Ok, so I went and got my paws into something.

I remember waaaay back in like 1992, playing with some new DOS-based program called Fractint that had just come out. Fractint allowed you to make pictures using fractals. Now, I didn't really understand squat about these fractal things, but what I *did* know was that if you pressed certain keys on certain screens and then zoomed different places with the mouse, you could come up with some pretty neat pictures.

For those who don't know what a fractal is, I'll give you the simple, non-mathematical definition (for a heavily-mathimaticed term):

Imagine a fractal as being a very simple shape that--at the same time--is made up of smaller versions of itself and make up larger versions of itself. Confused yet? Thought so. Basically, consider the letter "V". You could stick two additional "V"s on each end of the first "V", and you'd have:

VV
V

You could do this a few more times and end up with:

VVVVV
VVVV
VVV
VV
V

See how, over all, it still looks like a "V", yet, it's made up of lots of smaller "V"s? Well, that's pretty much what a fractal is, except that a fractal is *really* simple mathematical formulas that are calculated *many*--sometimes millions or more--times over and over again with each resulting calculation taking the previous calculation's output for its input.

Okay, so there, you got a layman's definition and a technical definition.

So, anyway, fastforward to about now, when I stumble upon this freeware Apophysis software. It basically does the same thing as Fractint did in essence, but, well, it's way cooler. ; ) And, while I know that my work here is nothing compared to so many of the completely awesome fractal artists here, please feel free to look my gallery over while I train in their ways. : )


Well, there ya have it--Look around and be nice as I'm just starting. ; )