04 seed fine tune
Seed fine tune is a separate window (title Seed fine tune), not a main tab. Open it from an Explore seed card with Fine tune or by double-clicking the card.
The window shows only controls the current formula actually consumes. Missing groups are intentional.
Seed fine tune: base parameters and preview.
The top of the window shows the seed title, formula identity line, formula summary, and a 320×180 preview. While a preview is in flight the placeholder reads (preview rendering). Edits refresh this preview.
Section Base parameters. Fields the renderer uses for this formula, typically:
| Field | Role |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | Seed still width × height (composition/render can override later). |
| Iterations | Iteration / DE budget. |
| Zoom | View scale. |
| FOV Y | Vertical field of view (3D). |
| Position (X Y Z) | Camera / view position. |
| Rotation (X Y Z) | Camera / view rotation. |
| Bailout | Escape radius. |
| DE stop | Distance-estimator stop epsilon (3D). |
| Julia | Julia mode; enabled checkbox when the formula supports it. |
Section Primary formula. The Formula dropdown is the catalog picker (grouped by family, readable names, not raw IDs). Changing formula rebuilds which later sections appear.
Section Starter look.
- Look preset — curated formula-specific starting looks. Applies immediately; keeps this seed’s title and dimensions.
- Spin inside look — when checked, Spin again starts from the selected look instead of the generic template.
Section Saved seed animation. This is seed-owned motion stored with the seed. It is not Compose camera motion. Compose can keep this profile and add global/per-layer camera or parameter tracks on top.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Enable saved animation | Turns the saved profile on or off without wiping settings. Applies to preview and Compose. |
| Family motion | Capability title, badges, hint, and a best-motion suggestion for this family. Finite-plot families may show an amber warning that zoom can reveal edges. |
| Motion lane | Filters the preset list by kind of seed-owned animation. Does not change the current preset by itself. Duplicate aliases are hidden. |
| Preset | Formula-aware seed animation. Random picks a supported preset. Choosing No preset removes the preset contribution; Clear resets the whole seed-animation setup, including local motion. |
| Duration / speed / Preset strength / phase | Authored length before speed, speed multiplier, how hard the preset pushes, and where the cycle starts. |
| Timeline mode | Short cycle or Long-form journey. |
| Journey length | Visible in long-form. Preferred journey duration. |
| Use Compose duration | Long-form: evolve across the full Compose duration instead of a fixed journey length. |
| Saved in Compose | Short-cycle output behavior. The combo DisplayNames are Repeat saved cycle, One-shot hold, Ping-pong saved cycle, and Sync one cycle to composition. |
| Local roll | Extra seed-owned roll (degrees/sec + direction). |
| Travel kind | Formula-aware zoom/travel. Unsupported behaviors are hidden or disabled. |
Timeline mode meanings:
-
Short cycle — a reusable motif. The Saved in Compose combo then chooses how that motif is used after save:
- Repeat saved cycle — the saved seed repeats its base cycle in Compose and final renders.
- One-shot hold — the saved seed plays once, then holds its final cycle state.
- Ping-pong saved cycle — plays the same cycle forward and backward. It does not create later unique seed states.
- Sync one cycle to composition — stretches one authored cycle across the composition. It does not generate more seed content.
- Long-form journey — evolving motion across Journey length, or across Compose duration when Use Compose duration is on.
Travel kind (when selectable):
| Label in the dropdown | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Local scale | Legacy-compatible local view scale. |
| True formula zoom / Deep fractal | True plane zoom for supported 2D escape-time and analytic formulas. |
| Dolly / fly | 3D camera-style travel for 3D / path-traced / KIFS / quaternion-style formulas. |
| Finite plot zoom | Content-centered zoom for flames, attractors, IFS, Buddhabrot, L-systems, procedural plots. Can reveal plot edges. |
| Mirrored domain travel | Stylized edge-safe warp where the renderer supports it. |
If a travel kind is visible and selectable, preview, Compose, API/CLI, and final render all receive renderer-backed tracks for it.
Saved seed animation: preset and timeline controls.
Inside saved seed animation:
- Placeholder animation preview
- Preview start (s) and Length (s), max 9 — an inspection window up to nine seconds, played at real time, keeping the full saved cycle/journey timing
- Preview player
- Render preview — builds the preview frames
- Replay / Stop
Preview playback is inspection-only. Looping a one-shot preview does not change the saved seed behavior. Preview resolution may differ from final render; timing and parameter values should match.
To inspect a loop boundary, set Preview start (s) just before the end of the effective cycle and let the preview window cross it. For example, inspect 14–16 seconds of a 15-second repeating cycle. Repeat and ping-pong windows can cross that boundary; once, sync, and long-form previews stop at their finite endpoint. A preset with different first and last parameter values can still jump: selecting a repeating playback mode does not automatically redesign the curve.
Preset strength scales preset-generated animation; it does not scale independent local roll or travel. Choosing No preset can leave independently authored local motion, while Clear resets the preset, timing, local roll/travel, and manual seed tracks. A disabled profile retains its settings until you enable it again. An imported preset name that is unavailable in this build remains identifiable rather than silently becoming a different preset.
Closing the editor cancels its animation batch and rejects late images. The preview is bounded to 72 sampled images; longer journeys are inspected by moving the window rather than allocating an image for every output frame.
