4D objects in Blender!

Making fractals in Blender is possible since Blender 3.3. I find the 4D Julia shape very interesting and beautiful, so here's how to make it too.
➡️Get the Fractal Machine:
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This video's project file and more:
/ badnormals
Join the community Discord:
/ discord
Keenan Crane's paper:
www.cs.cmu.edu/~kmcrane/Proje...
00:00 Intro
00:25 Fractal Machine
00:53 What's a 4D Julia?
02:12 What do we need?
03:07 Let's create the fractal
08:14 The whole formula
11:09 Let's visualize
12:40 More speed
15:46 Materials
18:04 Some nice people

[@mcronut]

as a student in engineering majoring in math and a 3d artist, this video brings me immense joy! thank you

[@rolandmine6693]

As a person I agree

[@felixboachieyiadom4457]

same

[@camerongrenier5405]

How are you an engineer but majoring in math

[@axos3130]

its not 4D lol you can't represent 4D objects in the real world. you arguably can't represent them at all, they're an entirely hypothetical concept

[@hanselespinosa8918]

@@camerongrenier5405 Oh, it's easy. It means he is a math major that only knows how to integrate.

[@sirflimflam]

Geometry nodes are the best thing to happened to Blender since its inception. The sheer possibilities are mind boggling.

[@vladimirpetrusev3480]

I agree. I keep wondering what awesome things can be made using just geometry nodes

[@4x4eva]

what is geometry nodes i just started this shi is so hard

[@ys-fz9mt]

@@4x4eva procedural modeling

[@vladimirpetrusev3480]

@@4x4eva I was in the same boat, nothing hard about just search for Donut 2.8 from Blender guru. All the basic concepts are there from modeling, texturing, procedural workflows.. And take it easy, this is a creative topic there's always something to learn and geometry nodes is very new to blender and good luck

[@4x4eva]

@@vladimirpetrusev3480 thanks bro i gave up but ik imma come back cuz its such a cool way to get creativity out ik it just takes a long ahh time

[@ndc-01]

I haven´t understood anything of this video, but I know something good is happening. Good job

[@antartico0]

I'm with you

[@laius6047]

Whatever you didn't understand - I didnt understand it twice as much

[@marinchan6334]

well he is taking 3 d slice of 4d object which is a fractal.He is adding some operations for transfroming the given input vectors to the output vectors which seems easy in blendor,but dontknow how will it be if i try.

[@sione_etc]

omg THANK YOU. Not only have I been wanting something like this for ages, but as a person who has always been really bad at maths, seeing you put these equations in node form is the most logical and intuitive maths has ever looked to me lol

[@catbunny8713]

so excited for this dude, wish there were more people making this type of 3d art on yt

[@jfidel3943]

I make a little 3D fractal art on my YT channel, not with blender though.

[@graphguy]

I agree! There was activity 5-10 years ago on youtube, but not alot right now. For the last 3 months I have been playing with MB3D, but as a modern day app, it leaves A LOT to be desired and is a pain.

[@jfidel3943]

@@graphguy MB2 is so much easier to use than MB3D, and supports cross CPU and cross platform workload sharing. Last night I made some renders with my PC and M2 MacBook working together.

[@graphguy]

@@jfidel3943 2d is coop, but I'm much more interested in the 3d Infinite world . Just wished the app was more 2022 than 2002.

[@MachinaInfinitum]

HI

[@sabbirahmed4989]

Its hard to see mathematically deep blender art,, i love someone is talking about quaternion,,, Believe me,, we need quaternion everywhere in blender. Big appreciation Bad Normals

[@timoluetk]

I stared at this in amazement with about the level of understanding a dog has watching a TV Drama but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[@kardo7837]

I used to love generating 2D fractals when I started programming before, it was a great way to learn by having something creative to do. And now that I've recently started with blender, I came across your channel and felt immense Joy! Your content is very inspiring, keep up the good work!

[@jamesyoungquist6923]

Very impressive! Your explanation style is quite clear and demonstrates how you applied the maxims of 1) make it work, 2) make it work well, and 3) make it work fast. Bravo.

[@pro100ker]

As a fractal artist, I really thank you for doing that.

[@DavidBoura]

Rip Mandelbulb?

[@pro100ker]

@@DavidBoura Not really, just you can now do set fractals in blender, which is cool

[@qedqubit]

11:23 if you pass the length to the Group Output, and in the modifyer-tab'OutputAttributes click and call it length, you can easily color the fractal in shader-nodes by using an Attribute-node (type length in the name-field), and connect the fac output to a colorramp's input; give some colors or a rainbow, and TADAA 😀!

