How to make fractals without a computer

[TheSoupyOne]

This makes me wonder about golden ratio and if it equates to a mathematical expression of fractality.....

[MathematicsOverCocoa]

Incredible! the reason this feels almost spiritual shows that math is the logic behind reason..

[MsZoey77]

Woooooww. It's funny how he did it within seconds, what would normally take someone else a LOT longer haha.

Amazing video man!

[1Moregano1]

Fantastic! This is exactly what I was looking for! Do you have any ideas as to alternate ways I might do this with only one screen? I wish I had four projectors to do it with, but alas! no. haha.

[alexandergosselin]

Awesome!

[DjVenko]

Could you please upload the track list?

[ObscuraLabs]

So I tried to recreate this effect using Processing. I hooked up my camera and wrote a short program that would output the live video feed into 3 different boxes. The problem I keep running into is that while some interesting recursive stuff happens in the beginning, the feedback eventually results in the image blowing out to white (or blue). Have you run into this issue. If so how did you get around it?

[yummyfuture]

@ObscuraLabs If your camera has automatic gain/brightness control, turn it on. That will prevent the image from getting too bright or too dark.

[hooverphonique]

who the hell needs computers, anyway!? oh, right, without them, I wouldn't be watching this YT video ;-)

[phatsk8r420]

nice one bro

[09205479428]

... fascinating to see the fern, mandelbrot fractals and the serpinski .... Huge implication to fractal science. Good job.

[Turcaaaso]

OMG I'm really impressed. 

[stinkytoe]

At about 0:46 (and a few other times also) it seems to make something like a Sierpinski triangle, which i did not expect.

[TeraFlint]

Woah! That's Amazing!

You're godlike!

[Romovisque]

gotcha

[yadishansar]

Will you please make another video explaining how you created all this, your arrangment of cameras and tv etc?

[wbeaty]

You can also use just one projector, plus a mirror in the beam path. Also adjust the whitebalance to create moving color bands. These are "affine fractals" because they're made with moves and rotations. Julia set fractals additionally distort the image on each pass by passing it through an X^2 function. (With just the right polished metal curved mirror, you could make genuine Julia sets.) We did similar in 1986 for "Edge of Chaos: Beauty of Fractals" exhibit at Museum of Science.

[whereismymind87]

This is totally awesome.

[OpiatedBliss]

looks like barnleys-esque formulas

[tonyrosam]

"infinate wonders spring from simple equasions repeated without end" - mandlebrot

[Cyclic13]

Nice effects. I'm interested what songs you were playing in the background. Please let me know.

[deyraud]

Excellent vid!!

Music Credits:

Future Sound of London - Papua New Guinea

Cygnus X - The Orange Theme (Solar Stone Remix)

[ni1947]

@deyraud I've been looking for the second song in this video for years! You gave the first clue, and after some more detective work I found out it's actually Cygnus X - The Orange Theme (Man With No Name Remix)

[jmaioran]

Okay, at 0:38 I felt like the double rainbow guy a little bit

[NusicProductions]

Toward the end where you start getting the 3d effect, how are you moving 2 projections in perfect opposite symmetry? Or am I seeing it wrong?

[yummyfuture]

@NusicProductions What 3d effect? Can you tell me the exact time (minutes:seconds) when you see it?

[FadedSTEELERSfan]

@yummyfuture search " the colors of infinity. nuff said

[tovadaq]

@yummyfuture I see something 3D around 9:10

[yummyfuture]

@tovadaq Around 9:10 I'm just moving one of the four projectors around -- I think the camera was completely still during this time. It looks kind of 3d, but it's really the same flat imagery you see throughout the video.

[josepheath]

@yummyfuture Yeah, there is somewhat an illusion of green and blue passing infront and behind each other but that is all it is. The projectors are stationary until the third begins to move around 9:15. The symmetry is because one of the projectors is upside down.

I am not sure about any of that but if I am right it is a really smart way of doing things. Could quite easily be built up to incorporate any number of projectors into a kaleidoscope kind of effect.

[Mephisarisa]

@NusicProductions; You saw the fractal shapes moving in symmetry. If I understand it correctly, the projections were not moving at all, though the camera was moving a little. As FadedSTEELERSfan said, check out the book The Colours of Infinity, or you can just check out the Wikipedia article on fractals.

[DoctorCuriosity]

It's interesting to see just how much you can interfere with the fractal using your fingers and still see it regenerate itself.

[mafurock33]

amazing!

[andsalomoni]

Form creation out of emptiness

[Tikvanaya]

You set up a microcontroller to change the camera's rotation.