Only groups the formula consumes are shown. Representative sections:
| Section | When you see it |
|---|---|
| Coloring (2D escape-time) | 2D escape-time color modes. |
| Julia and detail motion (2D escape-time) | Julia C orbit, detail density, color speed. |
| Domain motion | Warp, swirl, kaleido, tunnel, fBM, water, spiral, moire. |
| Orbit trap and detail | Trap shape/size used by orbit-trap coloring. |
| Palette (universal BG/FG fallback) | Preset, Background, Foreground. Formula fallback/material color — not always a separate removable sky. |
| Palette ramp color stops (overrides 2-stop palette when active) | Multi-stop ramp. Suggest 8 palettes, From image…. |
| Sky gradient (3D ray-miss background) | True ray-miss sky for 3D-style formulas. Use this for clean keyable 3D backgrounds (green, black, etc.). 2D/flame formulas do not have a separate sky layer. |
Palette stops drive formula color ramps and can be animated.
| Section | Contents |
|---|---|
| 3D structure motion | Twist, bend, radial pulse, breath scale, fold bias, noise. |
| 4D slice motion | W-slice for hypercomplex formulas; hidden if unused. |
| GPU lighting (depth+normal G-buffer pass) | Depth-AO, volumetric fog, soft shadows, Lambert, SSS wrap, light direction X/Y/Z. |
| Lights (key / fill / rim — colored 3-light rig) | Rig preset. |
| Material (tone shaping) | Hue, saturation, brightness, contrast, gamma, exposure, Tone curve, 3D LUT (Load… / Clear). |
| Material physics (PBR-ish — specular / metallic / roughness) | Specular, spec power, metallic, roughness, iridescence, color bands. |
The CPU three-light rig and GPU depth/normal lighting pass are different implementations. Use the same renderer for approval and export, and read warnings about unsupported settings. Changing CPU/GPU backends is not a promise of identical lighting. In a composition, an overlay's post effects/LUT apply before keying and blending; the base source's final effect stack affects the finished composite.
| Section | Contents |
|---|---|
| Post-FX (final image pass · all formulas) | Vignette, bloom, fake AO, film grain, chromatic aberration, sharpen, plus tints. |
| FLAM3 structural extensions (Phase 19C) | Final transform, symmetry N, plot scale/rotate/offset. |
| Path tracer | Quality preset, samples per pixel, aperture, focus distance, sun orbit/strength. |
| Frame-generation controls | Pixel-changing controls before material/color/post. Speed and phase are clearest in animation preview or final render. |
| Slot A tunables | Power, weight, bailout, iter range, Julia mode. |
| Mixer | Mix mode, alt iter, spatial falloff. Use Julia constant for slot A when relevant. |
Cellular automata, L-systems, attractors, IFS, Buddhabrot, and procedural formulas add their own labeled rows (rules, grammar, turtle, coefficients, sampling windows). Those rows use the same numeric spinner pattern as Slot A tunables.
Section Raw JSON. Escape hatch for keys without a first-class control (extra mix slots, advanced custom keys). Edits do not auto-apply on every keystroke. Click Parse & apply JSON to validate and copy fields into the live parameters. Slider edits still refresh the JSON text live.
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Heart tuned seed | Shown when there is no seed animation. Hearts the current parameters into the library for Compose. |
| Heart animated seed | Shown when saved animation is enabled. Hearts the seed with its animation profile. |
| Heart seed (animation disabled) | Shown when a profile exists but Enable saved animation is off. |
| Heart static seed | Hearts this seed without the seed-owned animation profile. |
| Spin again | Rerolls from the same formula (or from the starter look if Spin inside look is on). Undo changes restores the version from before the reroll. |
| Neutral base | Rebuilds a clean single-formula starting point: neutral color, no post effects, no LUT, no mixer layers, no layer stack. |
| Save material… | Writes look (material / lighting / sky / palette / gradient / post-fx tints) to a .material.json file. |
| Load material… | Applies a saved material to this seed. Formula and camera are untouched. |
| Copy raw text | Copies the raw parameter text. |
| Undo changes | Restores parameters to when this dialog opened. Only visible if there are unsaved edits. |
| Close | Closes the window. |
Hearting is what makes the seed show up on Compose. Closing without hearting keeps the Explore card as it was unless you already saved.
Saved/hearted tuned seeds keep their animation profile, so Compose receives the same seed state you saw in fine tune.
An animated seed preview with 64 rendered frames and the save controls.
| Family | Best seed-owned animation | Zoom / travel |
|---|---|---|
| 2D escape-time / analytic fields | Structure, domain, true formula zoom, phase/frequency, palette. | True formula-plane zoom when Travel kind offers it. |
| 3D raymarched / KIFS / quaternion / path-traced | Dolly/fly/orbit, fold/slice/structure, material, lighting, sky. | Spatial travel is camera-like, not infinite 2D zoom. |
| Flame / flame 3D | Variation weights, transforms, density, symmetry, palette. | Finite plot or 3D projection; edges can appear. |
| Attractors / IFS / Buddhabrot | Coefficient drift, sampling windows, density/exposure, color. | Finite plotted structure. |
| Cellular automata / L-systems | Rule/simulation/grammar/growth and color. | Finite grid or drawing; camera zoom exposes boundaries. |
| Procedural fields | Domain flow, mirrored travel, pattern warp, scale/frequency, color. | Some tile; others still show framing. |
Continue: Compose.