I've begun reading the tutorials, thank you very much for writing them. What piques my curiosity is the question of why these images look so mechanical, as opposed to the cheeselike look of output from some other software. I like the look a lot, but I don't understand how it comes about.
You're welcome! This 'mechanical' look is a result of combining certain formulas. I use the same formulas a lot because I like this style. (This style, or similar to it, is covered in the second tutorial) You can certainly combine other formulas or use a single formula in this same program to get the cheese look I think you are referring to, a smoother or more organic look.
Thanks again, I will continue reading in hopes of understanding better. At some point I will probably try out Mandelbulb3D. I like the idea of the look resulting from formulas that can be varied. Probably I will experiment with other formulas, just to see what happens. At the moment I am involved in an animation which looks more overwhelming the more I think about it. When that is done, perhaps I will follow up on a suggestion I made before, using Mandelbulb to generate scenery for animation in a futuristic setting.