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Description
Our next latest interview is with someone who needs absolutely no introduction from us. We all know him as one of the creators of the Apophysis program, **as well as one of the most talented and versatile fractal artists on deviantART and one of the most awesome fractal artists on DA.

The impact the Apophysis program has had on fractal artists both fledgling and experienced, and on the fractal community in general, has been for a lot of people, both far reaching and definitive... Apophysis has definitely left it's footprint in their lives !as well as fractal creation in general is astounding!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1. How did you get the idea to create Apophysis, and how long did it take?

I didn't! The program "Apophysis" was written by Mark Townsend, based on (if I remember correctly) renderer code from "Fractal Flame Screensaver" by Ronald Hordijk. I encountered Apophysis 2.02 shortly after joining deviantART and seeing some really interesting and unusual fractals made by DA artists

After some time, I started to figure out how IFS fractals work**s** and realized that actually the program itself does not provide much control of the process.
So, after I made my own version of Apophysis known as "2.02z", Ronald Hordijk invited me to join the Apophysis project as an "official" developer

2. Now with all of the scripts and plugins, do you have any hopes of incorporating any of those into the next versions that are released?

In fact, it would be better to remove some of the rarely-used **built-in** variations instead. And then anyone can add all plugins they need...

3. Do you find it interesting to sit back and watch as other artists create plugins and Scripts to compliment your program? Do you have any scripts or plugins that you use on a regular basis?

I don't use scripts at all, I think they're quite useless if you understand what's going on inside the program
And plugins - yes, of course I have a number of interesting plugins made by other people, but I don't actually use them, unless I understand completely how they work

4. We all look up to you as the "guru" of Apophysis, so where do you go to when you need help?

Fortunately I am not a lone developer here, so on some questions I can consult with flam3 or Apophysis plugins developers, or even Apo users community...
But most of the time I end up digging in some math books and/or the internet... I like to figure out things by myself anyway

5. How long have you been doing fractal art?

I've been trying various fractal programs many years ago, but nothing that I did could be called "art" I guess So I'd say that I started doing fractal art only after figuring out Apophysis, which was in 2004-2005.

6. Who, or what, got you started designing programs and creating fractals?

Hmm, that's two very different things
I've been always interested in fractals as a curious area of mathematics, and...

7. Where did you learn programming? Do you have a formal education?

I started to learn programming in school, as... what probably must be called "extracurricular activities". Of course things went faster when I got my own computer...
I entered the institute to study programming at first, but strangely enough ended up receiving diploma of an "engineer", not a "programmer"

8. Do you enjoy creating any other types of art? If so... what?

Well, making emoticons turned out to be much fun :thumb99210889:

9. Are you formally taught/trained or self-taught?

Mostly self-taught.

10. Do you have any advice for beginners?

Knowledge is power! Mathematics is your friend, try to understand the "theory" behind everything

11. How does it feel being aware of the inspiration you have given to many artists?

I am getting much inspiration from seeing great works of art (in any form, from music to demoscene ), so I'm very glad to know that my works actually inspire someone

12. What are you favorite & least favorite works from your gallery & why?

It is hard to choose only one favourite... I think I could name "Ceremonial Shield" as my current personal favourite :deviationlove: because I still like very much how it turned out, but also I still see some problems in there and looking for a way to fix them
My least favourite is probably "Hyperhive", for which I received my 1st Daily Deviation award, but it clearly wasn't my "best" work at that moment

13. If there were a single person you could, or would give credit to for getting you started on your current path of Art in general, or Fractal Art in particular, who would it be?

Oh, that's no secret I got myself interested in Fractal Art for real after seeing fantastic fractal works of Nicholas Rougeux a.k.a. `creativ82 .
And the man (or rather alien ) whose works inspired me to deeply research Apophysis fractaling is of course Andrew Ostin a.k.a. =psion005

Here is an amazing look into *Zueuk ’s Gallery! When you have a moment, please go and check it out!!!

:thumb37368463::thumb32841803::thumb20817675:
:thumb23979495::thumb44380737::thumb56614880:
:thumb33175223::thumb29751053::thumb44037250:
:thumb61911679::thumb45276857::thumb41550130:
:thumb20817675::thumb45498858: :thumb32892048: :thumb19030901:

DAILY DEVIATIONS
:thumb26759014: :thumb33935733: :thumb61911679: :thumb64460522: :thumb56614880: :thumb99210889:

For those who would like to try Apophysis or get the latest download of the 2.08 beta2 version, please go to Sourceforge: [link]

And thank you one and all for taking the time to get to know *Zueuk a little better, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did !