[@BadNormals]

Yes, nice tip. Although it maps the result to polygons and it won't be as detailed as a dedicated shader, but it works well indeed.

[@robolord97]

idk what you just said but it sounds 🔥🔥

[@cliffchen7428]

This was such a pleasure to watch. So inspiring, and what a beautiful, hands-on way to appreciate the math all around us in nature! Great job on pacing this with zero fluff and pure value every second. I am so glad to discover your channel, excited to watch more now! ❤

[@yousefamar288]

as a student of engineering , I've been into a lot of math equations and 3d artist and blender, and although i dont understand most of those geometry nodes, but it was PURE JOY watching you doing this art. I just love when complex questions is simplified logically into solvable math!!. Just mesmerizing

[@MineThing]

I've been making 3D fractal art in blender for a few years now and I'm so glad people are now finding new ways to make it more accessible! I used to love making landscapes out of large detailed fractals and now that this method works with cycles (it was only possible in Octane renderer previously ) I'll be able to embed it into more of my projects. This doesn't seem to have anywhere near the same level of quality as with Octane, but it's good enough for some more zoomed out shots which I'm sure is all most people need anyway. One day hopefully we'll be able to get Octane quality fractals in cycles, and that's when we'll see even more incredible artworks and animations!

[@BrunoDeAngelis]

What differentiates Octane and Cycles when it comes to fractal generation? Is it something related to shading, or what? Curious to know.

[@MineThing]

@@BrunoDeAngelis It's purely down to the way fractals are handled as geometry. Cycles is limited by the number of polygons it can handle, whereas in Octane you don't have to use polygons at all, and so that is no longer a factor. For this reason, the fractals you can generate with Octane are significantly more detailed than what you can achieve with cycles. The way Octane handles fractals is similar to how Volumetrics are handled in cycles and Eevee, but without a limit on the resolution, and it has full material support as if it were a regular mesh. I'm not too familiar with exactly how it works behind the scenes as I'm using tools developed by other people in the 3D fractals community, but in practice it doesn't seem to have any limitations on detail whatsoever, which creates some insanely detailed still images and animations. Personally I love to add a little bit of subsurface scattered to make it feel almost organic, and the extremely thin whisps that you get from the extra detail octane fractals provide are just beautiful. I highly recommend giving it a go some time! it's worth the setup of octane in my opinion

[@BrunoDeAngelis]

@@MineThing that is very interesting, thank you. I will do some research to see how it treats geometry under the hood

[@catbunny8713]

hey, i love reading that youve been doing this for years. i only discovered this about a month ago but always wondered how it would be achieved. I've never used octane but i literally just got a new PC and plan to get it as i really want to be producing high detailed work, and what u said about the fractals in octane was EXACTLY what ive been thinking about. whenever i see 3d fractal art i immediately see it as an environment/landscape but with low resolution in cycles, thats just impossible. Would you share with me how you get that level of detail/any resources u used to learn it? id love to see ur work if possible too :)

[@MineThing]

@@catbunny8713 Yeah sure!! The main resource I used to get into it was looking at the studio called Machina Infinitum, they make a lot of VJ packs but also have some environment projects and animations which are absolutely outstanding. Their main tool is C4D iirc however they offer a small set of free templates on their website that are compatible with Blender as long as you're using Octane. If you've ever used something like Mandelbulb 3D (a beautiful bit of 3D fractal generating software) you may be able to use some of those equations within octane, although I found this to be quite difficult without initially understanding the math behind it. I'm sure you'll be able to figure it out though! I don't have an easy way of showing you any of my projects through the KZbin comments section, but hopefully the information I've provided could put you on the right track! And I'm sure there are other routes to get similar outcomes. Best of luck!

[@tcf70tyrannosapiensbonsai]

Not only a great how-to-video but a massive presentation of intelligence. Cool, thank you!

[@robinsquares]

Such an innovative and useful asset pack. Awesome work!

[@user-zk7qm8dn1y]

I have no idea of Blender yet i understood a lot from this video. Im sure people that actually understand whats happening appreciate this way more. amazing how well you described all these steps so even i with no knowledge of blender or anything like that managed to understand a little bit of how it works!!

[@Honey-qp6ti]

You are literally making everything, I wonder, how it is possible. I thought about 4D in Blender a few weeks ago. Your skills are so great!

[@TheFuzzypuddle]

mind blown. I'm new to 3d modelling, and have struggled with understanding nodes. I've seen people model with nodes instead of manipulating shapes and sculpting. However, the way this video directly translates mathematical formulas into geo nodes completely changed my understanding of the power of geo nodes. You used only simplistic nodes such as math, combine, and separate. The simplicity makes so much sense. The process is similar to creating 2d graphical representations from formulas on our TI-84's in high school geometry, only more complex: essentially, extrapolating a simple 2d line into a 4d fractal. tyvm for taking the time to explain the formula that you used to guide your node assembly. It not only makes it easier to understand how you create these beautiful fractal models, but more importantly for me, your explanation unlocked a greater understanding of nodes in general for me. you are a scholar and a gentleman.

