

Best of the Web - 3D Fractal Gallery





"(0,0.5)" Out of all the fractals on display here, these first three (created by Dr. Kazushi Ahara and Dr. Yoshiaki Araki), come closest to characterizing the original 2D Mandelbrot set, but in 3D! Click picture, or see their fractal gallery for high resolution versions.

"(0.949,-0.275)" Another classic "Quasi-fuscian" fractal by Dr Ahara and Araki. The originals are all similarly coloured, so I changed them slightly for variety here. Gotta love the encrusted 'microbial' look in the many layers of detail.

"(0.046,0.801)" The final pick of the gorgeous sponge-like spheres. If you want to see the animation, visit the YouTube site here.

"Cipater" Created by Thomas Ludwig (aka Lycium), this unique fractal architecture combines order and chaos in its sweeping, fiery subsurface balconies. Also see his excellent frosty "Snow" picture, similar in style to this.



"The Return of the Sunset Castle" This jaw-dropping fractal created by Aexion looks like something straight out of science fiction. The subtlety of shade, the positioning of elements, the way each tier decorates the rim on the underside, all make this fractal a sight to behold. About the only thing I can fault is the lack of colour. Also see inside the sunset castle or his earlier near-monochrome Sunset Castle fractal, both of which also look amazing.

"Chaotic World" Also created by Aexion, this fractal uses some kind of circle packing technique around a sphere, but thanks to the slight randomization, crater textures, use of colour, it is so much more than that. Visit his site to see full size!

"X01021" This inspiring design by Joseph Presley (aka fractart.net) comes under the class of the "iterated function system" fractal. But what separates this from the rest is the judicious use of contrast between larger and smaller objects, along with the nicely shaped contours of the fractal 'shell'. Other pictures of note in his gallery include these ones.

"Kid in Menger Sponge" The menger sponge is back, and it has some tricks up its sleeve, including full raytracing, reflection, and a snazzy perspective (other artists take note!). Created by Paul Bourke.



"Blobopolis Closeup" There are literally hundreds of these type of fractals on Deviantart.com, and it's no wonder why - it's fairly easy to create good looking results. However, this surpasses 99.9% of them through clever use of light, shade and pattern. We can thank piritipany for creating this fantastical paradise dome. Here is a variation on the fractal.

"Field of Depth" The creator of this masterpiece won a contest on deviantART.com and it's not hard to see why. The way the 'fabric of spacetime' is dented by the spheres looks good enough, but Zueuk creates fantastic drama in this molecular apocalypse through the use of clever lighting and motion effects. See his gallery for full size and more cool pics like this.

"Dreams Of Loneliness" One of the best Apophysis renders ever, this gem created by Xavier Hemon is quite simple, but effective due to the mesmorizing patterns of neon light and design of lower levels.

"jOrb" Worlds within worlds of exquisite detail, Christopher Payne (aka Khan71) did a sterling job in using Apophysis' powers creatively.



"Rise" What happens when you join numerous Sierpinski tetrahedrons to form an icosahedron? Something similar to the above, as is demonstrated by Thomas Ludwig (aka lyc). Beautifully ray-traced, this object looks like some kind of foam I want to squish. As well as the Quasi-fuscian objects, I want real life versions of these.

"Cubism" And here we witness the Cantor Dust Fleet joining the borg collective to unite as one. This curious fractal by Stefan Vitanov is a neat twist on an old trick.

"Fractal Reflections" Okay, this one's a bit simplistic, but the polished material, spherical building material and general camera position helps make the otherwise ordinary Sierpinski pyramid a little more special. Created by JRJay. Also see his excellent flash animation.

Fractal Structure And Some Red (Feb 03 2007) If any of you have ever played the brilliant game - Marble Madness, you'll feel right at home with this fractal by Rune Skovbo Johansen. Nice concept, and execution. A little more variety of shape would be nice though. As usual, click picture to see full size.



"Ivory Tower" Stefan Vitanov (aka Fractalexperience.com) has created many variations on the fractal tower (see his gallery for more), but the three presented here are arguably his best. Despite the lack of colour, the fogging, 'rotational' shape recursion, and atmosphere make this one not to miss. One day, all buildings will look something like this.

"Temple of Shadow" Great shot again by Stefan Vitanov. I want more colours and higher resolution though please!

"City (2)" Our last pick from Stefan Vitanov's fractal temple series.

"Inside the Sierpinski Temple" David Makin (aka MakinMagic) has also created variations of the fractal temple - this one's on the inside. Here's another view. Also see his brilliant animation inside the temple.



"Spherism" This just made the list thanks to the cool texture, and somewhat unusual fractal extrusion style. Taken from Yanekthedarkangel's gallery.

"Sphere packings in 3D - Tetra 1" A treasure of tasty spheres packed into one. Good for a snack or if you want to fill in between meals. There's plenty more where this came from. Also see his excellent sculpture gallery.

"Rising Apophysis III" Combining sculpture with fractal goodness, this image created by Michael (aka Gibson125) uses vast plumes of smoke to carve the shape you see in the horizon.

Also see the Twisted Cube created by greenhybrid which has a similar atmosphere to this.



"Fractal tree Plate b 3" The best fractal tree I could find during my search. Let us know if you find a better one! Created by A.Kitaoka (?).

"Faire" This iterated function fractal by Bob Q (aka gateman45) just gets better the more I look at it. Very elaborate detail, but see full size to fully appreciate it.

This expertly crafted abstract structure by Francesco Mai is barely a fractal, but had to be included, if only for the delicious translucent and golden material.

"Furnace" Another winner by Aexion (aka rfractals.net), and looking as though it came straight from the Matrix. Spectacular lighting and camera ensure this image gets its place in our top collection.



"Opengl15" For this collection, we generally frown upon mountain-type fractals. But this image created by Jason Rampe (aka Softology) has enough going for it for inclusion - from the whirpool like imagery, to the vivid coloring.

Also see Gibson125's amazing mountain fractal - "3D Fractal Landscape VI", and Duncan Champney's "Douaday's Easter Rabbit".

"Orbital Fern" Similar in style to Gateman's "Faire" work, this organic IFS fractal created by Phidelity begins to rival the Romanesco brocoli in its awesome detail and style. Food would taste much better if it looked like this :) See his other IFS fractals like this one, and if nothing else, see his AMAZING animation.

"Sensible Extensibilities" This excellent image was also created by Phidelity. Also see his variation on the Xenodream shell.

"Xeno_Dream_Test_Run" This image is actually based on one of the example routines in the XenoDream fractal program, but f__l__A__r__k_s has done a good job in bringing the most out of it with his use of colour.



3D Fractal Elephant Wow, this is gorgeous - the Aztecs would have been proud I'm sure. The combination of curves and corners along with the colour scheme gives a real sense of style and mystery to this piece. Created by Duncan Champney, see his 3D fractal gallery for more.



Fractal Monoliths Our second pick from Duncan's gallery. Looking like a giant set of strange dominos, I love the perspective view in this one - the sharp angle gives a real sense of depth. See his excellent Fire and Ice themed 3D fractals, also created by Duncan's "FractalWorks" software.



Sphereflake level 9 Created by the user 'fpsunflower' down at ompf.org, this object has the characteristic Mandelbrot-style sphere on sphere idea. See the forum for a larger version, and an excellent 'night' version as well.