# Sprite production contract — revised candidates

The user prefers the more upright chapter-one bodies. A full cast migration requires convincing loops in this body family. The focused Surly pilot became too small-headed (roughly5 heads tall) and is a comparison candidate, not the new style master. New sheets are reviewed together before replacing the selected cast; static turnarounds alone do not establish a successful walk.

## Fixed format

- View: 640×360 logical pixels; exact 3× at 1080p, nearest-neighbour sampling.
- Humans: 48×64 cells; foot origin (24,61); directions south / west / east / north.
- Heights: Ganoes 12 and fishergirl 44px; adolescent fiddler 50px; Surly54px; commander and Ganoes19 56px; hooded guards58px.
- Proposed head/hair envelope: children14–16px; adolescent16–18px; adults16–18px. Aim roughly3–3.5 heads per adult body, using the selected chapter-one turnarounds as the working reference. Shoulders extend beyond head; no giant spherical hair. Measure the exported sprite, not the source canvas.
- Uniform scaling per sheet. Never scale different frames independently or stretch body bands. Anchor the anatomical pelvis/feet rather than the width of an accessory.
- Face, hair, neck and torso are one coherent drawing. No replacement head pasted on top of an incompatible pose.
- Warm upper-left light, dark selective outlines, quiet 3–4 shade material ramps; simple readable clusters. Avoid smooth illustration texture that collapses to noise at native size.

## Gait drawings

Six genuinely distinct walk drawings per direction: left contact / left support / right passing / right contact / right support / left passing. Left and right anatomical legs exchange roles, with opposite arm swing. Do not count duplicate frames with offsets as additional drawings.

North uses heels, with soles visible on lifted boots; toe caps point away. Side views show a darker far limb passing the near limb. Keep equipment on its anatomical side. Robes reveal alternating boots and react to the passing knees.

Run is a separate cycle: forward body lean, both elbows pumping, clear alternating support and flight, stronger knee lift in every direction. Do not accelerate a walk and label it a run.

Head movement comes from small whole-body translation and natural shoulder motion. Maximum ordinary walk bob about1px in native export; run up to2px. Never stretch legs or shift the head independently to clear the fiddle.

## Asset acceptance

Inspect native1× and exact3×, looping both in place and traveling through Godot. Check all directions, especially north, and transitions to idle. Static four-direction sheets are identity studies, not finished animations. Generated alternation failures must be disclosed and corrected before selection. Keep the current coherent cast selected until the replacement family is ready.

Ganoes's approved tiptoe v3 is preserved. Commander and Fiddler now watch upright; their old lean files remain historical and are not selected. A future body-family migration must maintain a smooth transition into the approved tiptoe or explicitly rework that transition for review.

## Portraits and expressions

Busts160×192. The neutral is the immutable base for subtle changes. Store explicit eye/brow, nose and mouth masks. Hair, clothes, shoulders, background alpha and lighting outside those masks must be byte-identical. A 0.20-second dissolve blends expressions; it must not disguise inconsistent endpoints. Larger head/hair movement requires a separate dramatic-pose candidate, not a silent change to this contract.

## Provenance

Built-in ImageGen creates new drawings. Aseprite slices, uniformly exports and performs minor native-pixel cleanup. Keep exact prompts, source masters, frame rectangles, body anchors and selection manifests. Historical alternatives cannot be selected via filename globbing. Book-confirmed traits and visual interpretations stay labelled separately.