{..listening to all songs starting from track 6 "Dreamscape Lucidity" ..Listening to its music and/ or lyrics while reading this journal entry may add interesting effect(s).}
For those who do not know, the Ultra Fractal image/animation software has many hundreds of parameter and formula files that can be downloaded, including fractal formula files, transformation files, and coloring algorithm files. I usually browse through the coloring files, it causes me to explore and end up with hundreds of new ideas in seconds. One of the coloring files I randomly landed on is under the tna category. It's the one called tna Direct Orbit Traps. (Before I began this journal entry, I forgot that over a year and a half ago I made an entry about it [link] .) Since 2006 or 2007, I've been working with this tna Direct Orbit Traps coloring nonstop.

If I remember correctly the way it began, I opened this coloring formula while exploring the Mandelbrot fractal, as I had on countless other occasions. As I did typically, I started to experiment with variables and sub-parameters of the algorithm (e.g. Color Density, Transfer Function, and a number of sub-parameters specific to the algorithm, such as Trap Coloring and Threshold). The most remarkable thing happened when I changed the sub-parameter Trap Color Merge to HSL Addition. Doing that just so happened to cause the outside coloring of the Mandelbrot I was exploring at the moment to appeal greatly to me. I played around with the Transfer Function and Color Density until I finally left them at Square Root and 360 respectively. The whole fractal then looked like something that would remind me of nebula, prisms, and novas, all at once. It was very spectral-looking, but with a blackish background. The areas I magnified after that all resembled scenes from deep space, so I started to export images. That was over 2 or 3 years ago. During that time, I began what would end up as over 100 images and some animation projects… Since then I've been changing almost nothing but the Color Density, each time producing monumentally amazing effects that would captivate my attention and interest for years at a time.

One morning during class in early 2008, I decided to open Ultra Fractal (which I carry with me on a flash drive). I opened one of my fractals and added the tna Direct Orbit Traps coloring to it, changed the Trap Color Merge to HSL Addition, and this time changed the Color Density to 1.3333333333333333333… (1 and 1/3) and left the Transfer Function as Linear (the default). Doing so just so happened to cause areas of the Mandelbrot that I magnified to have shapes and patterns that remind me of butterflies, fairies, and exotic plantlife and deep sea scenes. Long story short (or actually, long story not as long), I ended up starting many more projects that would eventually lead to hundreds more images and animations, some of which I still have yet to begin.

{I want to update this after I learn how to embed thumbnail links in a journal, and after I get some sleep and remember what else I was going to say.}

Here's a brief list of discoveries I've made and (technically) how I came up with them:
(Color Density: 360 Transfer Function: Sqrt) Deep Space:
[link]
[link]
[link]

(Color Density: 1.3333… Transfer Function: Linear):
Plantlife:
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]

Fairies & Butterflies:
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]

Deep Sea
[link]
[link]
(Color Density: 1.21789364324643)
[link]

Prisms & Diamonds & such:
light:
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
dark:
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]

others (Color Density: 200 Transfer Function: CubeRoot):
[link]

Deep Space (Color Density: 16 Transfer Function: Linear):
[link]