Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Orbital Diagrams

This flame reminds me of the old low-tech special effects holographic-display things that used to get drawn into old sci-fi movies. I'm not sure if the colors match one that I'm remembering, or what, but that's what it makes me think of. It also has this compass rose thing happening too, with the little striated lines coming off of it. I really like the combination of those two elements.

This piece is one of my favorites. I made it about two months ago, and I didn't want to make anything else for a while because I was still having fun looking at this one. It's very much a 'hand made' flame; I didn't introduce any random elements when I was constructing it. I take an obscure sort of pride in that, even though flames that do have random elements are often better than ones that don't. I think part of my attachement to it is that it is hand made--and that I spent quite a bit of time doing so. Longer to fix it in my memory, I suppose.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Snakey Swirly Thing

I think this is probably one of the most descriptive titles I've given to a flame (I'm literally describing the flame in the title, right?), even if it's one of the least articulate. I suppose something like 'Serpentine Vortices' would have sounded cooler, but I feel like this flame is pretty enough that it should have an unpretentious name. I like the irony.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Glitter in the mud

This flame started out blue. But that looked silly, so now it's brown. I did some various other fiddling with it, mostly figuring out which part was most interesting and focusing the camera on that section.

This is another of those flames that uses a tiny, tiny repeat to create a glittery, sparkly effect. I hope I get a chance to figure out what exactly the best way to render these for printing is sometime soon, because I know 'Copper Flakes' gave me a lot of grief. Apophysis does this weird thing where it rounds really small elements up to one pixel in size on the render. So if the glittery bits are too small, when I shift the render size from 1280x1024 to 3000x2400, the glittery bits are five times smaller and invisible on the prints. It's very strange.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Focal Waves (reweight, brighter)

I fiddled with this piece a lot. There were several elements to the original flame that I found really interesting, but I couldn't bring them into balance and emphasize them the way I wanted to. I think I had three or four render cycles on this one before I was at least mostly satisfied. I think the result qualifies as 'pretty cool.' My favorite part is the scaly looking patterns at the bottom just to the right of the center. They looked kind of like snakeskin to me.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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The Confectionary's Art

Another recent piece, and one I consider to be among my best. It looked to me like chocolate with swirls of mint in it, carefully painted on some sort of candy. The color scheme is not remotely similar to anything I've tried before, but I really think it works well for this flame.

This is really the second version of this flame, but if I'd tried this alteration of the piece before I rendered it the first time the first version wouldn't exist. It's only one triangle different, but that difference adds a great deal of interest and texture. The original didn't have any of that nifty reducing spiral element to it at all. And that's just no fun.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Fractured Cosmos

This piece is one I did in early February of this year, and I'm really pleased with the way it came out. It almost reminds me of a flower, but I wouldn't recommend trying to slot it into that mental box. When I try to do that I start noticing the way the different 'layers' appear to flip and twist.

This is a very simple flame on the technical side, with only two repeats involved. I think that's why it has such a definite fractal pattern; there's nothing else getting in the way. That also made it a great deal easier to color, although I ended up spending quite a bit of time on that part anyway. I had a hard time making myself stop working on this one, actually, just because there were so many small tweaks I could have made.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Alluvial

This piece's sparkly flecks and muddy color scheme made me think of panning for gold. It kind of looks like the stuff you'd be swirling around to try and separate the gold out.

The sparkly bits in this flame are rather interesting. They're actually very tiny repeats of the main shape. I've used this technique in a couple other flames before ('Copper Flakes' for example, although I didn't do it as effectively there). I think this is the most successful example of it, though.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Drab Peacock

It occurred to me that this didn't really have to be a 'drab' peacock. All I had to do was change the colors. I kind of like them the way they are, though. They're restful, this way. Did you know that there are actually different colors of peacock? Apparently they've been bred into all sorts of different shades. I doubt there's one that has exactly this set of colors to it, but some of them come pretty close.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Asymmetric Detonation

I was slightly distraught to discover that I had misspelled the title of this flame. I won't go into details, but it rather changed the intended meaning. Anyway, moving on...the combination of ragged, fractal edges and the circular 'shockwave' looking elements in this piece made me think of an explosion. Lots of flames seem to do that for some reason, but maybe it's just a little bit of innate pyromania. Or maybe it's because they're called 'flames' to start with.

