Fractalicious
"With its expansive resolution, lighting and shadow, various textural qualities, and color depth, the complex beauty of the Mandelbulb becomes a thing to behold."
THE CREATORS PROJECT
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FOREWORD
Dear visitor,
Over the years I've gathered experience in film, 3D animation and VFX that I now try to expand with a little help from fractals . Fractal shorts are great for developing skills – they are exercises in framing, composition, color and style. In 2014 I started creating Fractal shorts , but also tutorials , virtual reality experiences and immersive films for domes.
Now I've combined all this material on this website, for easy browsing and categorization. I've also included some new content , like a gallery page with some fractal artwork.
For people interested in the process and techniques I've also written a little background on each Fractal short. The articles vary in scope; some are about techniques , others are more about the idea behind it or some hurdle I had to take to finish the piece..
I've also included the animation files for each Fractal short. You may download it and open it with the free software ( Mandelbulb3D ) to study your favorite fractal or maybe improve upon it. More information on the software in the about section. You can find the background and animation file in each of the Fractal Shorts .
If you feel you want to donate some money to support my work you are very welcome as I've embedded a 'donate' button in the about section.
The aim of this website is two-fold: I want to promote my own work so that more people will see it, and give suggestions and feedback so that I can become better at what I love doing by doing more of it. On the other hand I also hope to inspire people to create , and want to share what I've learned with the community that I've learned so much from.
Julius Horsthuis
Algebra of Awe
In Algebra of Awe I took a dive into space-like nebulae between fractal dimensions. As if we’re attuned to gasping upon the intricacies of mathematics, delightful geometry, algebra of awe.
Creating this was a mix of fun and technicality, working with Mandelbulb3D to reveal different layers. Each layer, with its unique color and math-inspired mist, was carefully blended in After Effects. The final rendering undergoes HDR grading, thereby imbuing certain fractal elements with an ethereal luminosity, reminiscent of radiant galaxies.
The soundtrack to this visual journey is 'Cloudless Sky' by Mirage of Deep, adding a musical layer to the experience.
Algebra of Awe has special significance for me. It's a journey that echoes back to when I first dipped my toes into the mesmerizing world of fractals, almost exactly 10 years ago. Back then, I published my very first fractal short, Geiger’s Nightmare, setting the stage for an exploration that has brought me nothing but joy and happiness.
Broken Molecules
music: Polynation - Coral Pt II
First Fractal Short that I’ve completely made and mastered in HDR color space. Best viewed on YouTube with an HDR capable display, but Vimeo is also supported on select devices (Only iOS)
The Bulbox P-2 with Amazing Surf in Julia mode gives this highly intricate lace of fractal surface to explore. I use multiple render passes to bring out the colors.
The Shpongle Sessions
The Shpongle Sessions
Shpongle. An amazing band / musical project that I’ve been a fan of for over 20 years. Yet I’ve never used their music for my fractals. Until now. This little fractal trilogy is an homage to the profoundly original and swinging music of Shpongle. Part 1 is set on the music The Epiphany of Mrs Kugla, and consists of an old-school morphing fractal. All Mengers and Amazing Surfs that morph in a Julia mode. Part 2 is a a fractal photogrammetry I created from Mayan artifacts during my stay in Mexico. It’s set to a beautiful flute solo called Exhalation. Part 3 is a bit of a compilation – The original version of the song Levitation Nation was called Beija Flor, which means hummingbird in Portuguese. I tried to create a fractal bird and flower-like dance. The clouds you see in this part are shot by me in Tulum. Julius Horsthuis
Fractal Glassforms
Inspired by the wonderful music from Brubaker, Cooper and Glass. Music: Prelude 5 - Bruce Brubaker / Max Cooper Opening - Bruce Brubaker / Max Cooper / Phillip Glass from “Glassforms”
Cigno Frattale
Gestalt
A Memory Palace
Not Bound
My trip through the Rhine Valley in Germany and the Morvan in France turned into a spiritual journey about death and loss through what appears to be Middle-Earth. I combined Mandelbulb3D fractals with photogrammetry captures from scenery that I encountered. The music I used is Mimi Page’s cover of Aniron by Enya. mimipage.bandcamp.com/
I’ve experimented a few times before with having real objects (or people) merged in the fractal scenes. Technically this is challenging, but aesthetically it’s even harder. Because the fractal itself is such a harmonious composition, any foreign object immediately sticks out. By showing the imperfections of both methods and imperfectly compositing them I hope I partly circumvented that issue. I still think that there’s a more prominent place to be had for fractals in visual media, and this is another exercise on that track. I found this wonderful Enya cover by Mimi Page, who makes the melody sound like a sweet perfume. I recognized that having this kind of music and fantasy-visuals can quickly become extremely cheesy, like a bad LOTR fan film, but I hoped that the confidence of the music and the true nature of the fractal storytelling would help me overcome that trap.
