Let me start off by telling you what this tutorial is about, It is more of a work flow method for looking at the different tools you can use to clean up a fractal or create a different look. It is not about any expert explanation from a math perspective. There are other tutorials for those explanations on the internet.
My Work Flow example –
- I either tweak or create a fractal
- I sometimes will tweak or create a triangle pattern. I will use a pattern if it is 3 or more Linear3d.
- If my Fractal has some anomaly or elements that I don’t like, I will follow a 3 step process to clean it up. In this example flame – I had lines streaking through the fractal and a lot of noise.
I start by looking at additional variations that are added to a transform. I check and see if I have set it to Pre, Normal or Post. Each will produce a different effect. In this case, I did not set my Z scale to post.
- To fix other anomalies; I start by switching transforms to hidden or normal draw mode. I will start with transform1 and work down to the last one. I just hide and unhide to see which transforms are projecting in what areas. It helps me with narrowing down an area that I want gone or even helps with the Xaos settings. You may ask, why not just remove the transform? Well sometimes its projection may be acting to effect other variations, even though it is hidden. However, I will remove it to see if it affected anything. If in fact nothing changes – then I will go ahead and remove it. I will then look at weights of each transform and set each to zero 1 at a time. I then decide to bring some back up to 0.5. Sometimes you will find 2 or 3 that are producing a lot of grain; in this case I will leave it set to 0. Keep in mind some artist will differ on this method and will add a little blur to a transform to make it fill in better. I prefer to get things crisp first.
- I then go to Xaos and use the same method on the “from view”. I will go through 1 by 1 turning a transforms projection on and off to eliminate parts that I don’t like. My use of Xaos is a bit different and it was meant for a more mathematical approach. There are other tutorials on the internet that will explain a different use of Xaos. I use it to my advantage to just clean up the flame and make it crisp.
