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 "Fractals" and Fractal Animation Videos 
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Post "Fractals" and Fractal Animation Videos
I'm working on my latest piece (so-far called "Chromatic Jack" for piano and Stick) and had some videos pop out of the CPU-rendering oven. In addition to adding Stick(s) to my original music, I'm been doing fractal animation videos for a little over a year now, about one per every 2 weeks or so.

My latest 3D fractal animation video is called "Bottle City of Brain-Coral Kandor," and features my older solo piano tune "Fractals"--named so because it was in the key of F, and it's relative minor, thus "Fr..." and then somehow it became "Fractals." Then I searched for a cool picture to make album art and discovered the entire field of fractal animation, which seemed a perfect fit for my "soundtrack-y" music. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandelbulb, invented in 2009!) I have made some 35 videos since. This song in F changed my entire life (dramatically speaking). Then I discovered Stick (142 days now.) :D

Software: I only use Mandelbulber (mandelbulber.com) now, both the newest CPU version and the old GPU version. There is also Mandelbulb 3D, which is good, and others, which are less good and expensive. The two best are also free.

CPU(s):
i7 5960X, 8-core, overclocked to 4.4 GHz
Dell i7 4790 (not the K), 4-core, at around 3.6 GHz
Other CPUs around the house if I want to render-farm

GPU(s):
Two MSI GeForce GTX 980s (overclocked but not SLI'd together)

Bottle City of Brain-Coral Kandor Video:
This one's shot through a fish-eye lens, the first time I've tried that. I'm digging it, but it's strange and new to me as well. I'm using Superman primary colors for the pedestal (Bottle City of Kandor comes from Supes home planet Krypton and is a long comics story) and I had a version with an actual fractal city, but I like the brain coral better, and re-shot the entire video. I might still use the fractal-city version for something else.

Music:
"Fractals" is a New Age Progressive piano piece, with some cool riffs and a lot of repetition of those cool riffs. Not much to say about it--it's firmly in my style which is very rhythmic, melodic, and not dissonant tonally or too complex harmonically. There's no "solo" on it, as such. Looking at it now, a year and a half later, I could easily add some Stick bass to it. I'll probably not--I'm resisting the urge to just add Stick bass lines to old stuff. I'd like to concentrate on making new stuff with the Stick instead of Stickifying my old stuff--unless it was already lacking for a good bass line or guitar solo (of which I do have several good candidates--ah, not enough time in the day!).

I appreciate your patience with this not-very-Sticky composition and the fractal animation videos. I welcome all feedback and questions and comments!

Steve
Paigan Productions

YouTube Version:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnFnujaVgts[/youtube]

Vimeo better-quality version (and downloads of original video at best quality!): https://vimeo.com/151973061

Soundcloud audio-only version:

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Sat Jan 16, 2016 5:54 am
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Post Re: "Fractals" and Fractal Animation Videos
Wow, crickets. :oops: Sorry, guys!

I'll leave off on the fractal music video stuff here, then. Cheers; no worries at all. The Japanese say "Junin Toiro" or "Ten, People: Ten Colors." Different strokes for different folks. Thanks anyway!

Cheers, Steve :geek:
--Still fractally gonna rock it out anyway, 'cause I'm addicted.

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Steve Sink, Laser Fractals
Rosewood 10-string, #5989, M4s
Sapphire Railboard, #6763, MR
Wenge-on-Wenge NS/Stick, #170130, Bass 4ths
http://soundcloud.com/stephen-sink-1
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-RDlN ... Ez0hN49_Qg


