Fractal in modeling natural objects

Abstract

Austere geometry is able to precisely describe man-made objects like furniture, automobiles and buildings, which usually have smooth surfaces, but it merely gives approximation to natural objects with geometries of high complexity such as plants, clouds and mountains. Consequently, man-made objects can be easily rendered nicely. High complexity geometry of natural objects prevents very precise rendering using classical geometry. Fractals have been used in computer graphics to model natural objects like terrain and plants. This chapter will discussed on basic fractals classifications and fractal models that produced natural objects like terrain, plants and lighting. Fractal is derived from the Latin word ‘fractus’ meaning broken or uneven. It refers to any extremely irregular curves or shapes that repeat themselves at any scale on which they are examined. Mathematical definition for fractal is a set of points whose fractal dimension exceeds its topological dimension. The key concept of fractal is self-similarity. An object must be selfsimilar when magnified; where subsets of the object have resemblance or identical to the whole object and to each other.