Definition
 Construction
      Dimensional and misted gradients
      Shapers
  Application
    Rotation
    Color density
    Transfer function
    Color offset
    Texture

Before starting this section, you may want to download the workshop and examples and gradients (two files) which go with the examples. Here are the steps you will need to take:

1.  Unzip the lesson to see it off line.
2.   There is a sub-zip called "coloring.zip" that contains the UF versions of the images in the lesson for you to study.  Unzip that and move the ufr files to your "fractal" folder in UF.  To see all the images you may have to go through the following steps if you are starting with a brand new download of UF....

a.  Go to the UF formula database and download the full collection of UF formulas. That will give you all the formulas etc. publically available except those which are late-breaking additions.
b.  Unzip the collection and place all the ucl, ufm and ufx files in your UF formula folder.  You can do as you like with txt files.  At this point you should be able to follow this workshop.  But...in the future......
c.  If you find an image or parameter which tells you "cannot find xyz.ufm" ....or whatever.....check Kerry's Mitchell's page for what author has what acronym...most are three letters like rdw.ufx....transformations  by Red Williams.   Janet's page will guide you to the web page for the author which is the place to look for the very latest version of his formulas/coloring methods/transformations.   Just download what you are missing and stuff it in the UF formula folder.

By now you are probably "zipped" out!!

Definition

To me a good UF gradient is one that has the following properties:

     Has a wide range of applications
     Is easy to adapt
     Mixes well with other gradients
     Suits personal color preferences

Fractal artists with varying styles and preferences will want and need differing basic color sets.

Construction

Dimensional and misted gradients

A dimensional gradient adds a 3D look to an image without layering.  The way to make one is very very simple....you need to have a wide range between the lightest and the darkest color, which means you need 3 control points for every color used. It's just that easy. Here is an example of a bright blue-green-teal gradient and how it looks applied to a very simple swirl.
 
 

You can see that the control points (the boxes) go down where the colors meet, the darkest part of the color, and up in the middle of the color, the lightest part of the color.  The dimensional gradient looks like a tube or a slice when seen in the editor. How big should the difference between the lightest and darkest colors be?  That I can't tell you since it depends on the particular colors used and their sequence.  But by selecting the lightest value for colors you want first and then experimenting with the darker values, you ought to come up with some good stuff.  If this gets frustrating, or you are not comfortable doing it yourself, you can open a "canned" gradient and note down the RGB values for the three control points, then enter those into your own version using the RGB boxes in the editor.

To see what happens to the same image without the control points for the darker values here is a picture of the same swirl and what I call the "misted" version of exactly those same colors.
 

You can see that there has been a noticeable loss of dimensionality using the misted gradient.  Some, but not all, of the dimensionality can be recovered by duplicating the layer and using the merge mode "multiply." If you've downloaded the material for this lesson you can open misted image and add layers by clicking on "+" in the layers tab of the Properties box. Make sure the merge mode for the new layers is set to "multiply" to see the effect, which becomes very apparent with the third and fourth layers.  The shape of each "tube" of color alters as layers are added.   The advantage of a misted gradient is it's subtle carving as layers are added.  In the hands of an expert in layering, like Sam Monnier, lovely images indeed can be made.  His techniques are well worth studying.  For a beginner, the more dimensional gradients yield results faster because fewer layers are needed for carving.  People ask what I do to get so many images so fast.  Nothing complicated....I just use two or three layers with dimensional gradients. Combinations of the dimensional and misted versions of a gradient also give good results fast.  You can "mist" a dimensional gradient simply by removing the bottom control points (highlight the control point and right click for the drop down menu....select "delete).  This is way easier than trying to add dimension to a misty gradient. In the Basic Color Set section, you will find a starter set of dimensional gradients you can adapt to suit your color preferences.

Shapers

Shapers is my own term for a dimensional gradient which uses a very limited number of colors.  The classic shaper is a single sweep from black to white. Several versions are in the standard gradient library.  Here is another version, which turns our friendly swirl into a giant puff ball.
 
 

Add a second and third layer to this simple swirl, with the blue-green gradient and different coloring methods, and you get

This is a simple, but satisfying image.

Here's another version of a shaper, which uses control points in different places and is slightly tinted.

Layer it (using the difference merge mode) on top of the puffy black and white swirl to get

Because the shaper gradients are so simple,  they are very easy to change.  Move the control points from left to right to get different sorts of "carving" to the layer.  Change the colors just a bit by moving the control boxes up and down.  It is important  to note that small changes can mean a lot.  I find it easier to control small changes by using the arrows next to the "index" box to move the control points left or right and the arrows on the "RGB" boxes to move the control points up and down.  To see how shapers are used by a master, check the swirls at PeterK's website.  To use his methodology effectively, you need to know how to sequence the merge modes from layer to layer as well as what color adjustments to make for each layer. Because colors in UF multiply as layers are added, shapers can keep an image from getting too busy, so make sure you understand how to either make them or save the ones you like from a UF parameter.  You can save gradients by opening an image or parameter file in UF, selecting the layer whose gradient you like, clicking "fractal, gradient" then, with the gradient window active, clicking "file, save."

Go to Page 2 of this section

Other Topics

Color Basics|Gradients |Black|Merge Modes|Color Sets|Masking|Coloring Methods|Links and Miscellaneous