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The images you see to the right were all created with IFS Julia.* 
Click any image to see a larger view. Click here or click the logo above for a test drive! IFS Julia is free
software. Download it at Sourceforge! * The basic shapes were created with IFS Julia. The 3-d effects were added with the GIMP. Click here to learn more about processing IFS Julia images with the GIMP. |
 swirl.jifs |
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 julia.jifs |
 island.jifs |
IFS Julia is a program for creating cool graphics like the ones you see above. Though you don't need to know it in order to use the program, the cool graphics it produces are actually iterated function system (IFS) fractals. That's where it gets the "IFS" part of its name. More precisely, IFS Julia is designed to make it very easy to generate Julia Sets and some cool variants. That's where it gets the "Julia" part of its name.
When the applet starts up, you should see a circle in the design area. Well, that circle is actually two circles, one right on top of the other. No time like the present to experiment a little. Grab one of the circles with the mouse and drag it. Watch the preview change as you move it around! You can also grab the other one and drag it around.
Click the "Link Parameters" button. This makes it look like you only have one circle again. But just like when the program starts up, there are still two. They just lie one on top of the other. As long as they remain link, you can drag them around together.
Notice that the "Link Parameters" button became an "Unlink Parameters" button when you clicked it. Clicking the "Unlink Parameters" button will again allow you to drag the two circles around separately.
When the two circles are separate, you may also like to click the "Swap Coordinates" button. One of the circles represents a "positive" transformation, and the other represents a "negative" transformation. When you click the "Swap Coordinates" button, they swap roles.
Clicking the "Reset Parameters" button resets the two circles so they are again at the center of the design area, one on top of the other. It's sort of a "start over" button.
When you like what you see in the preview area, you might want to click on the "Render Fractal" button. This will bring up a dialog box that allows you to create a larger, more colorful version of your fractal! Island was rendered using the Random method; Swirl was rendered with the single color method; Julia was rendered with the one color per map method; and Beetle was rendered with the deterministic method. Feel free to try them all, but be careful with the deterministic method. It's not a mistake that the number of iterations is small. It takes a long time to do each iteration, and not very many are needed to create interesting renderings.
You can make classic Julia Sets by clicking the "Link Parameters" button. As long as the two circles are on top of one another, you are making a classic Julia Set.
The best images seem to be created when the two circles are near one another.
The .jifs
files hold
the mathematical description of your IFS fractal! It may or may not
interest you, but this is how IFS Freestyle sees the shapes in the
design area. Also, if you download the stand-alone
version, you will get save and open buttons so you can save
and retrieve your work. The .jifs
file is what is saved and read during these operations. A line like
Julia:-1.458647e+00,-1.408521e+00,false
is the mathematical description for the complex number mapping
where the plus or minus is chosen according to whether or not the last parameter is "true" or "false." True means positive and false means negative. Just click the "Show IFS Code" button to see what would be the contents of the .jifs file if you could save it.
