So you want to be an Apophysisist?

Especially for chloe (but of course, it's useful for any wannabe Apophysisist) a definitive starter list of Apophysis resources:

Apophysis official site
Flam3.com
Apophysis latest beta version
Apophysis resources at deviantART
FracFan forum
Arcane Fractals
The Fractal Farm
The GIMP

Suggeted workflow:

Go to the official site and download version 2.02.

Study the (incomplete) help file and get to know the layout of the software.

Play about in the Editor window, manipulating the triangles manually.

Run through some of the tutorials - those at the Fractal Farm and Arcane Fractals are pretty good to start.

Use the resources at deviantART to go further.

Check out the FracFan forum.

Join the mailing list (from the official site). Warning: traffic can get heavy, up to 100 per day!

Become a beta tester by downloading the latest beta.

Get to know the alternative (external) rendering engine (comes packaged with the official release as hqi.exe, now called flam3). Allows for .png transparency, useful for custom backgrounds.

Obtain some decent image processing software for adding final touches. The GIMP has a bit of a learning curve, but it's FREE!