Create new fractals by combining 2 or more fractals in 5 different ways:
Cross breed 2 parent fractals to make many other possible fractals. Properties are treated as a bundle.
Tool to use: Cross Breeder Editor.
Splice 2 or more fractals together to create exciting new fractals. Exploits the huge power of Variation Group Chains.
Tool to use: Lua Scripts.
Same idea as morphing, but each property is handled independently. Properties are unbundled.
Tool to use: Super Variants Editor.
Combine layers of basic fractals to create composite fractal by having each layer share the same histogram.
You can use "Quick Look" of multiple selected thumbnails to evaluate whether they work well together as a layered fractal.
Select multiple fractal thumbnails and create a new layered fractal with a simple menu command.
Drag & drop (or Copy/Paste) fractals in preview window to add layers to a fractal.
Tools to Use: Quick Look, Grid Thumbnails, & Preview Window
subflame and subflameFinal variation types for normal and final transforms respectively.
These variations invoke another basic fractal to create the variation shape.
Warning: Sub-flames may not be supported on all GPU devices and driver updates in both the past and future may break sub-flame GPU rendering. CPU rendering should be unaffected.
Tools to Use: Lua Scripts & Transform Editor
Super variants are now much easier to use.
The standard Variants editor needs 1 initial fractal from which it creates many different variant fractals.
The Super variants editor needs 2 initial fractals. When opened from 2 initial fractals, the super variants editor will create many other random fractals based on those 2 fractals.
There are so many places in the app where you can select 2 fractals and then open the Super variants editor.
Tip: Select 1 variant fractal in the Variant editor and click on the Super Variants button.
Voila! It sets up the Super Variant editor's 2 initial fractals and finds many more fractals related to the selected variant fractal.
Finally, the popular crackle variation type is supported.
There are new Lua scripts to add a crackle variation to an exsiting fractal and 2 randomize the crackle parameters.
Fractal layers can now have both multiple normal transforms and multiple final transforms.
Multiple final transfroms are applied in series.
All fractals are layered. Fractals made with earlier versions of FA are converted to layered fractals when opened.
A fractal with 1 layer looks the same as legacy unlayered fractals.
Multi layered fractala can be cross bred.
When morphing layered fractals, now you have the ability to setup different layer combinations as well as transform combinations.
In other words, you can say first which layers morph together, then which transforms morph together.
Each layer can be edited independently in the Transform editor and you can switch back and forth between which layer is being edited.
You can add sub-flame instances using the Transform editor and switch back and forth between the main fractal and its sub-flame fractal in the transform editor.
The transform editor preview can be switched from Current Layer to All Layers and from Main Fractal and Sub-flame Fractal views.
Fractal Architect is the first flame fractal app that supports True 3D.
FA 3D fractals now use 3D matrix transforms throughout for both normal and final transforms.
All normal/final transforms use 1 2D matrix.
Jwildfie uses 3 separate 2D transfoms, on the XY, YZ, and ZX planes to create 3D fractals.
The standard Pre and Post matrices in each transform are each 1 3D matrix.
This is the natural way to handle 3D operations in computer graphics.
You can rotate an object around an arbitrary 3D axis. (Impossible with Apo Pseudo 3D. Extremely difficult in JWF.)
FA can import both Apo Pseudo 3D fractals and Jwidlfire fractals and convert them to True 3D fractals.
FA has a simple 3D tetrahedron modeler, where you manipulate a 4 sided tetrahedron using the mouse.
Just like manipulating a 2D triangle can be used to edit a 2D matrix transform, manipulating a 3D tetrahedron can be used to edit a 3D matrix transform.
You can also choose to use the Jwildfire approach of using a Triangle editor to manipulate one of the 3 cardinal faces of tetrahedron. You specify which face to edit by choosing the XY, YZ, or ZX face.
FA 5 now includes:
In FA, you can create a Lua Script List which is a list of Lua scripts + all their input parameters.
Since FA 2, Fractal Architect included a Make New Random Fractal window on the Home Page. Sometimes you might find a combination of settings that make a lot of great looking fractals.
Now those settings can be saved a a new Main random fractal Lua script.
In fact, this release of FA includes a lot of new Main random fractal scripts created using this same feature !
With Fractal Architect you have unparalleled productivity creating exciting new fractals
Lua Scripts can be either a fixed value or a Lua expression that is "late evaluated".
Late evaluation is important with Lua expressions that generate random value ranges, so each created fractal does not have the same input parameter value.
The GUI has a popover that lets you specify the script's parameter values.
These scripts randomly embed new variation instances into the fractal's transforms.
They can be embedded into the normal, pre or post variation groups.
These scripts have special input parameters called varpars, that specify which variation type to insert, its random weight range, and random parameter value ranges.
You can specify one or more variation instances using any variation type.
These scripts are powerful, simple, and flexible.
Any fractal can now be saved as a new Main Lua script.
Why would you want to do that?
See the next new feature.
The Splicing and Sub-flames scripts all need "another" fractal to do their magic.
So those scripts can call another Main random fractal creation script to create the "other" fractal.
The "other" script defaults to "simil3.lua", but can be any script. The script input parameter tells these scripts which "other" script to use.
So if you saved a fractal as a new Lua script, you can invoke it here.
The GUI popover for setting up script input parameters has 2 buttons to make specifying the "other" script easy.
A new type of animation curve is now supported.
You can use an audio clip as the source for an animation curve.
Unsmoothed audio clips make very poor animations curve and lead to lots of big jerky animation movements.
FA introduces a smoothing parameter that smooths out the huge swings in movement.
Even so, the animations created from audio clips often don't look good. It is a simple concept that does not work well in practice.
Orchestral sounds and human singing just create weird animations. Simple beat sounds work best.
Metronome click tracks can be used as the audio clip and they make very nice animation curves. The wave shape has a very nice simple shape that animates fractals nicely.
You can have one audio clip source file for the entire sequence and many audio clip animation curve instances.
The Smart Clip button will clip the animation curve instances to match the appropriate time interval in the audio clip.
Color Gradients are now accurate in all cases, so morphed colors match the endpoint keyframe's colors.
FA can create simple animation sequences from a batch of keyframes.
Another way is to use the Variant editor (or Super Variants) to create animation sequences.
Simply drag/drop (or copy/paste) a fractal from a variant thumbnail grid and drop it onto an animation segment.
That creates one of two types of animation segments:
The first option creates a "simple keyframe morph" (where all of the properties are bundled together and there is 1 animation curve for the segment).
The "keyframe delta animation" is related to a keyframe morph, but instead is a large collection of unbundled property animations, that can each have its own separate animation curve.
This image file type matches the image quality of JPEG but at 1/2 the file size.
This is Apple's name for the new H.265 codec that creates videos that are 40% smaller than the previous H.264 standard codec.
Create videos with high dynamic range and saturated colors.
Apple Compressor has professional level support for creating videos from image sequences.
If you want HDR and 10 bit video support, use Apple compressor.
VIdeos created using Apple's AV Foundation API (the API used by FA) are not color accurate, but most would say they are "good enough". (I believe the gamma curve is incorrect.)