Precipice by Abysimus

Fractal • Sea/Undersea • posted on Sep 26, 2010

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Description

There are on our planet, places like this. I have personally seen them. You can find them in the deep ocean trenches. Suddenly, unexpectedly, an oasis of luminous life appears. Although the beauty of it is staggering, that is actually a secondary consideration. Primary (at least for me), is the realization that the abundance, diversity, and strangeness of life forms is so extraordinary that the wildest flights of fancy cannot do it justice. The greatest minds of science fiction have not even dreamed of such magic. Yet there it is in front of you. I try (to the extent my humble abilities allow) to depict this magic in many of my pieces. I hope that in some measure I succeed. It is a vision worth sharing. Created in Ultra Fractal. The crystal sphere in the foreground (upper left) is a magnification technique I use in many of my pieces to simulate zoom (although this is the first example at Renderosity). It magnifies the area directly beneath the point where it is positioned. This allows the viewer to see parts of the fractal that are so small they would otherwise be invisible (also, I think it looks cool). The level of magnification (in this case a factor of 1000 [although the actual range is infinite]) is controlled by varying the refractive index of the crystal. Think of it as a microscope with infinite magnification capability. Ultra Fractal has a mapping algorithm to do this. Or you can just pretend it is a bathysphere (I am happy either way).

Comments (12)

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greyone

8:00AM | Sun, 26 September 2010

This is a magnificent image!! Your work is always impressive but this above and beyond. That magnifier you used, is it an add-on to the program? or is it something i would already have and just not know where it is? I love the idea of such a tool.

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