A Fractal Animation Product Is Born
- Fastest Integrated Production Flame Fractal Renderer Available Today
- Multiple GPU Rendering for Mac Pro’s
- OpenCL rendering on either GPUs (if available and compatible) or CPU
- Render to Video with Pause/Resume Render
- Quit App & Resume Render later where you stopped at before
- Savable Movie Rendering State
- Audio Integration
- Virtually every parameter is animatable
Animation Clip Creation Possibilities Everywhere
- Triangle Editor
- QuickSpin Popovers (Basic)
- New Custom Animations (Complex)
- Cross Breeder
- Simple Keyframe Morphs (Basic)
- New Custom Animations (Complex)
- Keyframes Arranger Window – Animation Panel
- Simple Keyframe Morphing Animations (Basic)
- Looping + Keyframe Morphing Animations (Basic)
- New Animation Sequencer (Complex)
Build Keyframe Collections Quickly
- Keyframes are the basis for all fractal animations.
- To create a good animation, you first build a collection of keyframes.
- Add extra keyframes all over the app.
- You can also add fractals to the Stash (a tool for easy culling and comparison).
Where you can add keyframes
- Triangle Editor
- QuickSpin Popovers
- Color Gradient Editor
- Preview Window
- Drag and Drop from other fractal files & Mac Finder
- Variant and Super-Variant Editors (Add to Stash Only)
- Cross-Breeder
Cross-Breeder Animation Clips
- 11 Animation Curve Types – Each can be Flipped and/or Mirrored
- Each curve instance can have different curve parameters
- New B-Spline, NURBS, and Catmull-Rom curve editors for complex curves
- Spline curves can be Open or Closed
- Easy Animation Previews
- Drag a slider and watch thumbnail
- Create set of thumbnails or thumbnail video
- Production renders to Video, Image File Sequences, or Both
- Target Render to Web, DVD, or BlueRay
- New – Many, many different unique cross-breeding combinations
- Each combination looks different !!
| # of transforms in fractal | # of cross-breed combinations |
|---|---|
| 2 | 2 |
| 3 | 6 |
| 4 | 24 |
| 5 | 120 |
| 6 | 720 |
| 7 | 5,040 |
| 8 | 40,320 |
| 9 | 362, 880 |
New – Cross-Breeder Custom Animations
The ultimate in control allowing you to do a basic cross-breed animation along with animating many other properties at the same time.
- Animate one to many fractal parameters in parallel
- Same Preview/Rendering Features as Basic Animation Clips
New – Triangle Editor Custom Animations
The ultimate in control allowing you to animate many parameters at the same time.
- Animate one to many fractal parameters in parallel
- Same Preview/Rendering Features as Basic Animation Clips
Simple Keyframe Animations
- New – Keyframe Morphing Animations (Basic Cross-Breeding Animations)
- New – Easy Creation of extra Keyframes by tweaking one keyframe and spinning variants
- 4 Animation Curves in Fractal Architect 4
- Each keyframe’s morph duration can be different
- Flam3 like Looping & Keyframe Morphing
- Simple but limited options
New – True 3D Camera
- Fractal Architect Free 3D Camera Mode
- True 3D Camera Camera
- Extends the Apophysis 3D Hack Camera Model
- Camera Postion X/Y/Z
- Separate Camera Look-At Point
- Standard 3D or Apophysis Hack Frustum Clipping Modes
- Camera Field-of-View
- Supports 3D Fly-Throughs and Orbital Camera
- True 3D Camera support for Custom Animations and Animation Sequencer
- FA 4 Supports Apophysis 3D Hack, Flam3, and FA Free Camera modes
Video Rendering Enhancements
- New Pause & Resume Video Rendering
- Resume the Video Render days later
- Other enhancements
- Simplified Motion Blur
- More Accurate Render Time Estimate
- Real-time Render Performance Feedback
What Is a Animation Segment?
- A container that holds one to many different animations
- Animations all of have their own animation curve and From/To values
- Animations all begin and end together
- If you can tweak the parameter, you can animate it
- 62 parameter categories
- 15 parameter datatypes
- 11 animation curve types
- A typical fractal has up to 300 parameters which can all be animated
New – Animation Segment Configurator
- Configures all of the animations in a single animation segment
- Provides 9 built-in animation curve shapes + 2 editable spline curve types
- Supports 2D and 3D spline paths for camera
- 3D Camera Orientation/Position animations
- 3D Fly-throughs
- 3D Orbital Camera
- Spherical interpolation for Camera Orientation
- Animation video animation previews
- Can edit the keyframes and From/To Endpoints with the Triangle Editor
- Can drag fractals from Variants Editor and Drop them on Configurator
- Captures the difference between 2 fractals as an animation
New – Audio Integration
- Audio track clipping and alignment with video track
- Display of Audio Track in Sequencer
- Can add audio tracks to all video animations
Built-in Movie Utilities
- Convert Image File Sequence to Movie
- Can add Audio Track at the same time
- Splice Movies
Extended Image Sequence File Type Support
- Rendering an Image Sequence can now output the following file types:
- PNG (8 or 16 bit)
- JPEG
- TIFF
- JPEG2000
- BMP
- EXR (a 16 bit HDR file format)
- You can choose to create a movie or PDF from any of these types of files.
New – Fractal Animation Sequencer
Video Clips versus Long Complex Animations
- Tool of choice for building long complex animation sequences.
- Perfect for creating long Music Video animations.
- Add Beat Pulsing animations to your videos.
- Add Camera animations to your videos.
Long Complex Animations – Sequencer
- Song Properties
- All of the features in Cross-Breeder
- Multiple Animation Segments can chained together
Take Total Control of Your Animations
- Multiple track Animation Sequencer
- Can control each parameter’s animation separately
- Separate Animation curves for each animation
- Groups of animations can be bundled together into Segments
- Optional Beat Pulse curve track for animating to music
- Camera Animations track
- Audio Track – can see/listen to audio
- Import animations from Variant Editor
- Can control each parameter’s animation separately
New – Layered Animations
- Multiple Animation Tracks
- Animation Pour-Down – Simple way to add new effects
- Makes it easy to add animation pulsing to a music beat – separates the pulsing from other animations
- Easy to add extended Camera animations
- Animation Pulsing – Fill Animation Track with Pulse Pattern
- Sequencer View – similar to GarageBand or other Music sequencers
- Grid View – single animation segment or track view
- Animation curve plotting for either single animation segment or entire track view
Places Where You Can Create Animations
So many ways to create animation videos…
| Window | Where | License[1] | Difficulty | Limitations | Length[2] | Curve[3] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Triangle Editor | Quick-Spin | Basic | Easy | Single animation parameter | Short | No |
| Cross Breeder | Make Video | Basic | Easy | Single Morph with Permutation Control | Short | Yes |
| Keyframes Window | Animation Panel – Keyframe Animations | Basic | Easy | Multiple keyframe morphs | Long | Limited |
| Keyframes Window | Animation Panel – Loop/Morph Animations | Basic | Easy | Multiple looping/keyframe morphs | Long | Limited |
| Triangle Editor | Custom Animations | Complex | Easy/Medium | One animation segment | Medium | Yes |
| Cross Breeder | Custom Animations | Complex | Easy/Medium | One morph segment | Medium | Yes |
| Super Variants | Configure Variants | Complex | Easy/Medium | One animation segment | Medium | Yes |
| Animation Configurator | Run Button | Complex | Easy/Medium | One animation segment | Medium | Yes |
| Sequencer | Complex | Medium/Complex | Complex sequencing of many animation segments Beat Synching |
Very Long | Yes |