Apophysis is a freestanding and freeware flame fractal generator created by Mark Townsend. This tutorial is not about the nitty gritty ins and outs of Apophysis. But rather a basic tutorial for the beginner to get a handle on this programme.

For this tutorial, go to Mark's website www.apophysis.org/downloads.html and download "Apophysis 2.02".

Apophysis 2.02 is the official version. However it has been constantly upgraded and improved for some time now over at Sourceforge with beta versions being released fairly frequently. (see my faq's)

For the total beginner it's probably better to just start off on the more basic official version first and then when you have a better understanding of the programme, go and try the latest beta version.

When using Apophysis it may be a good idea to sign up for the mailing list. You can ask any questions or just learn from other peoples' questions and answers. Also any announcements about the programme are made here. Just be aware that this list can get very busy, resulting in many emails to your inbox.

Click on the Apophysis shortcut icon which should be on your desktop to open the programme. The main Apophysis window opens with a random batch of generated flame fractals. Click on each listing and watch the main preview pane reflect your selection.

Generally speaking these random flames are not usually very exciting so we have to resort to other tools within Apophysis to get that wonderful shape and form we are looking for.

You can drag the edges of the Apophysis window to make the preview larger, however it will take the flame longer to render as more memory is being used. I usually keep the preview to the smallest possible size.

Tip

If the flame in the main viewing pane is quite "grainy" click on the options button and scroll down to "options" and click. Under the "Display" tab go to "Quality" (previously called "Sample Density".) If the number is too low eg. 5 this will result in quite a grainy image. I usually work with my Quality at 35 or a little higher. This gives a reasonable view of a flame. Just bare in mind, the higher the Quality the better the preview but a much longer rendering time.

Above the main preview pane click on the "mutation" button . Displayed are nine versions of your selected flame. The center version represents the current flame. The surrounding eight neighbours represent the alternates based on the Controls located below the nine previews.

Clicking the center image will regenerate the surrounding flame previews using the same mathematics as the center flame.

Clicking any of the other eight will move the selected flame into the center, and rerender the surrounding flames using the new center flame as the base. The new center flame is then rendered back in the main preview pane.

Experiment with the "Trend" dropdown menu to see how the various variations affect your flame.

Personally, I like to keep the mutation window always open next to the Apophysis window.

Now in the Apophysis window click on the "editor" button . The triangles represent the different elements of the flame. Click and hold the button down on a triangle to move it around. You can see in real time the changes affected in the Editor preview pane. When you release the mouse the image will render back in the Apophysis preview pane. Use the same technique to drag around the corners of the triangles. Right click on a triangle and you will see options such as "add" "delete", "flip" etc.

Another way to change the form and shape of a flame is by using "scripts". Go to the Apophysis window and click "scripts" in the menu bar then click "open". The scripts are located in the script folder. If this folder does not open automatically you may have to browse your system to locate it. The scripts would usually be located in:

Program Files > Apophysis 2.0 > Scripts

Then double click on the Scripts folder and you will see all the scripts with .asc extensions. Select spiralize then click "open". The script window will close. Now click the green arrow on the toolbar. This will run the script and the flame will re-render. Notice the dramatic change to the flame in your Apophysis preview pane and the variations in the mutation window.

Experiment with some of the other scripts. Try "Spiral Batch". This will change the random batch in the Apophysis window. Explore through your new spiral batch. Watch the mutation window while you are doing this.

By now you should be getting an indication of the infinite possibilities that are available to create a flame fractal and the addictive qualities of this wonderful programme.

The next page in this tutorial deals with colouring the flame.

Continue

Tip

To specify the number of random batches that are generated click on the options button and scroll down to "options" and click. Under the "General" tab go to "Batch size" and enter the number you want.