. Fractal animation visionaries and enthusiasts: I have always been intrigued by fractals that exhibit extreme sensitivity to small parameter changes ("initial conditions"); as you all know this is one of the general concepts of chaos theory. Many Julias are like that, there are several examples on my site. This one, the "Critical Julia" (FOTD January 26, 2009) is no exception; the frames in this animation differ by only 0.0000001 in the P3 parameter. In all Julia morphs I have done up to now, the images always change (evolve) faster as you move towards the center. There is no way to "equalize" or balance it - the center is always changing too fast or the perimeter regions too slow. This one is the singular exception - the center region appears largely unchanged, or very slow, while most of the action occurs along the edges and perimeter. Why that is I do not know, but it's nice for a change. Another aspect of making animations is you never know exactly how they will turn out until it is finished and you look at it. Sometimes they are better than expected, like the recently posted "Darkness Descends". Sometimes they are not quite as good as the original test frames indicated. This one falls into the latter category, resembling a bad acid hit more than a fractal. But what the hey, it's still cool! I rate it a good 7, corresponding to two stars on my site. The rendering time of 3 days can be avoided by downloading the zipped viddie here: http://www.fractal-animation.net/vid/c_julia_x.zip The weather at fractal animation central has been sunny and mild - typical Colorado, in contrast to the NorthEast getting plastered by ice storms. My work day was better than average; the thrice per year liquid helium fill went without incident, as it fortunately has up till now. But always a day of some apprehension, as any who have witnessed the quenching of a superconducting magnet might testify. The wait for the next AOTD is ......... never can tell! My current CPU consuming project is a dive into the trench (REAL=-0.75 IMAG=0) and it should be done in a month or so. It is an interesting and unexplored region, and again, I don't know how the viddie will look till it's done and 4 months consumed! Until then, take care, and continue to believe in fractal miracles. .