Julius Horsthuis

Julius Horsthuis

Focus: 3D fractal art, video and motion graphics
Tools: Mandelbulb 3D, After Effects
Also: VFX designer
Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands

Julius Horsthuis (born: Amsterdam, 1980) is the best known fractal artist working today. After beginning to experiment with fractal animation in 2013, his work quickly gained worldwide attention. His animation has been featured in hundreds of articles, shown in high profile arts festivals, and appeared in award winning films and music videos.

Formerly a VFX professional with a long commercial resume (employed at Revolver 2004-2005, Carbon 2006-2010, and Hectic Electric 2010-2018), Julius worked as a VFX supervisor on films such as “Nova Zembla” (Oerlemans, 2011), “Koning van Katoren” (Sombogaart, 2012) and “Manchester by the Sea” (Lonergan, 2016).

Julius left his full time job in early 2018 to focus entirely on fractal art. He uses mainly Mandelbulb 3D in various video applications. His current works includes fulldome shows, VR films, VJ packs, festival exhibitions, music videos, and short films. He divides his time between his own projects and working as a contractor and consultant on a range of commercial and creative ventures. (Link: “The End of an Era”)

Some recent highlights include:

• Best Visuals/Cinematography, Toronto Short Film Festival 2018 (Fraktaal, Mandelbulb 3D and After Effects) also featured on Gizmodo, Newsweek, Syfy, and many of other sites.
• Created music video for 2016’s “Clockworks” by Meshuggah (song nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance) video (Link: Meshuggah Clockworks)
• “Antarctic” featured as Best of Coachella 2018 by Reuters (Untitled fulldome projection, Mandelbulb 3D and After Effects)

In addition to a well developed and compelling aesthetic, top professional VFX skills, and technical mastery of the experimental software Mandelbulb 3D; Julius has written eloquently about fractals, video, and generative art. His take on this emerging genre is deep and thoughtful, engaging on philosophical, artistic, and technical levels.

“We explore vast mathematical landscapes that aren’t of our own making, but we may be called pioneers, visiting places that no human has yet gazed upon.” —Fractal Art Isn’t Random or Artificial Intelligence, Julius Horsthuis, November 8, 2017

He is a long time, active member of the Mandelbulb Maniacs community on Facebook, where members often get previews of his upcoming projects and sill-frame glimpses into his creative process.

Check out this Vice interview with Julius from Dec 2016 on his creative process: Link: Check Out A Beautiful 360 Degree Virtual Reality Fractal Universe

Julius’ work has been exhibited at music festivals such as Avicii, Empire of the Sun, Boom Festival, Trance Orient Express; art events including the Geneva International Film Festival, Art Futura festival, MIRA Digital Arts Festival, SAT symposium Montréal, GOGBOT, and Ruhrtriennale; and featured in The Creators Project, Esquire Magazine, Popular Mechanics (among hundreds of magazines and blogs), and several times as Vimeo Staff Picks.

Follow Julius on Facebook: facebook.com/JuliusHorsthuisFractals

See lots more of Julius’ work on his site: julius-horsthuis.com

…and on his Vimeo page: vimeo.com/juliushorsthuis

Selected image gallery

Selected video gallery

Images and videos are © Julius Horsthuis and appear here with permission.