Welcome to Fractal Forums

Long ago my father told me to find something I love, and find a way to make a living from it. I tried, but found myself in a 35 year career that I didn't exactly love. I love exploring fractals, and given the chance, I find I spend a lot of time doing it.

So, has anybody managed to make money with fractals, and if so, how? I think a lot of us would like to know just how to turn this hobby into one that can help pay the bills. Even wild ideas could be food for thought.

I have a dream of giving the planetarium "laser Floyd" concept a run for their money. Imagine fractal movies projected on a planetarium dome, with live musicians jamming to the imagery. The trick is convincing the powers that be to take the chance.

I think there are enough of us factolites to get the attention of the world, but we just have to find a way to do it.

fratcal fridays uses a planetarium, once a month to show fractal films ...

I know all about Dr. Wolfe's efforts and his Fractal Foundation, and I do wish to see that spread around. Not all of us can get to Albuquerque on the first Friday of the month, though. I recommend that anybody who can do so, make the trip and go to the show.

But, there are other possibilities as well, aren't there? Other ways to spread fractals about, get the general public exposed, and expand the market, so to speak, for what we are so good at doing?

ehm, to be true, i try to make a living out of fractals as well, right now i try to broaden audience by making the tvshow, basically my idea is to get more buyers for the calendar, it is a far way in front of me to make this a living, but it is the thing I HAVE TO DO and if some day the selling of merchandise could make up for a living it would be great, i would suggest the following to make money out of it:

- simple realtime 3d fractal animation syncronized to music, sellable to party organizers
- high quality fractal art, the stuff bib and kraftwerk are showing at värmlands museum, dunno how much their revenue is
- sell fractal merchandise, buy a 3d printer, paint the stuff by yourself and sell them for a reasonable price ...
-

I guess it would be a hard business. Because some things in life are only great if you are doing them by your own, so with fractals ... researching, exploring, finding and tuning is the real kick .. not consuming. And people aren't spending real money on digital images or posters. They spend money for cinema movies, which are not only an unimaginable effort but an associable content! So .. if there's no breathtaking 1:30h i-max movie with fantastic music ...

But maybe a M3D renderfarm would be a first stage for the aim.

I've seen skateboards offered with fractals somehow drawn on them.  They have a very lacquered look, but I don't recall the site or any description of the process.  I think it was a site something like Red Bubble, where the board wouldn't actually be made until it was ordered.

Then I thought, there MUST be some guitars with fractals out there.  A google image search found a very interesting example.  But it was obviously a long shot, insofar as generating income is concerned.  I didn't look for details but I it seems like the contest prize involved would have been considerable.
Check who chose the winning design (a fractal collage):
http://www.ibanez.co.jp/JEMUV/winner.html

Slightly disconcerting was a note I saw on another page which said this:
"Update: We would like to congratulate Alessandro Serrago for winning the Jem 77,777 contest. Although elements were taken from a free art website, much of the design was based on his ingenuity."

http://www.vai.com/category/steves-equipment/

I don't know what to make of that, but IMHO, the fractal arrangement on that guitar is kind of weak compared to what I've seen *consistently* displayed here.

Personally I've never wanted to mix any fractal thing I do with money.  It would spoil it for me.
But that's just me and I don't have any qualms about people earning some bucks selling *their own* material.

Obviously many people are already marketing fractal images whether they're merely taking advantage of a relatively unknown visual form or they're people who put considerable effort into producing meaningful and worthwhile works.
Fred

Here in India fractals can be used in fashion designing especially in women sarees. And yes u can earn money a lot.

For example see the abstract designs here.
http://www.anshusdesigns.com/
Search for india women saree design in google. :-)

Random ideas:

I second the three-dimensional art objects idea, although the key would be to use durable materials, unless we're just looking at museum pieces.

Some people make fractal software and sell it. Although, often 3d software is given away for free.

A fractal exploration video game might attract a following. One where the world is constantly changing and there's some goal in how to occupy it or use it to solve a problem.

A few layman's level books on the subject could sell, if the quality of the pictures and explanations capture's a wide audience. Certainly, the current societal exposure of fractals is very small.

For scientists, I'm sure there's a few problems in physics and biology that could benefit from 3-D fractal analysis.

The real art is the marketing and how you sell yourself. And it doesn't matter what it is. A good example is this ...

