I'm working on my latest piece (so-far called "Chromatic Jack" for piano and Stick) and had some videos pop out of the CPU-rendering oven. In addition to adding Stick(s) to my original music, I'm been doing fractal animation videos for a little over a year now, about one per every 2 weeks or so.

My latest 3D fractal animation video is called "Bottle City of Brain-Coral Kandor," and features my older solo piano tune "Fractals"--named so because it was in the key of F, and it's relative minor, thus "Fr..." and then somehow it became "Fractals." Then I searched for a cool picture to make album art and discovered the entire field of fractal animation, which seemed a perfect fit for my "soundtrack-y" music. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandelbulb, invented in 2009!) I have made some 35 videos since. This song in F changed my entire life (dramatically speaking). Then I discovered Stick (142 days now.)

Software: I only use Mandelbulber (mandelbulber.com) now, both the newest CPU version and the old GPU version. There is also Mandelbulb 3D, which is good, and others, which are less good and expensive. The two best are also free.

CPU(s):
i7 5960X, 8-core, overclocked to 4.4 GHz
Dell i7 4790 (not the K), 4-core, at around 3.6 GHz
Other CPUs around the house if I want to render-farm

GPU(s):
Two MSI GeForce GTX 980s (overclocked but not SLI'd together)

Bottle City of Brain-Coral Kandor Video:
This one's shot through a fish-eye lens, the first time I've tried that. I'm digging it, but it's strange and new to me as well. I'm using Superman primary colors for the pedestal (Bottle City of Kandor comes from Supes home planet Krypton and is a long comics story) and I had a version with an actual fractal city, but I like the brain coral better, and re-shot the entire video. I might still use the fractal-city version for something else.

Music:
"Fractals" is a New Age Progressive piano piece, with some cool riffs and a lot of repetition of those cool riffs. Not much to say about it--it's firmly in my style which is very rhythmic, melodic, and not dissonant tonally or too complex harmonically. There's no "solo" on it, as such. Looking at it now, a year and a half later, I could easily add some Stick bass to it. I'll probably not--I'm resisting the urge to just add Stick bass lines to old stuff. I'd like to concentrate on making new stuff with the Stick instead of Stickifying my old stuff--unless it was already lacking for a good bass line or guitar solo (of which I do have several good candidates--ah, not enough time in the day!).

I appreciate your patience with this not-very-Sticky composition and the fractal animation videos. I welcome all feedback and questions and comments!

Steve
Paigan Productions

YouTube Version:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnFnujaVgts[/youtube]

Vimeo better-quality version (and downloads of original video at best quality!): https://vimeo.com/151973061

Soundcloud audio-only version:

Wow, crickets. Sorry, guys!

I'll leave off on the fractal music video stuff here, then. Cheers; no worries at all. The Japanese say "Junin Toiro" or "Ten, People: Ten Colors." Different strokes for different folks. Thanks anyway!

Cheers, Steve
--Still fractally gonna rock it out anyway, 'cause I'm addicted.

Hey buddy....
I'm gonna pipe in with a feel good reply.....that was cool. There, the crickets went away. Thats some mighty fine piano playing dooder.
The fractals look like H. Pylori virus, or warty Big Macs.....eheh

cheers,
Spacetyme Continuum

Hey dooder, by all means...keep posting the fractal art. We're all artists here (I use that term loosely about myself,ehehe).
I actually know a tiny bit about fractals and the math behind it. Cool concept of tiny copies of tiny copies of tiny......I dont need to explain it to you of course.

The snow flake I think is a great example of a natural fractal.....correct me if I'm wrong, but have I got that right?

I know what you mean about trying to get folks interested in you own little worlds. I see my wifes eyes glaze over as I talk to her about the shit that interests me, Stick stuff and multiple witness UFO sightings. She just yawns and says "what did you say again....I wasn't listening"

Bet she would pay attention if she got abducted by the grays.....

ehehe

I dig art that has its roots in some sort of techie background, so......I'm on your team.

cheers,
Francis Crick

Funny, thats the exact equation I had in mind this morning as I was shovelling snow.......
Love the Wolfram Alpha site, I use it from time to time.

cheers,
Wolf Gang

As I was constructing a nuclear reactor from my hot water heater that very equation came in handy, just gotta divide it by Pi.

Lol cool stuff Stephen, keep posting and I will keep listening. I wish more people posted their stuff, actually!

I should point out that the extra-dimensional math going on here is entirely done by the program and by the programmer, and not by me. I'm just a musician who counts to 4 and then starts over again (unless I'm getting fancy in 5!). Mandelbulber 2.06 (just out a few month ago) is literally set up with a toolbar at the top, where you can point and click on the shape you want to start. There are bulbs (balls with gnarly knobs), and boxes, and that's 80% of the ones I use. Then there are more specialized Mandelbrot sets, and Julia sets, and hybrid sets, and yadda yadda. Like music theory, like baseball statistics, like quantum physics, it's all very simple stuff but you can dig down deep into the rabbit hole or just putter around on top with cool shapes and bouncy lights.

Like music theory, there's a lot of names for shit most people know intuitively or by ear. The cool thing here is that there are shapes I've never seen before--whatever they're called. No voodoo here: it was Fractal number 7, all the buttons smashed, and randomized, until something cool pops up--oh, look, there's a bunny!
This I call a mushroom! (By the creator of the program, Krzysztof Marczak, his art here: http://krzysztofmarczak.deviantart.com/)