Certain aspects and features of this disclosure relate to providing a controllable, dynamic appearance for neural 3D portraits. For example, a method involves projecting a color at points in a digital video portrait based on location, surface normal, and viewing direction for each respective point in a canonical space. The method also involves projecting, using the color, dynamic face normals for the points as changing according to an articulated head pose and facial expression in the digital video portrait. The method further involves disentangling, based on the dynamic face normals, a facial appearance in the digital video portrait into intrinsic components in the canonical space. The method additionally involves storing and/or rendering at least a portion of a head pose as a controllable, neural 3D portrait based on the digital video portrait using the intrinsic components.