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Geometry effect

Fractal Mirror

Fractal Mirror is a kaleidoscope and geometry effect in FRCTL, the browser VJ studio. Recursive mirrored folds with electric color drift.

Runs live on video, images, a camera or generated art. Stack it with any other effect, and route LFOs, envelopes or any of ten audio bands to its controls so it moves with the music.

Try Fractal Mirror free All effects

The untouched demo art: an eye inside a triangle over wavy teal, blue and peach lines — Source

The eye-in-triangle art under a fine rainbow grain, with small mirrored motifs packed inside the triangle — Fractal Mirror, default settings

What Fractal Mirror does

Folds the frame back into itself two to six times, turning 30 degrees between folds, so the picture repeats as ever smaller mirrored copies. The fold offsets breathe on their own and an electric colour wash rides the result. At the default the copies pack so fine they read as rainbow grain on the picture. Lower Depth and the Mix slider for legible mirrors, and Winding flips the spiral's hand.

Using Fractal Mirror

Where it works: Deep, recursive backgrounds for a peak-time set and abstract loops for a pack. Low Depth gives cover art a clean mirrored motif, while high Depth turns any footage into shifting texture.
With the music: The folds already breathe on their own clock, with Speed setting the pace. Route B2 to Fold so the sub pushes the copies deeper, and put a slow LFO on Tint to cycle the electric wash.
Starting point: Depth at a quarter, Fold and Twist at centre, Drift at three-quarters, the Mix slider around centre, then raise Depth one step at a time.

Controls

Fold: Recursive fold scale per iteration.
Twist: Rotation between fold iterations.
Drift: Electric color drift vs clean mirror.
Tint: Rotates the electric drift colour around the wheel.
Depth: How many times the frame is folded back into itself. Two is coarse and legible, six is dense.
Winding: Which way the folds wind into each other.
Speed: Rate of the effect motion. Centre is the authored speed, hard left a tenth of it.

Pairs well with Fractal Mirror