FFWW - Isolating and Texturing Orbit Traps.

Below you will find the text we worked through during the workshop. Enjoy
--Chris.

**Please do not post this on other sites without my express written permission. You have my thanks!**

Hi everyone! Today we are going to be covering Isolating Orbit Traps and adding textures to orbit traps.

If everyone has Ultra Fractal open, we can get started.

The first type of trap we will learn is a basic point trap over a standard julia set.

Please paste the following fractal into ultra fractal.

Fractal2 {
fractal:
  title="Fractal2" width=640 height=480 layers=1
  credits="Administrator;6/15/2009"
layer:
  caption="Background" opacity=100
mapping:
  center=0/0 magn=1
formula:
  maxiter=250 filename="Standard.ufm" entry="Julia" p_seed=0.5/0
  p_power=2/0 p_bailout=128
inside:
  transfer=none
outside:
  transfer=linear filename="Standard.ucl" entry="Smooth" p_power=2/0
  p_bailout=128.0
gradient:
  smooth=yes rotation=1 index=0 color=6555392 index=64 color=13331232
  index=168 color=16777197 index=257 color=43775 index=343 color=512
opacity:
  smooth=no index=0 opacity=255
}

Change the image size to 900x675 so we can see more of the space.

This is a basic jula set (Julia seed of (Re): = .5 and Julia seed (Im): = 0) Pretty standard stuff.

The first thing we will be looking at are basic orbit traps set to point (their default shape). This is the ideal
coloring method for testing and tweaking orbit trap fractals as it allows us to see the space
we have to work with, and easily view the center of the trap. Point trapping is especially useful because the color (index)
is generated based off the points distance from center.

Lets set it up.
1 - In the ouside tab, load a new coloring method and choose "Orbit traps" from the Standard.ucl folder.
You will note that it now has circles painted above the initial formula. When the orbit trap coloring is set
to point, it paints a circular shape around the center of the trap. Other traps work in the same way, but incorporate
more math to generate different shapes.

Lets zoom in somewhere a bit more interesting so we can see what we are working on a bit more clearly.
2a In the location tab, set Center(Re) to 0.4888
   Set Center(Im) to .475
   Set Magnification to 32
   Set Rotation Angle to -75

Now we can see the shapes a bit more closely, and clearly see how they get smaller as the formula iterates.

If you open the gradient window you will see that the first color in the gradient (blue) is painted at the center of
the circle and the gradient continues outward from the center of the shape.

Paste the following gradient into the layers gradient window.

Gradient-Fractal2,Layer1 {
gradient:
  title="Gradient - Fractal2, Layer 1" smooth=yes rotation=1 index=0
  color=16777215 index=200 color=7368816 index=399 color=512
opacity:
  smooth=no index=0 opacity=255
}

This is a basic white to black gradient, with white at index 0, and black at index 400. This setup allows us to now see visually, the index value (or gradient value) generated by the coloring, and allows us to see the center of the trap even easier. It also allows us to see where the edges of the shapes meet, and blend.

3. Rename this layer TrapBase.
We will use this for generating more layers later on.

This general technique is very useful to see the shape of most traps, and see where the edges blend.

The next thing we will be looking at is creating a hard edge and isolate the trap shape via the gradient window. We want to get rid of all those bleeding edges and only show nice crisp circles.

4. Duplicate the "TrapBase" layer.
5. Rename the new layer "IsolatedTraps"

6. Open the gradient window of "IsolatedTraps" and add a new point after the gray point at position 200. Make it's position
201 and make it black (rgb = 0,0,0)

Now we have created a white to gray gradient that gets cut off with black at an index value of 201. This can be seen readily in the image, with a clean black area surrounding the traps.

The first thing I would ask you to note is that by placing the new black point one index value after the gray one, we create a soft line between the gray point at 200 and the black point at 201.

To create a hard line, we would open the gradient window and back the black point up one, to a position of 200. I use the down arrow that is next to it's position value in the gradient window.

7a. Open the gradient window
7b. Click the black point at position 201
7c. Click the down arrow next to it's position value.

As you will see, this hardens the line, creating no gradiation between the two points. This is important because when we try to make a mask later, the same process applies to the opacity section. If we do not take care in our initial gradient setup, there will be bleeding and other unwanted effects.

For now, we can clearly see that there is still overlapping, so we will have to move the gray point at position 200 and it's neighboring black point and increase how much of the gradient is black.

8a. Open the gradient window
8b. Change the gray point at position 200 to position 145
8c. Change the black point to a position of 146
8d. Click the black point and the down arrow next to it's position value to back it up against the gray point.

