SuperShapes are a mathematical construction popularized by Paul Bourke, allowing a very wide range of cool (2D and 3D) images to be generated by varying parameters in a single formula. Originally proposed by Johan Gielis [1], the superformula was a means to describe complex shapes often found in nature. Wikipedia article is here.
You can read up on the mathematical foundation of 2D SuperShapes here. For those wanting to experiment with 3D SuperShapes, you can start here. I also highly recommend visiting Bourke’s geometry page here.
While I’ve been doing mundane stuff with splines, the rest of the Degrafa team has been hard at work doing really cool stuff like adding SuperShapes to Degrafa. You can read all about it here.
[1] Gielis, Johan “A generic geometric transformation that unifies a wide range of natural and abstract shapes”, American Journal of Botany 90, pp. 333–338
The Algorithmist 
The degrafa website is down…. 😦
Interesting. Now that school is out, I can catch up on reading 🙂
Yes, the site does seem to be down. Must have gotten too much traffic 🙂
And, looks like it’s back up now – enjoy!