Fractal Landscape
Computer-generated mountains and coastlines built from recursive subdivision, so rough detail appears at every scale. Loren Carpenter’s 1980 film Vol Libre and the Genesis sequence in Star Trek II showed that fractal geometry could produce believable terrain.
Spot it
- 01Jagged self-similar ridges
- 02Smooth shaded polygon slopes
- 03Hazy gradient sky
Why it happens
Midpoint-displacement or noise algorithms repeatedly split triangles and nudge their heights randomly, giving self-similar roughness at every scale from peaks to pebbles.
Recreate it in Pixio
Image edit prompt“Reimagine this image as an early fractal terrain render: jagged self-similar mountain ridges built from faceted shaded triangles, smooth gradient shading, a flat reflective lake, a simple banded gradient sky and a limited glowing color palette from deep blue to rust. Keep the original subject and composition.”
Open PixioUpload your image and pick an image-edit model.