FOTD -- September 18, 2002 (Rating 5) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: Today's image came on with much fanfare. When I saw it in thumb- nail size, I expected another 8-rater. But when the time came to apply the color, things did not go as planned. Try as I might, I could not get the colors to go onto the image smoothly. The reason is that the iteration count of the bands jumps around haphazardly, making smooth coloring almost impossible. In the end, I decided to let nature take its course and let the image appear in its natural form. To remind myself of the coloring problems, I named the image "Difficult to Color". The formula behind the image takes plain Z and adds 12 times as much 1/Z to it before adding 1/C. The resulting figure is a large fan-shaped bay edged by many tiny round mandel-shaped bays. Today's image is located in one of the arms of a many- pointed star associated with one of these small bays. The render time on my machine of 1/100 second short of one full hour is excessive for such a mediocre image, which I can rate no higher than a 5, but as always, relief is at hand at the FOTD web sites in the form of the completed image, which will soon be ready for download. The two FOTD web sites are located at: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> and at: <http://sdboyd.dyndns.org/~sdboyd/fotd/index.html> The weather here at Fractal Central on Tuesday was so close to perfect that the minor shortcomings can be ignored. The cats were happy, and that's all that really matters. For humans who might be curious, the temperature reached 82F 28C under partly sunny (or was it partly cloudy) skies. Another day has now begun -- one that promises to be a near repeat of yesterday. If all goes well, the cats will be happy again, and if the work goes well, I'll be happy. Until next time, which will arrive on Saturday the 20th, take care, and be liberally conservative with your fractals. Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com START 20.0 PAR-FORMULA FILE================================ Difficult_to_Color { ; time=0:59:59.99--SF5 on a P200 reset=2002 type=formula formulafile=allinone.frm formulaname=MandelbrotMix4 function=recip passes=1 center-mag=-0.45800919027048830/+0.420562881994095\ 90/1.168692e+008/1/72.5/-8.86262575897078797e-008 params=1/1/12/-1/0/0 float=y maxiter=9000 inside=0 logmap=1360 periodicity=10 colors=000RNeSOfTPgUQhVRiVSjVTkVUlVVmVWnVXoVYpVZqW\ _rW`sUZqTYoSXmSWkSViSUgTSeTRcTQcTPcTOcTNcTLcSKcRJc\ QIcPHcPFcOEcNDeMCgLBiKAkJ8mI7mH6mG5lF4lF3lG6iH9gHC\ eIFcJIaJLZKOXLRVLUTMXRN_PNbMOeKPhIPkGQnEOo9QpCSqFU\ qIWrKYrN_sQasSctVetYgu`iubkvemvhowjqwmrwptxtrvsjkr\ zqvnkpnnoopootnotmnslmrklrjlqjkpijphioghnfgmegmefl\ dekcdkbcjabi`cjadkabi`_g_YeZVdXTbWQ`VOZULYSJWRGUQE\ SPAQNCRODSOESOFTPGTPHUPIUPKVQLVQMWQNXROXRPYRQYRSZS\ TZSU_SV_SW`TXaTYaT_bU`bUacUbcUcdVddVeeVgfXfeWfeVfd\ VfdUfcUfdTfdTeeSeeSefReeReeQedQedPdcPdcOdbOdbNdaNd\ aMd`Mc`Lc_Lc_KcZKcZJcYJcYIbXHbXHbWGbWGbVFbVFbUEaUE\ aSDaSDaQCaQCaPBaOB`NA_NAZM9YK9XJ8YJ8XI7VI7UH6TH6SG\ 5VG5_F4dF4cG5cH5ZI6YJ6YK7YL7XM7XN8XO8WP9WQ9WR9VSAV\ TAVTBVUBUVCUWCUXCVYDWZDX_EY`EZaE_bF`cFadGbeGcfFdgG\ ehHfiHgjIhkJilJjmKknKloLmpMnqMorNpsBqt6ru9svBtwEux\ GvyJwzLxzOyzQzzTzzVzzYzz_ } frm:MandelbrotMix4 {; Jim Muth a=real(p1), b=imag(p1), d=real(p2), f=imag(p2), g=1/f, h=1/d, j=1/(f-b), z=(-a*b*g*h)^j, k=real(p3)+1, l=imag(p3)+100, c=fn1(pixel): z=k*((a*(z^b))+(d*(z^f)))+c, |z| < l } END 20.0 PAR-FORMULA FILE==================================