Nice visualisation with R and ggplot2

butterfly.R

library(ggplot2)

npoints = 500
npointsb = 1200
opt = theme(legend.position="none",
          panel.background = element_blank(),
          panel.grid = element_blank(),
          axis.ticks = element_blank(),
          axis.title = element_blank(),
          axis.text = element_blank())
t = seq(0,10*pi, length=npointsb)
butterfly = data.frame(x=sin(t)*(exp(1)^cos(t)-2*cos(4*t)-(sin(t/12))^5), 
                       y=cos(t)*(exp(1)^cos(t)-2*cos(4*t)-(sin(t/12))^5), 
                       s=runif(npointsb, min=.1, max=10), 
                       f=factor(sample(1:10, npointsb, TRUE)), 
                       a=runif(npointsb, min=.1, max=.4))
points = data.frame(x=runif(npoints,-4,4), y=runif(npoints,-3,5),
                    s=runif(npoints, min=30, max=50),
                    f=factor(sample(1:10, npoints,TRUE)),
                    a=runif(npoints, min=.05, max=.15))
data = rbind(butterfly, points)
ggplot(data, aes(x, y, colour=f)) + geom_point(alpha=data$a, size=data$s) + opt

figure.png