Pretty smooth, especially for something personal. Low-res? I think you're just wondering about the vast emptiness. The bubbles have a great size and density, but the darkness seems to belittle the pink monster.

I don't think low-res was the right word to use... I just think it looks like the JPEG monster had a round with the fractal.

Thanks, though.

That's the joy of being the creator, no? Being able to smolder in the glory of what you've created, but also having to deal with the little problems only a creator could notice.

Quality control? Eh, I don't really notice small little out-of-place pixels. I really enjoy how many moments seem to emerge from the center of the bauble.

I guess so. I'm cursed.

No out of place pixels...or at least not many. Just general blurryness and...blarghness? I don't like anything of it too much myself, to be honest.

Reminds me of the screensavers you can have on macs....why the hell do I know this about macs....search me. Cause I hate macs...anyway reminds me of the screensaver that balloons and does pointy stuff. Looks good. Colors go well.

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This guy must be in cahoots with the Mythological Viagra Guy. Yes we all know that Zeus was a slut, but damn...

Hmmm . . . It probably looks low-res because of all those blank spaces; the bubbles need a nice base behind them to fill them in, so to speak. You might try a transform with linear = 1 and gaussian blur > .5 at least (or noise > .3 with blur > .3 . . . they both do the same thing, but gaussian blur might take less time to render, depending on how many variations you use along with it). Either that, or set one of those blur transforms with a small amount of linear. I won't really know what to do with it unless I have the flame in front of me . . . it depends on what variations you used on what transforms; if, for example, you used two transforms with linear = 0 and blur = whatever (as I suspect from the differences in bright spots ), it would be more to your advantage to scale up and add some noise; but if you did linear = 0 and blur = whatever on one transform and a straight linear = 1 on the second transform, it would be better to duplicate the second transform and add blur and noise or gaussian blur.

I'm rambling.

I agree with Ezekiel's assessment; it just needs a bit of background color and noise to make it look nice. It might also need some scaling down or something else to put the whole thing into perspective.

. . . And now that I've given you a novel's worth of critique, I'll tell you that I like it. You don't see many fractals like this out there, and that's definitely a good start. The render quality is really good; no noise is hanging around where it shouldn't be, so it looks nice and clean. You've got your render settings down pat. The focal point looks especially excellent; ideally, you should go for the type of color with flame fractals that either burns out the middle with a little color left on the edges, or (like in your DD's piece) straight color, and the focal point has that. Good job.

And now I'm off to answer one more of my over 120 comments. So if it takes me a few days to get to your journal in any meaningful sense (which I saw and am very happy for the gratitude ), I'm sure you'll understand why. I stink at answering comments.

P.S.: If any of the above made sense to you, I salute you, because I just read over it and it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. I'm hoping it's just tiredness and that you'll be able to figure my senseless ramblings out.

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**You have made the parser cry.**

My SheezyArt

<--~Ab1lity

Member of *Apophysis

Yay, it all made sense, actually. Weeeell, maybe not the first part, but that's because I didn't stop and think while reading about all the settings, but I'm sure that'll be fixed with a re-read.

I'll see if I can do a "remix" of this one with some of the tips you gave me now.

And you really don't stink at answering comments... You're better than most. Just look at the comments on my DD. I replied to maybe FIVE of them, and didn't even put the obligatory "ZOMG A DD, THANK YOOUUUUUU!" in the description. I almost feel bad about that. I'll do it better next time I get one. xD

I like making "different" fractal art.. There are so many possiblities, and I don't want to make anything anyone else makes.

Fractal art is amazing.

I can't remember seeing any screensavers that reminded me of this on a Macintosh...

Thanks though.

Hmm. Reminds me of a certain underwater animal: don't remember the name now.

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"Whenever I comment, I will try to go besides the usual "awesome work". Might be a joke, might be constructive criticism. I don't know, really. But I will always try to help you one way or another: no doubt about that."

~daftart