The colors in this piece are a little odd. I think this was probably a random gradient that I didn't bother changing once I was finished with the shape of the flame. I might have to go back and work on this one some more at a future date.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Fighting Dustclouds

It certainly wasn't my intention when I named this piece, but it occurs to me that the name could mean those dustclouds you see in cartoons that always surround people who are fighting. You know, arms and legs occasionally flailing outside it, sound effects emanating from within...but as I said, that wasn't the intention. I was thinking more along the lines of eddies and whirls of dust laden air colliding and mingling.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Curious Plumage

This is a piece I did last month. I was pretty pleased with it, especially the color scheme and those little tufty bits that stick out from the rest of the flame (you may have to look at a large version to see them clearly). There are some birds that actually have weird ornamental feathers like that, although probably not in these precise shades and shapes.

This piece is a bit more complex than it looks, and it took a fair bit of time. I built it entirely from scratch, as that was the easiest way to maintain symmetry. I did a bit of messing around with xaos in this one, which are basically numbers attached to each repeat in the flame that tell it which other repeats it should connect to. It allows for cleaner shapes and less cluttered images, generally, although it is time consuming.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Frosted Autumn

I am aware that it's not fall right now, but what the heck. This post will still be here in six months.

As I've said before, a lot of my flames aren't supposed to look like anything, they're just supposed to be pretty. 'Frosted Autumn' is one of those flames. Ideally, this piece and its title would convey a mental image of taking a walk in fall when the leaves are red and orange, and you can see the moisture in your breath. If it fails at that...well, it's still a pretty picture, and I am content with that.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Snail Shells

This was a rather interesting flame to work with post render. Because it's so dense, the background color doesn't show through very well. Instead, it alters the colors in the foreground (I think the .png format I render in allows for partially transparent pixels). This version is on black, but I did a version on a brown background that was quite distinctive. The entire piece looked lighter and had a different color to it.

'Snail Shells' is a variation on the 'many repeats' technique. Each 'shell' you see around the rim of the main shell is a fractal repeat. Another cool thing about this piece is the thin lines; those are fractal repeats like any other, but they've been distorted and stretched so much that all you see is the line.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Landing Signals

It's an unfortunate truth that I am occasionally stricken by fits of whimsy when I'm working on a flame. In this case, it was during the coloring phase of the process. Hopefully nobody's violently allergic to neon purple. I'm almost tempted to call that a neon brown as well, but I think that's just the blur effect messing with my perceptions.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Temple Throne

This piece is the sort of thing that turns up when I play with symmetry. I don't do it very often, mostly because it takes longer and it's harder to produce a good result. But I think this one turned out quite nicely. I encourage you to take a look at the larger versions of this piece, and look for faces. There are at least a couple spots in this piece that I think look like faces or people. I'll let you find them for yourselves, though.

Temple Throne (inset)

A closeup of what I like to think of as the statues and engravings above the throne. I like the main piece better, but I wanted a closer look at the details, and this was the easiest way to do that.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

Temple Throne:

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Temple Throne (inset):

Negative Space

This flame looks to me like it might have some sort of oddly shaped event horizon in the middle there, or possibly an infestation of pixelivorous virii. If you look at it the other way, the black space is being covered by an oddly delineated mist spewing from that slightly brighter section. Much longer and there wouldn't be any left...