[yummyfuture]

@Tikvanaya Actually, the camera and projectors were handheld.

[yummyfuture]

@Tikvanaya Actually, the camera and projectors were handheld.



[gammainn]

This is the most epic fractal effect I've ever seen. Thank you so much for sharing!

[CoNiGMa]

Holy Shit! That is phenomenal! This is just crazy and awesome!

[Bockatadi]

math is fun!

[sciencoking]

0:20 a sierpinski triangle? are you kidding me?

[sciencoking]

oh not quite, i see ^_^

[NatralisticPantheist]

Hale Mary full of Grace

jk

[strategicatch]

I have listened to many lectures on fractals, just out of curiosity. After 17 seconds I finally understand them, and can use them in my own life. Don't ask me to explain or give advice. Just thanks for posting!

[MusicanoftheFuture]

WWWWOOOOOOOOOWWWW!!!!! WOW!!! WOWWEETOO!!! If they did this sort of stuff back in the 1940's and even had this music,would have been wicked.!!!.

[greenplantnorth]

Mind = Blown

I could watch this all day. I think I'll buy myself a projector now.

[dunbarbob]

i need help making a video

please help

[randomfio]

wow thats mega random....trippy prettyness ~_^ and this tune is awesome!!!...first time i heard it was playin wipeout on ps1 lmao!! good times

[andsalomoni]

1:25 astounding

[andsalomoni]

Absolutely WONDERFUL!

[Emoslovekills]

thats some nice ass shit o_o

[ashinms]

Seems like a lot of money to just make repeating patterns...

[trr12]

amazing stuff!

[ThatArabGuy]

are the colours changing like that on its own or are you doing something with the camera's features?

[yummyfuture]

@ThatArabGuy some color changes happened on their own, but I also played with the various projectors' tint and color temperature settings and made some use of tinted transparent plastic sheets in front of the projector beams at various times.

[DMdarkmatter]

Great show!

[PiotrekOlejniczak]

That's way beyond every computer creation I've seen. EVER.

[GoogolHz]

Yes! Isn't it fantastic? These are clearly live, video feedback fractals. Video feedback provides the recursive translations in realtime. No calculations. Small pockets of video feedback explorers have discovered this method over the years. I did as well in the early 90s. Google "video feedback fractals" -sweetandfizzy

[TiagoTiagoT]

You could probably get paid to perform live :D

[Inmetz]

this is comuter generated fraktals. by the way cams and projectors contents computers

[networkse7en]

wow thank you this is wonderful

[Qulopuaa]

maybe this says the mandelbrot could be at base of the hidden dimesions eg the shape thats governs our laws for stuf-maybe anyway the shape might be a fractal

[mirlen101]

Great VFL fractals ! A bit different than what I've seen from others using video feedback loops .

[werre2]

coolest thing ever

[PixelOutlaw]

This is a very cool extension of the single screen effect everyone has tried. Nice job. Some of the shapes seem very close to well known sets.

[MTL911Truth]

how do you get it to change color?

[MTL911Truth]

this is awesome stuff

[smashingparadox]

Amazing, and you don't have to wait several hours for it to render!

[Damatelon]

Yeah, it renders with Light Speed

Nature will ALWAYS Pwn the Human Tec

[Emi212]

Oh! I love this song! Papau New Guinea by the Future Sound of London! :D Fits well with the vid. XD

[bounga]

@Emi212 thanx for the song name ;)

[RedSuit1]

Suddenly, the universe begins to lag....

[SorryWereOutOfNames]

Damn these visuals are way better then those crappy visuals in some clubs..

awesome..

[garrettanderson983]

tahts trippin balls

[Xxero0]

Nice work, man!

[ephemerae]

excellent.

[fatalist6o9]

You can do a simpler version just by hooking a camcorder to the tv and pointing it at the tv screen. Getting three or more projectors is not very quick for most people, lol!

[OxideEndeavor]

you should add some mirrors! :)

[OxideEndeavor]

The Sierpinski Triangle. great work

[WokenOne]

This is one of the most amazing things i have ever seen.

[djtreq]

That this is all done without a preformed input is blowing my mind, thank you! I've followed and have been involved with interactive media for a long time, and don't think I've come across something so astounding in quite a while, the diversity and range of self-similar patterns going on here are absolutely amazing!

[yummyfuture]

You're welcome!

[1000You2b0001]

nifty. I appreciate the way you know how to do this all manually!

