Graphic suites usually demands much time spent on learning, looking through menus, and reading manuals. However, there are also extremely easy applications. They offer many possibilities, but one can learn how to use them in a few simple steps.

One of these applications is undoubtely Fyre. This tool produces computational artwork based on histograms of iterated chaotic functions. A longer description can be found at the project’s homepage:

It implements the Peter de Jong map in a fixed-function pipeline with an interactive GTK+ frontend and a command line interface for easy and efficient rendering of high-resolution, high quality images. All the images you can create with this program are based on the simple Peter de Jong map equations.

Fyre runs under Windows and Linux and is an open source application. Source code and binaries can be found at the Fyre’s homepage.

Here’s some tips, which may be useful, if you want to start creating your own artworks using Fyre:

1. Peter de Jong map equations consists of four values (A, B, C, D), which cause the point (x,y) to move chaotically. The resulting image is a map of the probability that the point lies within the area represented by each pixel. Thus, the most important parameters visible in the Fyre’s windows, on the left pane, are the values of A, B, C and D. They can be found in the Computation section. These values decide, how our image or animation will look like.

2. Fyre enables to move resulting images (X offset, Y offset), rotate them (Rotation) and blur (Blur radius and Blur ratio). Zoom is also available. All these functions are available in the Computation section.

3. Two other sections present at the left pane – Image Size and Rendering – allow us to scale the image, change the color palette (Foreground, Background) and to make artwork darker or lighter (Exposure, Gamma).

4. Images can be saved in PNG and OpenEXR formats.

5. You may modify the artwork using left mouse key. Just choose appropriate tool (menu Tools) and start playing with the image.

6. If you created something unusual 1 sec / 1 min / 1 hour ago, and you decide that you want to save it now – don’t worry. Fyre remembers changes you have made. Just explore Go menu, and you will find all the images you created previously.

7. Having several good images it is good to create an animation. Open Animation window (View > Animation window). When you create something interesting, simply press Add. Then click the Play button. Fyre will render animation based on the keyframes prepared by you. You will see the animation in the Fyre’s main window.

8. To save the animation, use File > Render command in the Animation window.

9. Don’t forget that Fyre’s animation renderer writes uncompressed AVI files. You’ll need a tool like mencoder to compress them with your favorite codec, since the original files are huge and not widely supported.