(http://www.spiegel.de/img/0,1020,862146,00.jpg)

Believe it or not, this (hmm .. i think its a toilet door) went away for 65 Million Dollars!!!
So we just should establish a totally rich and stupid clientele. ;D

Sorry ... I couldn't resist.  :evil1:

(http://feelgreat.at/lxh/temp/65mio_toilet.jpg)

apt context - as usual!
 rofl2 rofl2 rofl2

lol

Looks ar Mark Rotko. (He is almoust of the same place as am I.)

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truth hurts truth hurts truth
but change is coming!
but change is
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hears a very effective way to market fractals

http://www.etsy.com/listing/61228211/green-swirl-fractal-glass-tile-pendant?ref=sr_gallery_19&ga_search_query=fractals&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_ship_to=ZZ&ga_min=0&ga_max=0&ga_search_type=all


oh and you know my public domain thing don't accidentally  think links are public domain they aren't

only "MY" art is not other web pages

Hmmm...
I guess it ends up depending on how exactly you related to making fractals.

If you have some success to make stunning fractals go along with the real world in an affordable, relatively quick way, you coul do special effect fractals in movies or advertisment.
Selling images, even high quality prints, isn't all too great if you don't manage that one step to fame.
Becoming famous with your art requires that you can interpret something in it, give it a purpose and sell the thoughts behind it.

If you are a programmer, why not get money by programming? That supposedly is a fairly good field to dive into...

Beyond that, maybe you could try doing deep, true, serious research and publish your findings to some kind of scientific paper. This forum essentially collaboratively developed triplex-algebra (or rather a generalization of quaternion algebra) aswell as two or three fundamental new kinds of 3D fractals. Surely there is still quite a bit of research possible in the direct analysis of those new sets. Their behavior, their "islands of order", the regions where they break into chaos,their exact dimensionality, etc.
It might be the most demaning route but if you're careful, you can probably make money that way.

You could also try to do a charming little show on YT where the protagonists are fractals. Become, say, a partner of youtube, start a kickstarter campain, become viral, raise your 10000$ request in a single day ( http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/437762268/brawl-in-the-family-volume-one - admitedly, he already was very popular when he started it all... but still)

Else... I can't *really* think of much. Maybe you can start working with some group like khanacademy (http://www.khanacademy.org/contribute). They keep growing and as far as I was able to gather (which honeslty isn't all that much), their doings are quite liberal, as long as it helps the overal project in a way. So if you can figure out, how that might be the case, you might become a paid employee of them. - Most people simply are voluntary though.
You might find other such projects aswell.

whell ok but ill tell you a secret It's very easy for me to put purpose to my fractals there hand made and easy to control see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzBwVCSFZPY

Handmade, ok... but still, they are 2D-images.
Static images can sell but it's difficult.
Better have some merchandise around it like cups or calendars... (I totally didn't steal those ideas from cKleinhuis :P)
Or if you get your fractals to be actual solids, THAT would be neat.

Hmm, I wonder.... Would it be possible to have a menger-like cup?
Like, due to the fractal properties, liquid will stay inside the cup despite all the holes?
Would be a nice 3D-printer experiment...
I suppose, as long as the biggest holes aren't bigger than a certain treshold, the surface tension should keep the liquid inside the cup... right?

i think that printed 3d fractal objects are making perfect selling merchandise, the problem with a menger cup would in my eyes to be
how to clean it ?!?!?

yeah bacteria love to live in fractals you should check this out

http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-501083_162-20060003.html

remember a traditional sponge is pretty much a hollow 3d Apollonian gasket   

Oh, that's right, I didn't even think about the cleaning  :D
It was more of a half-joke anyway. But other fractal stuff could be nice.
How about a super-hydrophobic spiky (because fractally) sphere? :D Drop it into water and it will have a really nice silvery outline.
The fact that sponges are great living spaces for bacteria is also somewhat related to why "active-coal" works. It's essentially micro-sponges, taking in all the micro-dirt and not letting it out anymore. That kind of coal-filtering is very effective in making water drinkable again.

Either way, 3D-printing fractals might be one of the best ways to get money out of them, especially if they double as a more practical purpose. That is either really neat physical properties or just standard use and the fractally component makes them look cool.

Why with a Menger Sponge of course!

lol

rofl

Well THAT was an obvious one.
Nice catch :D

Rathinagiri has a good point... Custom textiles are huge....  the skateboards, snow boards, surfboards would also be a market.. or "skinit".... personally I would be happy to sell high quality prints... just need to get good enough and start circulating in some the local galleries.. or talking to some people down in the city..