Means and Ends

Rain Dance



Perhaps at one time a rain dance seemed to make the rain come and became part of the ritual thereafter. One of my psychology classes mentioned an interesting lab accident. An automatic food dispenser broke and started giving food pellets intermittently. The pidgeons weren't to know this and when the psychologist next took a look, he was surprised to see the birds running in circles, making beak taps, hopping up and down, and other curious things, then rushing to the dispenser. They'd repeat if a pellet appeared, otherwise they'd redo their ritual, adding refinements if it seemed to result in a pellet. The psychologist dubbed it superstitious behaviour. These were screwed up birds by the end of it.

The Moneychangers



3D meets fractal can be fun. Not related to my pic, which shouldn't be too hard to figure out, but The Moneychangers is an old Arthur Hailey book. Rather heavy going compared to Airport. Some speculate that Airport inspired D.B. Cooper. I'd just about convinced myself that D.B. didn't make it when I ran into a parachutist on an online forum, who was of the opinion that D.B. triumphed. There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.

Did the ends justify the means? Did you get your rain? Your gold?

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Chaoscope - Rediscover Joy

I have recently rediscovered the joys of chaoscope. The latest version agrees with my new computer and has some nifty features. For example, hitting <ctrl><r > will randomise the gradients which is cool. The other neat thing about Chaoscope is that if you have a particular gradient that you love in Apophysis, you can save it as a .map and then use it in Chaoscope. Brilliant stuff.

Below are two of my most recent creations:

Glass Bowl



Mystery Gift



My only problem with "Mystery Gift" is that in large size, the shadow and edges are quite "jaggy". If anyone out there knows how to get "soft lighting" or smooth shadows, please let me know (you can find my contact details via my blog). The background for "Mystery Gift" was done in Paint shop pro. Basically I chose a black background for the render and then edited the graphic after rendering. Its easy enough if you have the correct tools.

Hopefully this has inspired some of you to give Chaoscope a go.