This tutorial for Image Traps could probably titled "Anatomy of a Coloring Formula". This will be the basic roadmap through Image Traps. The various locations on the roadmap will be briefly described as far as function and what else can plug in. There will be a few sample uprs in the next email. No image imports will be used in this tutorial.

To used Image Traps, first select your favorite ufm. Then go to the outside tab to get your coloring formula. You can do this in two ways:

1. Select Generic Coloring (Direct) in Standard.ucl and then browse to replace Direct Orbit Traps using the browse button on the right. In the browse window select reb.ulb and click on Image Traps.


2. Go directly to reb5.ucl in the database and select Image Traps.

I will now take you through the various plugins that are listed on the outside tab. If you started with Generic Coloring (Direct) the first plugin you see will be for Image Traps. You can use the browse button to select other coloring formulas. If you started with Image Traps in reb5.ucl the first plugin you see will be

1. Trap Iteration: Trap Select. This is a plugin written by Damien Jones which replaces the limited iterations option used by several of us for our old UF4 formulas. If you click on the little arrow on the left you can see the parameters. The default is "all iterations". If you select "some iterations" four new parameters will appear that enable you to control which iterations are trapped. A sample upr, called "limited_iterations" is in the next email. If you click the browse button you will see several more plugins for this slot in dmj5.ulb.


2. Trap Position: Trap Position Mod. I wrote this plugin to add a "Trap Modifier" parameter to Trap Position. This is a parameter I have in several of my old UF4 formulas. This plugin is actually a transform such as you might apply using the mapping tab. If you click the browse button you will see a number of alternative plugins in reb.ulb. You can find additional plugins for this slot in other libraries.


3. Trap Shape: Ampersand. This is the trap shape plugin. Ampersand is the default for Image Traps. If you click on the browse button you can find many more plugins for this slot in several different ulb files. In common.ulb there is a really interesting plugin called "Trap Shape Merge". This plugin allows you to merge up to 10 different trap shapes with a number of different merge modes. An example upr call "merging_traps" is in the next email.


4. Trap Transfer: Trap Transfer. This is a standard plugin for modifying trap distances. Click on the browse button to see alternative plugins.


5. Custom Transfer: Distance Variants: This is another trap tranfer plugin that I wrote to duplicate some of the functionality in my old UF4 formulas. With the browse button you can see that any of the other trap transfer plugins can go here.


6. Trap Mode: First. This plugin defines the type of trap. Click on the browse button to see other choices. Only the trap mode choices in reb.ulb will work here because this variety of trap mode has the capability of warping images to the shape of the trap and taking into account any transparency of the image. This is one of the key features of Image Traps. The demo upr called "FractalArt" which was posted right after the announcement of UF5 illustrates both the warping and the effects of image transparency. It was posted on 6/25/2008.


7. Trap Texture: Flat Texture. The default is Flat Texture which is in dmj5.ulb Any Trap Shape plugin can be used here, but the slot is intended for trap shapes specifically designed as textures. Examples have been written by many of the ulb authors, and most of the contain the word texture in the title. There will be a separate tutorial dealing Worley Textures, which is one of the plugin options. Both the uprs "limited_iterations" and "merging_traps" includes a texture plugin on at least one of the layers.


8. Trap Color Mode: Distance. There are several plugin options for coloring the trap, which can be seen by using the browse button. Because images are integral to this set of trap color modes, only the trap color modes in reb.ulb will work here. The upr "limited_iterations" also uses the trap color mode Iteration on one of the layers, with the iteration type set to "discrete colors".


9. Colors: No Color. This plugin slot provides much of the uniqueness of Image Traps. To import images click the browse button and select "Color Trap Image Tiles" and then select the image of your choice. There were be a subseqent totorial on using several of the plugins for this slot, including "Color Trap Image Tiles". DO NOT USE THE PLUGIN CALLED IMAGE IMPORT AS YOU WILL MOST LIKELY GET POOR RESULTS! "Color Trap Image Tiles" incorporates Image Import as part of its functionality, and provides additional options for dealing with images including tiling and rotation of the image. Image Import often gives an upside down image, and the rotation capabilities of Color Trap Image Tiles can correct this without altering the original image.

Sample Parameters