Pol Pot, he was a rascal.

It just basically says that the moon isn't made of cheese, it's made of stale bread crumbs and suet. It also says that Portsmouth Football Club will win the Premiership this coming season and get into the Champions League, and next season we will rule Europe with our superior stamina and precise passing skills. Last but not least it asks "where do we post the 'totally sweet fractal ninja' pics?" Zopf.

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I must be going in the opposite direction to everyone else here...

I started off using fractals in Bryce (those who have been around here longer will probly remember some of them) then I started using Photoshop to compose fractal images, now I find myself doing more 'pure' fractals. The last 14 images I have posted have only had sharpening and a name addition applied in Photoshop. As I get more and more comfortable with the fractal software i'm using, the less and less post-work I do.

As far as flame compositions go, Keith. I can only think of 3 people who have even come close to making anything as good as the ones you posted, I know I never did.

Matt.

Message edited on: 07/10/2004 08:47

Oh, as regards giving comments, I have started to change the way I do that lately, Linda. Since I don't allow ranking on my images, I also won't rank other peoples images. Instead, I incorporate my ranking into the comment. If I think an image is 'nice' then I will say so...If it's 'very nice', 'good', 'great' or 'excellent' then I will say that. Often I will see people say that an image is good or nice in a comment, and then see that they have ranked it as excellent...Am I the only person that sees this as hypocritical? If you think an image is 'good' then at least have the courage to rank it as such...Or don't rank it at all... Anyone that wants to comment 'honestly' on my images is welcome to do so. I'll even let you use my system, lol. Matt.

What if I spend 2 hours making a fractal and then because i'm fickle I decide to post-work it in photoshop. I spend 1 hour filtering it and such before i'm finally happy with it. Now this image looks nothing like a fractal anymore, but I have spent twice the amount of time creating the fractal than I have doing the post-work. In my eyes this is a fractal image because the majority of my time was spent making the fractal...Though to other people this now looks like a mixed medium image... If I post this image to the fractal gallery then am I in danger of being told it doesn't belong here? Even though I am the only person who really knows just how much fractal work went into this image... I think there is a large grey area here that is impossible to police. I think we just have to accept that some images we don't think belong here are going to be posted. The only one who knows for sure where something belongs is the artist who created it. unfortunately, some will post here instead of other galleries because they know they will get more comments in this gallery. I've done this myself in the past. I also post to other galleries occassionally. I posted one image a couple of months ago that up until a few days ago had zero comments on it, I actually learned a lot from that. As MidDayCrisis I posted images to the Bryce gallery that incorporated fractals, some were well received, others not. Art isn't defined by it's gallery, it's defined by whether or not it is any damn good...I live for comments like "I don't usually look at fractals, but this one caught my eye...". If a fractal image crosses over into the 'mainstream' and attracts people that don't normally bother looking at them, then it's a success in my eyes... I would rather have one comment like that, than any number of ego strokes. My tuppence worth... Matt.

I guess a lot of it depends on which direction you are coming from. I've used flames in compositions to create landscapes or whatever and that bores me now. Anyone can make a flame that looks kind of like a plant or tree and set it in a landscape. I admit that using UF to put the image together takes a lot more skill than using Photoshop or another graphics editor but it still needs something very special for me to get excited about it. The reason I mostly make single flame images now is because to me it is all about the flame. Take a single flame and see how far you can take it...Do something that nobody has done before. Manipulate the flame to such an extent that people question whether or not it really is a single flame. If someone believes that I must have post-worked an image or combined several flames then i've made something worth showing. I've been using Apophysis exclusively for over a year now and I believe i've only just touched the surface of what it is capable of. Every time I open it and start working on a flame I see glimpses of possibilities while I work on something else. Apophysis is a simple tool to learn to use...but like anything you need to take your time over it if you want to make something original. Some people think it would be a better tool if it had the ability to layer flames or a gradient editor that was more akin to UF. I agree that would be great but that isn't what it's about to me. I can't remember the last time I used the smooth gradient feature in Apophysis. People say they want loads of gradients or starter flames to work from, I say 'what for?'...Learn to use the gradient editor in Apophysis to it's full potential and you will be amazed at just what it's possible to accomplish with just the default gradients. Why start from someone elses flame? Isn't it more gratifying knowing that you did it on your own? Don't settle for a random flame...I've deleted some of the best looking random flames you will ever see, when I can replicate them myself then I will post them. Where is the fun or creativity in accepting something the computer made? What part have you played in creating it? You loaded the program... Ok, I better wrap this up. It started as a simple reply and turned into something else entirely. In short...Yea, flames can be boring, but you have to look beyond that and see the potential of them to be truly unique in themselves. I guess i'm bias towards this, but somebody has to stand up for the poor old flames :O) Matt.

