3D Mandelbrot

Maybe someone finds this interesting. The article states that this is the first time the Mandelbrot set has been represented in true 3D.

In the next Grasshopper release, it will be possible to operate with complex numbers. The Mandelbrot set has been traditionally represented in the 2D complex plane, were the x-axis represents the real part of the complex numbers and the y-axis represents the imaginary part. In this case they used hypercomplex numbers, which are like 2D complex numbers but can be extended to 3D or more. The images look very nice.

http://www.skytopia.com/project/fractal/mandelbulb.html

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Chris K. Palmer on November 15, 2009 at 8:09pm

Very interesting and beautiful!

At quick glance I think this might qualify as precedent: http://www.evl.uic.edu/hypercomplex/
But even so that doesn't take away from the amazing work.

Permalink Reply by Vicente Soler on November 16, 2009 at 5:59am

I don't see the 3D Mandelbrot, only other types of fractals. Most of the previous 3d attempts supposedly have been more like 2.5D. They use the 2d algorithm and rotate it, extrude it, pile up multiple 2d sections, etc.
But even in the end of this paper, the author states he is skeptical that the method is the real deal after all.

Permalink Reply by taz on November 16, 2009 at 8:02am