People have been losing their minds over this viewport vs. final render comparison of a character from the independent Japanese sci-fi animated short film Dust of the Simulacrum, directed by Eit Mitsufuchi, and it's easy to see why. When you see stylized 3D work, some level of distortion is expected, but this takes it to another level and is executed masterfully.

So what's happening here? The character is still a fully 3D model, but the head has been intentionally flattened and adjusted to follow the camera angle, creating a stronger 2D look. You can actually achieve a similar effect in Blender using the Lattice modifier:

After seeing this, a few artists decided to experiment and recreate the effect:

When it comes to 3D, artists and animators know that it doesn't have to make sense from every angle. This Miku has a giant arm, and the same kind of chaos happens behind the scenes in big productions like Encanto and Luca:

You also might be interested in CamKeys for Blender by BeyondDev, a tool that allows you to control the FOV for individual objects.

Almost the entire production of Dust of the Simulacrum was handled by the director himself, taking around two and a half years to complete. Now, a crowdfunding campaign is underway to help the film reach Japanese theaters.

Check out the trailer below and follow along for more behind-the-scenes glimpses:

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