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Model Dissonance

 Model Dissonance
type
FeatureClass
 Model Dissonance
label
Model Dissonance
 Model Dissonance
page
ModelDissonance
 Model Dissonance
comment
Sometimes, when they're having trouble getting it to look perfect or need to save time, a game's designer or animator might fudge a 3D model. A First-Person Shooter character might not have a proper character model, fast movement might use smears or a partially hidden character might have their model adjusted to make the visible parts stand out more. Scenery which is only viewed from one angle might be flat, even in 3D games (these are known as "Billboard Sprites"; see Sprite/Polygon Mix), and objects the player is meant to see but not interact with might lack their proper animations or logic scripting.
Sometimes this stuff is sort of the real-time 3D equivalent to the Conservation of Detail: if the player doesn't see it, don't waste memory and processing power on it. It's what lets a game run without melting your computer- if you've got a laggy game that looks great, they dropped the ball here. However, if you end up seeing it (by accident or through cheats) Hilarity Ensues.
With characters, skeleton rigs and mesh deformations get processed first- then the engine figures out what's on screen. That chews up processing power, so it makes sense to skip them if the Player Character is mostly seen from the first person perspective (as long as their arms and legs look right!). Parts of a world the player is nowhere near might be subject to "backface culling"note Which is the same thing that lets you see through objects when the camera clips through them: by telling the graphics engine to ignore the parts of a mesh the player shouldn't ever see (like the inside of the mountain or the other side of the wall), you slash the amount of stuff to render.; taken to the extreme, the game might be told to never render objects the player shouldn't be near (like the inside of a mountain, or a building that has its interior stored as a separate level). You as the player will probably care more about the 5 FPS a dynamic spine rig would cost you than whether the bottom of the shirt looks a little funny in the two frames when you can sort of see it.
This can also be used for aesthetic reasons or to implement something that wasn't intended to be in the game. An animation might look a bit better if the character goes a bit Off-Model for a frame or two. If a Game Engine only allows text boxes to be generated by NPCs, and the designers only want one or two readable signs in the entire game, it's easier to place an invisible NPC in front of a sign than to waste time adding signs to the engine proper. Objects in an FPS might be made larger, so they look right to the player, or animations that appear from off camera might only show the parts the player can see.
Often results in Obscured Special Effects. Compare Behind the Black (when something hidden from the player's perspective should be obvious to the characters), Cheated Angle (when a specific feature is always seen at the same angle), First-Person Ghost (when an FPS character doesn't have a character model), and Hitbox Dissonance (when models and sprites don't match the mechanics). If these become visible in game it can cause Special Effects Failure.
 Model Dissonance
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2024-04-13T02:45:49Z
 Model Dissonance
parsed
2024-04-13T02:45:50Z
 Model Dissonance
processingComment
Dropped link to LettingHerHairDown: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Model Dissonance
processingComment
Dropped link to OffWithHisHead: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Model Dissonance
processingComment
Dropped link to UpdatedRerelease: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Model Dissonance
processingComment
Dropped link to WarcraftIII: Not an Item - UNKNOWN
 Model Dissonance
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WarcraftIII
 Model Dissonance
isPartOf
DBTropes
 Model Dissonance / int_110dcdca
type
Model Dissonance
 Model Dissonance / int_110dcdca
comment
In The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, every single 3D model is made to lean backwards in order to mimic the effect of the Three-Quarters View in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.
 Model Dissonance / int_110dcdca
featureApplicability
1.0
 Model Dissonance / int_110dcdca
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds / Videogame
hasFeature
Model Dissonance / int_110dcdca
 Model Dissonance / int_1ec960a9
type
Model Dissonance
 Model Dissonance / int_1ec960a9
comment
Whenever Solatorobo transitions into real-time cutscenes, objects like the background, robos, and airships are all fully-rendered 3D models. Characters are a different story, as they are all segmented sprites plastered onto flat textures and drawn with a pseudo-3D look. Even Red's in-game model isn't immune to this, as his on-foot model unloads whenever he mounts his mech as a half-rendered version of it exists as part of the DAHAK's model itself, being directly meshed into the robo's geometry.
