The Fractal Writing Contest #8 will expire in a few hours, but the results and the new contest will be posted TOMORROW, thank you!
The effect of Color Palettes in JWildFire fractals
Usually, when I create fractals, I play around with the parameters of the formulas and move the fractal's controls in the design window. This produces many variations of a fractal and many surprises, as even a small change can have unforeseen results in the final image.
But with fractals, there is another variable that makes a huge impact: the color palette.
In JWildFire, a fractal is created by combining transformations, and feeding the result of one transformation to the other(s), iterating until some condition triggers. Each transformation can be assigned a color and a speed, controlling how the color changes over each iteration.
So, the original fractal I used was this:
I left all the transformation and parameters of the fractal unchanged; I only altered the color palette, and the shade of the background:
The newly-rendered fractal come out as something very different than the original:
You can still see the same patterns in the fractal, but filled with different colors and in conjunction with the shaded background, the result is something new with its own style.
By manipulating the palette you can shift focus to the elements of the fractal you want to stress. In the picture above, the edges of the fractal are stressed with bright colors, while the center is dark. For the next render, I erased most colors (turned them to black) and only left some reds, yellows and browns. Then, I changed the background shade again to give a dramatic effect with the deep red in the center. The black palette contrasts nicely with the intense background, creating an ominous effect (at least, that's how it feels to me!).
Thanks for reading this small explanation of the process I use in my fractals. Of course, this barely scratches the surface of the intricacies of JWildFire; if you are interested in more, please leave a comment below.
If you feel creative, challenge yourself by participating in
the EIGHTH Fractal Writing Contest:
-- Click on image above for details --