Mon Jan 18, 2016 3:55 am
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Post Re: "Fractals" and Fractal Animation Videos
Hey buddy....
I'm gonna pipe in with a feel good reply.....that was cool. There, the crickets went away. Thats some mighty fine piano playing dooder.
The fractals look like H. Pylori virus, or warty Big Macs.....eheh

cheers,
Spacetyme Continuum

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Mon Jan 18, 2016 1:07 pm
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Post Re: "Fractals" and Fractal Animation Videos
kevin-c wrote:
Hey buddy....
I'm gonna pipe in with a feel good reply.....that was cool. There, the crickets went away. Thats some mighty fine piano playing dooder.
The fractals look like H. Pylori virus, or warty Big Macs.....eheh

cheers,
Spacetyme Continuum
Thanks, Kev! I didn't mean to come off as whiny about the crickets. Not everyone cares about stuff that I like, and I've been okay with that since I was 8 and the world's biggest Spider-Man man! Although I seem to have some company now in liking the superhero stuff, so that comforts a nerd greatly: We the nerdy and meek have inherited the Earth! Or at least Hollywood.

Believe it or not, some of my friends and family and co-workers are tired of hearing me rave about the Chapman Stick also! :o

No, I just meant if people here aren't interested in this, I'll keep it to myself. I'll keep doing it anyway--try to stop me!--and you can always check out my Vimeo or Youtube pages for all the fractals I've been doing. My sig block is my shameless-hussy plug for my stuff. I always feel weird sharing my pre-Stick music anyway, and I get that this forum digs performance videos--so do I! I know y'all will listen to my Stick music, without me having to also get the dancing bears out (fractally speaking). The piano music lends itself so well to being soundtrack music, that it's been a good fit for the animation stuff.

Thanks for chirping in!

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Rosewood 10-string, #5989, M4s
Sapphire Railboard, #6763, MR
Wenge-on-Wenge NS/Stick, #170130, Bass 4ths
http://soundcloud.com/stephen-sink-1
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-RDlN ... Ez0hN49_Qg


Mon Jan 18, 2016 2:00 pm
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Post Re: "Fractals" and Fractal Animation Videos
Hey dooder, by all means...keep posting the fractal art. We're all artists here (I use that term loosely about myself,ehehe).
I actually know a tiny bit about fractals and the math behind it. Cool concept of tiny copies of tiny copies of tiny......I dont need to explain it to you of course.

The snow flake I think is a great example of a natural fractal.....correct me if I'm wrong, but have I got that right?

I know what you mean about trying to get folks interested in you own little worlds. I see my wifes eyes glaze over as I talk to her about the shit that interests me, Stick stuff and multiple witness UFO sightings. She just yawns and says "what did you say again....I wasn't listening"

Bet she would pay attention if she got abducted by the grays.....

ehehe

I dig art that has its roots in some sort of techie background, so......I'm on your team.

cheers,
Francis Crick

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Mon Jan 18, 2016 2:23 pm
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Post Re: "Fractals" and Fractal Animation Videos
Snowflakes are very much fractals, and so are trees and a lot of natural formations. Without getting TOO deep into it, the very fabric of our universe is extremely fractal, and the videos I make are all generated from mathematical formulas small enough to literally print on a T-shirt, yet a 6 KB file can generate infinite detail, and create 40 GB videos, to the limit of my supercomputers to draw out the math. These videos are simply the computer plotting pixels like a Texas Instruments calculator drawing out graphs. Remember the awesome Spirograph and the art that simple shapes done over and over again with slight variations combined could make? That such complexity can arise from the simple iteration of a simple formula blows my mind in the coolest way--well, 4th, 5th, and even up to 20-dimensional math is hardly "simple" but it CAN fit on a T-shirt and would look like this:

Image

Here's a fourth grader explaining fractals in nature:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZM45mfJQ40[/youtube]

At the risk of nerding on a bit farther:
This touches on the Wolfram Alpha guy (Stephen Wolfram), who believes that plotting simple graphs called "Elementary cellular automaton" (like fractals) can generate the entire complexity of the universe--meaning, the entire universe could be reduced to a single formula. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elementary_cellular_automaton

Probably because we are all simulations on an alien computer anyway. :ugeek: (now I'm too far out.) I need very little encouragement! :)

kevin-c wrote:
Hey dooder, by all means...keep posting the fractal art. We're all artists here (I use that term loosely about myself, hehe).
I actually know a tiny bit about fractals and the math behind it. Cool concept of tiny copies of tiny copies of tiny......I dont need to explain it to you of course.

