~WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF FRACTAL ART~

What is a Fractal?

A Fractal is a digital artwork that is based on parametres and formulas that are based on mathematics(Geometry). The name „Fractal“ comes from the latin words „fractus“ (fractured, refracted) or „frangere“ (to break into pieces).

Benoît Mandelbrot

The one who coined the term of „Fractal“ was Benoît Mandelbrot. He was a Mathematician born on 20th of November 1924 in Warsaw and died on 14th of October 2010 in Cambridge/US. He  contributed a lot to the thematic of financial mathematics, theoretical physics and chaos science. But the highest popularity he gained with being the father of Fractals.

What is Fractal Art?

Fractal Art is , like name says, Art made from Fractals Too simple? Well You can create a Fractal and call it Art and you can create several Fractals and stick them together and call it Art – in either way – Fractal Art is whatever consists of Fractals by at least 50%. So if you would create a Photomanipulation with a Fractal to be a magic spell, then the picture belongs to Photomanipulation not to Fractal Art. But if you create a Fractal and it uses at least 50% or even more of the image you can put it under Fractal Art...sometimes it's hard to chose I know

I'm a loser when it comes to maths – How do I create that stuff?

Don't worry – I'm a loser in maths myself There are piles of programs that can be used to create them. Some are more complicated and some are not – some are very complex and some rather simple. The variety of fractal programs as as wide as the variety of photo editing software It's useful to have skills in maths and physics but not absolutely necessary.

Sweet – Where do I get them and are they all Freeware?

In the following a few examples of popular programs with one example picture and in brackets if they are Freeware or not.

Apophysis, Apophysis 3D, Apophysis 7x(by `Xyrus02) (Freeware/Open Source)
Ultra Fractal (Shareware with free Trial)
Fractal Explorer (Freeware)
Mandelbulb, Mandelbulb 3D (Freeware)
Incendia (by *Aexion) (by now Freeware)
Mind Boggling Fractals (MBF)   (Freeware)
Chaotica (by *lyc) (Freeware with resolution limit)
Tierazon (Freeware)
Sterling (Freeware)
XenoDream (Shareware with free Trial)

What is the difference between the 4 categories under “Fractal Art”?

As soon as you use the search engine of deviantART you come across the category “Fractal Art” that is again devided into “Fractal Animations”, “Fractal Manipulations”, “Raw Fractals” and “Traditional Media Fractals”.

Raw Fractals:
Raw Fractals are entirely done within a Fractal Program. Only minor changes are done within other software. That means if you slightly correct your colors, curves and add a signature and/or one-color-background and/or a frame to your fractal, then you are still allowed to submit your image here.

Fractal Manipulations:
As soon as you do major changes to your Fractal in other software, like using filters, changing the whole color style, puzzling together different fractals to one image or layering different fractals over another by using the merge modes you don't have a “pure” Fractal anymore. That's also the case when you add smaller photo elements (stock images) to your fractal. It's manipulated so it belongs to this category.

Fractal Animations:
This is easy – you created a fractal and animated it either within the fractal programm or outside of it? Then it belongs into this category. Animated means it MOVES! I've seen a lot of people misunderstanding that category submitting psychedelic stuff there that might only move with the right drugs. But we want REAL moving Fractals in here.

Traditional Media Fractals

Even under the experienced Fractalists this folder has caused some chaos. A lot of us thought it was the folder to submit things that were done by using the traditional fractal programs, but NO! This folder is for Fractal Art that has been created by Traditional Media or even Digital Media (Tablet). In the following there are some examples so you understand me right:

Most Fractals that currently are within that Folder are miscategorized there because of those misunderstandings.

Are there Tutorials on dA that might help me?

There are loads of Tutorials but not for every program. In the following I will list a bunch of Tutorials that might be useful to get started or to experiment (not sorted).



Do you know any other useful resources?

Of course there are loads of other Fractal Resources as well such as Plug-in's, Gradients, Patterns/Textures, Parameters and more. The following few Features are only a small example of what you can find in the Fractal Resources Category under “Resources and Stock Images”.

Gradients:
Parameters:
Textures:
Plug-in's:
Formulas:

Awesome Sauce – Now are there any Events I can participate to get involved and to learn?

Yes – there are piles of Challenges, Contests and Projects around the topic of FractalArt. There are even groups that support learning and sharing and challenging. You want currently active events you could participate? Well I can give you a short list but I bet there are loads more

Ultra Fractal monthly Challenges Redux! - Vol. 9What are these UF challenges?
How do challenges work and how can I participate?
Can I help promoting the challenges in some way?
What if I have an idea for a future challenge?

You can find all this information and more in the Ultra Fractal challenges FAQ, which is also part of our very first UF challenge, the one for February 2011.
If you already know the rules, then you're good to go - read on for this month's challenge!

Previous editions:

Challenge #01 - February 2011 - Theme challenge; title: "Flower Power"
Challenge #02 - March 2011 - Formula challenge; title: "Sine-Mod_III"
Challenge #03 - April 2011 - Other challenge; title: "

Tasty Tweaks ProjectHello my fellow friends, watchers and also random visitors/readers :#1:

This Article goes out to all Ultra Fractal Users/Artists on dA, so it would be great, if you could +fav this article if the message appeals to you - also it would be awesome, if you could spread the word yourself :love:

The past days I discovered my special interest in tweaking other people's Parameters to learn and to just create my own vision from what is already given. There are a lot of groups that offer Tweaking Circles/Round Robins like :iconfractalcircles: or :iconroundrobin-central: just to name two of them.

My project is some kind of a fusion between Circles/R

Apophysis Challenge #99Yes!!! We're only one challenge away from 100! I must both congratulate and thank all of you who have stuck with the challenges and pulled your hair out to make this happen! It also means that we're very close to the challenge running for 2 years straight without a break. Quite an accomplishment!!!

I would appreciate if the entrants from last week could please provide some feedback on what you thought about the parameter tweaking challenge.

Our runner up in challenge #97 is :devprelkia:.

Winner & Feature
:thumb259808693:

Congratulations :devlupsiberg: on the win and cool fractal design!
:thumb216326369:  :thumb157859149:
:thumb19632873

Groups that were created to offer support, improvement and fun:

:iconfractalmentorproject

What groups can I join to share my Fractal Art?

:icongeomatry-art:

and every group that supports digital art


I have a lot more questions about the topic Fractals – what can I do?

Comment this Article or ask other Fractalists

The crest of this article: Epic Fractal Feature

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