fractals are the nices of all abstracts of course, by definition "A mathematically generated

pattern that is reproducible at any magnification or reduction." which is what we are going to

do, with nothing but photoshop, this is what we will be making:



this is hundreds or thaousands of these,

http://www.finjan.com/content.aspx?id=176h...ent.aspx?id=176, just

portioned down a bit, we are going to be using the actions to make it move faster along, i hate

manually doing them, especially when soemthing like actions allow you to do things over and over

in exact precise measurements that you provide ONCE. so let's open photoshop and copy & paste

this image in there:

http://www.finjan.com/objects/products/Vit...-5100_right.jpg

cut around it best as possible, it wont matter to much once we start getting it smaller. or use

this pre-cut version ive made:

http://img104.imageshack.us/img104/6387/precutfk1.gif

so now we should have a transparent background on the image, the image being cut out of course.



now scale the image down to about 1/3 of the size of the original size. hit ctrl+t to

enter into transform mode, hold shift and click&drag until it becomes 1/3 of the original size,

something about this size. (note: my images are NOT actual size)



now comes the fun part of recording an action. Now the idea is to get this thing to start into a

patter that we want to repeat over and over and over again, hundreds, and thousands of times if

possible. so, duplicate the layer with the image on it. (note: i do not have a background

layer yet)



you can basically move it anywhere while your recording, im going to rotate it a bit and move it

to the top left. i suggest you rotate it a bit and move it abit, and whatever else you want to do

to it while its in action or "play". if you dont move it, it wont go anywhere. if you dont rotate

it, it wont spin. also, if you dont create a new layer of the image before moving it, it wont

make new layers.... so make sure before you start moving it, that you create the new layer

while in record mode!

so press record and move your image, on its new layer. now, if you still cant figure out the

action part, take my action and load it:

fractalspins.atn. I usually press play

until it moves off my screen.



now, select all the layers but the last one,. we keep one clean layer in case we ever have to

start over, smarter not harder y'know. now with all the layers but the bottom one selected, press

ctrl+e, to merge the layers. you can now, press the eye on the elft of the last image we

didnt select to make it invisible, this should be the last we see of that layer.



now, make that layer a 1/3 or a little less than half the size of that fractal and move it back

to the middle so we can do it again.



but first, duplicate the layer and flip it horizontally, we are going to spin both sides now with

the action. i have started the elft side here:



now spin both sides. im going to move my right side to the left just a bit, to get rid of the

transparent gap in the middle. now, merge the layers, duplicate it and invert it so its orangish.



merge those layers into one, and stick em behind the blue ones. im merging my blue and oragne

layers, and then we are going to spin it again! you could make different variations of spins

through the making of this, but maybe after you become familiar witht he technique first :P

so before we spin it, scale it down to a 1/3 again, i have somtrhing like this now:



now, ive spun it up tot he top, shrank it, and spun it again. this is what im getting, is this

what your getting too?



so final images would be something like....



and