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My site statistic say that Apophysis will always be a toy is the most read entry on this blog. Obviously people like to do searches on the most popular fractal software in the world and that title is an attention getter. Today someone added this comment to that entry:

You mind telling me what a toy is again? Apo is not and will NEVER be a toy. To be honest, Apo is almost as powerful as UF and such. Why do i say so? Because i am a main UF user, and a secondary Apo user.

A mere toy wouldn’t be able to create masterpieces like http://zueuk.deviantart.com/art/Cataclysm-64460522 , http://nirolo.deviantart.com/art/Fairy-Tree-96303456 or http://zueuk.deviantart.com/art/Melt-the-Ice-56614880 .

Honestly, the ones here who says that Apo is a toy, please reconsider. Actually learn it before trashing it.

Dots

This is my response to that comment:

A toy is something that people use to have fun. A tool is something that people use to make money, and have fun. I like toys. I have lots of them. It’s just hard to take Apophysis seriously when it expires all the time. GIMP doesn’t expire. Why does Apophysis need to expire? How many years does Apophysis need to be in development? When will it finally be ready for “production”?

Be careful about identifying fractal masterpieces. It’s not fair to the artists. A few years ago some of the images that I created were considered to be masterpieces by a few people. After that feedback, I believed that I was creating masterpieces, but obviously you have never heard of my art, have you? I guess that I am not so famous after all.

Lots of people have surpassed my art. If art is forgotten then it was never a masterpiece. Time will tell on what you have identified, but I would be willing to bet that it will fade out like so many other fractal masterpieces have faded out.

I can’t help but think of tattoos when I put my art into perspective. When you spend hours tweaking shapes, textures and colors to the point where you are satisfied with them, you can’t help but think that your creation is pretty cool. It’s your baby so you have to love it. But put a few days, or years, between you and your masterpiece, and you might find yourself wondering what you were thinking when you fell in love with your creation. That’s why I don’t understand tattoos. You are making a lifetime commitment to something that might end up being boring or even ugly after you have gained a few years.

It’s been a while since I have seen a response like that one. Years ago, when I was critical of Apophysis “cow pies”, someone would usually respond with, “Oh ya! Well let me show you this amazing piece, or that one!” Sometimes they would provide links to their own art, but the humble ones would usually link to someone elses. While the linked images were always pretty, most of the time they were not anything that I hadn’t seen before.

I haven’t touched a fractal in months. Last week I lurked on the UF mailing list for a few days just to see what was going on there, but yesterday I unsubscribed again. It was good to see the activity there. Dave Makin’s new 3D formula looks interesting enough to make me want to give it a try, but I have other recreational priorities right now, like kite flying, gardening and family.