This is the smooth color algorithm:
Lets say you start with the complex number z0
and iterate n
times until it escapes. Let the end point be zn
.
A smooth value would be
nsmooth := n + 1 - Math.log(Math.log(zn.abs()))/Math.log(2)
This only works for mandelbrot, if you want to compute a smooth function for julia sets, then use
Complex z = new Complex(x,y);
double smoothcolor = Math.exp(-z.abs());
for(i=0;i<max_iter && z.abs() < 30;i++) {
z = f(z);
smoothcolor += Math.exp(-z.abs());
}
Then smoothcolor
is in the interval (0,max_iter)
.
Divide smoothcolor
with max_iter
to get a value between 0 and 1.
To get a smooth color from the value:
This can be called, for example (in Java):
Color.HSBtoRGB(0.95f + 10 * smoothcolor ,0.6f,1.0f);
since the first value in HSB color parameters is used to define the color from the color circle.