Apophysis 3D Revealed

Note: Make sure to visit the pictures on the Stereo Exhibition page! They are presented in a wonderful Page Flip plugin.

The Apophysis program has always provided a fascinating range of fractals that while infinite, are also unique compared to the original Mandelbrot fractals and the related Julia sets. Until a few years ago, Apophysis only created fractals as 2D images. The shapes and patterns it creates are called flames because of the resemblance of many of them to various flame like shapes. The name for the program means to protrude a shape so it seems to me that it got that name for good reason, the patterns suggest shapes!

Classic Flame Fractal Shapes

To begin with that suggestion of shape was as far as it went. People love looking at the images that were rendered and imagining what shapes were present. It’s similar to cloud watching and imagining animals and figures in the cloud patterns. The intrigue of suggested shape is part of the attractiveness of this class of fractals.

When I first came across the program I attempted to ‘trick’ the program in various ways to show me more than one viewpoint of a flame fractal so that I could see the results in 3D. It didn’t work. Nothing repeated with sufficient predictability or defined direction for it to reveal the real shapes.

A review of the source code told me that it was entirely possible to modify it to include the third dimension, but not having the time, I wasn’t the one to set about the task.

Then a young genius with the handle “Zueuk” came along and did the conversion into 3D. Now you can visualize, design and render scenes of flames from any angle and best of all, it faithfully allows you to craft the precise view locations for stereoscopic output. Not only can you get an idea of what features are located where, but you can explicitly see the shapes in glorious detail and in 3D space!

Please understand, the program does not include direct stereoscopic tools. To obtain stereo views you have to get your render-camera to the right viewpoints AND you have to design a flame that is more than just a flat surface picture! In some cases that can be challenging.

Most of the “variations” and “plugins” for the program are written solely for 2D manipulation. That means that while they make interesting shape-suggestive patterns, they do so by painting flat – like onto a canvas. There are a useful number of additional plugins which have been written for the 3D hack versions and they provide the means to pop a flat texture into a genuine 3D shape.

Once the shape is established, some of the 2D variations end up painting on the 3D shapes and that allows you to continue designing in 3D. Whether you explore using random tools, or deliberately build a flame transform by transform, and painstakingly work your way through the long list of variation options, the 3D flame that results can be very interesting and often surprising.

Discussions on this blog will help the beginner to use Apo 3D hack with basic guidelines. Since the program is quite complex, there’s plenty for an experienced flame designer to learn too. That’s especially true if you want to develop quality stereoscopic image pairs as the output.

As things develop on this site, a number of stereoscopic tools will be developed as scripts, which makes it easy for you to use, whether or not you understand what needs to happen. I’ve started with one really useful and basic script called the Rotate Pitch Script. It easily tips the Pitch axis up and down so you can switch from a top-down view (Pitch=0) to a direct side view (Pitch=90), or a view from 30 degrees. Anyone using Apo 3D needs to do this a lot during the design and exploration process.

When you want stereoscopic images, there are a number of methods of working with the program that you should follow to insure that when you find the perfect flame and viewpoint, it will be simple to arrange the camera in the right way to get perfect results. Maybe some future version of the 3D hack can have additional improvements to overcome some of the idiosyncrasies and bugs that currently exist in the program.

Stereo results are fun and wildly rewarding. Obtaining them need not be terribly difficult when you learn some of the tricks. Stay tuned to this blog and website for more information, and most of all, try things for yourself in Apophysis 3D!

I encounter various bugs in Apo quite often. That’s part of the nature of the program and a person learns to work around those bugs. For beginners who haven’t encountered them yet, they can prove puzzling or confusing.

Eventually I hope to list as many of them here as can be identified. Maybe it will help beginners and maybe a programmer working on updating the code will find it useful in making the program better! If you know of specific bugs and a work-around method, feel free to comment about them here, or send me an email with the information.

I’ll start with a simple one.

While working in the “Adjust Panel” one can enter numerical values directly by selecting the value already there, then typing in the new value. For some reason this process frequently stops working. The program fails to update, despite entering the number and clicking ENTER on the keyboard.

That is partly why I wrote the Rotate Pitch Script because I found that when the above problem occurs, the script will force the values to update correctly.

One effect of the bug is that as you work with Pitch=90 and make edits, it is useful to occasionally look at the fractal from a different vantage point such as Pitch=0. Often after switching back and forth by manually entering a value, the program refuses to recognize the activity, but the little Pitch value window will show the value I’ve entered, making it seem as if it changed, but the preview remains the same.

A similar effect of this bug is that after working at Pitch=90, then opening the Mutation panel, the central window in that panel will show the current side view, but the previews are all rendered from Pitch=0. Often if one of those Mutation options is clicked, the main preview will redraw showing the new flame from a Pitch=0 direction, but the Pitch control box fails to update and still shows Pitch=90.

This causes confusion because it is false information.

To verify the actual value, click on the word “Pitch” and start to slowly drag the mouse either left or right. This forces the value to update and begin incrementing as you drag. If it has been showing false information of Pitch=90 while the program is really working from Pitch=0, then this click drag action will cause the values to instantly change from the visible but false 90, showing that now you are adjusting values near Pitch=0.