Now we have isolated the circles, and have found a gradient setting that prevents their edges from overlapping one another.

This same technique can be used to define/isolate a great many trap shapes.. just remember the steps and try to maintain as much control through the gradient window as possible.

The next part of our mission is to isolate the shapes even futher, so that we can use them above a background.

This involves adding some control points to the opacity section of our gradient. Let's do it.

9a. Make sure your bottom layer "Trapbase" is invisible by clicking the blue box next to it.
9b. Open the gradient for the "IsolatedTraps" Layer.
9c. In the opacity section add the following control points.
Keep the opacity 255 at position 0
Add a point at position 145, opacity 255 (remember our gray points position?)
Add a point at position 146, opacity 0. Click it's down arrow and back it up one. to position 145.
Add a point at position 399, opacity 0.

Now we have created an opacity section that mimics our colors, where it's only visible where the gradient is gray, and
all black parts of the gradient are transparent. You will be able to see the gray and white squares Ultrafractal uses to denote transparency.

The layer should look like so:

Layers {
layer:
  caption="IsolatedTraps" opacity=100 mergemode=screen transparent=yes
mapping:
  center=.4888/0.475 magn=32 angle=-75
formula:
  maxiter=250 filename="Standard.ufm" entry="Julia" p_seed=0.5/0
  p_power=2/0 p_bailout=128
inside:
  transfer=none
outside:
  transfer=linear filename="Standard.ucl" entry="OrbitTraps"
  p_trapshape=point p_diameter=1.0 p_traporder=4.0 p_trapfreq=1.0
  p_trapcolor=distance p_traptype=closest p_threshold=.25
  p_trapcenter=0/0 p_aspect=1.0 p_angle=0.0 p_solidcolor=no
gradient:
  smooth=yes rotation=1 index=0 color=16777215 index=145 color=7368816
  index=145 color=0 index=399 color=512
opacity:
  smooth=no index=0 opacity=255 index=145 opacity=255 index=145
  opacity=0 index=399 opacity=0
}

Now we have only the traps visible, above a clear background. We can now proceed to use it as a mask if
needed, and add a background layer or two.

First thing we will do is add a basic background. Nothing fancy here.. just something to fill in the space.

10a. Duplicate your "TrapBase" layer.
10b. Change the new layers name to "Back1"
10c. Change it's outside coloring method to Triangle Inequality average in the Standard.ucl folder.
10d. In the layers formula tab, change Bailout from 128 to 1e20.
10e. Duplicate "Back1" and change the new layers name to "Back2"
10f. Change "Back2"'s outside coloring to Triangles in the .ldm folder.
10g. Change "Back2"'s layer properties to Overlay at 50% Overall opacity.

Now we have a nice background for the trap layer to reside above. Remember to experiment when you have the chance, as this is pretty quick and dirty. For now, it fills the space nicely.

With a background in place, our next concern will be adding texture to the traps.

At this point, we have two choices for creating our texture layers.

Choice 1 consists of applying a coloring algorithm to the julia set we have already been using. This will cause the texture
algorithm to follow the formula the same way the traps did.

Choice 2 consists of using a completly different formula so the texture does not follow the same formula structure.

Lets take a look at both, starting with textures that follow our formula.

11a. Duplicate your "Isolated Traps" layer and rename the new layer "IsolatedTrapsMask"
11b. Duplicate your "TrapBase" layer and drag it to the top of the stack. Rename it "TrapsTexture1"
11c. Change the outside coloring of the new laye (trapstexture1) to "Advanced Gnarl" in the mt.ucl folder.

As you can see, this will paint the gnarl coloring across the formula we already have in place. Unfortunately, there is some serious banding that we need to take care of. Generally, to control banding issues, you should play with the bailout in the formula tab.

11d. Go into the formula tab and change 'bailout value' to 30

This will alleviate some of the banding so that the clean part of the gnarl resides in the same space as the traps we made.

When we created our isolated traps, we created opacity information in the gradient. We told ultra fractal to ignore certain parts of our gradient on our layer. When we use this layer as a mask, we simply transfer this information to the layer it's used on. If we use our isolated traps layer as a mask on our texture layer, our texture layer will have the same opacity information as the traps layer below. Let's check it out.

11e. Right click the "IsolatedtrapsMask" layer and choose the "Use as mask" option from the pop up menu.

Now, the texture layer resides only above our isolated traps and we can see our background again.

11f. Now, we need to change "TrapsTexture1" to a lower opacity, around 12% , and change it's merge mode to multiply, so that the texture is lightly applied to the traps below.