The snow flake I think is a great example of a natural fractal.....correct me if I'm wrong, but have I got that right?

I know what you mean about trying to get folks interested in you own little worlds. I see my wifes eyes glaze over as I talk to her about the shit that interests me, Stick stuff and multiple witness UFO sightings. She just yawns and says "what did you say again....I wasn't listening"

Bet she would pay attention if she got abducted by the grays.....

ehehe

I dig art that has its roots in some sort of techie background, so......I'm on your team.

cheers,
Francis Crick

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Steve Sink, Laser Fractals
Rosewood 10-string, #5989, M4s
Sapphire Railboard, #6763, MR
Wenge-on-Wenge NS/Stick, #170130, Bass 4ths
http://soundcloud.com/stephen-sink-1
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-RDlN ... Ez0hN49_Qg


Mon Jan 18, 2016 3:21 pm
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Post Re: "Fractals" and Fractal Animation Videos
Funny, thats the exact equation I had in mind this morning as I was shovelling snow....... :ugeek:
Love the Wolfram Alpha site, I use it from time to time.

cheers,
Wolf Gang

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Mon Jan 18, 2016 3:55 pm
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Post Re: "Fractals" and Fractal Animation Videos
As I was constructing a nuclear reactor from my hot water heater that very equation came in handy, just gotta divide it by Pi.

Lol cool stuff Stephen, keep posting and I will keep listening. I wish more people posted their stuff, actually!

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Mon Jan 18, 2016 5:29 pm
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Post Re: "Fractals" and Fractal Animation Videos
I should point out that the extra-dimensional math going on here is entirely done by the program and by the programmer, and not by me. I'm just a musician who counts to 4 and then starts over again (unless I'm getting fancy in 5!). Mandelbulber 2.06 (just out a few month ago) is literally set up with a toolbar at the top, where you can point and click on the shape you want to start. There are bulbs (balls with gnarly knobs), and boxes, and that's 80% of the ones I use. Then there are more specialized Mandelbrot sets, and Julia sets, and hybrid sets, and yadda yadda. Like music theory, like baseball statistics, like quantum physics, it's all very simple stuff but you can dig down deep into the rabbit hole or just putter around on top with cool shapes and bouncy lights.

Like music theory, there's a lot of names for shit most people know intuitively or by ear. The cool thing here is that there are shapes I've never seen before--whatever they're called. No voodoo here: it was Fractal number 7, all the buttons smashed, and randomized, until something cool pops up--oh, look, there's a bunny!
This I call a mushroom! (By the creator of the program, Krzysztof Marczak, his art here: http://krzysztofmarczak.deviantart.com/)
Image

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Steve Sink, Laser Fractals
Rosewood 10-string, #5989, M4s
Sapphire Railboard, #6763, MR
Wenge-on-Wenge NS/Stick, #170130, Bass 4ths
http://soundcloud.com/stephen-sink-1
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-RDlN ... Ez0hN49_Qg


Last edited by paigan0 on Mon Jan 18, 2016 6:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Mon Jan 18, 2016 5:52 pm
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Post Re: "Fractals" and Fractal Animation Videos
kevin-c wrote:
Funny, thats the exact equation I had in mind this morning as I was shovelling snow.....
Jayesskerr wrote:
As I was constructing a nuclear reactor from my hot water heater that very equation came in handy, just gotta divide it by Pi.
You guys need to start thinking about a nuclear-powered snow shoveler. As a Michigander to a couple of Canuckians, we could all use one. Cheers, guys! I appreciate you!

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Steve Sink, Laser Fractals
Rosewood 10-string, #5989, M4s
Sapphire Railboard, #6763, MR
Wenge-on-Wenge NS/Stick, #170130, Bass 4ths
http://soundcloud.com/stephen-sink-1
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-RDlN ... Ez0hN49_Qg


Mon Jan 18, 2016 5:59 pm
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