INSTANT RENDERER/SLOW RENDERER

Year: 2019

Advised by Michael Young, Anna Bokov, and Austin Wade Smith

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The instant renderer holds diodes and a lamp in specific spatial locations, so that the sewing machine would receive the same illumination as from a virtual point light. The rendering process takes only an instant, the minute time delay between switching on the circuit and having the scene lit, while most labor is concealed in the measurement of light distributions and the luminosity simulation, which only manifests itself physically as wires and scafoldings that sustain the lighting.

The slow renderer paints the physical environment the same as a digital model illuminated by a point light in a rendering. The analogue instrument embodies the Lambertian diffuse shading algorithm: in an extremely strenuous way, it illuminates a particular spot in space through measuring its shading value and putting on it proportionate white ink. In around 30 seconds, it illuminates a round area of a coin’s size.