Tutorial #3 Methods and Solutions in Ultra Fractal

I would first like to discuss the method of creating presets of layers, formulas, and parameter settings. This is an extrememly useful method for saving cool textures, frames, unique Julia spiral structures, and unique parameter settings. Best of all, you can keep all of your favorite formulas right at your fingertips. In the Fractal Properties window right click on the Add a layer icon. You will see a drop-down list appear which has Duplicate Layer, Duplicate as a mask, Add Darken, Add Lighten, and Add Color Adjustment. These each do exactly what they say, darken, lighten, or adjust the colors of your fractal. You can add any of these layers above any fractal layer by clicking on the entry. Usually you will add this layer to the very top of the stack. The Darken and Lighten layers work best when the merge mode is changed to Overlay. The Color Adjustment is wonderful when you use Ctrl J to make your adjustments on the gradient of this layer. The Color Adjustment layer works best with the merge mode left as it is set on HSL Addidtion. As you can see from the picture below, I have many other layer presets. When you find a layer that you want to keep, scroll down to where it says Define. When you click on that, a new box pops up. In order to add the current active layer to your list, click on Add Current, type the name you want to give it, and then click ok. As you can see from the menu, you can move your presets up or down, rename them or delete them.

The real beauty of this preset system is that you can do this on the Formula tab, the Outside tab, the Inside tab, and the Mapping tab. For instance, on the formula tab go to the browse icon and right-click. You will see a drop-down list that says Select Julia, Select Mandelbrot. On the picture below, you will see that I have many formula presets saved. You add them the same way that layer presets are added. Scroll down to Define and then click on Add Current. I have saved numerous parameter variations of formulas.

So now, when you tweak a parameter value just the right amount to give you just the shape you are looking for, you can save it as a preset to use in combination with any other formulas. On the next page, we will look at my very first fractal and see all the problems and beginner mistakes I made and discuss the solutions.                                                                                           Page 2