'Negative Space' uses a final transform, the same way pieces like the marbles I did over Christmas do. But in this case, instead of mapping the flame onto a sphere, it kind of stretched and pulled the edges of the flame around that area of black space. It's a little hard to describe exactly how it works. This piece uses the popcorn variation, which is what makes those little lines and jinks (They're most visible around the periphery of the black space). That's not one I use very often of late, although some of my best works have utilized it.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Illusionometer

Just a reminder, two posts today. Scroll down for the first.

The negative space in this flame is almost more interesting than the flame itself. The set of alternating curves that's part of the main repeat really catches the eye. I also really like the way it goes fractal in two directions at once. There's that ladder structure out on an arm, right? That's obviously fractal repeats, with a little bit of foreshortening distortion on it. But that whole arm structure repeats back up into the piece and off canvas.

Speaking of off canvas...Normally I like to get the entirety of a flame in frame, but the interesting details of this piece (like that ladder-arm thing) never got to a big enough scale to show up well with the rest of the flame in view. I do have a version of this with everything in frame. It looks a little like either a demented swan or a boat with a really strange figurehead.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Fog Serpent

I really like the glow effect on this flame. If my memory is correct, this is the only flam I've done with precisely that 'look' to it. It's really just that the orphaned pixels in this flame happened to be very lightly colored, and elements of the main flame were very dark. The unfortunate thing about this is that the effect sort of peters out as you get over to the left side of the image, and leaves a grainy looking mess. I suppose I could correct that with a gradient background (black to a dark grey, from right to left), but those tend to dilute the visual impact of a piece more than I care for. Still, that silhouetted effect on the upper right edge of the flame is pretty cool.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Nightmare Carnival

Are those ambulatory carnivorous ferris wheels? Why yes, I think they are! This might be because of a disaffected carny who's been taking mad science correspondence courses, but I myself blame the funnel cake radiation.

The fractal flame medium seems to be good at making eyes and mouths, but I suspect this is really just a trick of the human brain. Eyes and mouths are generally the more important bits of what people look at. Things that look just a little bit like an eye get the benefit of the doubt.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Boxing

Boxing, get it? Because it's a box! Bwahahaha! Haha. Okay, so it's a terrible pun. But all this flame needs is some text saying 'Bam!' or 'Biff!' in the middle and a trumpet squeal, and it would fit right in on the old Batman television show. I have to say that in my totally unbiased opinion (*snrk*) this one is really cool in the larger sizes. It has some killer speed lines that don't show up in the preview image.

Partial credit for this one goes to my brother Chad, who was kibitzing over my shoulder while I was making it. I blame him for the pun in the title. Not in any direct way...it's just that I'm more prone to puns when he's around.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Broken Watch

This piece said 'Sproing!' to me. One of those cartoon-sound-effect sproing noises, too. Anway, I was thinking of un-winding watch springs and little gears flinging themselves out of position when I named this flame.

'Broken Watch' has a rather interesting pattern in it that can't really be seen in the preview version. But if you look at one of the big ones, you'll see that the circular striations have repeats of themselves at the cardinal points. I'm not certain if that's a true fractal effect, or if it's an artifact of rendering lots and lots of circular lines like that. If you've ever messed around with the circle tool in paint you'll know that it's awfully hard to represent a circle with squares. These phantom-repeats show up in most of the flames using that same circular-striations technique.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Mud Vortex

I think the textures in this piece are just cool. It rather reminds me of a crocheted (that's crow-shayed, not crotch-it-id, people) doily, although I don't think I've ever seen one done with quite this color scheme. The lack of symmetry inhibits the effect somewhat, but maybe they just haven't finished all of their repeats yet.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Three for the price of one...

...except not really. You are getting three flames today, but I won't be posting any for Friday or Saturday. There are a couple reasons for this. First off, these three flames are a set, three related flames that make a good illustration of the 'artistic process' (quotation marks indicate self-mockery at pretentiousness) I go through. Secondly, I have family in town for Thanksgiving. So it's vacation time.

