Abstract
In this paper, we describe the development and use of PhotoFrac, an application that allows artists and designers to turn digital images into fractal patterns interactively. Fractal equations are a rich source of procedural texture and detail, but controlling the patterns and incorporating traditional media has been difficult. Additionally, the iterative nature of fractal calculations makes implementation of interactive techniques on mobile devices and web apps challenging. We overcome these problems by using an image coordinate based orbit trapping technique that permits a user-selected image to be embedded into the fractal. Performance challenges are addressed by exploiting the processing power of graphic processing unit (GPU) and precomputing some intermediate results for use on mobile devices. This paper presents results and qualitative analyses of the tool by four artists (the authors) who used the PhotoFrac application to create new artworks from original digital images. The final results demonstrate a fusion of traditional media with algorithmic art.
Highlights
In this paper, we describe the development and use of PhotoFrac, an application that allows artists and designers to turn digital images into fractal patterns interactively
We describe related work, present the technical details of implementing a mobile app and web app, discuss the images generated for an art show, and describe prospects for future work
Surveying the most popular and top rated apps we have found several distinct classes: image filtering apps which perform cropping and color manipulation effects (e.g. Instagram, Google’s Snapseed, Repix), style transfer apps which perform noninteractive computations in the cloud (Prisma), image collage creation (Layout, Photo Grid), and the category most closely related to PhotoFrac – kaleidoscope generators (Mirror Lab, Camera Kaleidoscope)
Summary
We describe the development and use of PhotoFrac, an application that allows artists and designers to turn digital images into fractal patterns interactively. The iterative nature of fractal calculations makes implementation of interactive techniques on mobile devices and web apps challenging. Artists have explored the simultaneous complexity and beauty of floral patterns as decorative elements for tiles, plates or vases across all civilizations Examples of this are Celtic Knots, the tile mosaics from the Ottoman Empire and Persian rugs. A simple approach is to apply a colormap or palette to some quantity, such as the iteration counter, to create an image Another general approach called “orbit trapping” (Carlson, 1999) requires keeping track of how close the sequence of generated points (the “orbit”) comes to some geometric shape. We describe related work, present the technical details of implementing a mobile app and web app, discuss the images generated for an art show, and describe prospects for future work
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