Apo 7.14 and dc_linear: A few tips!

Wow! I haven't done a new journal since I got fooled on April Fools day! So seeing as I have worked with dc_linear and dc_triangle a little, I thought I might share some fun.

Xyrus-02's Apophysis 7.14 allows for the use of direct color. I'm a mental midget on a lot of this stuff so while there are certainly explanations on or about direct color out there, they seem to be more to the technical side rather than the practical use. This is no criticism of those explanations, (such as IDeviant's blog at Apophysis on direct color), but rather a more hands on, non technical approach. Think of it like this: I know gas explodes, and if you put it in your gas tank, the car makes the gas explode in a controlled way such that it makes your car go! To most people, this is all you have to know. It's all I need to know. My point? You can use direct color without the technical understanding behind it. This is a good thing for all of us who are technically challenged, like me!

Disclaimer!!! I've said this time and time again, I make no claims as to being an expert with Apo. I simply have fun with it and have managed to use it without a need to understand anything more than the basics. So this is meant to be a simple basic guide on how I have been using dc_linear and dc_triangle and not necessarily a guide on how to use it properly or how it was intended to be used.

First off, you obviously need a working version of Xyrus-02's Apophysis 7X.14 installed and working. The exe creates a new apo folder called Apophysis 7x! Included in this version you will find dc_linear, dc_carpet, and dc_bubble among the other plugins. (the dc_ obviously means it is a direct color enabled plugin) I downloaded Xyrus-02's dc_triangle plugin separately. A word of caution here: You can add your own favorite plugins to the new plugin folder in the Apophysis 7X directory, but I as well as others have had a few problems. If you run Apo 7x and find that a lot of the randomly generated flames are not showing up in your editor and adjustment windows, then it appears to be a plugin issue. Try opening the options tab and deselecting all variations and then selecting just a few at a time for generating random flames. Onward!


Having no idea on how to use dc_linear myself, I did what I believe any of us might do. I opened Apo 7.14, went in my options tab and deselected everything! I then selected a few variations, (plugins) to experiment with. For starters I chose dc_linear, linear, julian and splits. While in the options tab I also set the number of transforms, (triangles) to 4, and the number of flames to be generated to 25. I closed the options tab and hit control B to generate a new batch of flames. The first sample below is a simple example of what dc_linear did. I didn't tweak any of the variables for dc_linear in this one. Eventually, I deleted one of the transforms and added a final with spherical in it. The dc_linear is what created the colored bands. It used the same colors in the same order that are shown in your gradient. If your gradient has smoothed transition (blurred) between the colors, then no color edges between the colors will show. If edges do show between the colors, you can blur the gradient to help eliminate them, though it will obviously change the looks of the flame. I chose not to blur the gradient on this one and if you look closely you can see the transition of the colors...


This particular sample uses dc_linear, spherical (for the holes), linear and splits. The first image is with the default variable settings on the dc_linear. Once again on the first image you can see the gradient changes clearly. (If you take the time to view the full image!)



On the second image we have fixed that problem by blurring the gradient. For those who don't know how to do that, in your adjustment window, select the gradient tab. Just off to the right of the slider you will see where it says Rotate. Click that and then choose blur from the list that appears. Now you just have to blur the gradient (move the slider by clicking on the right side button) until the colors blend almost seamlessly. Depending on the gradient, it shouldn't take much. I think it only took 5 or 6 clicks for this one. Open both of these images in tabs in your browser and click between the two and you can more readily see the difference the blur makes... Don't confuse this with blurring with the a blur variation! We are not blurring the entire flame or individual xform, but rather we are only blurring the gradient to take the edges off the color changes...



Now let's see what some of the dc_linear variables do! This sample was generated randomly. I moved the transforms about a little, re sized them a little and just played with it in general. (I'll post parameters at the end!) Xform one has splits, xform 2 has linear and dc_ linear and xform 3 has linear, dc_linear and spherical. It also has a final xform as I was experimenting with some stuff but it only has linear in it now. It could be deleted and just spun around a bit with the rotate function. First image is with the default variables for dc_linear on xforms 2 and 3. The three variables to play with are offset, angle and scale. In the second image I have changed the default scale setting from 1 to .3 in both xforms 2 and 3. As you can see it increases the number of 'ripples' by making them smaller. Increasing the scale above 1 reduces the number of ripples by making them bigger. In the third image we have changed the angle of the dc_linear in xform 2 from the default of 0 to .5. This does exactly what you might think in that it spins the 'rippled' effect, in this case clock wise. A negative number will spin it counter clock wise. And finally in the fourth image, we have adjusted the offset of dc_linear on xform 2 from the default of 0 to .905. (Compare image 1 to image 4 and you can see the difference.) Offset basically slides the coloring effect of the 'ripples' across the influence of the xform you are adjusting in your flame.



And that's pretty much all I know! I think it's enough where you can play with it a little. You can try adding a little dc_linear in some of your old flames to see how it affects them too. I find that piggy backing dc_linear with other variations works well for me. I also experimented with dc_triangle but left the variation variables on default for the most part with that one. Following are some examples with dc_linear. dc_triangle and crop...



And here's the parameters of one of the examples!


<flame name="dc_linear_scraps3" version="Apophysis 7x Version 14" size="720 450" center="0.667828457301105 0.166079495640604" scale="198.3" oversample="1" filter="0.5" quality="50" background="0 0 0" brightness="8.73913043478261" gamma="4" estimator_radius="9" estimator_minimum="0" estimator_curve="0.4" enable_de="0">
   <xform weight="0.25" color="0" splits="1" coefs="0 -0.674092 0.674092 0 1.055621 0.780576" splits_x="-0.119" splits_y="0" opacity="1" />
   <xform weight="0.25" color="0.333333333333333" linear="0.290391133632511" dc_linear="0.709608866367489" coefs="-0.129792 0.690176 0.690176 0.129792 0.307489 0.681712" dc_linear_offset="0" dc_linear_angle="0" dc_linear_scale="0.3" opacity="1" />
   <xform weight="0.25" color="1" linear="0.895785" spherical="0.005" dc_linear="0.061215" coefs="0.167102 -0.429792 0.429792 0.167102 0.106338 0.266782" dc_linear_offset="0" dc_linear_angle="0" dc_linear_scale="0.3" opacity="1" />
   <finalxform color="0" symmetry="1" linear="1" coefs="1.240655 0.370248 -0.370248 1.240655 -0.487142 -0.768186" />
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Have fun!