scatterDensity and absorptionDensity: these are used to control the… wait for it… density of the volume.You may need to adjust the lowerColorBound and upperColorBound values, depending on the other settings you change. It is still a WIP, so the settings are not very user friendly. Color1, Color2, lowerColorBound, and upperColorBound: These are used to generate the colors of the volume.You’ll get the most interesting results with values between 2 and 20. Go below 1 and you also get a sphere-like volume. Go high enough and the volume becomes more and more spherical, because the detail becomes finer. It plays the biggest role in changing the shape of the volume. However, I found that increasing it also increases the render time. Originally, my thought was that changing this value would improve the detail level. n: This determines the number of iterations in the underlying math.However, if you do, you will likely have to alter the upper/lowerBound values. Here again, you probably do not need to mess with this. stepSize: This value helps in the detail level of the volume.However, you can make some big changes to the volume’s appearance if you do. Generally, you wouldn’t want to mess with those. upperBound/lowerBound: These values are used to help define the inner and outer transparency boundaries.This is all still rough, so bear with me. Here is a basic explanation of the settings. With some schooling from Henrik on the Volume Settings (Step Size and Max Steps), I finally achieved my goal. Why hit your thumb with a hammer, when you can bang your head against a wall? Hair was pulled out. It can certainly be done with Python but, I am stubborn and wanted to create a shader.
Instead, the answer was in using the math to control the density of a volume.
The solution was definitely not to create a mesh.
With more trial and error, and a lot of Googling, I was finally able to create a Mandelbulb in Blender. I do not know why, or what put me on this track, but I started playing with OSL (Open Shading Language) to create custom shaders in Blender.
Then, with help/feedback from Henrik Ohlin and VÃt Procházka (who actually provided me with the core Python code I needed), I began to see that I may have been going in the wrong direction, trying to create a mesh. When I started hitting millions of vertices (and, again, hitting the limits of what I remembered in math), I began to wonder if I had taken on a project that was well beyond my experience. Part was the large number of vertices required to get the kind of detail I desired. Let’s be honest: I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. Part was a lack of understanding with regard to the math involved. While I had some success (I was able to generate a Mandelbrot mesh), I was not able to generate a very detailed Mandelbulb. My goal was to create a Mandelbulb – similar to what you can get from the app Mandelbulb 3D. A few weeks ago, I started experimenting with using Python in Blender to create fractal meshes.