 Model Dissonance / int_1ec960a9
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1.0
 Model Dissonance / int_1ec960a9
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1.0
 Solatorobo (Video Game)
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Model Dissonance / int_1ec960a9
 Model Dissonance / int_261c8d3f
type
Model Dissonance
 Model Dissonance / int_261c8d3f
comment
While the specific rooms of The Simpsons' family home are very consistent from episode to episode, their relationship to each other isn't; for example, there is no consistent entrance to the basement, with it variously being located in the foyer, the kitchen hallway, or directly connected the kitchen. Sometimes rooms shift location, particularly the upstairs; for example, Bart's bedroom switches between being toward the front or the back of the house (easily indicated by which side of the house his window overlooks). Generally, these cheats are done subtly to suit the story's needs, but it still results in 3D recreations contradicting each other. The Simpsons being as self-aware as it is, the house's model dissonance has been lampshaded. In "White Christmas Blues", Marge notes that the house's rarely-seen rec room is "sometimes there and sometimes not".
 Model Dissonance / int_261c8d3f
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1.0
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1.0
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Model Dissonance / int_261c8d3f
 Model Dissonance / int_2a893b9b
type
Model Dissonance
 Model Dissonance / int_2a893b9b
comment
It was extremely common in shooters up to the late 2000s to have the weapon's viewmodel (i.e. what you see in first-person) include your character's hands and arms hard-baked into the model, which could cause cases of this when the arms holding the weapon models clearly don't match up with who you're playing as, perhaps most famously games like Counter-Strike where your guns are always depicted as held by a sleeveless arm with fingerless gloves over the hand (fitting only about half of the Terrorist models and none of the Counter-Terrorist ones) - ironically, this was a step up from some even earlier 3D shooters like Quake and GoldenEye, which instead didn't have hands on the weapons at all. Though there were a few surprisingly early games to model guns and arms separately, like Perfect Dark, this didn't really become common until another decade later.
 Model Dissonance / int_2a893b9b
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1.0
 Model Dissonance / int_2a893b9b
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1.0
 Counter-Strike (Video Game)
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Model Dissonance / int_2a893b9b
 Model Dissonance / int_33dd1d8f
type
Model Dissonance
 Model Dissonance / int_33dd1d8f
comment
First-person models in the Half-Life series also play around with the parts of your weapons that you do see. The barrel of the .357 Magnum in the first game is wider at the muzzle to give it an orthographic look. Meanwhile in Half-Life 2 the shotgun is stretched lengthwise to make it look less squashed, and the fine details of the AR2 are painted onto the texture in a way that only looks right from the intended perspective.
 Model Dissonance / int_33dd1d8f
featureApplicability
1.0
 Model Dissonance / int_33dd1d8f
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1.0
 Half-Life (Video Game)
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Model Dissonance / int_33dd1d8f
 Model Dissonance / int_3bbd2f1c
type
Model Dissonance
 Model Dissonance / int_3bbd2f1c
comment
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle uses a lot of crazy squashes, stretches, and other deformations on its character models together with dynamic camera angles to replicate the iconic poses from the source manga in 3D.
 Model Dissonance / int_3bbd2f1c
featureApplicability
1.0
 Model Dissonance / int_3bbd2f1c
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1.0
 JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle (Video Game)
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Model Dissonance / int_3bbd2f1c
 Model Dissonance / int_3e5c6c5a
type
Model Dissonance
 Model Dissonance / int_3e5c6c5a
comment
In Super Mario 64, when Mario is drowning in quicksand, his head expands (unseen to the player) so the top is visible. Otherwise, Mario's cap wouldn't be visible as he makes a Last Grasp at Life. Inversely, when Mario drowns in Super Mario Galaxy, his head actually shrinks down below the surface to not be in the way for Mario to do a Last Grasp at Life.
 Model Dissonance / int_3e5c6c5a
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1.0
 Model Dissonance / int_3e5c6c5a
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1.0
 Super Mario 64 (Video Game)
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Model Dissonance / int_3e5c6c5a
 Model Dissonance / int_4e45b093
type
Model Dissonance
 Model Dissonance / int_4e45b093
comment
Dwelling places in TV dramas or sitcoms usually only exist as a cluster of disparate stage-sets, representing aspects of what would be a continuous structure in real life. Attempts to build virtual computer models of them as they would be in reality tend to founder for one reason or another. It has been noticed, for instance, that to fit everything that appears on TV into its actual displayed limitations (ie, the outer boundaries of the building shown in exterior shots), the apartment complex on the fourth floor of 1130 North Los Robles Avenue in The Big Bang Theory) it would need to be the interior of a Tardis since it is clearly Bigger on the Inside. Other TV shows, such as Frasier's spacious (but not that spacious) Seattle apartment suffer the same contradictions. Computer modellers have repeatedly tried and failed.