[pozzitrev]

seek man >>>> wow.... 3 .... and the 4th one passing by... i have an study with one projector.. and u have inspired me to find 4 friends with projectors and try! good one mate!!! chears!

[POEEPOPE]

Awesome! I'm gonna trip the fuck out!

[tempestlag]

all ye who doubt the power of math...get stoned and check this shit out

[FadedSTEELERSfan]

@tempestlag check out , "the colors of infinity"

[babedibab]

I love fractal!!! I will buy 4 projector just for see that!!!!!

[xflamingpenguinx]

This is so amazing. What's the music by the way? I love when you can see the geometric shapes- the hexagons and squares. So cool!

[greendayrpunk]

wow

[parturisco]

very nice, good idea!

[Grahamcake1963]

Love the music in this clip. Very emotive. What is it?

[yummyfuture]

"Paupa New Guinea" by Future Sounds of London

[Grahamcake1963]

Thanks for the info.

[RicardoBCoelho]

If i were high I would really like to project this in my wall xD

[smitty121981]

the "ferns" at 1:27 are another great example of commonly recognized fractals. At 3:06 there is a good example of overlapping "dragon curves" I could go on and on. These are probably even closer to real fractals than those generated on a computer because they are not limited to simply 1 and 0, the interface of reality allows access to the infinity in between.

[smitty121981]

Very cool video, I've played around with stuff like this before but it's amazing how complex the patterns are that you are getting by using multiple projected images. Awesome!

[1Terryus1]

I think everithing in this life conected with fractals,our vision,hearing ,everi feeling and every life sign .

[Taikina]

the fractals we make are representative patterns similiar to the patterns we find in nature so...excactly! :D

[1Terryus1]

that`s scary however...

[garrettanderson983]

does that explain why i saw them when i smoked pot?

[1Terryus1]

probobly.

[AllFractUp]

Looks like you used a video of fractals and then cast it on the wall using different projectors. Your stated goal of creating fractals without a computer hasn't been demonstrated. The original fractal video would have been made using a computer.

[yummyfuture]

Um, no. There was no precalculated video source material of a fractal. The fractal imagery was created in real time by using the geometrical relationship between the camera and the projectors to create an iterated function system. No computers were involved. If you watch the part at the beginning you can see the fractal image gradually emerge when the camera (the one feeding images to the projectors) is moved from pointing at the table to pointing at the projected area.

[ArtyFart]

That's not a fractal.

It's a pattern.

[yummyfuture]

Well, not necessarily in the strict mathematical sense, but it is self-similar.

[smitty121981]

ArtyFart, I disagree I think that these patterns are true fractals. For example, at 0:45 you can see a well known fractal commonly referred to as the sierpinski triangle. But the one in this video is even more complex because it does not have perfect symmetry.

[DeDean16]

wow, lol

[travis12131415]

that was actually way better than i thought it would be.

[cattiguen]

1:29 + 2:02 = dopeness!!

[dandymcgee]

Wow man that is awesome.

[nahuj999]

Amazing

[cm2dude]

I did this with a Panasonic, and a 60" television... It was pretty boss.

[ChemicalComedown]

Excellent work . . .

[DavidofThe]

Great music!!!

I love FSOL.

[dreamscometrue30989]

wow thats a nice set of fractals there

[AtomicShroomx]

0:18 Sierpinski's Triangle?

[YomorokaXD]

??? wow

[joshig1983]

What is the intial projection before all the repetition?

[6d6174]

fantastic! thank you for sharing.

[metaswordsman]

yay video feedback!

[ultimaya1235]

hum feedback + fsol jajaja here we go !!

[akosmaroy]

is it possible to download this video, so I can show it to friends off-line?

[TheOriginalEntz]

can you view it? then it can be downloaded. EVERYTHING you receive online can be downloaded.

[Maelorn]

Absolutely gorgeous. I'm especially enthralled with the variety of results from the few props you used (hands, pendulum).

If I may, I'd like to suggest you make a note of the music in the description. I'm rather fond of it, but not sure what song it is, or even by who. I'm sure I'm not the only person who will ask you.

[yummyfuture]

Music:

Song 1 is Papua New Guinea by The Future Sound of London. I don't know the source of Song 2 as it came to me unlabeled.

[Nimzomyth68]

The soundtrack has samples of Lisa Gerrards voice of Dead can Dance.

[nargopolis]

Awesome. Are you just using a splitter to get the output from the camera to the three projectors?

[yummyfuture]

I'm using a very cheap splitter... Radio Shack had an 8-jack audio panel and I just wired all the jacks together.

[fluxoff]

Lovely.