JWildfire

If you like fractals, Apophysis 7X, Mandelbulb 3D, or just abstracts with beautiful colors, then you will enjoy JWildfire.

Here are some of the finished fractals I've just done.

 

The above fractal was made using a photograph of mine for the colors.

Keep in mind some are just random with some color tweaks and a couple are ones I made following a tutorial from the site:
JWildfire| Andreas Maschke
You can download from the link he provides.
I strongly suggest anyone new to the program start from the beginning of the PDF files that Andreas has written and can be downloaded from his site.
Next one should definitely watch the YouTube tutorials of how to install the program and an introduction to the basics by FlinkDimensions.  
These are from older previous versions of JWildfire, but they give you some basic understanding of how things work.

JWildfire also has a Facebook Group.  This is an extremely handy place to share parameters and ask questions.  The group consists of extremely nice folks.  They point you to tutorials and even answer some of my 'dumb' questions.

The above designs was used with a script to transform the fractal.  I love how it turned out.

The above is a simple screen shot of the work space.  Most all of the buttons are explained in the YouTube videos and if you've worked with fractals, you can figure most of this out.

Above is the Interactive Renderer Screen.

Here you can save a partial render 

save an image, stop or continue to work

in the flame editor.

I can see working on many flames 

at once...but I don't think I have

enough RAM for that.

I haven't used this as much as the Batch

Flame Renderer but it is fun to

watch the flame appear.

This is the bottom of the screen from the Interactive

Renderer.

 

There are several ways to control colors.

There is a flame library called 'Lib'.

You can grab a gradient from your own photos

in more than one way.

This is explained in the PDF tutorials.

It is a bit above my head to try it here.

You can use the Random flames or pick a

particular type of flame from top left of the

Flame Editor screen.

Caution.  If you see one you really like

and may want to use later.

SAVE it!

I used colors from a Mandelbulb Fractal that I'd done a few days ago for this one.
I just kept experimenting and doodling until I felt I had something that I could render.

I use batch render quite a bit.  
I can start a couple of renders and then leave the computer to 'render' away while I make supper or go out and help with chores.

If you like creating graphics, try this out.
It is almost addicting!