ChaosPro is able to automatically create sequences of fractal pictures. During this sequence any parameter (and any number of parameters) can be changed, just as the user wishes. The basic idea is as follows:
The user adds a fractal data structure (a data set which completely describes a fractal - FractInt users may think of a data structure as an entry in a *.par file) to the animation system. This data structure is copied and inserted into the list of keyframes.
For example lets assume the user subsequently adds keyframes with the following values:
Assume, that the user chooses linear interpolation and wants to calculate 4 frames from one keyframe to the next one.
ChaosPro then examines these 4 keyframes (AnimKeys). Let us assume, that ChaosPro now wants to set up frame number 11. The program now sets up a function for the bailout value (as it changes during the sequence, ChaosPro will notice this without further interaction from the user's side, of course). Below there is an image describing how ChaosPro works.
The unit on the horizontal axis is the frame number, the vertical axis has the parameter values, i.e. at first the bailout values.
ChaosPro now fills in the values it knows, i.e. frame 1 has bailout=60, frame 5 (4 images should be calculated between 2 keyframes) has 80, frame 9 has the value 80, too, and frame 13 has bailout=70 (see the red circles).
The user choosed linear interpolation, so simply a polygon is drawn to connect the 4 points. ChaosPro then reads the value at point (image number) 11, gets 75, and this is how the bailout value for frame 11 is calculated.
Then the maximum number of iterations should be determined for frame number 11.
Again ChaosPro fills in the values known to the program, i.e. frame 1 has maxit=120, frame 5 has 200, frame 9 has the value 230 and frame 13 has maxit=230,too (see the red circles).
As you can see, image 11 has the value 230, so the iteration value for the data structure, which will be created, when image 11 should be calculated, will be 230.
This method is applied to all parameters. ChaosPro examines the parameters, recognizes whether the parameter changes and interpolates it. The interpolation type specifies how the points are connected. 'Linear' simply draws lines between them (like above), 'Spline' calculates a cubic spline (i.e. a smooth curve which interpolates the given points). Most of the time you will use 'Spline' as interpolation type, as this generates smooth animations. The examples above use 'Linear' for simplicity.
So you can calculate an animation, where you look onto a 3D-transformation of a fractal (a kind of a landscape), then ' dive into' this fractal (you did some zooming on the 2D fractal), 'fly forward', (you moved the 2D fractal a bit around) while the palette changes and the fractal seems to morph (perhaps it was a juliaset and the user changed the parameter C of it, which gives some kind of morphing...) and at the end the light source moves to the back and vanishes...
I hope that you recognized the power of this algorithm: Inside ChaosPro a fractal has a specific data structure of a predefined format, all relations to other objects like formulas, palettes are defined. A parameter belongs either to the fractal and thus resides in the fractal data structure or it does not belong to the fractal and therefore is some global setting. This strict separation makes it possible to compare different fractal data structures and their parameters and to create animations of almost all parameters in a fractal.
Note: You can't change all parameters. Some of them act like switches (boolean values), and as you can imagine, there's no reasonable way to create sequences of images, if a switch changes. ChaosPro will notice you, if you try to create such a sequence of images as soon as you try to add your fractal data structure as an AnimKey.
The way an animation normally gets created
Now let me explain how I create animations, and how you should create animations:
Once upon a time somebody complained that creating animations didn't work like expected. He did the following:
He took two fractal data sets and added them as keyframes. He expected, that ChaosPro would produce some kind of morphing from one fractal to the other. Well, the 2 fractals were totally different: They were of the same kind, etc., but the one was a deep zoom at one location, the other one was an even deeper zoom at another location. He calculated 50 frames and wondered, why there were only black images. Well, if he would have specified about 17 000 000 frames to calculate, then he would have calculated an animation lasting 188 hours (at 25 frames per second) and he would have seen, that ChaosPro zoomed in a bit and then moved around to finally reach the goal, i.e. the second keyframe. The images were black, because ChaosPro moved over the big lake - the Mandelbrot set - which was black in that case.
What I wanted to say: Don't try adding 2 fractal data structures as keyframes, if you don't exactly know what you are doing. You won't crash ChaosPro (except if there is a bug), but you perhaps could get confused. Always pay attention, that two successing keyframes don't have too different values, so the interpolation makes sense and produces reasonable values.
Of course, you can add two totally different key frames. ChaosPro will interpolate in every case. And if you specify enough frames to calculate between the two key frames, you indeed will get a smoooth animation from one key frame to the other one...