Fractal Art Design with Mandelbulb 3D

I discovered this amazing software to do three-dimensional fractal design and animations.

And the most amazing this is… it’s free! This isn’t a paid promotion or plug of any type. This is a genuine head nod to the creators of this amazing fractal design program called Mandelbulb 3D.

Mandelbulb 3D is an educational and informational website about the Mandelbulb in specific and 3D fractals in general. On their website, they feature information about the mathematical nature of fractals, the discovery of the Mandelbulb, and software used to render 3D fractal objects. They also feature a selection of their favorite 3D fractal artists and post news about topics of interest to the 3D fractal community.

Now… let’s get to the crazy stuff!

These were some of the first fractal art design still images I generated using the software. I have to confess, I started with presets and modified them, but you have to start somewhere! The more I experimented, the more comfortable I got with creating my own 3D fractals from scratch.

Fractal Design Render 2 with Mandelbulb 3D

Fractal Design Render 3 with Mandelbulb 3D

I then got brave and used one of the program’s templates by DainBramage to try to render an animation. The clip below took about 5 hours to render. (There’s no sound)

Mandelbulb brought back a lot of memories including my fascination with fractals and a project I did while in my second year at the Kansas City Art Institute.

The animation below is older (circa 2002), but it was fun putting it together while learning animation and motion graphics. I even got to give a go at sound design using a cheap synthesizer and the best audio software that a broke college student could afford. The clip was put together in Adobe Photoshop, After Effects, a 3D program (I can’t remember), and Steinberg Cubase. It takes a few seconds to build up!