Skill Level: Beginner to Intermediate

Quick Facts

• ApoMap is a unique gradient editor
• Cool RGB Graph editor – could be friendlier to use
• Making smooth gradients from image samples is easy
• Saves gradients as Fractint Map files

The Program Interface

Here are screen shots of the main menus

The File Menu options

The Edit Menu:

Edit Menu options

The Process Menu is perhaps more interesting:

Process Menu Options

These processes help to edit and modify a gradient.

The Graph Editor

Here is an example of a gradient designed in the Graph editor. The picture shows the editor aligned with the gradient to show how the RGB lines correspond to the colors.

Graph Editor in action

Design Process

It can take a few tries to get the colors right, but it is a really basic and easy process.

Green Spike gradient, Step 1

The Graph editor works by drawing one line at a time with any one of the three drawing pens. It only draws straight lines, click a place to start the line and click where it should end. Curves can be made by making many short lines consecutively and changing the angle of each one.

Colors are formed by mixing the amount of each primary color. Red and Green make Yellow, Red and Blue make purple, Blue and Green make Cyan.

Adding Some Interest with a color spike

Grays are made with roughly equal amounts of each color. In this example Red is the first line to be drawn. The other lines are the random gradient generated automatically.

Starting a Gray gradient

Next, trace over the Red line using the Green pen.

Trace over the Red line with the Green Pen

The last step completes the basic Gray gradient.

The Gray gradient completed

Sometimes it is interesting to add a bit of color to the grays just to see where it shows up in the Flame fractal.

Adding Color markers

Saving the Gradients

It is important to save the finished gradients so it will be available whenever it is needed in the future. Alternatively it can be copied to the clipboard and pasted it into Apophysis directly. The new gradient can be saved from either program.

ApoMap saves gradients as Fractint Map files.

Saving Map Files

The Graph editor is small so accuracy can be difficult, especially at the side edges. One way to work is to watch the numbers in the little boxes next to the color pens. The numbers provide a means to know precisely where the the click will take place. The starting number at the left side is 0, and the ending number on the right is 256.

If it is important that a gradient blend smoothly where the end and beginning meet, try the Rotation control in the Adjust panel. Rotate the edge gradient away from the edges, then edit the colors so there is no abrupt change.

Rotate gradient edges towards the center to smooth it

There is a sharp discontinuity where the former edge areas meet up after it has been rotated.

Former edges are discontinuous

Below they have been smoothed out

Gradient now blends smoothly