Y.A.S.

[_db_]

Seems like fractal spirals have been done to death yet still there is great innovative beauty to be found there as in GFWorlds's glorious Hat - Spring Design

Still, even though I find more 'traditional' spirals very beautiful, when I got to close to the final image for another Working with UF homework assignment I felt there was something lacking with the image. I ended up with a somewhat unconventional composition which seemed to add a dynamic equilibrium to the image.

All C & C (especially 'C') welcome!



Thanks for taking a look,

db

[cKleinhuis]

cool color composition ... try rendering with antialias
but the spiral is somehow nice positioned 

[cKleinhuis]

does the title of the image mean: yet another spiral ?

  

[_db_]

Thanks for the nice comments Trifox, glad you like the positioning.

BTW, I did try rendering with anti-aliasing before posting. I often try both because when the noise in G.I. as used here and in other formulas is removed it can make a significant difference.

In this case with AA on the character of the 'noisy' spiral arm changed so much that it lost much of its mass and tone. This changed the character of the image considerably which significantly altered the visual balance of the figure to the ground so I decided to leave it as is.

If I was going to do a large version of this for rendering in print I'd go back and see if I could achieve a similar overall visual effect without the noise.

does the title of the image mean: yet another spiral ?

  

Of course   

[lycium]

cool color composition ... try rendering with antialias
but the spiral is somehow nice positioned 

agreed on both points!

about the natural-ness of the positioning: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibonacci_sequence

[_db_]

cool color composition ... try rendering with antialias
but the spiral is somehow nice positioned 

agreed on both points!

about the natural-ness of the positioning: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibonacci_sequence

Thank you for the kind comments Lycium.

I looked at the Fibonacci Sequence reference, and can see the relationship. I guessed the basis for the positioning might be the Golden Proportion which is a ratio of 1 : 1.618 (or .618 : 1) which is quite close.

See:

http://www.mcs.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/R.Knott/Fibonacci/fibInArt.html

Out of curiosity I opened the rendered image in PS, enlarged it 5x so I could measure accurately, and cropped from the bottom of the image to the top of the brown spiral arm. I double checked to be as sure as I could be that I got it to the pixel.

The original is 768 pixels in height, the height of the image cropped to the top of the spiral arm is 474 pixels. This is within about half a pixel of the Golden Proportion of approx. 474.64... (i.e. 768 x .61803)... or about 1/8 of 1%.

 

I had no conscious thought about the Golden Proportion when I was working on it, and doubt I could hit it again if I tried a couple dozen times !!! (My eyesight isn't that good!)


When I posted this observation on the class BBS Janet Parke kindly posted for me the UPR with a GP grid layer. When I saw the image with it there was another surprise. The center of the spiral is on a vertical GP line!





So then I checked my Mandelbrot prototype image from the class. It's also a spiral but with a single long gently curving arm sweeping upward before it closes near the top of the picture frame. The bottom of the closing spiral rests on the upper horizontal GP line and the center is also on a vertical one. I guess I like that arrangement.

Although I'm very familiar with the Golden Proportion as a basis for composition, I don't think I've never used it or any other geometric means for composition. I'm very much in the 'it looks good about here' school.

Hope you found this a bit amusing I like did ;o)

BTW Lycium, I've spent some time savouring your images on DA and am deeply impressed not only by your artistry but by your ability create software tools that express your artistry so incredibly well.

There are many stunning images in your gallery. Oneiric is probably my favorite, but I also really admire Piezo, Spring, and Elements in the H&M section, and Cities of Tomorrow, and Lexi Zero & Lexi Two among others. There's great variety in your work and exemplary results in all styles.

Very inspiring artwork!

cheers,

db

[lycium]

thanks for your kind words i'm especially pleased that you like oneiric, i think it's the best flame-fractal i've produced and it's widely overlooked; check out this crop from the print-sized image (which is like 32k x 24k resolution or something absurd like that): http://lyc.deviantart.com/art/oneiric-print-crop-66261870

regarding janet's overlay, this is more what i had in mind (fibonacci spiral screenshot from the wikipedia article i linked):



clearly it doesn't exactly align, nor is the image in exact "perfect" proportion, but it's close - and this is what makes it seem well-placed i think.

of course all this phi-centric analysis is borderline mysticism, but there's something to be said for the proportion which appears in so many places (sea shells, sunflowers, human anatomy, widescreen lcds, ...)

[cKleinhuis]

so, what does the grid mean ? areas of interest in an image ? 

[lycium]

the golden ratio is a sort of "perfect proportion" in many mathematical and biological senses, so it can be naturally used in judging the balance of artistic composition.

there's a nice site about phi which has some words on the matter: http://goldennumber.net/art.htm

[cKleinhuis]

ah i see why i am no artist

@_db_ 
this fractal course seems to be a very pretty and detailed one, perhaps you can post a link in the links section to the course details!


 

i am thinking about a wiki like section on fractalforums.com containing detailed information about various fractal/art topics, e.g. golden ratio/coloring algorithms/antialiasing/complementary colors and stuff like that, but i am not sure where to start, if someone might help, please contact me 

[_db_]

That print crop of Oneiric is very beautiful. I'm intrigued by the possibility of creating images with that kind of richness and elegance. Although the link to the binary in the Oneiric comments was broken I did find some H&M binaries. Is it meant for public use? If so, is .3 the latest version? 

Are there animated tutorials and a printed instruction manual available? 

clearly it doesn't exactly align, nor is the image in exact "perfect" proportion, but it's close - and this is what makes it seem well-placed i think.

I don't think that an exact "perfect" proportion is necessarily the best guide for placement. In placing this spiral I assessed how the shape itself related to the sides of the picture frame, the 'visual weight' of the black area & the red, the visual interest of the spiral shape, etc. All these factors (and more) effect the dynamic relationship of the elements in the composition. This is true of most any composition which is why I don't believe in slavishly following any mathematical rules on placement.

of course all this phi-centric analysis is borderline mysticism, but there's something to be said for the proportion which appears in so many places (sea shells, sunflowers, human anatomy, widescreen lcds, ...)

Speaking as rather more than a borderline mystic, I think there's perhaps a bit more that can be said about it than just 'something'    But that's another topic...

[_db_]

ah i see why i am no artist

Don't feel bad, I've put a fair amount of time into trying to learn this composition stuff and I'm still no artist. 

ah i see why i am no artist
@_db_ 
this fractal course seems to be a very pretty and detailed one, perhaps you can post a link in the links section to the course details!

Composition, Golden Proportion, etc. aren't covered until the 3rd course in the series which is Ultra Fractal Artistry.

Their courses are here:

http://visual-arts-academy.com/courses.html

 

i am thinking about a wiki like section on fractalforums.com containing detailed information about various fractal/art topics, e.g. golden ratio/coloring algorithms/antialiasing/complementary colors and stuff like that, but i am not sure where to start, if someone might help, please contact me 

A Wiki sounds good. I could contribute a little to it in terms of info. I also have links to some good information on some on the topics which you've mentioned.

[MattSchultz]

This is really, really cool.

As a non-mathematician, I can't comment on why. All of my art is produced under the premise of 'because I thought it looked cool at the moment', and this certainly fits that bill nicely! Great work.

[_db_]

All of my art is produced under the premise of 'because I thought it looked cool at the moment',

Me too!!

This is really, really cool...As a non-mathematician, I can't comment on why.

Thanks Matt. Although I was a maths major in Uni I can comment on why either. Maths alone doesn't make art...