Welcome to Fractal Forums

Hello team! First official post here. My name is Jeff and I'm in the techno music scene here in Detroit. I do video work for a promotion company and in charge of creating content for parties.

Anywho, I have a great understanding of camera techniques and Adobe software (Premiere, After Effects). But I really want to expand my work in generating content that is 'naturally correct'.

I really thought I'd be able to figure out some of this software on my own with the help of tutorials but I haven't been able to get the gist of it so far. I watched a couple hours of Don Whitaker's tutorials on YouTube: (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtKnhhOyaHw1sooY4mhww-Q) and got somewhat of an understanding, but he's using different software than I am.

Currently using Mandelbulber 2 and grabbed a copy of Fragmentarium. I'm running a Mac :( …. but I do have a desktop PC.

Not entirely sure how involved this forum is for newcomers, but do any of you have recommendations as far as which software I should be using? Should I not be using my Mac for this? Minimum hardware requirements? I'm beyond fascinated with the software and am looking to really create some stuff for everyone to enjoy and get lost in. Any recommendations on software I should be using? Any kind of direction is extremely appreciated as I'll be here creating garbage meanwhile.

Ps: My main goal is animating short 3D fractal videos that will incorporate text/graphics into the video. Whether that be by masking in post in After Effects or not.

Thank you all!  :)

Jeff
jeffktabb@gmail.com
vimeo.com/jefftabb/

Welcome ChefJeff  :)

That's a great first post, straight forward and up front.
Both programs you mention are great for exploring fractals. I suggest viewing some of the animations (http://www.fractalforums.com/index.php?board=243.0) and movies (http://www.fractalforums.com/index.php?board=29.0) here and asking questions about software and technique of some of the authors when you spot something you like or want to try, an odd and eccentric group but they often like to share details ;)
there are also many mini/quasi tutorial scattered around in the forum threads, I'm sure you will find lots of interesting stuff, can't wait to see what you come up with.

Hi, and welcome to the forums.

  Try out the various pieces of software to find out which one fits you best.  All of them are pretty amazing.

  I find Mandelbulb3d to be pretty intuitive, some find Mandelbulber to be the best interface, and some like the power of Fragmentarium. 

  Lots of tutorials for Mandelbulb3d  (M3D).  Explore!

 

Mandelbulber is fairly easy to use the new GUI dose take some time to learn ( version2 is way different than 1 )

Fragmentarium , like StructureSynth is just a gui to glsl and the system software compiler ( gcc)

with Fragmentarium YOU!!! have to write the code to make the fractal and write the code to render it
there is a IDE called Eclipse for writing code and a fork of Fragmentarium that uses that software Integrated Development Environment ( IDE)
and a eclipse port for using NVIDIA C for G and CUDA that can compile the GLSL Fragmentarium code

of the two Mandelbulber is a "Point and Click"  and easier to use .
Fragmentarium requires you to WRITE the software .


Now i do not use apple ( 100% linux ) "OpenSUSE" and "ScientificLinux"

so i really can not help on the Mac side of things

uhm, need to clarify something...

Thanks to folks like Syntopia, MBenesi, knighty, kali, eiffie, tglad, tryptophan (and a many more I'm sure I've missed) you DO NOT have to write any code at all to enjoy hours and hours of exploring fractals, in fact you can hide the text editor completely if it bothers you or gets in the way.

just sayin' ;)

Wow thanks team! I think I'm going to dabble in to M3D more (since there's so many active users/tutorials). Feeling pretty welcome here, I'll keep you all updated with what I come up with.

well here's my first successful test:
https://vimeo.com/149300914

looks tight.