Trip to te center of 3D hybrid fractal

[Buddhi]

Combination of Mandelbox, Menger Sponge and Mandelbulb power 2
It was very difficult to find proper way to go to the center. I missed way many times or went to some dead-end. For preparation of this animation I needed 10 hours.

Animation was rendered with Mandelbulber 0.90

Rendering time was 165 hours

Please watch in HD
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/E91yxk_pT_A&rel=1&fs=1&hd=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/E91yxk_pT_A&rel=1&fs=1&hd=1</a>

[bib]

Really impressive. One more masterpiece!

[kram1032]

That was amazing
Very futuristic

[JosLeys]

Incredible !

[Jesse]

What should i say, fantastic work.
After so many masterpieces, you should be in the next level. Genius or so 

[hobold]

I can't believe how you can keep topping yourself like this. Very interesting shapes, a beautiful flight path. An incredible journey.

[blob]

Another masterpiece!

[KRAFTWERK]

It was very difficult to find proper way to go to the center. I missed way many times or went to some dead-end. For preparation of this animation I needed 10 hours.

Great animation as always Buddhi!

I share the same prolem of navigating, I did this to make a "3d map" of my next animation-project:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/QEGdpbV_8cQ&rel=1&fs=1&hd=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/QEGdpbV_8cQ&rel=1&fs=1&hd=1</a>

[gussetCrimp]

Super-impressive Buddhi! I loved watching this. That is 165 hours of CPU time very much appreciated, thank you. Is it not possible to get inside that structure in the very middle? It looked like there were holes in it. I really wanted to peek out of the window on the left at 2'35", it looked like sunny weather outside :-)

The way out seemed trickier than the way in.

At the very beginning and ending of your video, are we on the outside of everything, with just a painting in the background? Or are we inside some outer reaches of the same structure?

Your videos feel like real explorations because they don't change scale too radically during the voyage, or so it seems. You know what would be really neat, is if your program allowed you to turn on a display--that could be stamped onto the video--that gave a speed reading or something like that, calculated by averaging motion over the last however many frames--because even if it doesn't feel like there are huge changes in viewing scale, obviously there are some, and knowing how fast you are moving (probably on a log speedometer!) would convey some of that information.

And lastly let me add my humble request for you to torrent these videos of yours somewhere. I would gladly buy them on iTunes if I could, to see them in full definition, but failing that I would be happy to help seed the torrents.

[FractalFoundation]

Buddhi - you are getting so good at exploring this incredible thing! I too am getting better at using your fantastic software, (but slowly). Thank you so much for your great contribution to Mandelbox/bulb creation! And I'm glad to see you using the hybrid functionality so beautifully.

I am still struggling a bit to navigate as beautifully as you do, and I wonder if you can share a little advice. I spend a lot of time setting up my keyframes,  but often I end up accidentally cutting through pieces of the fractal when I mean to go around an obstacle. I believe this has to do with how the parameters are interpolated. I am a bit better at navigating in Mandelbulb3D, because it lets me choose the curviness of the bezier interpolation. I don't know if this is even possible with Catmull Rom splines, but if it is I wonder if you have any plans for letting the user adjust the degree of interpolation, which might help me navigate a little less clumsily.

Regardless, I wonder if you could offer a little practical advice about how you set up your keyframes. Basically, I wonder if you tend to steer, then move forward then save a keyframe, or do you move, then steer, then save a keyframe, or do you steer in the middle of the path in between keyframes?  I keep experimenting, but without the ability to do a fast preview, like the animated gif in MB3D, I am wasting a lot of time rendering lowres test animations and then trying to figure out how to fix the one or two keyframes that cause the problem. Besides cutting through corners,  I also sometimes try to zoom up to something, and then zoom back away, but the program overshoots and smashes me inside the fractal when it renders the animation. Basically, it just looks and feels like I'm driving drunk through the fractal, and that's not so good!

Any advice on how to navigate better would be great! (Feel free to jump in, anyone else too.)

Thanks!!!

[Jameses]

wow, just wow

[Buddhi]

Hi

Thanks to all for nice comments.

I share the same prolem of navigating, I did this to make a "3d map" of my next animation-project:

Nice trick for making 3D map

Super-impressive Buddhi! I loved watching this. That is 165 hours of CPU time very much appreciated, thank you. Is it not possible to get inside that structure in the very middle? It looked like there were holes in it. I really wanted to peek out of the window on the left at 2'35", it looked like sunny weather outside :-)

No, it is not possible to go inside the structure in the middle. I tried. All holes are closed

At the very beginning and ending of your video, are we on the outside of everything, with just a painting in the background? Or are we inside some outer reaches of the same structure?

It's only background texture

I am still struggling a bit to navigate as beautifully as you do, and I wonder if you can share a little advice. I spend a lot of time setting up my keyframes,  but often I end up accidentally cutting through pieces of the fractal when I mean to go around an obstacle. I believe this has to do with how the parameters are interpolated. I am a bit better at navigating in Mandelbulb3D, because it lets me choose the curviness of the bezier interpolation. I don't know if this is even possible with Catmull Rom splines, but if it is I wonder if you have any plans for letting the user adjust the degree of interpolation, which might help me navigate a little less clumsily.

Regardless, I wonder if you could offer a little practical advice about how you set up your keyframes. Basically, I wonder if you tend to steer, then move forward then save a keyframe, or do you move, then steer, then save a keyframe, or do you steer in the middle of the path in between keyframes?  I keep experimenting, but without the ability to do a fast preview, like the animated gif in MB3D, I am wasting a lot of time rendering lowres test animations and then trying to figure out how to fix the one or two keyframes that cause the problem. Besides cutting through corners,  I also sometimes try to zoom up to something, and then zoom back away, but the program overshoots and smashes me inside the fractal when it renders the animation. Basically, it just looks and feels like I'm driving drunk through the fractal, and that's not so good!

Any advice on how to navigate better would be great! (Feel free to jump in, anyone else too.)

Keyframe editing is not so easy also for me. I also have to render previews and correct some keyframes. I think, now I have to focus on building some better keyframe editor and make some fast preview (low quality, low resolution) of animation. I have also to add some other kind of interpolation, because in Catmull Rom splines there is no possibility to adjust angles.

[FractalFoundation]

Thanks Krzysztof - I'm glad to hear you're planning to work on the keyframe editor. I remember reading somewhere you don't like building the user interfaces... but for those of us who spend HOURS every day flying through the Mandelbox, we really appreciate any improvements! In addition to being able to change the degree of interpolation, I'd also love to be able to insert or delete a keyframe in the middle, (without having to manually renumber all the frames:). Another feature that would be quite useful is the ability to change the number of frames between certain keyframes, so you can fine-tune something, say if you've made too abrupt a transition somewhere, you can just add more frames there. MB3D handles this quite well; my favorite interface for this though is UltraFractal, where you can see and manipulate the keyframes graphically on a timeline. Though Jesse's system is better in that you can choose 1-5 for the strength of the Bezier, which you can't do in UF. But whatever you come up with, I'm sure it will be a big improvement, and I know a lot of us will be grateful for the work you put into it.
Thanks!

[reallybigname]

I think this is my favorite fractal "tour" ever!   I saw it on YouTube first, and rediscovered it on here.  You rock!