Oxidizer: How To Use It

Getting Started

• 1. Open Oxidizer..

  2. Click GENE POOL. A new Gene Pool window opens.

  3. Click FILL in the gene pool window.

  4. When the pool is full, go to the menubar and click FILE: SAVE AS . . .

  5. Name the file. I always use the date. You must always use the .flam3 extension. For example: 21april2008.flam3. Save this file in its own folder because there will be 16 files associated with this flame.

  6. Back in the Gene Pool window, click EDITOR. There will be 16 little "rendering image" windows that open and close as each genome is sent to the editor.

  7. In Gene Pool window: click BREED. Now Oxidizer will cross-breed the genomes so that you get new ones.

  8. Send these new genomes to the editor by clicking EDIT again.

Finding a Flame

• 1. Go to the Oxidizer window (the editor where you sent all of your genomes). Click on BREEDER and a new window with two sides opens.

  2. We want to pick out two genomes that we like from the Oxidizer editor window. When we find what we like, we click and drag it to the BREEDER window: 1 genome on the right and 1 on the left.

  3. Once you have 1 on each side of the Breeder, hold down the  key and click on one, and then the other, so that both are selected. Then release the  key.

  4. Click UNION and Oxidizer will breed your two genomes. The new genome will appear in the little pane underneath and between your two breeder sections. If you click EDIT this genome will be sent to the Oxidizer edit list. If you are sure you don't like it, don't click edit.

  5. Whether you like this new genome or not, click MUTATE. Oxidizer changes the genome. You can continue clicking MUTATE and/or INTERPOLATE until you find a genome that you want to render to your final image.

  6. Click EDIT to send this image to the Oxidizer edit list or drag it to the list, where it will automatically be sent to the bottom of the list.

Rendering

• 1. In the Oxidizer edit list window, select (by clicking) the flame that you want to render.

  2. Click EDIT at the bottom of the list.

  3. The Flame window opens with five tabs on the top. We will deal with each tab separately. Follow directions exactly as you are told in the order given

  4. IMAGE TAB

     • Uncheck LOCK ASPECT

     • Check LOCK TO HEIGHT

     • Size: 2560 (left box) and 1600 (right box)

     • Click PREVIEW

  5. COLOUR TAB

     • Brightness: 6 (no need to type all the decimal places) (I frequently change this value but sometimes I don't).

     • I find that if I change the background from black to another color, I lose a lot of vibrancy of my flame.

     • Click USE PALETTE (this is the only part of color that I have learned how to use so far). You can choose any color combination you want and click preview. Unfortunately, if you don't like this color, I don't know how to return to the original color. Therefore, I make a final render (following all the steps below) with the original color, then I return here and choose another color. I do this in case I don't like the new color.

     • Click PREVIEW

  6. XFORMS TAB: interesting. I have played with it but I don't know enough about it yet.

  7. EDIT TAB: here you can change the name of your flame. The data in the code is taken from your preference file. The name you type here will appear in the Oxidizer editor list window. Other than that, I don't know the value of using this window.

  8. RENDER TAB: a very important tab. Make ONLY the following changes:

     • Oversample: 2

     • Quality: 20

     • Estimator: 7

     • Estimator curver: 0.7

     • Batches: 4

     • Temporal Samples: 1

     • Click PREVIEW

  9. Now, return to the Oxidizer editor list. (This window switching is tiresome, isn't it?)

  10. Make sure that your new flame that you have just polished is selected (by clicking on it) in the list.

  11. Click RENDER on the bottom right of the Oxidizer edit list window.

  12. A save dialog box opens. Give your flame a name (the same name you gave it in the EDIT TAB above), and add the ".png" or ".jpg" suffix (without the quotation marks). (1)

  13. See the drop down box that displays SGI with an OPTIONS button next to it? Click the drop down menu and select PNG or JPG (1).

  14. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE CHECKED "Show rendered Genome in a window?

  15. Click RENDER

  16. Immediately, Oxidizer will begin to render your fractal flame. You may hear your fans begin to run. Other applications you have running may slow to a crawl. That is all okay. Be patient. I have found that it takes from 2 to 15 minutes to render a flame with this method.

  17. A RENDERING IMAGE dialog box will appear on the screen while Oxidizer renders.

  18. When the render is finished, a RENDER FINISHED! dialog appears telling you how long the render took (the star flame on the right took 386.63 seconds).

  19. Your flame is under the render finished dialog box. You have to click OK on the dialog box to see your flame. This flame image will be on the top of all other applications on your desktop. You can safely close the flame image without losing it because you have saved it earlier.

After the Render

• 1. You can import your new png or jpeg file into Photoshop or iPhoto or any other software application and manipulate it just as you would any other. Change the size, zoom in, paint it . . . have fun! Just remember to keep the original untouched.

  2. You can post the png files anywhere, just like you do any photograph.

Further Reading

Apophysis (software). (2008, March 29). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.

Electric Sheep. (2008, March 12). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.

Fractal. (2008, April 17). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.

Fractal flame. (2008, March 22). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.

References

The Gene Pool Rejects

Rampant Mac

Chris Pirillo: How To Create Your Own Wallpapers with Oxidizer