Bottom Dweller

The first of the set, 'Bottom Dweller' isn't really that great. The colors are interesting and mesh well with the title, but it's a little bit messy. I tend to dislike it when there are faint repeats that don't render fully; they leave orphaned pixels all over the place, like stray toner on Xerox copies. But I really liked the basic form of the piece, so I went ahead and fiddled with it a little more to see what else I could get out of it.

Bottom Dweller 2 (inset)

This piece is quite obviously related to 'Bottom Dweller' even without the title. Same color scheme, same feathery textures. However, this flame builds upon the complexity of the original. The orientation of the two pieces is identical; if you look at the black space at the bottom left of the piece at right, you can see that it is identical to the black space at the base of the bulb in 'Bottom Dweller.' This should give you some idea of how far the second piece was inset.

Still, I wasn't quite happy with the piece. So, on to the third flame, and one of my all time favorites.

Tide Pool

I actually removed some of the elements present in 'Bottom Dweller 2' to make this piece. Specifically the ones making the long, straight lines that overlapped the rest of the piece. This led to a much cleaner appearance, more in line with what I was going for from the start. I also rotated the flame about 120 degrees counter-clockwise. This was mostly because I wanted it to look like seaweed and shellfish on a rock, and that angle seemed to work best.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

Mudflow

The textures in this flame really tickled my sense of aesthetics. The colors are intentionally muted to help bring them out: The grey and brown shades seemed to make them show up a little bit better. They also fit better with what the texture and shape reminded me of which was a...you guessed it, mudflow. A lahar, if you want to use the fancy word, although I've got another flame titled that. Look up 'lahar' on youtube and you'll see what I mean. They're pretty cool.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Streetlamp in disguise

Because I render the flames for the next month or so of blog posts in advance, I have a tendency to do a bunch of good ones in a row, then some mediocre ones as I run out of good ones to post. This is the start of a new render cycle, so either there will be a couple really good weeks, or I'll remember to post the bad ones first and the next couple weeks will be really boring. We'll see.

Today's flame is just a little further towards the abstract end of the spectrum. While I suppose it does look rather like an illumination source of some kind, the mind doesn't go straight to 'streetlamp.' I guess that's why it's in disguise. Or maybe those are some very unusual moths fluttering around it. I like the various arcs and swirls in this piece a bunch, and I'm pretty sure the color scheme hasn't been used in any other pieces. I tend to get a bit jaded with some color schemes, even if they're really, really good, just because I've looked at them so often.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Horseshoe Crab

You can't tell on the preview image, but this flame is sort of...gooey. There are some very strange textures in there. This was a fairly early flame, so the colors are boring. And for those of you saying "But that doesn't look like a horseshoe shaped crab!" I provide wikipedia linkage: Horseshoe Crab.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Swooping Down

The first word that comes to mind when I look at this flame is 'frothy.' I think that's mostly the color scheme, although the feathery edges at the bottom aid the effect. I think the texture in the upper right portion of the flame is my favorite thing about it. The thin, bi-colored lines overlaid on the solid surface appeal to me. This flame is part two a three flame set. You can find #3 a little ways down the page. #1 wasn't quite as good as its younger siblings, so it doesn't come out in public much.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Motion Blur

With this flame, the first word that comes to mind is more of an onomatopoeia. "Whap" or possibly "Swish!" The exclamation point is crucial, though. It is interesting to note that both this flame and 'Swooping Down' use a signifcant amount of black or near black coloring. Since they're on a black background, those portions of the image effectively disappear. I usually don't use black when I'm coloring a flame, but in this case I think it turned out well.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Beak of the Squid

Fun flame, weird name. The colors are a little too monotone, but the random elements to the texture and shape make up for it. It's been years since I made this one, but without opening up Apophysis and looking at its innards I'd say this made liberal use of both the 'Waves' and the 'Spiral' variations. You can see an example of 'Waves' here, here, and here. I don't really have a clean example of the 'Spiral' variation. The easiest way to describe it is that it pulls the flame up and to the right in a big, sparse loop. There's some folding and inversion involved at the same time.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Melting Waxworks

This flame is a fairly recent one, from about a month and a half back. If you've ever looked at fancy hardcover books, you'll notice that some of them have marbled endpapers (which, if you're too lazy to follow the link, are made by floating inks on the surface of water and then dipping the paper in it). That's what this flame made me think of, despite what I titled it. It had just a little bit too much of a third dimension to label it as something flat.