 Model Dissonance / int_4e45b093
featureApplicability
1.0
 Model Dissonance / int_4e45b093
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1.0
 The Big Bang Theory
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Model Dissonance / int_4e45b093
 Model Dissonance / int_52cac2d8
type
Model Dissonance
 Model Dissonance / int_52cac2d8
comment
In Mario Kart DS, most of the taller racers besides Waluigi (whose legs protrude from the karts) have either no legs, or stumps where their legs would be. Normally this would be fine since everyone is stuck in a kart and you could pass it off as their lower body entering into the kart, but there are a few vehicles with very shallow seating arrangements, such as Waluigi's Zipper, Dry Bones' Banisher, or R.O.B.'S ROB-LGS. Once you get a gold trophy in every Mirror Mode cup, you unlock the ability to race with every character in every kart, enabling you to seat racers in vehicles like the Zipper and see that they no longer have legs.
 Model Dissonance / int_52cac2d8
featureApplicability
1.0
 Model Dissonance / int_52cac2d8
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1.0
 Mario Kart DS (Video Game)
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Model Dissonance / int_52cac2d8
 Model Dissonance / int_5803e162
type
Model Dissonance
 Model Dissonance / int_5803e162
comment
Dragon Ball Fighter Z uses this to the extreme. In addition to deforming the faces and using character-specific lighting to replicate the look of the anime and coloured manga panels, parts of the body will be shrunk, squashed and enlarged to make for more dynamic animations in tandem with the camera, as shown here.
 Model Dissonance / int_5803e162
featureApplicability
1.0
 Model Dissonance / int_5803e162
featureConfidence
1.0
 Dragon Ball FighterZ (Video Game)
hasFeature
Model Dissonance / int_5803e162
 Model Dissonance / int_59a835fb
type
Model Dissonance
 Model Dissonance / int_59a835fb
comment
By porting Sonic Adventure 2's cutscenes to Sonic Adventure 2: Preview, and using the debug cutscene viewer, one can find that a lot of characters don't look like they should when the camera is not focused on them. Such gems include Amy missing almost her entire body not once but twice throughout the whole game, Shadow having quite a few cross-eyed moments, and Sonic's model growing into existence after he uses Chaos Control to get out of the capsule.
 Model Dissonance / int_59a835fb
featureApplicability
1.0
 Model Dissonance / int_59a835fb
featureConfidence
1.0
 Sonic Adventure 2 (Video Game)
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Model Dissonance / int_59a835fb
 Model Dissonance / int_5a2333ef
type
Model Dissonance
 Model Dissonance / int_5a2333ef
comment
Most objects in LittleBigPlanet don't have a back, because the game is a 2½D platformer. You can, however, use a glitch to twist objects around, revealing this.
 Model Dissonance / int_5a2333ef
featureApplicability
1.0
 Model Dissonance / int_5a2333ef
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1.0
 LittleBigPlanet (Video Game)
hasFeature
Model Dissonance / int_5a2333ef
 Model Dissonance / int_5da242aa
type
Model Dissonance
 Model Dissonance / int_5da242aa
comment
None of the vehicles in Fuga: Melodies of Steel have a back side rendered to them. It helps with performance as you can only really see one side anyways thanks to the 2½D Perspective.
 Model Dissonance / int_5da242aa
featureApplicability
1.0
 Model Dissonance / int_5da242aa
featureConfidence
1.0
 Fuga: Melodies of Steel (Video Game)
hasFeature
Model Dissonance / int_5da242aa
 Model Dissonance / int_62bf541
type
Model Dissonance
 Model Dissonance / int_62bf541
comment
Super Mario Bros. saved memory by making clouds and bushes the same object, but rendered different colours. Similarly, the Goomba was crammed in under space constraints and has a single sprite with no animation whatsoever, just mirroring itself to create the illusion of walking.
 Model Dissonance / int_62bf541
featureApplicability
1.0
 Model Dissonance / int_62bf541
featureConfidence
1.0
 Super Mario Bros. (Video Game)
hasFeature
Model Dissonance / int_62bf541
 Model Dissonance / int_6bbde1c8
type
Model Dissonance
 Model Dissonance / int_6bbde1c8
comment
Overwatch has smear animation in several places, which leads to memetic images when characters are frozen mid animation (for example, Cassidy when he's in the middle of a roll).
 Model Dissonance / int_6bbde1c8
featureApplicability
1.0
 Model Dissonance / int_6bbde1c8
featureConfidence
1.0
 Overwatch (Video Game)
hasFeature
Model Dissonance / int_6bbde1c8
 Model Dissonance / int_6c1d09b1
type
Model Dissonance
 Model Dissonance / int_6c1d09b1
comment
In Fallout, the T-51b power armour model in the intro cinematic was very clipping-prone at certain angles, as it was only needed for a handful of promotional stills, and for a quick animated appearance in a cinematic styled after grainy 1950s TV footage, where it was was shown from several metres away. This led to the armour being redesigned in Fallout: Van Buren, Black Isle Studios' cancelled version of Fallout 3, where the 3D model would have been an in-game asset available to the player.
