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01 · Tutorial · 5 min read

Getting Started

The UI, viewport, and your first 5 minutes with GMT.

Launch the app

GMT runs entirely in your browser — there's nothing to install. Head to app.gmt-fractals.com. On first load a Mandelbulb appears in a few seconds; subsequent visits are near-instant (assets are cached for offline use).

The layout

There are four regions you'll use all the time:

  • Top Bar — logo, render tools, the one-click Snapshot button (saves a PNG), the File menu (New Scene / Load / Save / Browse Gallery / Copy Share Link), the Camera menu (camera slots + Camera Manager), the Light Studio (those glowing orbs), the System menu, and Help (?).
  • Viewport — the 3D fractal itself, fills the center.
  • Right Dock — the main control deck with tabs: Formula, Graph, Scene, Shader, Gradient, Quality.
  • Timeline — hidden by default. Press T to show it.
Annotated GMT top bar: document/account controls on the left, render and adaptive-resolution tools, the Light Studio orbs in the centre, then snapshot, share, camera, and the File, System, and Help menus on the right.
The GMT top bar at a glance. Don't memorise it — right-click (or hover) any control in-app for a help tooltip.
The single most useful trick: right-click anything — a slider, a button, a panel tab — and a context menu opens with a "Help" option that jumps you to in-app documentation for exactly that control.

Move the camera (quick version)

The default camera mode is Orbit — you rotate around a fixed point in space. Press Tab to switch to Fly mode, where you steer through the fractal like a spaceship.

  • Orbit mode: left-drag to rotate, right-drag to pan, scroll to zoom.
  • Fly mode: W A S D to move, Space/C to ascend/descend, drag the mouse to steer, scroll to adjust speed, Shift for a 4× boost.

More on cameras in the next tutorial.

Change the formula

Open the Formula tab in the right dock. The dropdown at the top opens a gallery of thumbnails — every built-in fractal with a preview image. Click any thumbnail to load it.

Each formula exposes up to six parameters labelled A through F. Drag them and watch the fractal reshape in real time. This is the fastest way to explore the space of shapes.

Take your first snapshot

Click the one-click Snapshot button in the top bar. GMT saves a PNG of the current view to your Downloads folder.

Looking for inspiration? You can browse the community gallery any time from File → Browse Online Gallery.

That PNG is a scene file. Every snapshot has the complete scene state invisibly embedded in its metadata — formula, camera, lighting, everything. Drop that PNG back into GMT and the scene reopens exactly. Share via Discord, email, or direct download; the data is preserved. Social media platforms strip metadata, so for those, share the file directly.

Keyboard quick reference

  • Tab — toggle Orbit / Fly camera
  • T — show/hide the Timeline
  • Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y — undo / redo parameter changes
  • Ctrl+Shift+Z / Y — undo / redo camera moves (separate history)
  • 1–9 — jump to camera slot 1–9
  • Ctrl+1–9 — save current view to camera slot 1–9
  • H — toggle in-app hints overlay
  • ` (backtick) — toggle Advanced Mode for extra controls
  • B — broadcast mode (clean feed, hides all UI). Esc to exit.

Next up: deeper camera control — slots, precision, and handling the infinite scale.