I love fractals :) What program(s) do people use to make them? I use Paint Shop Pro and have KPT and can use "Fraxplorer", but I haven't been able to figure it out very well IE: making my own presets, so I depend on presets for KPT, which there aren't many sites offering, and then there is the whole copyright issue thing. I'd like to be able to make my own fractals but I'm lost as to what program to use to do that.

"It is good to see ourselves as others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to say." - Ghandi

Apophysis is a great standalone flame fractal generator. You can download it free at http://www.apophysis.org For a tutorial and more details on this programme see my website at http://www.arcanefractals.com/apop_tut1.shtml

Another nice free fractal programme is Fractal Explorer. You can get it at http://www.eclectasy.com/Fractal-Explorer/index.html

Fran

I'm heading to bed for a few hours and I'll check out your site a bit later today. Thanks again for your help :)

"It is good to see ourselves as others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to say." - Ghandi

Acadia, Apophysis is my particular choice at the moment - the possiblities are endless as far as I can see... lol! Feel free to check out my gallery at http://www.woosie.net/gallery/ - and if you like what you see there, Apophysis is the app that made them all... Another exceptional tutorial for Apophysis can be found at http://www.thefractalfarm.net/apotutorial/main/main.htm Other software that is very popular is Ultra Fractal (http://www.ultrafractal.com/) - unfortunately it is not free... same goes for XenoDream (http://www.xenodream.com/mainindex.htm) - also not freeware. Apophysis was apparently originally written as a plugin for Ultra Fractal, but evolved into it's own entity - but you can still export parameters from Apophysis to paste into Ultra Fractal - makes for some very powerful images if some of the artwork here is anything to go by... lol! T.

Who? Me?

I started out with Tierazon which I found the easiest to understand then graduated to Fractal Explorer, Apophysis and Ultra Fractal in that order. I still use both Apophysis and Ultrafractal as they make different types of fractal. You can get Tierazon here: http://home.houston.rr.com/fergusonsc/Tierazon-v29/ and it's free. Hope you enjoy whichever programme you choose - beware it is very addictive - if you need any more help just email me. Mags

We don't cease to play because we grow old, we grow old because we cease to play.

Yikes! You need to know forumulas to use these programs?! I can't do math that has letters in it. I'm strictly a math using numbers girl :)

I saw on one of those sites letters and numbers with symbols (* ^).... what kind of math is that?

Message edited on: 04/05/2005 19:24

"It is good to see ourselves as others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to say." - Ghandi

Don't Panic!!!!!!!!! You don't need to do math. There are millions of formulas already written that you can borrow. Most of the formulas have names so you can pretend that they are just choices, not numbers, lol. :)

Fractals will always amaze me!

Whew! Thanks for clearing that up. Algebra was never a good subject for me, LOL

"It is good to see ourselves as others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to say." - Ghandi

Stop worrying - just download a free programme and play! Once you open up a programme it will all become much clearer - really!

We don't cease to play because we grow old, we grow old because we cease to play.

I vaguely understand some of the math involved - but you don't need to know any at all... honest! Especially ignore the math for Apophysis - download, install, run - and just play to your heart's content... lol! T.

Who? Me?

One more free and powerful programm with friendly interface and easily (intuitively) understandable is Fractal Explorer. Pretty functional and the brilliant result of using it You can see at Arend's (aka Fractelaar) Gallery! Really just give a try and You'll FEEL what is Yours - each of us has specific creative approach and experience and the choisedepends most of all upon Your personal prefernces and specific features of Your mind. I've achieved some results in Fractal Explorer in no time (less than a month) without reading anything (help, tuts, etc) and Fractal UF is still a monstous application for me despite I've spent lots of time on tuts, help, questions etc. Have a good luck and looking forward to seeing Your masterpieces in Fractal Gallery. -Anthony.

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=926592&Start=1&Artist=Dagfari&ByArtist=Yes

Keep in mind Apophysis creates a special kind of fractal called a flame fractal. This is a completely different style of fractal art than traditional Mandel/Julia type manipulation. It's best to decide what kind of fractals you'd like to begin with. Most of my work is done using Ultra Fractal 3 but I do use Apophysis as well. The image link above is an example of art that uses both UF3 and AP.

http://www.fractaly.com/resources.html There are approximately 75 fractal programs listed on this page of my website, which was created on 3/15/05, so it is pretty current. Most of these programs are free, but it also includes several that you pay for. Hope this list helps! :)