FOTD -- December 12, 2003 (Rating 7) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: When I started the FOTD on the Fractal-Art list in April of 1997, I intended to post a few fractals and discuss whether fractals really are art. I had no idea the FOTD would become such a major part of my life. But that's the way things go sometimes. Here we are, 6-1/2 years later, still as enthusias- tic about the FOTD as we were the first day. Today's image was created with the MandelbrotMix3a formula. It is a scene in an evaporated fractal that results when various portions of Z^(-1.3), Z^(-2.5), Z^(-4.6), and Z^(-6.4) are combined, then (1/C) is added. (Fractals with negative expo- nents 'evaporate' when the escape radius is raised to 10^100.) The M-Mix3a formula does not automatically calculate a critical point. This task must be done by hand, which is not easy, and makes the formula quite burdensome to use. But when a critical point is finally found, the results can be worth the effort. Whether today's image was worth the effort is up to the individ- ual viewer to decide. My decision was that the image earns a rating of a 7. Finding a name for the image was kind of fun. While studying the scene, I fancied myself looking down on a jungle from above. There below me was the scene of a kill, and leading to the scene were the tracks of various scavengers. I named the image "Spoor of the Beast", though no beast appears in the picture. The render time of under 4 minutes is fast enough, but a minute or two can still be saved by downloading the completed image from: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> or from: <http://sdboyd.dyndns.org/~sdboyd/fotd/index.html> I must now take a moment to apologize to those who are disappoin- ted that the promised philosophical pontificating did not appear today. I have been too busy to ponder. But the philosophy will appear as promised in a day or two. After all, anything worth having is worth waiting for. Thursday was pleasant enough temperature-wise here at Fractal Central, with a high of 50F 10C and much sun, but the wind gusted to 50mph 80kph all afternoon, and the noise it made in the trees and bushes spooked the fractal cats, who dared not venture beyond the porch steps. In the evening, we comforted them with the customary treat of tuna. and they settled to sleep satisfied. Today is starting rather agreeable. We'll see how the rest of the day goes. And I've got that load of work to finish before it starts to pile up. I have already rambled on longer than I had intended. Until the next FOTD in 24 hours, take care, and beware of the wild fractal beasts that are lurking in the vicinity. Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START 20.0 PAR-FORMULA FILE================================ Spoor_of_the_Beast { ; time=0:03:49.21--SF5 on a P200 reset=2002 type=formula formulafile=allinone.frm formulaname=MandelbrotMix3a function=recip passes=1 center-mag=-9.081882577005382/-6.444497511562424/1\ 94430.2/1/-32.4999999962004082/1.5461261916594e-008 params=1/-1.3/0.8/-2.5/-0.5/-4.6/-0.3/-6.4/1.07557\ 97065275/1e+100 float=y maxiter=1200 inside=bof61 periodicity=10 colors=000P3sM8nJDiGHdDM_AQV7VQ5ZL_\ rr`traurbqpbnncjlcgjcdhd`fdYddVbeR`eOZeLYdMWcMVbNU\ aNS`OR_OQZPOZPNYPMA0KAAJAFIAKGANFAPEOTDIVJDYP8aVUg\ acmgzzzzztzzphlmfgidbfbXc`S_ZNXYIUWKTUMRSPPQRNUULM\ WKKYII_HGbFEdDCfCAhA8j9BbHEVPHOXKGdN8lP1tQ7rRCqSHp\ TNoUSnVXmValY`h_`da_`c_Xe_UfaWfcXfeZff_ghagjbgkdgm\ ehofhphhrihtkiuliwniyoizpRghOciL_jIWkFSlCOm9Kn6Go3\ Dp6Gq8JqBMqDPrFSrIUrKXrM_sPbsResTgsVhqWioXjmZkk_lj\ `mhbnfcoddpcfqagr_hsYisXgqYepZdo_bm`ala_kbZicXhdWg\ eZba`ZYbUUdQRfPShPSjOSlOTnNTpNTrMUtMUvLUwLUoQ`gVf_\ _mSdsRboRakR_hQZdQYaQWYPVUPTRPSNPRKMURJXYG_dEbkHdg\ KedNf`QgYTiVWjRZkOalLdiPfgSheWkbZm`boZerWitUlvSorQ\ poOqlMriLseJsbHt_GuXEvTCvQBwN9xK7yH6yI8wI9uJAtJBrK\ CqKDoKFmLGlLHjMIiMJgMKfLJgLIgKHgKHhKGhJFhJFiIEiIDi\ IDjHCjHBjHBjLFgPJdTNaXR_`VXdZUhbRkfPjhQijRikShmTgn\ UgpVfqWfsXetYdvZdw_cy`cz`XsbQlcKedDZe7Sf } frm:MandelbrotMix3a {; Jim Muth z=real(p5), c=fn1(pixel), a=real(p1), b=imag(p1), d=real(p2), f=imag(p2), g=real(p3), h=imag(p3), j=real(p4), k=imag(p4), l=imag(p5)+100: z=(a*(z^b))+(d*(z^f))+(g*(z^h))+(j*(z^k))+c, |z| <=l } END 20.0 PAR-FORMULA FILE==================================