Automatic Fractal Branch

by ilyas usal   | filed under Flash and ActionScript

Now I don't know what you think about all this, but so far, recursion has been a pretty exhausting process for your fingers. That's why we are going to forget about that manual recursion, and automate it.

[ just click once ]

The code for the above example is:

function makeBranch(start_x, start_y, length, angle, size) {
 
if (size>0) {
this.lineStyle(size, 0x1F3245, 100);
this.moveTo(start_x, start_y);
var end_x = start_x+length*Math.cos(angle);
var end_y = start_y+length*Math.sin(angle);
this.lineTo(end_x, end_y);
 
var newLength = length*.8;
var newAngle = angle+Math.PI/16;
var newSize = size-1;
makeBranch(end_x, end_y, newLength, newAngle, newSize);
}
}
 
this.onMouseDown = function() {
makeBranch(100, 190, 50, -Math.PI/2, 10);
delete this.onMouseDown;
};

Here, instead of having the recursion code inside the onMouseDown handler, we have incorporated it to the makeBranch function itself, thereby making it recursive. We calculate the length, angle and size of the next branch, and then draw that branch. The really big changes lies in the first line of code:

if ( size > 0 )

This is the condition we use to stop the loop: the size should be positive, otherwise we don't get inside the loop, and no other branch is created. The starting size is 10 (last parameter in the function call), so we'll create 10 baby branches. Simple :)

Ilyas Usal {Pictures 1 | 2}

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