Im looking for someone to help steer in me in the right direction, advise me in the best software for beginners in this style, and tutorial services. I'm new to Renderosity and the Web World, but I learn quickly and am always open minded. Would like to email anyone willing to take the time to answer questions I have, and share thoughts with on the art galleries here at Rendo. I'm not as skilled on the PC as I would like to be, but again am willing to learn and practise. I am a automotive tech by trade, (mechanic)and could advise anyone who asks for information or alternatives in my field of professionl, I've worked on almost all makes and models. Anyways if you have a few moments on occasion, and would be willing to help me, please email me here, or at bighow557@yahoo.com Thank you all for reading my message and keep up this beautiful form of creative art. The BigHowMan

BigHowMan, It depends on the type of Fractal art displayed here that interests you. "True" fractals, or "flame" fractals? There are many applications out there for creating "true" fractal images - all with their own learning curve - some are free, and others like UltraFractal are not. For "flame" fractals, the predominant application is Apophysis (free) - which is my favorite application of all time... lol! A really good place to find most of the applications out there is... http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/Fractal_Software.html (just copy and paste this address into a new browser window) - feel free to download and play with a few of the applications and see what suits you the best... I hope this helps you get started, and am looking forward to seeing some of your creations in the near future... T.

You might want to look through the gallery and find a few fractals that you would like to emulate. Many artists will tell you what application they used under their posting, and if they didn't label it, most of them will tell you if you Instant Message them. You may find that all of the images were made with the same application! You can then go to the link that Tracy provided above and find out how to get it and whether it costs anything (many are free). You could then use Google to find tutorials for that software, if the main page doesn't list resources. I hope that helps! Vivian

uhm... what are "true" fractals?

"true" fractals - to my understanding - are mandelbrots, newtons, julias, and the like... as opposed to "flame" fractals which don't have the same sort of structure... I was only trying to make a slight distinction between the two main "schools" of fractal generation is all. Personally, I prefer flame fractals... T.

Mandelbrots, Julias, Newtons are escape-time fractals. Flames are IFS (Iterated Function Systems). There are several other types of fractals -- none more true than the other.

Gee - I was just trying to verbalise a difference between the two predominant styles of fractals that the poor fellow was going to see when he trawls through the gallery here to work out what style he'd like to play with... it doesn't have to become a discourse on what constitutes a "true" fractal... How about we try to address the original question posed by BigHowMan? T.

You're the one who classified them as "True" or "Flame" -- which implies one is more... um... TRUE, I believe is the word you used.

You also erred in only classifying two types, when there are more.

If you're going to enlighten a newbie, perhaps using accurate information would be best.

In regards to which software to learn, I echo that he should look around and see which images appeal to him.

If Ultra Fractal is of interest, I'm teaching some courses at the Visual Arts Academy which are a great continuation of the Help File tutorials I wrote for the software.