Mandelbulb - 3D Fractal Generator [Freeware]

I was recommended I try out this free little program called Mandelbulb when I was in composition class yesterday. It takes Benoit Mandelbrot's formulas and processes and creates a 3D render of a fractal. You can input/change variables in the program to access the algorithm and modify how the object acts. Really interesting stuff, take a little while to mess around with it and learn the program's quirks.
As I said, it's freeware and open-source, so it may be less-than-functional at times. If you can get it running, it's worth it though.

http://mandelbulb.com/category/introduction/

Here are a couple things I've made with Mandelbulb since yesterday- the rendered images have been put into photoshop and messed about with (backgrounds added, etc):


Raw export:


Photoshop edit:


Take it for a spin!

I've been looking for something like this for a long time, thanks! I wish there was a way to generate these in real time and map parameters from music on to it. Maybe that's beyond the realm of freeware?

You can generate iterations of them and create animations, but yeah you'd have to program something yourself to do that, and fractal rendering is really processor-heavy so I doubt there's any way you'd be able to do it in realtime...

Waxlimbs wrote:You can generate iterations of them and create animations, but yeah you'd have to program something yourself to do that, and fractal rendering is really processor-heavy so I doubt there's any way you'd be able to do it in realtime...

Fair enough. I've been meaning to dust off my programming skills for a while, maybe I can work something out.

Anyway thanks for sharing, your stuff looks really cool!

Thanks! These are just sketches done for my first time using the program, so I'm still unsure really of how it works. You might be interested in trying Touchdesigner by Derivative? It's a virtual modular object-oriented system.

Waxlimbs wrote:Thanks! These are just sketches done for my first time using the program, so I'm still unsure really of how it works. You might be interested in trying Touchdesigner by Derivative? It's a virtual modular object-oriented system.

You're giving me some real gems here, thanks! Definitely going to have to sit down and dive into that.