The Temple of Gold (Fractal Adventure 2 Remastered)
Channel: A-Merk
Date: 2020-09-09

Hey, all! I decided to use some new functionality I've gained recently to remaster my old adventures. Some of it will look similar, but a lot of it will be much more crisp and clean for your enjoyment. I've learned a lot since I made this but I still love parts of it, so please, dive in!
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Well, here we finally are. It's been a long journey! There have been many ups and downs, trials, tribulations, and months of constant rendering, but it's finally ready. I am overjoyed to present The Temple of Gold, my second fractal adventure, to all of you :)

I am so excited by the level of evolution from FA1 to FA2 and I promise to work tirelessly to continue that upward trend as I work on FA3 (which already has some mind-blowing stuff in the works... rendering...) While I don't want to spoil anything you are about to watch, I will just say: trust me. There are definitely some sections of this adventure that will induce tension in many audience members and that happens on purpose. Life is not without tension. Nothing can be exciting and entirely safe at the same time... anxiety and excitement are simply two sides of the same coin. So, my humble request is that you would trust me as the artist and know that my only goal is to share beauty, meaning and mind-blowing scale and significance with you, my friends and family. There are no jump scares, no gory monsters, nothing to fear. This is a bright, trippy action movie distilled into a more abstract form. Will there be tension? Definitely. But, have no fear. Choose to feel excited by trusting that amazing things are on the way at every turn. I promise that vast beauty awaits at the end of each tunnel you enter. Buy the ticket, take the ride. I'm confident that you won't regret it! Let's all go on an adventure in some alien worlds and explore dimensions beyond the tiny spec of existence that we call "reality"!


Credits (sort of spoilers here, watch the adventure first!)

All the visuals were made by me, created inside Mandelbulb3D and then implemented with Adobe After Effects, aside from the forest section which was taken from this youtube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7cX05o6iuU&feature=youtu.be

I also owe a debt of gratitude to @pxlwrx on instagram for allowing me to use his awesome video static effects in the intro/outro.
https://www.instagram.com/pxlwrx/?hl=en

All of the music was created by me in Ableton Live with some light manipulation in After Effects at the very end of the process.

I owe a very, very special thanks to Daniel White and Paul Nylander for inventing the 3D fractal, and to Benoît Mandelbrot, "The Father of Fractal Geometry". Furthermore, I am absolutely in love with Mandelbulb3D and I have experienced nearly boundless joy by adventuring in the worlds I can so easily create within it and I owe all of that to the user known as "Jesse" who, alongside many other users on FractalForums.com, built on the discoveries of others to create a system for exploring and enjoying the 3D math that absolutely boggles the mind. I don't even know the entire list of everyone who contributed, but to anyone and everyone who made Mandelbulb3D what it is today, THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart. You have added meaning and joy to my life in a big way. I appreciate you.

Shouts out to Mandelbulb Maniacs on Facebook who have been inspiring and teaching me and anyone else who wants to learn for the past little while. I'm sure Fractal Adventure 3 will be better at least partially thanks to all of you.

I also want to say a big thank you to my friends, Marcus and Trevor, for helping to push my art forward and for supporting me as a human being and helping me to grow. 
https://www.instagram.com/gochosessions/
https://www.instagram.com/commandzshiftcommandz/

Last but not least, I need to thank my family and my loving girlfriend for supporting me and trying their best to understand me even when all I can think about is these new, alien worlds and I fall behind on my responsibilities in the so called "real world". I wouldn't be anywhere without the support of my parents, and more recently, my siblings and girlfriend. And, of course, thank you to YOU, the audience. For every moment watched, every link "liked" and "shared" on social media, every friend given a heads up about my work, every dollar given and every second spent listening, I love you. Thank you. I'm doing my best to remind you that life is both beautiful and incredibly meaningful, despite the ills of the world. I hope you feel like I am succeeding. Let me know in the comments! I'm always happy to read about how a piece affected you, what activities you paired it with, what you would want to see in future adventures...

Beauty awaits all those who seek it. Please, become a seeker of truth and beauty with me. More adventures are on the way!