Now we can see the texture applied above, while still maintaining the original structure of the traps layer beneath. It is important to note that the texture is the same above each of the orbit traps. Like many orbit traps layers, texture layers examine the value based off a trap center and paint outward from there. Here, the center of each gnarl is readily apparent at the center of each trap point.

The next type of texture layer is one that does not follow the same underlying structure we have here. Many fractal artists use the pixel formula for this because it is derived from a single point, much like painting a single trap at the center of your screen. This allows you to see the texture algorithm free of other information that will push it around or distort it.

For this step, we will be creating a separate fractal and pasting it into our work in progress.

12. Open a new fractal. Choose "Pixel" from the standard.ucl folder. (if you dont have this, there are several you can choose from)
do a search for pixel, or you can use the pixel formula in the sam folder.
12b. Change outside coloring to "SFBM II" in the sam.ucl folder
12c. Open it's gradient window and change it to a simple black and white gradient with a white point (rgb=255,255,255) at position 0, and a black point (rgb = 0,0,0) at position 300

As you have probably noticed, the sfbm is not pulled everywhere by a formula underneath and it can be made out clearly. Because texture is often defined by it's height, and it's interaction with light sources, it is generally a good practice to work in grayscale. With a grayscale gradient used, we can use it above our other layers without affecting color and only hit the luminence if needed. It also allows us to add the texture to layers below that already have color without worry of strange color interactions.

Now, we need to bring it into our original piece.

13a. Right click the layer in the layer properties area and choose copy.
13b. Open our original fractal, right click the layer stack and choose paste.
13c. Rename the layer "FBMForTraps"

Now we have the sfbm layer in our original fractal. We will now need to use the same mask on this layer that we did on our "TrapsTexture1" layer.

13d. Duplicate your layer "IsolatedTrapsMask" and drag it beneath the "FBMForTraps" layer.

Since it's already a mask, it will attach itself to the layer it is dragged to.

Alternatively, we could have followed the same steps as before, when we duplicated our isolated traps layer, dragged it beneath the target layer and right clicked it choosing "use as mask". It achieves the same thing.

13e. Rename the new mask "IsolatedTrapsMask" as it is identical to the other.

Now, we have the same view we did when we initially masked out or first texture layer. The SFBM layer only resides above the traps, and it is opaque, obscuring the work we did beneath. The clouds themselves are also fairly large, so we will adjust the texture scale to better accomodate our needs.

13f. In the Outside tab, of our FBMForTraps layer, scroll down and find the setting called "Pattern Size:" We will want to to decrease this a bit to give us more interest. Set it to .025

13g. Now we need to decrease how strong the layer is. Change the layers merge mode to Overlay with an overall opacity of 25%
Overlay tends to leave the lighter parts alone, and in this case, leaves some of the center pattering of the texture below visible.

As a final step to the process, we are going to duplicate our very bottom layer (TrapBase) and drag it all the way to the top to be used for some final lighting.

14a. Duplicate "TrapBase" and drag to the top of the stack.
14b. Rename it "OverallLighting"
14c. In the layer properties change Merge mode to Multiply and the layers opacity to 50%

This has the effect of tying in the lighting of the foreground and the background, and brings the elements a bit closer together visually.

I still find that the front shapes stand out a bit too much above the background. I have a few options here, but I think something simple, like insetting the shapes a bit, may add some much needed depth. Let's see if we can't spice things up a bit.

15. Duplicate your "IsolatedTraps" layer.
15b Rename it "InsetShading"
15c Drag it beneath your "IsolatedTraps" layer. We want it behind it visually.
15d Open the gradient window for "InsetShading"

When we first set this gradient up, we were careful to define the edges of the shapes we were to work with later. This makes it easy to find where in the gradient we need to adjust. If we look at the gradient, we have black at the very edge of the opacity section. It's there, but not included. We are going to include a small portion of this to create some black edging.

15e. In the opacity section, click the third point (opcity 0) and change it's position to 200.
15f. Change the layers merge mode to Darken and it's overall opacity to 60%

This creates some shading around the spheres and brings them away from the viewer visually, and lending a bit more of their overall shape to the background.

As a final step for lighting, we are going to go back to our original floofy sfbm layer that we made and overlay it over the whole piece.

16a. Go back to your SFBM pixel fractal and copy the layer.
16b. Paste it into your work in progress.
16c. Change it's merge mode to multiply at 15% We don't want it too strong.. just a final touch.

That is the basic process of masking and adding texture to orbit traps. The technique can be applied to nearly all trap shapes and should provide a good starting point for you.