I think with most people it comes down to a choice of two programs...Apophysis or Ultra Fractal. Apophysis is free, you download it, open it up, move the triangles a bit and you have a pic. Ultra Fractal - you download the demo, open it up and get totally confused because there are so many options to change. You spend a month getting nowhere with it and then you are reluctant to actually pay for it because you can't make anything with it. People have said before that the learning curve on Ultra Fractal takes months. With Apophysis it takes minutes. Being able to change 50,000,000 different parameters is great if you know what you are doing...If you don't then it's just daunting and frustrating. No wonder so many people are using Apophysis... Matt.

$5 an issue for a magazine that isn't even printed... I thought someone was having a turkish until I realised it's July 1st and not April 1st... I'd like to read it Rick, but unfortunately I have more sense than money! Matt.

one one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand, four one thousand, five...loaded. This page loaded in approx 5 seconds, from cold :O) I only have a 512KBs connection. I want at least a 1MBs connection but unfortunately this phone line won't support it. A 1MB file will download in about 20 seconds on here. The main reason I got it was not only to make it easier to browse web-sites like this but also to cut down on phone bills. I phone friends and relatives in America regularly from here in England which can get expensive. With a DSL connection and internet phone software I can call a land line in America for only $1.25 PER HOUR!!! and a cell phone for about $1.50 per hour. With the exchange rate of dollars to the pound...It's a bargain :OD Matt.

More totally sweet ninja pics...LOVE IT!!! Excellent pic, Terry. He goes from nice, placid, helpful ninja to super pissed, death dealing, psycho ninja in the blink of an eye! Just like real ninjas. Beebee, the really sweet thing about ninjas is that they are so badass they can do what they like! If your ninja wants to abandon the black for a more cheery appearance, then NOBODY will tell him that he can't. He could walk down the street NAKED and nobody would say a word for fear of him killing the whole town as retribution! I wish I could make a sweet ninja pic, but all I can manage are dumb Samurai. Everyone knows that Samurai are no fun cos they take themselves too seriously... Matt.

WHOA!!! TOTALLY SWEET FRACTAL NINJA PIC DUDE!!! V Not only a ninja, but a ninja's babe too...Awesome! She's servicing her man with a cuppa tea. Just like all good ninja babes should! (gonna get in trouble over that comment, heh heh). Thanks, Garth :O) On a sweet ninja fractal pic roll here... Matt. (If anyone else has any totally sweet ninja fractal pics to show off, then start a new thread called 'totally sweet ninja fractal pics' cos we going off topic here :O)).

Must admit i've seen a couple of big images this week that could have been cropped and reduced in size without any trouble at all. I guess it just isn't as frustrating to me because I have a DSL connection. When I had dial-up I always looked at the image dimensions and the thumbnail more carefully before deciding if I wanted to look at the bigger image. It's surprising how quickly you forget what dial-up is like. I used a friends connection a couple of weeks ago and was cursing at the screen because it took more than 3 seconds to load a web page, lol. Matt.

Keith, I agree with you on the image sizes if you are posting on a regular web-site, but this is an artists member web-site.

The bigger the monitor and screen resolution you have then the easier it is to work on images. As such a good percentage of the people who are viewing the images here will be able to see a 1280x960 image in one hit without scrolling and will also accept that larger images mean larger file sizes. Also, as artists themselves, they will prefer to see the image as the creator envisioned it.

I try to accomodate people with slower connections by keeping the file size as low as possible, but I want people to see my images as close as possible to how I think they should be. These days there really isn't a reason why an artist should still be using 800x600 resolution. I accept that there are people still using it, but why should I compromise myself to accommodate the few that are?

It's not a lack of consideration. It's merely wanting to show things as they should be seen.

Matt.

Message edited on: 06/27/2004 17:04

WHOA!!! TOTALLY SWEET FRACTAL NINJA PIC DUDE!!! V This has to be the best ninja fractal...ever! Probly the ONLY ninja fractal ever, lol The pink really does add to the sweetness of it. Thanks, Vivian. This made my day :O) Matt. (I think this would make a great monthly challenge subject - of course I have to win it first and since i've never entered that could be a bit hard).