The SGI Indigo 2 was the last of the Rendersaurs. Before it, came the SGI Indy and a collection of bespoke Linux based desktop computers and laptops that served the rendersaur project.
INside the inSIDE (EPIDERMIS EDIT). The title of an extremely short animation I produced as part of the RENDERSAUR project circa 1999.
Recently, I’ve been remembering the RENDERSAUR. The RENDERSAUR was an online art project I maintained seriously from 1997 to 2000, less-seriously from 2001 to 2002 and then trailing off completely around 2003 to 2004. RENDERSAUR was hosted by my friend and oscillated from RENDERSAUR.CX to RENDERSAUR.ORG.
The concept for RENDERSAUR at the time was about establishing a network rendering service for 3D modelling and animation, more specifically a network rendering service for the 3D animation I was producing. The idea being my computer would then be free for me to continue to model and animate instead of waiting for computer to finish rendering. The original network rendering service concept was eschewed for a solitary preoccupation with modelling and animating art I like to call organic three dimensional visualisation.
The aesthetic is directly influenced by skin anatomy and physiology, medical procedures, macro-photography, electron microscopy and non-scientific curiosity.
Back then, my intent for the ‘Epidermis Edit’ animation was for it to be a realistic study in the movement and manipulation of the skin – it’s actually a surreal and strange animation that’s confusing and weird.
Sorry for that.
I used Blender 1.5 for all polygon modelling, animation, textures, lighting and rendering. I used After Effects to compile the animation, sound and credits, and then render the final output to AVI and Quicktime format.