Scripts and Spirals
posted by Keith at 8:46 PMA few days ago I came across a cool flame that looked like it was from the nursery in the movie "Alien". It was unusual and fascinating. Wondering what other creative images that this person had come up with, I had a look at her gallery. In it were several images that were variations of the same image. It was then obvious that these images came from a script.
I was immediately disappointed. Running a script and tweaking the results does not seem very creative to me, but when I thought about it, I realized how hypocritical that my attitude was. When I was an active apo user I ran all sorts of scripts and I enjoyed doing so. Scripts are just part of the apo deal. There is nothing wrong with them. They are easily recognized, but so what? If you or I want to fill our galleries full of images from the same script, no problem.
A couple of years ago I was obsessed with a floral theme. Every image that I created was a variation of the same image, and I created dozens of them. It could be said that I started from the same place every time, like what a script does, but instead of being criticized, I was given credit for developing a style.
What matters most is that each of us feels satisfied by what we do. I learned that hard lesson when I was mouthing off on the UF list a few years ago. If we are not happy with what we do, it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks.
Every image that I created in the flower series had a spiral in it. To me, spiral = fractal. I consider myself to be a fractal artist, so I make spirals and I am not ashamed of it :-) It's nice to take a break and do a glyph or a gnarl but I usually end up combining those non-spiral images with spiral images.
I know that some people believe that there are too many spirals but I see no point in avoiding them. That's like avoiding bird photos or sunsets because there are too many of those. There may be too many of all of them, but I still enjoy them.
8 Comments:
Thanks for opening my eyes to what fractal programs can do. I had no idea of the seeming irregularity they can achieve.
Do you have to seed random numbers into the algorithm or is it within the formula?
I've always had a "thing" for spirals. For some reason they are endlessly fascinating. Never apologise for a good spiral :)
I'm with you on spirals, Keith! (I recently wrote a journal on my dA account about them http://welshwench.deviantart.com/journal/16669207/#comments)
I do think there is a difference between an individual artist having a personal style and a couple of dozen - or more - different artists creating work in the same style because they're all using the same scripts. But then, I suppose that's no different to a couple of dozen traditional media artists painting the same still-life subject.
Rob,
The fractal software that I use has a Photoshop layering concept built into it. This allows multiple fractal images to be combined into one image and it pushes the image beyond the capabilities of a single formula.
The parameters of all formulas have defaults. They are generally not random numbers. The user is allowed to preview the effect of changing the parameters and thereby choose what they want the image to look like. That's where the art comes in.
Thanks Keith for that helpful explanation. I think I understand it better now ... fascinating :-)
Can I add something from the point of view of relative ignorance?
I love the way that fractal manipulation reflects the way the universe seems to hold itself together when viewed from an astronomical or atomical point of view.
The mental image I get from the juxtaposition of the three elements, atomical, astronomical and human interaction is amazing - although very difficult to explain.
I think that is why we find fractals so attractive. They look natural, like they grew in a garden or on a coast line, or they came from the sky.
I go back and forth when it comes to spirals. Back in the early days of Winfract/Fractint, I avoided spirals because that was just about ALL I ever saw in fractal art. And because I couldn't figure out how to make one! lol I sort of imposed my own sense of "order" by zooming sections of fractals and manually making 4x kaleidos with PSP4. Thought I was pretty slick, I did! lol Here's some - http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=797611 - made with Flarium24/PSP4 and - http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1077483 - made with Winfract/PSP4. Imagine my elation at discovering the Kaleidoscope mapping when UF2 came out! (was there ever a UF ONE?) Since I didn't use the more manipulative/functional Fractint, I probably missed out and that was maybe why I couldn't make spirals to begin with anyhow.
I also was into pasting lots of different fractals into a PSP image to make surreal "compositions". Check these I made in like '95 I upped at Rendo many years after the AOL days - http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=793597 - and - http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1080276 - Maybe I was doing "layers" before UF came out?
Either way, I've had a love/hate relationship with spirals since those days. On the one hand, I was overjoyed when I figured out finally how to make one and I just salivate over the shapes and excellent color choices on "doodie/thingie" or shape based spirals composed by folks like LaPurr, Linda Allison, LittleDevil2, the Welsh lady, and Jackie L. (mignon at DA) among others and some of the neat scripted Apo stuff.
And on the other hand, I rebel against the "sameness" of the general spiral shape and the "the pc made it" connotation/ammunition it seems to give to artists/viewers outside the fractal community. Even fellow digital artists seem to have this bias - there's not spiral one in my "Bedrock" pic that they picked in the MOCA a couple years ago and I intentionally avoided submitting any like that. You said something awhile back that has stuck in my head - "...do we just color the shapes/images the program makes for us?..."(sic). The "explore" function does allow for more choice/artistic decision or input than the old way. Less "finding" and more "making" involved, imho.
I seem to insist on using UF to make art that might be better/easier done with Bryce or one of the 3d programs. But I've always looked at a fractal and seen things that resemble "real" stuff and built on that and tried to compose fore/mid/background stuff with a "context" to it. Your Apo/UF compositions absolutely floored me when I saw them along with Sam Monnier's space scenes.
So I go back and forth....One thing hit me like a rock yesterday as I was looking for new grape tomatoes on one of my plants: There was a new flower stem uncoiling and the spiral shape was absolutely fascinating with the stem spiralling and the unopened flowers sticking out perpendicular around the coil and I need to get Joie to snap a pic of it b4 it straightens out. That hammered home the feeling of "groundedness" or "vaguely familiar-ness" many of us seem to get when we see a well made fractal, be it spiral or not. This might sound a little over-the-top but maybe we DO play with the math that is GOD's building blocks at a molecular/cellular level for much of his creation sorta like the cellular automata pattern that almost exactly mimics the "tent" pattern on a lot of seashells I showed you the other day. (B4 anyone gets all flat-earth on me - as Darwin said, this only 'reveals' God's hand and doesn't refute or usurp it) No matter, when it comes down to it, fractals, spiral or chaotic, seem to affect me on a level much deeper than "traditional" art types. Maybe I'm just weird...lol
Rick
"...It could be said that I started from the same place every time, like what a script does..."
The difference is that YOU created the starting point yourself. In using a script, though one may add lots of their own neat things to the beginning image, someone else did the hard work of getting you to that starting point. For myself, I'm positive I would never in a hundred years have had the discipline and knowledge required to reach the point given by many scripts and it would have been dumb luck on my part if I had....
That said, from a purely viewer oriented standpoint I'm amazed and really enjoy looking at many script-based pieces, especially the 3d Hack ones, and - from the aspect of being just a viewer - it maybe doesn't really matter how the piece came out about, just that I enjoyed it immensely.
Rick
http://rykk.deviantart.com/gallery/#_browse/digitalart
http://rykk.deviantart.com/gallery/#_browse/digitalart
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