 Model Dissonance / int_6c1d09b1
featureApplicability
1.0
 Model Dissonance / int_6c1d09b1
featureConfidence
1.0
 Fallout (Video Game)
hasFeature
Model Dissonance / int_6c1d09b1
 Model Dissonance / int_6de33ac8
type
Model Dissonance
 Model Dissonance / int_6de33ac8
comment
The Killers of Dead by Daylight always have their right hand sticking in front of them from the player's first-person POV so their weapon is in frame, even though it doesn't match the pose taken by their third-person model. A bug showed this dissonance when their third person model at the start of a match (the only time the player sees this in-game save for moris) was positioned according to their first-person model.
 Model Dissonance / int_6de33ac8
featureApplicability
1.0
 Model Dissonance / int_6de33ac8
featureConfidence
1.0
 Dead by Daylight / Videogame
hasFeature
Model Dissonance / int_6de33ac8
 Model Dissonance / int_74f7210c
type
Model Dissonance
 Model Dissonance / int_74f7210c
comment
The Legend of Zelda:
In The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, every single 3D model is made to lean backwards in order to mimic the effect of the Three-Quarters View in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.
In The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, one Pro-Action Replay cheat code enables the player to hold a button to levitate. This can be done indefinitely (unless you crash the game). When climbing Dragon Roost Mountain, the player will pass through several doors that actually load new maps at the top of the mountain. Thus, if the player levitates up to the top of Dragon Roost Mountain from the overworld map, they'll find that the top of the Mountain isn't actually animated at all from above, and it's just a hollow, glitchy tube that allows the player to see all the way through to the ocean.
 Model Dissonance / int_74f7210c
featureApplicability
1.0
 Model Dissonance / int_74f7210c
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Legend of Zelda (Franchise)
hasFeature
Model Dissonance / int_74f7210c
 Model Dissonance / int_7e054f71
type
Model Dissonance
 Model Dissonance / int_7e054f71
comment
The main character in Outlast has no head on his model, even though the rest of him is rendered, for ease of decapitation animations. They get around this putting on a head that's invisible to view directly but still casts a shadow. You can actually see the neck hole in the cutscene where he climbs into a dumbwaiter.
 Model Dissonance / int_7e054f71
featureApplicability
1.0
 Model Dissonance / int_7e054f71
featureConfidence
1.0
 Outlast / Videogame
hasFeature
Model Dissonance / int_7e054f71
 Model Dissonance / int_8868b5a6
type
Model Dissonance
 Model Dissonance / int_8868b5a6
comment
Firewatch averts First-Person Ghost by showing your hands and body, but looking at the player model in third person◊ reveals over-sized hands and under-sized legs to improve perspective.
 Model Dissonance / int_8868b5a6
featureApplicability
1.0
 Model Dissonance / int_8868b5a6
featureConfidence
1.0
 Firewatch / Videogame
hasFeature
Model Dissonance / int_8868b5a6
 Model Dissonance / int_8ec33a86
type
Model Dissonance
 Model Dissonance / int_8ec33a86
comment
In Xenoblade Chronicles 1, the cutscenes do this a lot as they are only seen from one angle. Watching them with free viewing enabled reveals all sorts of nonsense, including Shulk's body disjointing.
 Model Dissonance / int_8ec33a86
featureApplicability
1.0
 Model Dissonance / int_8ec33a86
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1.0
 Xenoblade Chronicles 1 (Video Game)
hasFeature
Model Dissonance / int_8ec33a86
 Model Dissonance / int_9c1d0ac8
type
Model Dissonance
 Model Dissonance / int_9c1d0ac8
comment
Discussed in the author's notes of a page in Concerned. In the fifth panel of page 119, overlapping with Cheated Angle, Frohman is actually floating at a 45 degree angle◊ to get the right angle for the shot.
 Model Dissonance / int_9c1d0ac8
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1.0
 Model Dissonance / int_9c1d0ac8
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 Concerned (Webcomic)
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Model Dissonance / int_9c1d0ac8
 Model Dissonance / int_a0ae46e
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Model Dissonance
 Model Dissonance / int_a0ae46e
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When Woody first sits up on his own at the beginning of Toy Story, his fingers briefly clip through his face. This one isn't cheating so much as an oversight due to the animation techniques used being in their infancy.
