FOTD -- November 12, 2004 (Rating 7) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: Today's fractal takes us to the mandphoenix formula, a formula that gave me quite a battle when I started working with it. The formula has three variations, which are chosen by setting the degree (the third parameter) to 0, 2, or -3. For today's image I set the degree to -3. I worked with the formula almost 1/2 hour, finding nothing but scenes that reminded me of uninteresting odd slices of the Julibrot. I was almost ready to give up and accept one of those inferior images, when I stumbled upon the area of order that appears in today's picture. Suspecting that I could make something of the scene, I began juggling the colors. Not too much happened. Then I tried the different inside fill options, and found that the 'fmod' fill works quite well. I left the outside at the default 'iter', and began rotating and changing the colors again. A few minutes later, today's image appeared, quite by accident. Only a small amount of color tweaking was needed to finish the job. The image reminds me of a long straight passage, with exotic light-poles illuminating the way. It might be the tunnel to the next world that is sometimes reported by those near death. Or it could be nothing more than a backdrop for a scene in some sci-fi film that has not yet been made. Whatever it is, the passage goes a very long way, which is the reason for the name "Infinite Passage". Unfortunately, the passage remains unchanged as it stretches to infinity. This makes for a rather boring trip, so I satisfied myself with a view down the passage from the place where it starts. The rating of a 7 might be a bit liberal, but I did put more than average time into it, and it has that quality that brings a second glance. (BTW, this is an all-important thing to design into advertisements, so I am constantly seeking it.) The render time of just under 2 minutes results in an overall worth of 374. Those who prefer not to render may see the infinite passage by downloading the completed GIF file from the FOTD web site at: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> The passage might be infinite, but the download time will not. Warm sun and a temperature of 61F 16C on Thursday here at Fractal Central made the cats happy and me also . . . . but today is cold and rainy. I fear the duo will have a rough day. My day will be fair enough if I find a worthy fractal for tomorrow's FOTD. If not, then my day will be un-fair. Check tomorrow to see how things go. Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START PARAMETER FILE======================================= Infinite_Passage { ; time=0:01:52.32--SF5 on a P200 reset=2003 type=mandphoenix passes=1 float=y center-mag=-0.80000296758685600/+0.800015599164927\ 40/326.9362/1/180 params=0.8/-0.8/-3 maxiter=1200 bailout=9 inside=fmod logmap=9 periodicity=10 colors=000LFSK8QK1OM3MO5LQ7KR8JTAIVCHWDGQFFSHEUIDW\ KCZMBaNAdP9gR8jS7lU6nW5oX4rUAtRGwOMyMRvKQsJQqHQnGQ\ lEQiDQgBQdAQb9QcCPcEOdGNdJMeLLeNKeQKfSJfUIgXHgZGh`\ FhcFheEigDijCjlBjnAjpAhn9fm9el8cj8ai8`h7Zg7Ye6Wd6U\ c6Tb5R`5Q_4OZ4MY4LW3JV3IU2GT2ER2DQ1BP1AO19M88LE7JK\ 6IQ5GW4Fa3Dg2Cm1As09y1Dx1Hw2Kw2Ov2Rv3Vu3Yu3at4es4h\ s4lr5or5sq5vq8orAhrCarEWrGPrIIrKCrMJiOP`QVTSaKUgBW\ m3ZjAahHdeOfcVi`alZhnXolfZkpJilNghQfdTd`XbX_aTb_Pf\ YLiXHlVDpT9sS5vU7tW9sXBrZCq_EpaGobHndJmeLkgNjhOijQ\ hkSgmTfnVepXdqYcnbXkgRhmKmsEty8wyAwzCwzUwyZwycwyhw\ ymwxrwxvwxzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzXXoYYnYYmZYmZZl\ _Zk__j`_i`_iZZkXYmVXnTWpSVqQUsOTtMSvKRxJQyHPzFOzDN\ zCMzFLzHLzJLzLLzOLzQKzSKzUKzXKzZKz`JybJyeJxgJxiJwk\ JwdHrZFnSDiMBeGAaND_TFYZIWdKUjNSpPQvSOzUNwWMsYMo_L\ j`LfbKbdKZfJUgJQiIMkIIlIHhGGdEF`CEXADU9LVKTVV`VefZ\ ckaapd`ugZzjYxiWviUMTWLMU } END PARAMETER FILE=========================================