Motivational Warp Core Explosion

I know, I need to get back to art based on physics! But I am taking a detour!

I am collecting ideas and building blocks – art based on mathematics. The function powering the warp core is not that complicated. I guess, you could find related physics. But when my starting point was math, it does not count as art inspired by physics :-)

The warp core explosion is a variation of the function I called super motivational. I added more “loops”, “ears”, “lobes”.

There are way more lines than in previous artworks created with code. If a warp core is exploding, millions of glowing particles fly into space and follow beautiful trajectories! So, I needed more lines!

Actually, I had struggled with the seemingly simple tasks of filling a canvas with color. So far, I had created structures from stacked curves: stacked in a way that all the curves make up a wavy surface. Think of a colored scarf floating through space, flapping and waving. I rotated this structure and panned my virtual camera to find an interesting point of view. But I like my lines thin and ethereal! So, looking through the fabric of the flapping scarf often resulted in an image with much empty background. It was an interesting challenge to warp and twist my scarfs so that my camera captures enough threads of color.

But then I had the epiphany: Why don’t I stack more of the same structures, self-similar ones? Like nesting dolls!

The warp core explosion is built from my “usual” surfaces of towers that become infinitely wide when reaching the ground and zero in infinite heights. I am building each tower from contour lines of a specific color, dark yellow or cyan. Then I am adding more and more of these towers, gradually changing the color from inner to outer towers.

This has certainly been a motivational experience! I finally have all the color I ever wanted!

Note that my warp core is not made to compete with Hollywood-esque special effects and elabaroate 3D renderings. My motivation is to draw with simple, plain lines, using mathematical equations that would not use much space in writing.

I am still trying to find something unexpected when looking at the seemingly simply from a special vantage point. It just got a lot easier when I started stacking lines not only “in height” but also “in depth”.

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Created with custom JavaScript code based on the framework threejs. The original images are 5000 pixels wide (scaled down here). The clover-leaf-shaped contours are encapsulated in sin(phi)² – cos(phi)²

This warp core is a first test – it may or may not turn into an official “series”!

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