Description
Our next latest interview is with someone who needs absolutely no introduction from us. We all know him as one of the creators of the Apophysis program, **as well as one of the most talented and versatile fractal artists on deviantART and one of the most awesome fractal artists on DA.

The impact the Apophysis program has had on fractal artists both fledgling and experienced, and on the fractal community in general, has been for a lot of people, both far reaching and definitive... Apophysis has definitely left it's footprint in their lives !as well as fractal creation in general is astounding!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1. How did you get the idea to create Apophysis, and how long did it take?

I didn't! The program "Apophysis" was written by Mark Townsend, based on (if I remember correctly) renderer code from "Fractal Flame Screensaver" by Ronald Hordijk. I encountered Apophysis 2.02 shortly after joining deviantART and seeing some really interesting and unusual fractals made by DA artists

After some time, I started to figure out how IFS fractals work**s** and realized that actually the program itself does not provide much control of the process.
So, after I made my own version of Apophysis known as "2.02z", Ronald Hordijk invited me to join the Apophysis project as an "official" developer

2. Now with all of the scripts and plugins, do you have any hopes of incorporating any of those into the next versions that are released?

In fact, it would be better to remove some of the rarely-used **built-in** variations instead. And then anyone can add all plugins they need...

3. Do you find it interesting to sit back and watch as other artists create plugins and Scripts to compliment your program? Do you have any scripts or plugins that you use on a regular basis?

I don't use scripts at all, I think they're quite useless if you understand what's going on inside the program
And plugins - yes, of course I have a number of interesting plugins made by other people, but I don't actually use them, unless I understand completely how they work

4. We all look up to you as the "guru" of Apophysis, so where do you go to when you need help?

Fortunately I am not a lone developer here, so on some questions I can consult with flam3 or Apophysis plugins developers, or even Apo users community...
But most of the time I end up digging in some math books and/or the internet... I like to figure out things by myself anyway

5. How long have you been doing fractal art?

I've been trying various fractal programs many years ago, but nothing that I did could be called "art" I guess So I'd say that I started doing fractal art only after figuring out Apophysis, which was in 2004-2005.

6. Who, or what, got you started designing programs and creating fractals?

Hmm, that's two very different things
I've been always interested in fractals as a curious area of mathematics, and...

7. Where did you learn programming? Do you have a formal education?

I started to learn programming in school, as... what probably must be called "extracurricular activities". Of course things went faster when I got my own computer...
I entered the institute to study programming at first, but strangely enough ended up receiving diploma of an "engineer", not a "programmer"

8. Do you enjoy creating any other types of art? If so... what?

Well, making emoticons turned out to be much fun :thumb99210889:

9. Are you formally taught/trained or self-taught?

Mostly self-taught.

10. Do you have any advice for beginners?

Knowledge is power! Mathematics is your friend, try to understand the "theory" behind everything

11. How does it feel being aware of the inspiration you have given to many artists?

I am getting much inspiration from seeing great works of art (in any form, from music to demoscene ), so I'm very glad to know that my works actually inspire someone

12. What are you favorite & least favorite works from your gallery & why?

It is hard to choose only one favourite... I think I could name "Ceremonial Shield" as my current personal favourite :deviationlove: because I still like very much how it turned out, but also I still see some problems in there and looking for a way to fix them
My least favourite is probably "Hyperhive", for which I received my 1st Daily Deviation award, but it clearly wasn't my "best" work at that moment

13. If there were a single person you could, or would give credit to for getting you started on your current path of Art in general, or Fractal Art in particular, who would it be?

Oh, that's no secret I got myself interested in Fractal Art for real after seeing fantastic fractal works of Nicholas Rougeux a.k.a. `creativ82 .
And the man (or rather alien ) whose works inspired me to deeply research Apophysis fractaling is of course Andrew Ostin a.k.a. =psion005

Here is an amazing look into *Zueuk ’s Gallery! When you have a moment, please go and check it out!!!

:thumb37368463::thumb32841803::thumb20817675:
:thumb23979495::thumb44380737::thumb56614880:
:thumb33175223::thumb29751053::thumb44037250:
:thumb61911679::thumb45276857::thumb41550130:
:thumb20817675::thumb45498858: :thumb32892048: :thumb19030901:

DAILY DEVIATIONS
:thumb26759014: :thumb33935733: :thumb61911679: :thumb64460522: :thumb56614880: :thumb99210889:

For those who would like to try Apophysis or get the latest download of the 2.08 beta2 version, please go to Sourceforge: [link]

And thank you one and all for taking the time to get to know *Zueuk a little better, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did !