In the 90s we had rendering software that took about 10 minutes to general a single 2D fractal. I loved playing with it.
When I went to university, as part of a course, we watched a video where someone had created animations by adjusting a single parameter of the (2D) fractal over time. They'd spent untold hours of processing time to generate the frames. It was magical because it helped to offer insights into how the parameters are tied to the shape of the structure. I seem to recall fractals that looked like they were slapping each other's hands.
This is the first time I've really seen fractal software in the last 10-15 years. At university we talked about how it would exist one day, but damn, that's just incredible to see.
You might like to try out Mandelbrot Maps. It allows real-time interactive exploration of the relationship between the Mandelbrot set and associated Julia sets. (There is a corresponding Julia set for each point on the Mandelbrot set, and some striking structural similarities.) Also, the images it produces are beautiful. :-)
Disclaimer: I wrote the original version for my MSc project 7 years ago. Future students added further improvements in later years, including notably creating two Android apps. All versions are free and open source software.
In the 80's I wrote pascal code on my 8088 box to generate mandelbrots. Would leave it running overnight, and excitedly jump out of bed in the morning to see what it produced. Four colour CGA awesomeness. Impressed the teachers at school, they had no idea what to make of it. (Unfortunately no girl ever kissed me because of my teenage fractal prowess.)
My eyes are watering watching these new 3D creations.
In the 90s we had rendering software that took about 10 minutes to general a single 2D fractal. I loved playing with it.
When I went to university, as part of a course, we watched a video where someone had created animations by adjusting a single parameter of the (2D) fractal over time. They'd spent untold hours of processing time to generate the frames. It was magical because it helped to offer insights into how the parameters are tied to the shape of the structure. I seem to recall fractals that looked like they were slapping each other's hands.
This is the first time I've really seen fractal software in the last 10-15 years. At university we talked about how it would exist one day, but damn, that's just incredible to see.