[@luisablancomula9190]

This is just amazing... Thank you so much for sharing this with us. I'm studing a Informatics Engineering in Spain, these things help me focus in my future goals... Thank you so much again.

[@dorikorama]

Always give an inspire and I love every of what you doing bro. Keep up the good workflow!

[@ArikaStack]

This is such an important video. Fractals have predicted so many things in nature and seeing a 4D one visualized was a real... experience.

[@mogussysus]

Wow, you actually became my first teacher for 4d vectors! I'm gonna extend my learning from 3d vectors from school, thanks for this!

[@alberto9827]

Not only a great artist, but incredibly intelligent! This kind of works are one of the few that transcends the barrier of possibilities in blender and helps to develop further the tool. Amazing work, keep it up!

[@cgooch_]

Been waiting for this for years now. Congrats and thank you :)

[@AtrusDesign]

very informative video, and it's the first time i was able to follow and understand all the process!! :D Fantastic result!

[@SayonBiz]

took me quite a while to understand, but good lord this is amazing!!❤❤ it is crazy how informative videos like these are provided to us for free on youtube

[@rasmuswestergren6221]

Actually a (probably) unintended but very good explanation of the node window workflow, which I have been looking for. Nice, thanks!

[@Slingshooting_Downunder]

Loving what you're doing with fractals and Blender 👍

[@_pxsh_]

Hope this reaches everywhere 🔥 Thank you so much man !!

[@snakeverg9390]

Your vdeos are insane, I love how you always make something nice with just math

[@JohnTorresYT]

Your art is incredible I admire you so much!

[@richard29sher]

Thank you for this truly amazing set of tools!

[@AlekseyOsipenkov]

You are a great man, a year and a half ago when I started making fractals in Blender, even my father did not believe in me. Now I see how what I believed in is being realized. Thank you!

[@BadNormals]

Hey, thanks for the Mandelbulb colormap file you sent me. It was a great inspiration!

[@AlekseyOsipenkov]

​@@BadNormals Thank you, I'm glad :) Best regards from Web3 :)

[@rgferreira78]

Can you share the colormap or any video reference to it? Thanks both

[@BD__]

huge thanks for doing these tutorials, really great stuff

[@Andrew-Frolov]

amazing. Another reason to learn how to work in Blender 3D. I'm thrilled with the intro. The video is very entertaining

[@Wildminecraftwolf]

Imagine being the legend that developed this, he had a great idea, spent lots of his own time creating something amazing, and is now selling it to us, capatalsim is great.

[@zboy303]

This is very good. I suppose one could use the new Distrubute Points in Volume node with this to get some pretty cool looking setups.

[@nand2624]

lol.... i love how u throw these fractals normally like the default cube... would have never imagined that it would be so easy to do this just 2 yrs ago I love where blenders going and also your techniques.

[@WaterShowsProd]

Fractabulous. I really loved your explanation of the fractal equation. When I saw the title of the video I thought you were going to make a Klein Bottle.

[@kellymoses8566]

The Julia fractal was used in the movie Annihilation and it looked awesome.

[@018FLP]

Your tutorial is GREAT, and even though i'm completely amateur in blender and i don't understand why the formula is the way it is, i'm keeping up.

[@oceanswithoutshores]

Increadible! I am new to Blender but all of this is very exciting to learn!

[@martintillemann]

Thanks! This was exactly what I needed for my project!

[@jameshughes3014]

even just the lighting is amazing.

[@gabrielmoro3d]

This is brilliant. Super interesting to watch.

[@pepperandsage2295]

Can’t wait to watch, looks epic ❤

[@idegteke]

I programmed a Mandelbrot set on an Enterprise 128 some 35 years ago, and it could display the basic shape in its max resolution during a single night:)

[@user-mb8yx2en5h]

This is such a great video. Well done

[@aspidiske]

Wow I've been waiting for a tool like this since I've been manually doing fractals, makes things faster!

[@Knoght]

Bro, I’ve never seen someone doing that much math in Blender. Keep up the good work 👍

[@henrytan6030]

This tut are out of the planet :D, weldone and really thank you :))

[@iceseic]

You're one of solid talents out there

[@tastelesstouch]

Hell yes! You're one of the only content creators for Blender that goes into depth on how to use mathematics and generative art in Blender. I plan on buying Fractal Machine as soon as Ican save up or it goes on sale

[@BadNormals]

Going on sale during Blender Conference!

