FOTD -- November 27, 2002 (Rating 6) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: Today's fractal image might be the quickest of all time, not in terms of render time, though this is under 3 minutes, but in terms of the time I spent in finding the scene with its midget at the center. Running on fractal instinct alone, and using Fractint's evolver feature for the real(p1) and real(p2) parameters, I found a parent fractal that appeared as though it might be promising. With nothing to guide me but instinct, I chose an apparently non-critical area of chaos in the eastern suburbs of the parent, and, simply to see what might lie there, zoomed in at random. Though no signs of the two-way symmetry that indicates the basin of a midget appeared, I kept zooming. I cannot say what drove me onward, but I kept going. The new images came up very fast. Then, after only a minute and much to my surprise, there it was before me -- the unmistakable signs of a midget. Once I had found the rather unique midget, a few minutes of color cycling produced today's FOTD. I have no idea how I stumbled upon the midget. A quick trip back to the surface of the parent will show how unlikely its existence seems from up there. Intact midgets do not appear in non-critical fractals or non-critical-appearing fractal regions. I guess I was just lucky. The name, "A Real Quickie" refers to the time I spent in finding the midget, not the 2-3/4 minutes required to render the image. The rating of 6 is limited by the small effort that went into the coloring. With so much work before me, I had no time to put more effort into the coloring phase. For the convenience of those who would rather nor run parameter files, the completed GIF image is available on the W.W.W. at: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> and at: <http://sdboyd.dyndns.org/~sdboyd/fotd/index.html> Tuesday was a cloudy, chilly day here in Fractal Land, with a temperature that never topped 45F 7C. The fractal cats responded by being irritable when they found the outdoors not to their liking. But when they saw those chunks of tuna appear in their food dishes, their moods improved notably. My mood will improve notably when I take the work now before me and put it behind me. But that will take some effort, and unless I start I'll never finish. Until tomorrow's FOTD, take care, and anything worth having is worth waiting for -- but not waiting too long. Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START 20.0 PAR-FORMULA FILE================================ A_Real_Quickie { ; time=0:02:43.67--SF5 on a P200 reset=2002 type=formula formulafile=allinone.frm formulaname=MandelbrotMix4 function=recip passes=1 center-mag=+1.362481021121545/+0.00106306952839/77\ 2340.2/1/130/5.54621512625919e-007 params=-13/-1.4\ 14213562373/45/-14.14213562373/0/525 float=y maxiter=400 inside=0 logmap=48 periodicity=10 colors=000M9ZL7YK6XJ4VI3UH1TG0SR3OU5LX7JZ9HaBFcDDf\ FAhH8kJ6mL4pN2rP0qS2qV3pY5p_6pb8oe9ogBnjCnmEnoFmrH\ muImwJjsSho_fkgdgobdwdeteerfepgenhekieijegkeelebme\ `neZoeXpeVqeSreQseOteMueJveHweFxeDyeBx`IxXOwTUwP_w\ LevHkvDqv9wuAutBssCrrDpqEopEmoFkoGjnHhmIglJekJdjKb\ iL`hM_hNYgOXfOVePTdQScRQbSPaTNaTM_SNYSOWSPVSQTSQRR\ RQRSORTMRULRUJQVHQWFQXEQYCQYAPZ9P_7P`5Pa4Pa5R_6TY7\ VW8XU9ZSA`QBbOCdMDfKDgIEiGFkEGmCHoAIq8Js6Ku4Lw2Lx1\ Nu4Os6Pp8RnBSkDTiFVfIWdKXcMZcP_cR`cTbcWccYdc_fcbgc\ dhcfichfcidcjack_ckXclVcmTcnQcnOcoLcpJcqHcqIclIchI\ cdIc_IcWJdSJeNJfJJgFJhBIiCHjCGkCGlCFmCEoDDqDDsDCuD\ BwDAyEAzE9zE8zE7zE7zF6zF5zF4zF4zF7zHAzJDzLFzNIzPLz\ RNzSQzUTzWVzYYz_`zabzbazZ`zW_zTZzQYzNXzKWzHVzEUzBU\ z8VzAVzBVzCVzDVzEVzFVzGVzHVzIVzJVzKWzMWzNWzOWzPWzQ\ WzRWzSWzTWzUWzVWzWWzXZzYazZdz_gz`qz5dzLSz_GznFzlFz\ kFziFzhFzgFzeFzdFzbFzaFz` } 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==================================