Computer Error
A personal piece from 2019: a 90s computer that smiles, frowns, crashes on a floppy disk and crosses out its eyes. I wanted a 90s look that still felt modern. Most people reach for the Macintosh 128K when they draw an old computer; I’m a Windows person, so mine is based on an IBM PS/1 2011. Modelled in Blender, rendered in Cycles. Music: Local Forecast – Elevator by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), CC BY 3.0.
- CLIENT
- Personal
- YEAR
- 2019
- ROLE
- 3D Art, 3D Motion
- DELIVERABLES
- Animation, Stills
- TOOLS
- Blender, Cycles
Look dev
From a grey box to a face.
The model came first, then the screen. An early version got a blue error screen; later ones got a face, a wooden table, a monstera behind it and a stack of papers.
The face went from white to green, and finally to teal, which became the final look.
Six versions, in the order I made them.
The crash
Smile, frown, error, crossed-out eyes.
The animation is a small story. The computer smiles, frowns, then crashes reading a floppy disk: the screen fills with an error that says "Blender" and repeats the text of the old blue screen of death. Then its eyes cross out.
The error screen is invented, loosely based on a DOS screen.
Four frames from the loop.
Details
Clay, wood and a dirty screen.
The table is an African mahogany wood texture. The surface imperfection maps are from Poliigon, on the wood and on the screen, so the glass catches smudges and scratches over the face.
01 A clay render and a close-up of the screen.