I created a vertex shader effect for the VFX team that would allow camera-facing sprites to be stretched along one axis but still retain apparent mass when viewed from the front, similar to one used in God of War (2018) but with improved stability during camera rotation. This was provided to VFX and used for several effects.
If you're not into real time VFX this likely won't mean much, but being able to construct trails with stretched sprites that maintain mass (without flattening and spinning out when viewed head-on) was an exciting development for our VFX team.