[@tastelesstouch]

@@BadNormals nice, I’ll keep an eye out then. Hope you have a good time there!

[@3DDrip]

Bro this was amazing as always!🔥 Wish I could sit down next to you and working on thousands ideas😂

[@tristafrog]

This is so sick bro amazing video!!

[@rezank5859]

This is the first time I saw Blender being used and it's applications and oh boy I'm not disappointed.

[@fonanber8011]

If your sphere is not showing up at 11:47. Try go to your "Quaternion Square" node group, instead of using scalar multiplication like 6:19, try multiply Y, Z, W with 2*X individually

[@arnavmaharshi9280]

It's not working... my sphere still doesn't show up. What should I do?

[@KisenAnimation]

Bro, this looks insane, I Have no clue how this works but I will try it anyway!

[@meezemusic]

You deserve way more subs, this is brilliant

[@danielaskaric7846]

Ima download it thanks for sharing!!

[@Salen0243]

Very awesome Intro cinematics!

[@jmack4275]

This is exactly what I've been looking for

[@jlovedagod]

Perfect timing! Thank you

[@NIXO3D]

Beautiful work 👍🏾

[@yidingzhang6685]

This is amazing, thank you!

[@ThatTechGuy123]

This video was fun to watch. Thanks

[@WW_Studios]

Looks so good!

[@MarDanBay]

You have almost 100K subscribers! Congrats!

[@BadNormals]

Yes! Feels incredible! I only started this channel 1.5 years ago

[@lostartsstudios1679]

beautiful representation of the fractal pattern

[@zaryaondrugs3556]

I don't use Blender but this looks very cool, both the fractals and the explanations behind it

[@dariobirindelli4338]

Thank you!! Amazing work!

[@negrodeus666]

as a compliment, your hair it's totally 4d you rock, new sub.

[@manhhoang4975]

I really hope this video blows up. Amazing !

[@BadNormals]

It's doing pretty well right now, let's hope!

[@alexgamingtv7118]

Very nice, thank you!

[@Splines]

Wow, thanks for this great introduction. I hope Blender will eventually be equipped with an iteration node to avoid copying a node multiple times...

[@Colab-Film]

I feel so far from understanding this formula and it amazes me how you set the node with ease and really seam to understand what you do !

[@NebMotion]

just amazing, impressive stuff

[@rgferreira78]

Quite impressive. Congratulations.

[@shallowandpedantic2320]

Thank you, this is really cool!

[@yohank.1021]

The intro is awesome 🤩

[@KaiserSaucy]

Wow. VERY impressed. 👏👏👏

[@MishimaZaibatsuCorp]

Beautiful explanation dude

[@TypicalEveningPictures]

I’ve been waiting for an add on like this since 2018 🎉🎉🎉

[@_blender_man_]

Can’t wait! Share this method with us please!

[@unknwn_usr3077]

No matter how much they try, it will always look 3D in our dimension.

[@vjdevonmiles]

yeah, the correct title would have to be "3D representations of 4D objects"

[@nurulimran3476]

This blow my mind. Thank you

[@appidydafoo]

Didn't know that fact about Quaternions, thank you

[@MachinaInfinitum]

Nice use of fractals !

[@bububirb]

What an amazing tutorial, thanks for sharing this technique. By the way, you can get more speed by converting the fractal into an instance with the Geometry to Instance node - before Transform nodes. Just make sure to apply mesh operations before converting to an instance.

[@BadNormals]

Indeed, I forgot to include it here! In the pack I used this technique too.

[@Disturbia336]

This is an excellent tutorial, how would I go about and animate the Julia 4D fractal? @@BadNormals

[@vstreet7583]

Just brilliant! Thank you! Dg

[@frostymug3123]

Holy crap well done

[@ethancheung1676]

instead of the hassle to splitting the vector x and recombine yzw, you can just rename the variables in the original formula and use the xyz as the vector as-is and w is the single scalar.

[@Koleje93]

congrats on 100k subs :)

[@MakeiA]

Fantastic job 👏

[@grapho13]

Amazing tutorial congrats for the Chanel is very usefull

[@Ashallmusica]

I lost my pc back in 2020, i remember i freshly started learning Blender and used to create something daily out of curiosity......i don't want to be a professional at rendering but sure want to enjoy the process as a fun (when i buy a new pc)

[@stefanguiton]

Excellent work!

[@BadNormals]

Thanks! Great to see you around here again!

[@jmd1743]

It's pretty cool to see how far Blender has come. Maybe with some refinement it could compete with 3d studio max?

[@ZVBII]

You're a legend. TY!