There seems to be only two solutions to this issue. Use a script to control the values, or use the click-drag action of your mouse. The issue with Click-drag is that it can be difficult to arrive at the precise value you’re trying to get to.

Skill Level: Beginner to Intermediate

Quick Facts

• Easy Exploration of Vast Territory

• Definitions

• Activate all plugins, get fewer useful results but cover greater territory

• Restricted plugin list – greater number of interesting results

• Choosing your Transform complexity

• Mutation window – randoms in a direction and speed

• Use a Script to create randoms that restrict parameter values to a useful range

Definition

Flame parameters that are generated by random functions are termed “randoms.” Each time you open Apo it automatically renders a new Random batch which you can sort through and save singly or as a batch.

• Method 1 –  Use the Random Batch <Ctrl B> option in the File menu. Remember to set the Batch Size in the Options panel <Ctrl P> under the Random tab

• Method 2 – Use the Mutation panel <F7>

• Method 3 – Use a Script to generate random choices

Recommendations

Upon finding an interesting random, save it to a unique Flame File. Then open that new flame file so that’s the only file visible. Explore using the Transform Editor and try new things. Save under an incremental name change every time something new or more interesting shows up. In Apo 3D, use the Rotate Pitch Script to easily visualize whether there is existing shape or whether changes made generate shape or flatten it and how much. Plan to render relatively small images to begin with. Decide later whether it is worth a large render.

How To

The different methods generally result in different percentages of useful or interesting results. With all the Plugins active, resulting flames will have fewer useful or interesting qualities. There are so many variations in the whole list that combined with open ended random values it can prove too much of a wild card. Be prepared to discard or delete many of these parameters before saving the batch. It can be useful to use the Save All Parameters <Shift+Ctrl+S>  in a storage flame file for later study or retrieval that is only used for random batches.

Better

To get a higher percentage of interesting results, go to Options <Ctrl P> under the Variations tab and choose the Clear All button. Then go through the list and select only a handful of variations. Choose the ones you know are interesting or which tend towards designs you want to work with. Go to the Random tab and make any changes to those settings, especially take note of the box where you enter a Title prefix for the generated randoms and the settings for minimum and maximum Number of transforms.

Random batches are generated with random values. It can easily be observed that some Variations are more sensitive to value changes than others or in certain combination’s with other factors. This can cause many flames to seem uninteresting, ugly and sometimes just appear as a tiny spot or be completely black.

It may be possible to quickly identify what properties in those “uninteresting” flames are causing them to be blank or ugly. Often they can pop into very interesting patterns so don’t assume they are useless without doing some exploring. On the other hand, designing from scratch with a deliberate direction is easy and there are plenty of already visible and interesting randoms on which to spend exploration time.

Mutation Windows

This is a good tool and can be used a number of ways. Start with an interesting flame parameter from either a random or a custom flame.

When the Mutation panel <F7> is opened the current flame will show in the central Preview port and variations are arranged around it in 8 choices. There are controls at the bottom, a slider called Speed, a drop-down menu labeled Trend and a check box.

New values in the variation previews are assigned randomly but by using a smaller Speed factor the increments will be smaller resulting in less change per sample.

The Trend drop down menu offers a choice of variations from a list of those that are presently available to the program, whether selected or not, or an option to use a random choice of variation. By selecting a variation from the list the options displayed in the previews will have incremental changes applied to the current flame based on the chosen variation.

Restrict the range of options via the check box for the Same no. of transforms as your starting flame. If you don’t check that box, there is an control in the Options <Ctrl P>, Random tab called Mutation Transforms where you can pre-determine the minimum and maximum number of transforms that get applied by random processes.

Any time an option window is clicked it moves to the central flame and a new set of changed variations are generated around it. Click the center window and it doesn’t change but the new possibilities around it are updated. When something interesting shows up change to a slower Speed factor. Stop and Save any parameters that you might want to explore later.

Because of all the preview windows this way of exploring can make the program run slower as each change requires so many windows to update. The advantage is the ability to cover a lot of random variables. It can be useful when building from scratch as well as just exploring randomly.

Scripting

Possibly the best way to explore randoms is to create or use a Script. Many Scripts already exist which add transforms to a blank flame then randomly assign variations and values. This makes it possible to include just the variations that are desired and best of all, limit the range of values that are assigned to each one. Scripts can be used to save batches of carefully crafted randoms too.

The Random function in scripting generates values between 0 and 1. The goal is to develop code which calculates a minimum and maximum value, positive or negative, depending on which variation type is being worked with. This method provides greater refinement and control over the results while retaining the advantage of random exploration. Study existing scripts and read tutorials to understand how to script. Later posts will add detail to the scripting idea but to start with some very nice tutorials already exist.

Most authors of scripts intend that they be used as learning tools so download and study many of them. Unpack them if they are compressed and store them in a convenient folder under your Apo installation. Open Apo and click the Script menu to find the Open Script <Ctrl E> option. Navigate to your list of scripts and select a script. Click Edit Script <Ctrl D> and read the text of the script to study what is taking place. Save any changes with a new name.