IFS-Compose Objects
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Render IfsCompose
IFS-Compose is one of the weirdest and most fascinating plugins
available for Gimp. It is basically a tool to generate recursive,
natural-looking fractal shapes. It is quite hard to understand at
first, but once you play with it you will start to understand how
it works.
I did some shapes with it, and you can download them by clicking the
links below. I also took screenshots of the ifs-object so you can
get a better idea how the shapes are constructed. When you download
the XCF-images into Gimp version 1.1.x or later, you will also get
the IFS-Compose parameters restored, so you can select a layer on
the image and start the plugin to get my object there right away.
Customize to your hearts content! :)
Please note that this is not a 'how to use ifs-compose' -tutorial,
but rather an exhibition of the stuff I have played with
lately. For a tutorial on how IFS-Compose works, you can look at
Owen's excellent page here.
If you want to use the images somewhere, please feel free to do so.
You can link back to this site if you wish to give me credit for them.
Autumn Maple 1
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This is the first tree-image I did. You can see the IFS-object
represents the most primitive shape of the tree, it looks like
a small sapling.
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Autumn Maple 2
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This is a slight variation of the previous maple tree. I did
only very subtle changes, thus the object looks almost the
same. I made the top 'leaf' a bit smaller and also moved all
leaves a bit away from the center. I also made the leaf in
the middle a bit larger.
The result is, while modifications were small, quite
different looking. If you want to do a forest-like montage
of many trees, it's good to alter every tree a bit like
this, it looks much more natural.
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Summer Maple 1
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This is just a recolorization of the previous object. In IFS-compose
every 'leaf' or 'cell' can have its own color. The color of a single
cell then affects recursively in the colorization of the whole image.
Zap! ACME Instant summer, just add water! :)
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Summer Oak 1
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Another metamorphosis? This time I stretched the cells back a bit
thus making them wider and thicker. I also needed to move them
towards the center of the tree to avoid splitting the shape into
many little trees.
All this sounds very complex, and it is kind of technical stuff.
But the best way to learn IFS-Compose is to play with it a lot.
It helps if you can think about the most simple, primitive shape
that represents the object you are trying to create. Then try to
create something similar and you might just get amazing results.
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Spruce 1
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This time I added some new cells, and made the angles point
downwards instead of up like on all the previous objects.
The results is remotely similar to a spruce tree, though it also
represents a fern or something. But it is quite nice anyway.
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The XCF-file
Like I said on the top of the page, I have provided you with
a XCF-file of all above objects, get it
[here].
Note: To be able to re-render the example objects and
to change them in IFS-Compose you need Gimp version 1.1.x or higher.
Gimp can be obtained from
www.gimp.org.
I hope you found this little information useful!
tigert
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