Mandelbulb3D is a software I've learned in the past month to create 3D (can be used for 2D) environments for interesting visuals. It is a free program that does not require installation. It requires no modeling, texturing, or lighting experience. All the visuals are created based on mathematical formulas. A knowledge of math is not needed as many formulas are built into the program already. Tinkering with settings is how you can thrive with this program. Some of my favorite environments happen in 5 min of messing around and others come from hours of work. The environments grow as you travel deeper into them so they seemingly continue on forever.
This program is excellent for creating Stills and Animations. I will cover how to do both in their basic form in this tutorial.
Interface
The Calculate 3D button needs to be pressed after you make any changes in order to see the changes.
Just above the Calculate 3D button is a back arrow which is the Undo. Sometimes it is unreliable so make sure you save often. Save through the Save Tab at the top and click the m3i button.
The Formulas Tab will open a separate window. This is where you will do most of your tinkering to create an environment.
In the second row from the top you have Formula 1, Fo.2, etc these are the slots where you will add Formulas. Having the amount of 2-3 Formulas seems like the best way to get interesting results without having too much difficulty.
The 3rd row has many tabs where you will select your Formulas. I generally use a combination of at least one 3D/3Da and one Ads to start out. Think of 3D/3Da as a background and Ads as effects. My favorite formulas are _AmazingBoxSSE2 and SierpHilbert both from 3Da (I will be using the formulas listed above in respective order in the Formulas tabs in the next steps if you wish to follow along).
At the bottom there is a section for Max. Iterations. If this is increased it increases the quality on the image. It keeps imperfections that may be deleted in otherwise.
Remember after making any Formula changes to click Calculate 3D to see them.
Still Image Render
Once you have an environment Select the Calculation Tab.
At the bottom there is a section for Max. Iterations. If this is increased it increases the quality on the image. It keeps imperfections that may be deleted in otherwise.
Remember after making any Formula changes to click Calculate 3D to see them.
Still Image Render
Once you have an environment Select the Calculation Tab.
At the top this is where you adjust your Resolution. I suggest setting your resolution then using the scale button to scale it up once to ensure the highest quality when it is scaled back down. Click Calculate 3D after.
On the right in the Calculation Tab there are two sections that are needed to effect quality. Raystep multiplier needs to be reduced to avoid downscaling (0.1 - 0.05 any lower and the time required to render increases exponentially for little return). This option also reduces noise which is sometimes desired (This is where increasing Max Interations would help to retain noise but increase quality). Smooth normals decreases the roughness of the environment and smooths (2-8 and higher rendering time increases drastically).
The Calculate 3D button will Render out your image with the higher quality settings. This generally takes 5 - 20 minutes depending on the settings. After select the Save pic Tab at the top to Save.
Animation
Set your preferred Resolution for the final animation and downscale it using the arrows to the right. We will scale it back up when we begin to render.
Calculate 3D to apply the Resolution.
Click the Animations Tab in the top left corner.
Click the Page icon in the bottom left. This ensures we are working on a new animation. Keep this window open to the side.
Sections like this where it looks like the camera is partially inside something effects the Navigator. As soon as you move, it will teleport the camera elsewhere.
On the right in the Calculation Tab there are two sections that are needed to effect quality. Raystep multiplier needs to be reduced to avoid downscaling (0.1 - 0.05 any lower and the time required to render increases exponentially for little return). This option also reduces noise which is sometimes desired (This is where increasing Max Interations would help to retain noise but increase quality). Smooth normals decreases the roughness of the environment and smooths (2-8 and higher rendering time increases drastically).
The Calculate 3D button will Render out your image with the higher quality settings. This generally takes 5 - 20 minutes depending on the settings. After select the Save pic Tab at the top to Save.
Animation
Set your preferred Resolution for the final animation and downscale it using the arrows to the right. We will scale it back up when we begin to render.
Calculate 3D to apply the Resolution.
Click the Animations Tab in the top left corner.
Click the Page icon in the bottom left. This ensures we are working on a new animation. Keep this window open to the side.
At the Main Screen click Navigator in the top left.
This window is the Navigator. This is how you traverse the environment.
The Parameter button on the right resets the Navigator View to what is currently on the Main Screen.
The big box is contains all the keys you will use to traverse the environment. E (Up) Q/C (Down) A D control Sliding or Panning. W S control Zoom or how you will move forward and backwards. Zoom doesn't always work correctly to keep an eye on the Zoom counter in the top left of the box. Sometimes it zooms out when you are trying to zoom in. J I K L control where the camera is Looking. U O control the Rotation of the camera.
To start Animation click Ani keyfr. Which sends a Key-Frame to the Animation window. It is helpful to have the Animation window open to ensure it received the new Key-Frame which will be shown at the top where the white boxes are. The program will render the Frames in-between the Key-Frames automatically.
Additionally the button above Ani keyfr. is View to main. This will take whatever you have in your Navigator screen and send it to the Main Screen. This allows you to render the new image but it also changes where you reset to when you click Parameter in the Navigator.
Sections like this where it looks like the camera is partially inside something effects the Navigator. As soon as you move, it will teleport the camera elsewhere.
SAVE BEFORE YOU BEGIN RENDERING YOUR ANIMATION. ONCE YOU START THERE IS NO RESTART OR STOP OPTION.
Once you have your key-frames set, return to the Animation window. I suggest using Render preview. It takes a couple of minutes but will give a rough estimate of how your animation will look. This helps especially for timing speed with frames when Zoom is uncooperative. Also you can save this preview as a .gif file.
The Processings button is almost the same as the Calculation Tab on the Main Screen. Be careful about turning the settings very high because it can quickly increase total render time since you may be Rendering thousands of images. Below the Processings button you can set your Resolution to a higher size if you wish.
Create a Folder wherever desired and set that as your Output folder. It will send the individual images to that folder which can be put together later in Adobe Premiere or other video editing programs.
To start Rendering click Start rendering animation images. It will tell you which Frame you are currently Rendering out of how many total to the right of that button. To the left of the button it says "last", after the first Frame has Rendered change "last" to the total number of Frames. This prevents it from continuing on past your animation Frames and Rendering white screens.
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