Chromosaurus!

This 1985 short from Pacific Data Images (the X chromosome in the DNA of Dreamworks Animation) was extremely popular in the late 80’s / early 90’s CG compilation VHS market, frequently accompanied by trippy electronica.

Of special note: this is well before the the popularization of our mesh skinning techniques: all the moving parts are jointed, and the ripples in the tail are all damped sine waves instead of skeletal animation. I’m pretty sure these aren’t raytraced, it looks to me like a tweaked reflection map.

One of the saddest generation gap experiences of my life is trying to explain to my 14 year old son, who’s never known a world without casually photoreal CG, why this set a generation of nerdly hearts afire. At least he appreciated the soundtrack.