I have no idea how to reproduce this flame without looking at the save file I have for it. It's obviously another of those 'many repeats' flames I like to point out to you folks, but other than that...no clue. I figure that's a plus; this way I can stumble upon a similar flame six months down the road and feel blindingly creative instead of self-derivative.

On an unrelated note: 100, woooooh. Stick around, my friends. I think I can keep this up for at least a year before I have to slow down.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Autumn Attacks!

Yes, this is a silly title. But I couldn't think of anything else for a flame that looks like a pile of fallen leaves turning into an amorphous monster and swooping up to devour you.

What, you don't think it looks like that? Well, that's okay, I guess. To each their own. But there is a general 'speed lines' sort of effect to this piece.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Abstract 2-15-08

Another one that I couldn't name. I absolutely love this flame, though. The combination of the blurred zig-zags in pink and the sharp lines and gentle curves of the blue and brown areas is quite striking. Someday I'll get around to thinking of a name for this. It really does deserve one.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Ballistic Armadillo

I find this flame particularly amusing if I imagine a tiny armadillo scream dopplering past. "EEEEEeeeeee...." Whether armadillos actually scream I don't know, but it makes me smile.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Mandibles

Little tiny pincery jaws, all hooked onto each other, just waiting for something to bite. Chomp, chomp, chomp...'Mandibles' has always seemed to me to be very easy to look at. None of the elements of the piece are overly jarring or out of place, and the color scheme is neutral but intereresting. Fun fact: this is gradient #209, hue shifted just a bit. Sneaky little thing, isn't it?

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Particle Trace

Here's one for the physics buffs out there. This flame reminded me of the images produced by particle accelerators (like this one). Shinier colors, of course. Shiny colors improve most things. I'm pretty sure I've used this color set on a few other fractals...I can't think which ones at the moment, though. I'll try and point them out if I post any of them on here.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Line of Asymmetry

Another flame in the style of 'Molten Wave.' Again, you can see striations in parts of the image which are an artifact of the technique used to produce the smooth, blurred effect found in both flames. In an interesting coincidence, both images use the same color palette, although 'Line of Asymmetry' uses a larger section of it.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Jello Mould

I'm pretty sure 'Jello Mould' is not a mould for making jello, but rather a mould that looks like jello. And no, I'm not British. I don't know why I used the UK spelling. It just seemed to fit better. If I had to describe the texture of this flame to someone in one word, I'd say 'gooey.'

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Hive

What do you think lives inside 'Hive,' today's flame? I've always thought it must be some sort of giant space wasp, flying out to collect asteroids and add them to the nest. You may notice some similarities between 'Hive' and a few other fractals on this site, notably 'Blast Front' (look at the detail image to see what I mean) and 'Tattered Canvas'. There's a specific technique that produces that funny quilted/segmented look.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Mothwings

Today's art, 'Mothwings,' is really something of a transitional piece for me. It's from June of 2005, and it's really after this point that I tried making fractal flames that looked like objects or had a theme to them. Trying to make fractals that looked like something is what motivated me to learn to use the software better, something I'm still working on even now. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it. The reasoning behind the title is self-evident, I think.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Mudcloud

Today's flame is titled 'Mudcloud.' If you've ever watched footage of something falling or moving through the water and shedding particulates as it goes...well, it looks a bit like this. What's inside the mudcloud, though?

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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