YAMATOWORKS 3D team demonstrated their behind-the-scenes lookdev process for several anime titles, including From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman. In the sword battle between Fissel and Beryl, emotions and facial expressions get really intense. In the scene, we see a close-up shot of Beryl screaming in fury, and from a regular 2D anime viewer's perspective, everything looks fine.

However, it looked nothing like the badass expression of pure outrage in 3D. The scene required a whole masterfully arranged battle choreography, so the team used LightWave 3D to create it. Once the artists sculpted the character and started setting up the scene, they realized that the original anatomy failed to deliver the pose and expression they were going for.

Beryl looked awkward, and his expression lacked the rage the scene called for. So, to achieve the desired side profile, they had to tweak the character's anatomy in 3D to have a more powerful facial expression in 2D. To make it happen, the artists distorted some features, and here is what they ended up with.

Seems like Beryl went from an old country bumpkin to a master swordsman and back to an old (and crooked) country bumpkin again during 3D modeling. But the only thing that matters is that in the final 2D render, no one can tell that Beryl has been squished and stretched multiple times.

This is not uncommon for scenes with exaggerated anatomy, though, especially in anime. Here is what Encanto looked like before the scene assembly; here you can see the flattened Blender view of the character from Dust of the Simulacrum, an animated short; and here you will learn how camera angles deceive you and create the popular close-up effect on a character's limbs.

Subscribe to our Newsletter, join our 80 Level Talent platform, Discord, and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, and Instagram, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.

Are you a fan of what we do here at 80 Level? Then make sure to set us as a Preferred Source on Google to see more of our content in your feed.