Figure 1. The Laboratory.
Once upon a time on a fractal planet far, far away, there was a mad scientist who discovered a mysterious space object. He thought and thought and soon dreamed up a scheme to get a close look at a mysterious space object. After months of preparation in his Laboratory, Figure 1, his space ship was ready to travel into deep space and investigate the strange object. But it was Christmas eve.
Figure 1. The Laboratory.
His family convinced him to wait just one more day until after Christmas. Would this delay eventually prove to be unfortunate? Read on, pilgrim.
Dr. J (the mad scientist) and his family went into the woods to get a Christmas tree. Along the way they built a snowman, Figure 2.
Figure 3. Snowman.
When they got home, they placed the tree in the living room, Figure 4.
Figure 3. Christmas Tree
The family decorated the tree with home made ornaments. Dr. J had made a special ornament, Figure 4, using special equipment in his Laboratory.
Figure 4. The Ornament.
That evening the family enjoyed telling scary adventure stories by the warm fireplace, Figure 5.
Figure 5. The Fireplace.
Some of the sparks escaped from the fireplace and almost lit the Christmas tree on fire, Figure 6.
Figure 6. The Sparks.
The next day, Dr. J returned to being the mad scientist. With his new rocket, he took off on a bright flash of fire and smoke, Figure 7.
Figure 7. The Rocket Plume.
Dr. J looked out of his ship and enjoyed the view of the off-shore islands, Figure 8.
Figure 8. Off-shore Islands.
The higher he got, the smaller the islands appeared, until they were tiny dots.
Just then, to his great surprise, he saw what looked like a sleigh out his window, Figure 9. It must have been Santa returning to the North pole for another year of toy making.
Figure 9. Santa's Sleigh.
The sleigh was gone as quickly as it came, leaving Dr. J with only his home planet to look at, Figure 10.
Figure 10. Dr. J's Home Planet.
It was so nice to be away from the city lights and dense atmosphere. Here, on his interplanetary trajectory, he could get a good view of the wonders of space. He really enjoyed looking at the clusters of galaxies, Figure 11.
Figure 11. Galaxy Clusters.
Dr. J was deep in thought about the people who might live on the distant planets orbiting stars in those far away galaxies when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw something. Wow! It was the mysterious object he was seeking. As he got closer he observed it with great interest, for it was the first comet he had ever seen, Figure 12.
Figure 12. The Mysterious Comet.
Dr. J was just about to send home a message describing his discovery when a great 'mouth-like' rip in the space time continuum opened next to him, Figure 13.
Figure 13. The Great 'Mouth'.
Dr. J was so startled (make that terrified) that he pressed the wrong lever on his control console, causing an instant overload of his main star drive. Dr. J and his ship became an awesome display in the sky, visible all the way back to his home planet, Figure 14.
Figure 14. Warpcore Overload.
Does Dr. J disappear in a brilliant flash? Does the 'brilliant' mad scientist find an escape from the certain peril? Well, boys and girls. Check in next time for another episode of Dr. Jay Bird's bed time fractal stories.
The end.
I created the above images as part of the 'Fractint email list' contest. The contest required the use of Fractint with a formula suggested by Kerry Mitchell. Each of us could submit three images computed with the formula, using any color scheme and combination of parameters and options available, as long as they applied to the formula. The email list subscribers would judge all the other's images and vote for their favorite images. The goal of the contest was to have fun and see how many interesting images could be created from one formula. Here is the official formula.
frm:contest4 {; Kerry Mitchell
; slightly optimized version of Contest formula
z=p1, c=pixel:
z2=sqr(z), z=z*z2+c*(1+z-z2), |z| <= 4
}
I have selected three of the above images for the contest: Rocket Plume, The Mysterious Comet and Warpcore Overload. The parameter file to produce these images follows:
Rocket_Plume { ; (C) Jay R. Hill, 1997
reset=1960 type=formula formulafile=contest.par formulaname=contest4
center-mag=-1.46557023020868200/+0.00000000000000000/1000000/1/-90
params=0/0 float=y maxiter=256000 inside=bof61 outside=summ
colors=000Z33<22>GEEFFFFFFFFF<29>x11\
z00z10<29>zx0zz0zz1<29>zzxzzzzzz<61>\
zV1zU0zU0zT0<28>z10z00z00y00<30>c00b11a11`22_22
savename=Rocket.gif
}
Comet { ; (C) Jay R. Hill, 1997
reset=1960 type=formula formulafile=contest.par formulaname=contest4
center-mag=-1.16426/8.7306/0.05756125 params=0/0 float=y
maxiter=15000 inside=bof60 outside=atan
invert=1/-0.1201564/0.7291089
colors=00000c<37>002000000000<29>00\
k00m01m<29>0ky0mz1mz<30>zzz<46>2zz0zz\
0yz<45>02z00z00y<20>00d
savename=Comet.gif
}
Warp_Core_Breach { ; (C) Jay R. Hill, 1997
reset=1960 type=formula formulafile=contest.par formulaname=contest4
center-mag=7.4791/-8.48075/0.5485871/1/90 params=0/0
inside=epsiloncross outside=summ invert=1/0/1
colors=000z10<29>zx0zz0zz1<29>zzxzz\
zzzz<61>zV1zU0zU0zT0<28>z10z00z00y00<\
30>c00b11a11`22_22<23>GEEFFFFFFFFF<30>z00
savename=WarpCore.gif
}
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