 Model Dissonance / int_a0ae46e
featureApplicability
1.0
 Model Dissonance / int_a0ae46e
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 Toy Story
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Model Dissonance / int_a0ae46e
 Model Dissonance / int_a2dee471
type
Model Dissonance
 Model Dissonance / int_a2dee471
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In The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, one Pro-Action Replay cheat code enables the player to hold a button to levitate. This can be done indefinitely (unless you crash the game). When climbing Dragon Roost Mountain, the player will pass through several doors that actually load new maps at the top of the mountain. Thus, if the player levitates up to the top of Dragon Roost Mountain from the overworld map, they'll find that the top of the Mountain isn't actually animated at all from above, and it's just a hollow, glitchy tube that allows the player to see all the way through to the ocean.
 Model Dissonance / int_a2dee471
featureApplicability
1.0
 Model Dissonance / int_a2dee471
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1.0
 The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (Video Game)
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Model Dissonance / int_a2dee471
 Model Dissonance / int_a895e9d3
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Model Dissonance
 Model Dissonance / int_a895e9d3
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Portal 2 does this with the level geometry. During development, the level designers created a new engine object (linked_portal_door) which allowed any two flat planes to be connected without needing any sort of spatial consistency. While most of the game was tweaked to fit together logically, there are a couple of spots in the finished product where this cheat is still used, such as a room that's noticeably Bigger on the Inside. Source engine modders naturally had a field day.
 Model Dissonance / int_a895e9d3
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1.0
 Model Dissonance / int_a895e9d3
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1.0
 Portal 2 (Video Game)
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Model Dissonance / int_a895e9d3
 Model Dissonance / int_bca72091
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Model Dissonance
 Model Dissonance / int_bca72091
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Animal Crossing games starting with Wild World have a "rolling log" effect on the world that causes an exaggerated curve on faraway objects. While it looks reasonable from the angle gameplay is normally seen from, the full extent of the effect can be seen if the camera is zoomed out◊ past the normal field of view. New Horizons has the option to switch to an overhead view akin to the original game, which actually causes the curve to flatten out.
 Model Dissonance / int_bca72091
featureApplicability
1.0
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Model Dissonance / int_bca72091
 Model Dissonance / int_c95e9d87
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Model Dissonance
 Model Dissonance / int_c95e9d87
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The size and number of balloons on Carl's house in Up varies depending on the shot. Close-up shots have more balloons than far ones, but far shots exaggerate the size of the balloons (see here◊ for an example). This is done for visual clarity; if the size and number of balloons were consistent in every shot, they'd either become an indistinguishable blur of color from a distance, or impossibly large up close.
 Model Dissonance / int_c95e9d87
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 Up
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Model Dissonance / int_c95e9d87
 Model Dissonance / int_df76da7e
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Model Dissonance
 Model Dissonance / int_df76da7e
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Mirror's Edge shows your body to help with immersion but features strange animations in third person (such as swaying violently at the waist when balancing). The animations were entirely made for the first person perspective, which means things don't really sync up well for the unintended switch.
 Model Dissonance / int_df76da7e
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1.0
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Model Dissonance / int_df76da7e
 Model Dissonance / int_fe85bfc8
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Model Dissonance
 Model Dissonance / int_fe85bfc8
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Super Smash Bros.:
When Wario uses his Chomp move, the top halves of affected characters are shrunken to fit inside his mouth. This is especially noticeable if Wario is made invisible somehow.
If a fighter is inside the clay pot on the Garden of Hope stage while the Pikmin rebuild it, they become trapped inside, with their model shrinking to avoid clipping issues. A glitch (since fixed) can cause them to get stuck like this.
Mega Man's normal walking animation emulates that of his animation from the NES games. When viewed normally from the side, it looks alright. But when viewed from behind or in front of him, it looks really strange, almost puppet-like or robotically instead of a natural stride. Granted, it's likely intentional, in order to reference both his origins and how he's a robot, but it's still odd to look at.
 Model Dissonance / int_fe85bfc8
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1.0
 Model Dissonance / int_fe85bfc8
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 Super Smash Bros. (Video Game)
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Model Dissonance / int_fe85bfc8

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 Model Dissonance
processingCategory2
Graphical Tropes
 Model Dissonance
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Not the Way It Is Meant to Be Played
 Model Dissonance
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Spectacle
 Model Dissonance
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Trivia
 Counter-Strike (Video Game) / int_1f1b8517
type
Model Dissonance
 modeldissonance
sameAs
Model Dissonance