The Magic of the 3D Mandelbulb…
Remember fractals? Fractals were discovered by Polish-born mathematician Benoît Mandelbrot. They are the set of numbers whose origins lie with the equation:
zn+1 = zn2 + c
where the set remains bounded as n increases.
Without worrying about the math (you can read about the math here), the beauty of fractals lies in the images they can produce. Here’s a typical example:
Fractals have fascinated mathematicians and digital artists since they first gained fame in the mid 1970’s. The mathematics of fractals are complex, but well defined, though one mystery has teased mathematicians since fractals were born. As you can see from the image above, fractals are a 2D kind of critter. Part of their charm is that you can zoom in infinitely to an everchanging image (here’s a fantastic example), but that image remains flat. The pursuit of a 3D Mandelbrot set has been a fractal holy grail for more than 30 years. Over the past few years, real progress has been made, culminating with work like this:
If you are interested in seeing more of these haunting and complex images, take a click over to this page. Lovely stuff…
– Dave
