Here's How You Can Cut Corners & Cheat in 3D Animation

We know how much you love to see 3D Animators cutting corners and breaking the rules behind the scenes, driven by the notion that the only thing that matters is what the viewer sees. A great example of this comes to us from Japan thanks to 3DCG Artist Movie Study Lab, who recently shared a cute stylized animation and, more importantly, offered a glimpse at how the sequence looks from another angle, guaranteed to bring a smile to your face.

The animation in question is part of Movie Study Lab's ongoing series featuring Mel, the creator's original anime-style character, engaging in various cute activities. In this instance, the creator depicted Mel decorating pudding, employing Maya to create the fluid sequence and exploring different colors and lighting effects to enhance the visuals.

Luckily for us, the animator was also kind enough to show the sequence from a different angle, revealing a humorous hidden detail concerning Mel's legs. As you can see in the original animation, only the upper part of the character's body is visible to the viewer, with the legs positioned out of view behind the table.

Consequently, the creator made the decision not to waste time animating Mel's legs, giving us not only a captivating piece of eye candy in the form of the final animation but also a humorous behind-the-scenes demo, featuring a gliding character and some gravity-defying floating plates, which you can see below:

As I've already mentioned, this is not the first of Movie Study Lab's animations featuring Mel. Attached below are some of the earlier projects shared by the author, we highly encourage you to visit Movie Study Lab's Twitter page to see more adorable pieces:

Earlier this month, 3D Animator and Rigger Aleksey Besedin also shared a behind-the-scenes look at one of his animations, showing that it's completely OK to break, twist, and distort character models in order to achieve the perfect shot:

And prior to that, Pixar's Animator Cody Lyon shared a similar showcase, demonstrating how the technique of breaking character models was used for Luca, Pixar's 2021 animated film:

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