Holons are the core element of this program. Here we begin to find out how to use these primary fractal elements.
1) Getting Started: When you open the program you will see that the tab selected is File. Select the Shape tab and you should see the following screen. The window on the left shows a square shape (holon), this is where you will manipulate the "building blocks" of your composition. The window on the right will show you what the image looks like (Which will be blank at this point).
2) A few Basics first. Below the left window you will see three columns; X, Y & Z. These represent the three axis points of the shape (Holon). There are also four rows; Scale, Skew, Rotate and Position. Scale is the overall size of the Holon. Move the values in the three columns and your shape grows or shrinks. Try it and see and then return the values to 80.
3) Basics continued: Skew "twists" the angle of the holon. Again try this and then return the values in each column to 0. Rotate will turn the holon on one of it's three axis. Position will move the holon to different points of the screen. X= Horizontal (Left or right); Y= Vertical (Up & Down) and Z= Near or far, moves the holon closer or farther away to the camera view. By changing the numbers in these boxes you can move the holon to different positions on the screen.
4) So, let's start to experiment with these functions. Select the Z column, and then change the value in Rotate to 35. (I have omitted the right window for now in the image below for quicker image download) You should then see the image here.
5) We will now add another Holon by selecting the Add button beneath the left window. You should now see two holons like the window below. Note that one is outlined in yellow, this is the "active" holon and changes you make are only to the active holon. Later I will show how to select more than one holon at a time.
6) Change the values in Scale to 25 in all three columns of X, Y & Z. Change the Y value of Rotate to 45. See the image below. (Tip: When you wish to make all of the values the same, as in Scale values of 25 in this instance, you can change one value and then click on the green icon next to the Scale row and it will change all three values to what you have entered. ) As you can see, we made the holon smaller and also rotated it.