Artists Share Broken 3D Models That Look Good on Camera

Back in March 2023, as passionate 3D Animators and some of our most dedicated readers might remember, Disney Animator Tony Bonilla went viral for his incredible under-the-hood showcase of Encanto, attached above, which spread all over the internet like wildfire. Demonstrating that even big-league animation studios aren't above using classic 3D animation cheating tricks, Tony's showcase revealed how Mirabel's arms were stretched out of the viewer's sight to set up one of the movie's shots.

Recently, several other creators have revisited Tony's post, sharing even more fascinating examples of 3D Artists breaking, twisting, stretching, transforming, disassembling, and reassembling their character models behind the scenes, guided by the timeless principle of "whatever the viewer doesn't see doesn't matter." To start the day on a strong note, let's dive into some of the awesome shots these artists have revealed in the past few days.

3D Animator and YouTuber SouljenX7 revisited the Encanto showcase with something arguably even more bizarre, demonstrating how 3D models of various Sonic the Hedgehog characters were manipulated behind the scenes for the intro animation of Out Of Context Lythero's The Silver Campaign:

Digital Artist PumpKingMTX joined in on the trend with a hilarious spaghettified body of Team Fortress 2's Scout, originally made by 3D Character Artist Reckoman12, if my Google-fu is correct:

PedroManX, a YouTuber, Animator, and Mario appreciator, hopped on the bandwagon by showing how he had to stretch the legendary plumber's arm to position him in a MrBeast pose. The rig itself might seem familiar to some of you, for it is a popular Mario rig authored by Holo_3D and SupersnesM:

While too many Scouts in one lobby is never a good thing, this trend is definitely an exception. SFM Artist Elayna joined in with a showcase featuring not one but two nimble Bostonians: one visible in the final shot and the other cleverly hidden inside a wall, with his model's arms and head stretched to align with the "dressed-up" Scout's body model, creating the illusion of a single character. A Scout living inside a wall, stretching his arms through it... now that's eerie:

Finally, Head of Rigging at Wildlight Entertainment and former Disney Animator Josh Sobel participated in the trend by putting a spotlight on a neat trick for fixing a 3D character's skin from poking through the clothes, which he learned at Disney's cloth simulation department while working on Big Hero 6:

What do you think about the artists' showcases? Which ones are your favorite? Tell us in the comments!

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