Tools used are -Mandelbulb3D -Reality Capture -After Effects -Element3D -Look Suite
-Model of woman is Jenna Marie Finney
Chromatic Apparition
Multiple variations of the same fractal interact to create Chromatic Apparitions.
Music is Murcof - Chapitre II
Great Conscious Barrier
Since 2016, a fifth of all the coral in the world has perished.
If the trend continues, all remaining reefs will disappear in the next 40 years.
A Fractal Fantasy of Coral.
by http://www.julius-horsthuis.com/
Music: Melodysheep - First Moments https://melodysheep.bandcamp.com/track/first-moments
rendered in Mandelbulb3D
Sphere Invasion
It should actually read ‘Sphere Inversion’, since these ineffable negative space objects are mathematically perfect spheres that invert their surroundings.
I’ve seen these types of objects a lot on my fractal journeys, but never before did I truly understand what they were. It seems such a relatively simple idea, yet I’ve never before seen this implemented as a visual effect. I’d love to see examples of this applied to realistic geometry, other than these fractals.
I could have also called this film ‘Artifacts’ since it’s full of artifacts such as jitter, motion estimation problems, upscaling issues, etc. Rendering time was limited so I had to compromise.
Music is “Inner Fireworks” by the amazing Eric Serra, from the movie Lucy.
All is rendered in Mandelbulb3D and composited in After Effects
the Designoid Dimension
In the 1990's Richard Dawkins coined the term Designoid to mean that what came up by accident but appears to be designed.
Fractals are filled with this Illusion of Design.
by http://www.julius-horsthuis.com/
music:
Bluetech - Bardo Waves
rendered in Mandelbulb3d, in crystal clear 4K
Fractals all the way Up
Two cute Mandelbulbian creatures are stargazing (very much alive, pumping with potential!) as they realize it's fractals all the way up.
by http://www.julius-horsthuis.com/
rendered in Mandelbulb3D in 4K
music:
Boards of Canada - Dayvan Cowboy
Lemmet 2584
Ballad Ruins
by http://www.julius-horsthuis.com/
rendered in Mandelbulb3D
music:
"Blade Runner" by Hans Zimmer
(from the Blade Runner 2049 Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Carboniferous Digression
Fractal Art is Exploration.
Welcome to the Carboniferous.
Music:
Asura - Territories part one
Abiotic Awareness
An unconventional research facility in the arctic is suspected of running unholy experiments on human consciousness.
What follows is purely Fractal - and open for interpretation. Thematically it's inspired by a popular Netflix anthology.
Rendered in 4K.
http://www.julius-horsthuis.com/
Music:
Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand)
by Irma Thomas (stretched 500%)
Fraktaal
"At what point will the next Hollywood sci-fi blockbuster be just a mouse click away?"
-GIZMODO
‘Fraktaal’ is a fantasy sci-fi short without a story.
www.julius-horsthuis.com
Original Soundtrack by
www.DavidLevyMusic.com
I borrowed the aesthetic from Science Fiction films, and isolated that into something that I hope will stimulate the imagination into its own spacefaring journey.
It so happens that I’m a lazy animator.
Using fractals, I can conjure up entire worlds without having to draw or model anything. These shapes hide in the formulas, they exist in a mathematical reality, all I need to do is explore those worlds and make them reveal themselves. For me, that discovery has become one of the most thrilling aspects of digital filmmaking.
Julius Horsthuis
Elemental Processing Unit
Elemental Fractals, by
www.julius-horsthuis.com
music: Eric Serra - Timecrash