Forrest's MPEGs Looking through my weblogs, I see a lot of people are coming
directly to this page, so I'm guessing someone set up a link pointing
directly here. It's flattering to be linked to, but if you haven't
seen my site before, I'd recommend coming in the front door.
The MPEGs
These MPEGs are graphs of mathematical functions, in which the color
represents the value of some function of x, y, and time. The time
value in all of these MPEGs is an angle which completes one revolution
in the course of the video: they are meant to be looped. I take the
fractional part of the function's value and use that as the hue of
that pixel. Yes, they are sort of gaudy, with all saturated hues, but
I need access to some more serious equipment before I really get to
work on the nuances of this movie thing.
twister.mpg
(401k) 240x240 pixels x 121 frames.
It's a kind of spiral vortex that splits into two and then coalesces
back into one.
twister2.mpg
(523k) 240x240 pixels x 121 frames.
Here's another version of twister. This one has rotation
added: the entire pattern is spinning while it breaks up and recombines.
circstar.mpg
(525k) 368x368 pixels x 121 frames.
A pattern of concentric circles is streched out into ellipses, until
it becomes horizontal bands. Then it comes back as a star pattern
(hyperbolas). These stretch out in the vertical direction, from which
it comes back as ellipses again.
circstr2.mpg
(614k) 368x368 pixels x 121 frames.
A variation of circstar off-center with rotation added, so
the center of the changing circle/star orbits around an unseen sun.
mandala.mpg
(541k) 280x280 pixels x 121 frames.
I don't know how to describe this one: if you can come up with a good
blurb, send me some e-mail. The function is (x^2)^cos(theta) +
(y^2)^sin(theta), where theta completes one revolution in the course of
The video. Oh yeah, plus a term to rotate once through the color wheel as
it progresses ... superfluous, but it was in circstar and I just
sort of left it there.