This page is an exploration in the Mandelbulb fractal. This fractal was constructed by Daniel White and Paul Nylander in 2009.

The Mandelbulb is a 3D fractal but 2D cross sections can be explored using Fracton and FractInt. It is actually much easier to explore the fractal in 2D since the fractal draws hundreds of times faster in 2D. The only issue with exploring in 2D is that you can only see one slice at at time. In order to make searching the fractal easier, a movie of slices through the fractal has been provided below.

A suggested method for searching the fractal:

• Play the movie below to search for an interesting slice.
• Pause the movie when the screen turns brown.
• Click on the full screen icon in the bottom right corner of the movie.
• The period key moves ahead one frame and comma moves one back.
• Stop on a frame you would like to explore
• Note the number in the bottom right of the movie
• Open the Mandelbulb file in Fracton or FractInt
• Enter the number in the real part of parameter p1 in Fracton or FractInt
• Draw the fractal and you should see the same image as the movie
• Zoom in and explore.

Mandelbulb Slice Movie. Click the full screen button.

You can download a folder of files to generate the fractals. The files are available for use in Fracton or FractInt. The FractInt parameter files are the composite type that have the parameters and formula in the same file. The deep zooms are only available in Fracton document files since formula deep zoom is not supported in FractInt.

Download Fracton document files mandelbulb.zip

Download FractInt parameter files mandelbulb.zip

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