After the success of Foreign Nature, I decided to create another vr fractal. This time, accompanied by a beautiful score by chillheimer.

This piece has also been used in the SAT in Montreal.

Background

The Cryogenian is the first vr fractal animated especially for the medium. I had to go with a 'simple' fractal again - one that renders quickly. I had to use a very reduced color palette because these shapes are too uniform to keep their colors during a moving camera. What happens is that the colors will 'swim' through the fractal, like in the beginning of 'Phenotypic Sarcophagi'.
Another thing to consider is lighting. Normally I place one directional keylight outside the frame, but with VR, there is no frame. When in a tunnel, or cave, with geometry all around us, we would expect that a directional light source placed in the distance wouldn't be any good, just like the sun has no business in a cave. Fortunately the shadow-casting abilities of Mandelbulb3d are limited, and somehow manages to leak light trough, while still have accurate shadows. How this works exactly I'm not sure, but it's very welcoming to have nice light, even in a cave.

The Cryogenian is the name given to a geologic time period a billion years ago, when the earth was much colder then it is today- sort of the first ice age. The bluish hue I had given it seemed to evoke the look of being inside a glacier with light shining through. Real subsurface scattering is not yet an option in fractals though.

I had worked with Chillheimer on two previous occasions, 'Dream/Iterate' and 'Origin of Intelligence' but this Is his best work in my opinion. Also because he had complete creative freedom and I guess VR must be an incredible inspiring environment to work in for a musician. The music builds and builds and really manages to give the trip some kind of meaning, and resolution.
The music sounded even better at the Satosphere in Montreal, where it played through 154 speakers and 4 subwoofers strategically placed in three hundred sixty degrees around.
For this dome project, I also re-rendered this piece at twice the resolution (4 times the render time)