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Filed under: Motion Graphics •

Fractal Noise Tutorial

Step 5: Next, let’s tweak the appearance of the fractal blocks:

• Although the block pattern is obvious, the amount of detail inside the blocks is giving it a cloudy appearance. This is because the fractal pattern is being calculated too many times (i.e. for too many “iterations”). To decrease this detail, reduce the Complexity parameter from 6.0 to 3.0.
• Twirl down Sub Settings. These decide how each iteration of the fractal pattern are drawn: Are they larger or smaller than the original? Stronger or weaker?
• Scrub the Sub Influence parameter to see its effect, then set its value to 55% (reduced from 70%). This will reduce the strength with which the further iterations are rendered.
• The Sub Scaling parameter decides how much smaller subsequent iterations are than the original. We will reduce this, and also animate it so the pattern will appear to grow over time. Make sure the current time indicator is at 00:00, enable the animation stopwatch for Sub Scaling, and scrub its value to see the effect of this parameter. Then set its value to 40.
• Hit the End key to jump to 05:29. Hold down the Command (Control) key, and slowly scrub the Sub Scaling parameter while watching the Comp panel to get a feel for its effect. Set this parameter to 45 - a little scale goes a long way towards adding interest without being too distracting.
• Turn on the Center Subscale checkbox. This aligns all iterations to start from the same point, and is important for creating smooth scaling and more order in the block pattern.
• The main animation parameter for Fractal Noise is Evolution. While still at time 05:29, enable its animation stopwatch, and set a value of 1 revolution. Make sure you set the revolution and not the degrees parameter; it should read 1 x +0.0˚. (Check the image above/to the right to make sure you’ve set it correctly.)
• Press Home to return to 00:00, and set Evolution back to zero revolutions and degrees.
• Press U and verify that the Sub Scaling and Evolution parameters indeed have keyframes and are animating.

Step 5: Tweak the fractal pattern by reducing the number of iterations (left), toning down how strongly these iterations are rendered (center), and reducing the size of each iteration (right).

Check that the comp is set to 50% and Half Resolution and RAM Preview; remember you can Shift+RAM Preview to render every nth frame (as set in the Shift+RAM Preview Options). Feel free to tweak to taste.

A movie of your progress so far is shown at right. If the results look nothing like our version, check your settings against the prebuilt version [FractalNoise_after Step 05].

next page: tinting, plus lighting effects

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