The Fractal Archives: Tutorials & Resources, Changelog

The Fractal Archives: Tutorials & Resources

Full Link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1l80eUPrT1mGunKs7sOPF0fbvsr6RnSn8?usp=drive_link 

Offering my latest fractal library for anyone interested. I’ve vetted the link and all the files here. Ideally in the future I can host them on my website or something. Would definitely be more practical :>

Anyone can have a copy. This is made in the spirit of preservation of DeviantArt and Aposhack knowledge & culture, beginner to advanced, with full realization that all this fractal wisdom is one misclick or erroneous re-org away from dA devs once again ruining the site.

Note: The entire archive is huge (like 600+ megabytes). So, pick and choose individual files or folders, if the whole archive presents space issues.

Notes for Those Starting Out:

Go to the “Tutorials” folder and choose any style to get started. I would recommend something like “Julian Set Outline Tutorial” or “spherical gems”. Once you get the hang of these, try the “hybrid” or “container” method to mix two or more fractals in a single image. A very good “containers” tutorial is here: https://www.pugnacious.site/chaotica/transform/chains Pugnacious here has great tutorials on his site too.

Otherwise my collection mostly comes from the age of Chaotica’s predecessor Apophysis. This means anything like “rotate, scale, move 1 or 2 units” will have to be done manually in Chaotica’s World Editor (ctrl+e) on the Affine section.

There is also a fine manual for the basics on the official website: https://www.chaoticafractals.com/manual

My archive is great for folks just starting out, all the way up through advanced users. The Tutorials folder is the true gold of this collection, consisting of decades’ worth of DeviantArt fractal wisdom from the Aposhack days. Dozens of wise artists contributed back then, so I am in process of compiling a full list of credits & linkbacks.

Note that Windows doesn’t like odd file extensions or even the Chaotica.exe file at times. If you have problems with this, or a file is suddenly missing: go to Windows Smartscreen or your antivirus’ settings & create an exception. This acts like a filter. You may need to redownload the file.

Coloring: A Quick Guide

To have control over your coloring, go to the “Applications” folder on my Drive, and download ChaosHelper. Then you can ctrl+c right from the main Chaotica window, paste into ChaosHelper, open & choose a gradient (see Gradients folder), then copy back & paste back into Chaotica: voila, new colors!

The Transform button in Chaotica shuffles the coloring, while Blend Speed & Position (or Location, I can’t remember which) fine tunes the coloring on your current gradient. Speed is how “fast” Chaotica cycles through the whole gradient. Lower speed (like .01) means more unified, or consecutive, colors will show. Higher means the colors are chosen from a wider part of the gradient - so it may look a little more mixed. Position is the reference location in the gradient (left to right), with 0 being the beginning.

Otherwise Chaotica’s Palette box, while more difficult to navigate, does just fine and is superior in many ways: .ugr & .gradient are RGB fixed values, while Chaotica’s palette is HSV/HSL hex values, so the Palette color data can be richer & more vibrant. For this reason, when you paste in a gradient from ChaosHelper the Palette box goes blank, this is expected.

So the Palette works on a points-and-curves basis. The dots you see in the line are Points, or nodes, you can move or delete these. You can go way above or below the visible axis even, for really punchy effects. Hue is color, Saturation is what you would expect, and Value is brightness/light to dark.

Overall have fun and I’m findable as @ Technochroma on Discord, or kat@technochroma.com. Alternately I look often at this Chaotica fb group so if it’s more convenient just post your questions here, ideally with a screenshot, and I’ll get to you feasibly soon as possible.

Cheers,

Kat “Technochroma”

Https://www.technochroma.art

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Update 26 Jan:

The Fractal Archives are now available in full as a .zip, here in my cloud storage: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1opSus21sLb-RDrUP3rXldyONqODCcVUp?usp=drive_link 

I just updated the link above to provide access to the actual directory, so you can browse or hopefully preview the .zip file.

Thanks for your patience! Right now this is the quickest solution to get it to all of you, as Wix is infinitesimal and won't let me upload the thing.

My backup schedule (for turning the live directory into the downloadable .zip) will be at worst every Sunday at midnight EST (Boston/New York timezone).

The Fractal Archives have been updated here: https://drive.google.com/.../1l80eUPrT1mGunKs7sOPF0fbvsr6... Grab a fresh copy of your favorite sections. I’ll post a master .zip file, and .zip individual folder archives, in the next run. And I’ll mock up a decent page soon.

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Changelog

18-1-2026 thru 2am EST

Second Round

- Thank you E & S for your awesome contributions.

- De-duplicated the Tutorials in favor of the larger versions

- Do a few tutorials still seem duplicated? Solution: check the filename, one is a “rich context” version with comments & discussion from dA. These have dA_format at the end.

- Added many gradients. Note: some owners are missing in the filename or gradient names. This is how the files arrived, so I will do my best to track them down.

- Bugtested all transforms in user_transforms folder for operability (Chaotica). These are technically all mods, thus they are offered “as-is”. They work but a very minor few may show a pop-up: just click ok, and continue working. Full program crashes are unlikely. The unique thematic & compositional benefits to your fractal are worth it in my opinion.

- To smooth your workflow instead, simply delete the transform from the pop-up in user_transforms in appdata/Roaming/Chaotica/user_transforms . Then either a) reload the transform library from Chaotica’s topmost menu, or b) if you get an OpenCL fail to initiate, you can 1. run the repair tool found in the .msi installer of Chaotica, or 2. Do a quick program uninstall from Applications in Windows, clear out all user_transforms in appdata, then reinstall from the .msi for a full repair of the issue.

Inbox me with any questions or snags for any part of the archive. As a fractalist of over 16 years’ creativity, I’m happy to check any errors & make adjustments to the archive. I like to think of these fractal apps & features as perfectly imperfect - functional but with potential quirks. All are coded & developed on a largely volunteer basis, with feedback welcomed directly from users like me & you, for fixes & improvement.

17-1-2026

First Round

- Added flame tutorials, Apo plugins, Chaotica custom plugins, gradients, apps (including a full Apo archive from 1.08 thru 2.09, 7x, 7x16, etc), calculators & frameworks, and more

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Tasks

1) First priority

- Build a navigable site or page - Google Drive is good for sorting & easy access, but not very pro-looking

- master .zip file, and .zip individual folder archives, for easier downloads.

- Request Google ban exclusion for .dll plugins (otherwise cannot display any Apo plugins!)

- Folder for well-known errors, what throws them, and any fixes or workarounds I’ve found

- Incorporate dA “Fractal Resources” group wisdom. This will be a HUGE upgrade & very long-term project, maybe months of work

- Translate Apo tutorials to the following apps: Chaotica, IFSRenderer, and ideally https://iterator.it as further app dev is underway by Z. This is a complete redocumentation project so the scribework also happens over lots of versioning over time.

2) Second priority

- Track down more custom transforms (IfsRenderer, Chaotica)

- Triple-check tutorials - maybe a few more to add

- Add more params, especially UF stuff, UF gradients too. I’ll add my own param packs too. Nothing from user-specific pong sessions, all within reason

3) Third priority

- Legendary mathematician & fractalist carlx also has a full Fractal Wiki which I will try to resurrect.

- Might make a Music section later to expand on Aexion’s fine work with AuralNext, I have a bunch of chord progressions, still relevant I think as a basic tool to augment your Aural fractal music.

Cheers

Kat "techno" Fedukowski

Portfolio: https://www.technochroma.art

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