Hybridize 7

Spire Mountain, a hybridized Mandelbulb
surface. Bottom panel: "Add Constant 4D".

This is my second blog post about using Mandelbulber2 software to create fractal surfaces. Here, I'll use the surface shown to the right ("Spire Mountain") as an example.

Mandelbulb surface example

For this example, I started with the basic Mandelbulb surface that is built into the software and the default material. The image to the left shows that starting fractal surface.

You can select among the available transform functions and begin reshaping the core fractal shapes.

Add Constant 4D transform

An example of a transform function is "Add Constant 4D".

You can manually enter the four parameters (x, y, z, w) or you can use an available randomizer pallet.

randomize

If you click on the randomize button then a new window opens that can be used to generate a desirable transform. An example of the pallet with some computer-generated random transforms is shown below:

A random selection of transform parameters is generated then you can select among them.

In the example shown above, I used the "medium randomization" option. From among the pallet of generated options, I selected the variant shown below:

Left, standard Mandelbulb surface. Right, the transformed surface made with "Add Constant 4D".

The effect of this transform function on the Spire Mountain hybrid surface is shown in the image at the top of this page.

To transform the standard Madelbulb surface into Spire Mountain, I went through the sequence of hybridization steps shown below:

I started with the standard Madelbulb fractal surface (inset, upper left) then six other fractals (their names are shown) were added sequentially and hybridized to produce the next modification of the surface (red arrows).

As shown below, I then zoomed in on the top half of Spire Mountain.

I liked the spire with the radiating folds. Further zoom:

I then moved the camera down and to the right, entering one of the valleys. I changed the camera angle to point at the base of the spire:

Left panel: default. Right panel: with new light source.

In the image to the right, the left panel is a quick, low resolution render. In general, the default lighting is good, but you can zoom in on some poorly lit parts of the surface.

I made my first extra light source inside one of the dark depressions. Just below the main render window is a drop-down menu that allows you to change what clicking in that window does. One option is to insert a new light source. The panel on the right ⇛ is a higher quality rendering with the added light source.

Another mode for using the cursor allows you to determine how far it is from the current camera position to a point on the surface of the fractal.

As shown to the left, you can move the cursor over the fractal surface and obtain the coordinates for points that are on the surface. The software calculates the distance from the current camera position to the point on the surface that you select with the cursor.

This distance information is useful for making decisions about how far to move the camera when you want to zoom in on the surface. If you are not careful, you can zoom in too far and move the camera inside the fractal!

For the science fantasy story that I am currently writing,  "Final Change", I wanted an illustration of an entrance leading into the highest chamber of Seelie. I zoomed in on the lower part of Spire Mountain...

Left: bottom center part of Spire Mountain. Right: after Photoshop processing.

Related Reading: Mandelbulber2 iteration controls

Next: High Seelie

visit the gallery of fractals