Favorite Mistakes in Computer Animation 1

As everyone who has done computer animation knows, some of our favorite images are not intentional.  In fact, they were so not intentional that they are actually mistakes.

Even worse, you have to be very careful not to show mistakes to a client, because they might like it, and then you might really be in trouble because you might now know how to get that look again or to control it.  One of the worst things that can happen is for a client to like a mistake but want 10% more of whatever it is that you did not intend to do.

Here is a recent mistake that I like a lot.  Its an early attempt at volume rendering of a protein molecule, with an effort to visualize the nucleus (protons, neutrons) and the electron clouds of the atoms.  Clearly something has gone very wrong... You can see what looks like circles off on the perimeter: those are the individual electron clouds where there are few enough that you can make out individual clouds.

Obviously, in the center, things get out of hand.

I think it looks like a good early effort at a galactic explosion of some sort.