Tip 001: Colors in the Flame-editor

You have some nice gradient, but a small part is odd? Enter Gradient-tab and press the Edit gradient button.

Move the left color-marker to the left of the part of the gradient you want to remove.

Move the right color-marker to the right of the part of the gradient you want to remove. Press the Fade-button, now left colors is faded to right, and the odd part is removed.

Tip 002: Preferences

You may customize a lot of things according to your needs in the Preferences-window, for example paths or default-parameters for certain functions.

Tip 003: Java heap space

The common error "Java heap space" means the software ran out of memory.

The software only uses the amount of memory you specify in the launcher. So, often it makes sense to start the program again and increase the value "memory to use" in the launcher (if your system has memory left)

To reduce the required amount of memory you may reduce the render-resolution.

Tip 004: Solid rendering

When realtime-editing of a flame with solid-rendering appears too slow, just turn off solid rendering temporarily. Continue editing and finally turn in on again to proceed.

This works especially good for editing DOF-setting. Because they appear in non-solid-mode in realtime, while DOF is a post-processing-effect in solid-rendering-mode, i. e. does not appear in realtime-editing.

Tip 005: Parametric plots

There are many presets (formulas + variable ranges of interest) included in the parplot2d_wf-variation.

To switch between them change the "preset_id" parameter (range: 0...currently maximum available preset).

To edit your own formula turn off preset_mode by setting the parameter "preset_id" to some negative value, e.g. -1.

Tip 006: Memory

You may see both the available and occupied memory (RAM) in the "System Information" window.

Some memory is occupied by caches in order to accelerate future calculations. For example, Bitmaps, Fonts and Meshes are hold in the cache.

You may clear the cache at any time in the "System Information" window, in order to free memory.

Tip 007: Blur Variations

Variations that ignore their input are collectively called "blur variations". They often have blur in their name (like blur, nBlur, and starblur), but just as often don't (like crackle, lissajous, and parplot2d_wf).

One way to determine if a variation is a blur variation is to create a new flame with one transform containing only that variation. If the preview shows a shape and that shape doesn't change when you move the pre-affine triangle, it is probably a blur.

To move, rotate, or scale a blur variation, use the post-affine triangle (the pre-affine triangle is ignored).

For brighter colors with blur variations, set Speed on the Color tab to -1.

Tip 008: Transforms with no variations

It is allowed to have a transform with no variations. Delete the default linear3D (or whatever variations are there). This produces a dot at the origin, which can be moved using the post-affine triangle and can be manipulated by other transforms. The dot is a single point, but often appears larger because of anti-aliasing. Use the Antialiasing radius setting on the Antialiasing/Filter tab to adjust the size.

Tip 009: Hiding the Triangles

The triangles that represent the affine transforms help to depict what effect they will have, but sometime they obscure the view of the flame details. To hide them, pull down the dropdown above the flame (next to the Show Guides button) and select HIDDEN. To show them again, select TRIANGLE (or one of the other shapes if preferred).

Tip 010: Fine Edit

Some flames are extremely sensitive to small changes. To get more control while tweaking them, click the Fine Edit button. It is above the flame preview, on the left side. In Fine Edit mode, larger mouse movements are needed to achieve the same results. Click the Fine Edit button again to turn off Fine Edit mode.

Tip 011: Preserve Z

When making 3D flames, the Preserve Z button on the Affine tab makes it easy to include 2D variations that would otherwise flatten the flame by not setting the z value. If you need some element to be flat when using Preserve Z, add the flatten variation to the transform.

However, you can get more control by unsetting Preserve Z and adding zscale as a variation on all of the transforms that have only 2D variations. Set the amount initially to the amount of the other variations on the transform (this is what Preserve Z does). Then adjust the zscale amount to control how the transform affects the z value.

Tip 012: SnapShots

When you get a flame to a point where you like it, but want to continue working on it, take a snapshot by clicking the SShot button. This will make a copy of the current flame on the thumbnail bar that you can retrieve at any time (for example if the continued tweaking does more harm than good). Note that this does not save the flame to disk; that would be a good idea too, using either Save... or Q (Quicksave), which saves the flame in the directory last used with a unique name containing the current date.

Tip 013: Positioning layers

Since the camera is shared with all the layers, it can't be used to position a layer with respect to the others. Instead, add a Final transform to the layer with the default linear3D variation and use the Affine transform to position, rotate, or scale the layer.

Tip 014: Ergonomics

Making fractal flames can be addictive! Avoid fatigue and repetitive stress injuries with these tips:

Tip 015: Gradients

There are thousands of gradients available that work in JWildfire. They can be in .map, .gradient, or .ugr files. Copy the file(s) with the gradients you want to your JWildfire gradients folder (set in Preferences, item tinaGradientPath). However, if the folder contains a lot of gradients, it can take JWildfire a long time to open the Gradients tab. If this becomes a problem, move gradient files you don't use often to another folder and copy them temporarily into the JWildfire gradients folder only when you need them.

Tip 016: Tool Tips

Many of the JWildfire controls have tool tips: short descriptions of what the control does. To see a tool tip, hold the mouse cursor over the button or the title of a control and wait a second. If the control has a tool tip, it will appear next to the cursor. These can be helpful for learning what the various controls do.

Tip 017: Foreground Opacity

There is a control on the Coloring tab labeled "Fg opacity", which controls how much of the background will show through the fractal flame. The default is 1 which will let some of the background appear through a translucent flame; with a white background, this will often result in nice pastel colors. If this is not desired, reduce the amount to make the flame more opaque. If the background is black, this control will have no effect (there is nothing to show through).

Tip 018: Selecting Variations

The list of variations is very large, so selecting a variation by pulling down the list and scrolling to find the desired one can be difficult. A shortcut is to pull down the list, then start typing the name of the desired variation. The list will scroll to the closest match to the typed letters.

To remove a variation, choose the blank item at the top of the list. The shortcut is the Home key.