Orbit trap

In mathematics, an orbit trap is a method of colouring fractal images based upon how close an iterative function, used to create the fractal, approaches a geometric shape, called a "trap".

Typical traps are points, lines, circles, flower shapes and even raster images.

Orbit traps are typically used to colour two dimensional fractals representing the complex plane.

Orbit traps are typically used with the class of two-dimensional fractals based on an iterative function.

A program that colours the Mandelbrot set using a point-based orbit trap will assign each pixel with a “distance” variable, that will typically be very high when first assigned: As the program passes the complex value through the iterative function it will check the distance between each point in the orbit and the trap point.