In addition to helping with the conceptualization of the project, I’ve been researching rendering anamorphic and other unique lenses. As it turns out, the depth of field controls in most renderers are pretty limited and can’t achieve the “swirly bokeh” effect pictured below. We were planning on using Redshift, but I was able to find a toolset for Arnold that should do everything we’re looking for. The toolset is lentil.xyz

Also pictured are some notes on my research about anamorphic lenses.