Fractal Wallpapers

[acosmichippo]

Hey everybody. As a short explanation of what the heck a fractal is, i'll quote the man that defined the term (Benoit Mandlebrot): A fractal is "a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be subdivided in parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a reduced-size copy of the whole".

for those of you (like myself) who would prefer some examples (none of these pics are mine... i have modified them to fit onto the iphone, but i have provided links to the original pics):

Romanesco Broccoli (http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://pdphoto.org/jons/pictures4/plants_7_bg_082104.jpg&imgrefurl=http://pdphoto.org/PictureDetail.php%3Fpg%3D8232&h=768&w=1024&sz=126&hl=en&start=9&um=1&tbnid=jV5RMdG9653nTM:&tbnh=113&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dromanesco%2Bbroccoli%26svnum%3D10%26u m%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN) (no, it doesn't really taste like Broccoli... more like cauliflower).
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a393/acosmicfriend/Fractal_Broccoli.jpg

Snowflake (http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/media/highlights2002/snowflake0572.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/media/highlights2002/highlights2002short.htm&h=1000&w=1094&sz=249&hl=en&start=3&um=1&tbnid=qOdKAMxTgVeu4M:&tbnh=137&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsnowflake%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl% 3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DG)
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a393/acosmicfriend/snowflake0572.jpg

Snowflake (http://www.partow.net/miscellaneous/snowflakes.html)
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a393/acosmicfriend/snow_flake_03.jpg

Clouds (http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.allthegoodness.com/images/evap_09_clouds.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.allthegoodness.com/photos/%3Fview%3Dbydatetaken%26imageid%3D224&h=1200&w=900&sz=270&hl=en&start=12&um=1&tbnid=YS4ZJBRUI6ZO-M:&tbnh=150&tbnw=113&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dclouds%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3De n%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DG)
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a393/acosmicfriend/800_scale_evap_09_clouds.jpg

Coastline (http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/coasts/data/oahu/images/oahu_mar13_2003_dg.jpg)
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a393/acosmicfriend/oahu_mar13_2003_dg2.jpg

Anyway, Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal) has some cool animations that may make more sense if you watch them. In any case, this thread shall be dedicated to fractal wallpapers. There are a TON of pre-existing pictures throughout the internet that would be a shame to exclude, as well as some of my own creations... so i shall try to be clear which are mine and which aren't and give credit if it is not otherwise obvious.

For those of you who would like to take part in the madness, the fractal-generating program Apophysis (http://www.apophysis.org/) is the main thing you'll need. If you want to jazz them up a bit, then a picture editor like photoshop (or the free one i like GIMP (http://www.gimp.org/)) will do the trick.

[JoeT]

Here's my first effort...

http://www.notablephoto.com/images/traffic1.jpg

[acosmichippo]

Edited to move the examples to the OP.

[acosmichippo]

Here's the first one i made... doesn't look very fractal-like, but oh well.

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a393/acosmicfriend/Apophysis-071215-19422.jpg

[acosmichippo]

Here's my first effort...

much better than mine :)

did you photoshop yours?

[jjvaldez]

these are very coll guys they are different then the other stuff that is on here,, i like them .. thanks

[acosmichippo]

what i like about them is that they are at first glance abstract... but upon closer inspection you realize there's more to them just aesthetic appeal.

[JoeT]

much better than mine :)

did you photoshop yours?

Slightly. I added the gradient background with it and enhanced the fractal itself a tad.

[Lincoln]

I'm not sure these are fractals, as I haven't looked into them, but I am a Photoshop geek. I create stuff all the time for fun.

http://inlinethumb01.webshots.com/39360/2793820390102559397S600x600Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2793820390102559397znUnDb)

http://inlinethumb16.webshots.com/38735/2471431820102559397S600x600Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2471431820102559397FVpCvh)

http://inlinethumb34.webshots.com/39713/2117280740102559397S600x600Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2117280740102559397yDZLXJ)


http://inlinethumb04.webshots.com/38275/2196341170102559397S600x600Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2196341170102559397GPrmKz)


I'm too lazy to actually figure the things out, so I'll stick with these for now. :tounge:

- John

[Velodog2]

The 'broccoli' is practically indistinguishable from some types of coral, which of course is built of repeating building blocks as well.