The Kaleidoscope transformation fills the screen with rotated copies of a small radial slice of the fractal, creating a kaleidoscope effect. It is available as a transformation in Standard.uxf and as a transformation plug-in in Standard.ulb.
By tweaking the parameters, you can simulate many different kinds of symmetry. By default, the slices are aligned and mirrored to make the edges match, but there are also other options that produce sharp transitions.
Try experimenting with the Center and Rotation angle parameters to obtain good results. Some sections of the fractal lend themselves much better to the kaleidoscope effect than others.
The following parameters are available:
| Symmetry Order |
Sets the symmetry order. This is the number of times the slice of the fractal is copied and rotated to obtain the final image. |
| Symmetry Mode |
Selects the symmetry mode to use. Only the reflective option is guaranteed to produce seamless images. Use the slice only option to view the slice of the fractal that is used as a base for the symmetry effect. |
| Center |
Specifies the coordinates of the symmetry center. Together with the Rotation angle parameter, this selects the slice of the fractal that is used. Try changing this to see the various effects that are possible. Use the eyedropper (right-click and click Eyedropper) to select the center by clicking inside the fractal window. |
| Use Screen Center |
If checked, the center of the screen is used instead of the Center parameter, so the symmetry center is always centered on the screen. This can give unexpected effects when zooming in. |
| Rotation angle |
Rotates the fractal before determining the slice that will be used as a base for the symmetry effect. This can drastically change the resulting image. |
See Also
Mirror
Standard transformations