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You can't unsee this unsettling 'real-life' Homer Simpson

D'oh! A 3D rendering of a realistic Homer Simpson will sear itself into your brain forever.

Amanda Kooser
Freelance writer Amanda C. Kooser covers gadgets and tech news with a twist for CNET. When not wallowing in weird gear and iPad apps for cats, she can be found tinkering with her 1956 DeSoto.
Amanda Kooser
2 min read

Please take a moment to study this image. It shows Homer Simpson from the animated show The Simpsons, but this isn't cartoony yellow Homer. This is culled-from-your-deepest-primal-nightmares Homer. 

Artist Miguel Vasquez posted his eye-popping Homer to Twitter on Friday with the message, "My 3D re-imagining of what Homer Simpson would look like in real life."

Twitter users had strong reactions to the reinterpretation, calling it "terrifying," "cursed" and "creepy."

Vasquez's work is reminiscent of a 2008 study created by a Blogspot user called pixeloo. That image took Homer's normal cartoon proportions and rendered him with realistic skin and lighting. But Vasquez made Homer his own. Veins pop out from the sides of the forehead. You can see each individual hair stubble. Extra chins roll down his neck. 

Vasquez says it took about a week to create the Homer using digital sculpting software Zbrush. "Much like clay sculpting, I move around this virtual clay ball and sculpt from there," the California artist says. 

So what possessed Vasquez to create the monstrosity (or beauty, depending your view)? "What inspired me was the lack of 'real-life Homer Simpson' images on the internet," Vasquez says. "I looked up on Google images of what Homer Simpson would look like in our world and they were just disappointing."

Whatever you might think of Vasquez's memorable Homer render, it's definitely not disappointing. 

You can follow Vasquez's art through Instagram and Twitter. And if you take a peek back in the archives, you might spot his equally mind-bending real-life version of SpongeBob SquarePants. Enjoy your nightmares this evening.