docs(tools): RD ideation batch 01 brief — M03 silhouette + sprite-grid probe

tools/retro-diffusion/batch-01-brief.md

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+# RD ideation batch 01 — M03 silhouette + sprite-grid probe
+
+**Purpose:** first Retro Diffusion ideation run for U R M03. Art-direction
++ experiment design; comfy-dev executes on ComfyUI (irv-ml1). Output is
+`_ph` ideation ONLY — informs the eventual art pass, does NOT enter the
+greybox (greybox stays art-free per canon).
+
+**Canon source:** M03 design law, MOE.md § Design language (advisor repo).
+Cues below are the drawable-object translation of that law.
+
+## What this batch answers
+
+1. **Does RD's pixel-art base render our gentle giant at all** — the
+   blob-squint test at pixel scale (round + huggable + the signature
+   asymmetries), distinct from the menacing enemy read.
+2. **Sprite-grid-size hypothesis (parked playtest question, CONCEPT.md
+   §Open-Q #2 / ROADMAP):** at what pixel budget (32 / 48 / 64) does M03's
+   silhouette AND the mismatched-eye read survive? This is the real
+   deliverable — a downscale ladder we can eyeball.
+3. **House-style pick:** which character LoRA carries M03 best —
+   `gamecharacters` (`duelystchar`), `gamecharactersretro` (no trigger),
+   or `gamecharactersanime` (no trigger).
+
+## Model config
+
+- Base: `rd_pixel_v14` + `rd_vae_v14` (the repaired VAE).
+- **Render at 512×512, downscale nearest-neighbor** to 32/48/64 (model
+  resolution floor — 128 direct is mush, validated).
+- LoRA strength start 1.0; sweep 0.6–1.0 if style overpowers structure.
+- SD1.5 family: negatives ARE available here (unlike the flux/Arbo path) —
+  use them. Trigger word leads the prompt.
+- comfy-dev owns sampler/steps/CFG and will content-check every render
+  (size + brightness/variance, eyes on pixels — not "graph executed").
+
+## M03 — the canonical prompt (load-bearing; this IS the canon translation)
+
+Signature detail FIRST (Arbo lesson that transfers), objects not
+abstractions (no animal similes — "elephant feet" once literally made him
+an elephant; use "column"/"pad"), the two-object eye framing MOE.md itself
+validated (plain "mismatched eyes" collapses to symmetry):
+
+**Positive:**
+> `duelystchar`, a gentle giant farming robot, **rounded dome head**, **one
+> dim small recessed lens eye beside one bright glowing bolted-on lamp eye**
+> (the bright lamp is the warm one), **barrel-shaped body**, rounded
+> shoulders, **thick cylindrical column legs ending in flat round pads**,
+> **one arm ends in a watering-spray nozzle**, a simple weapon bolted on over
+> the body, warm, huggable, plain background, full body, pixel art
+
+**Negative:**
+> humanoid feet, boots, sleek, angular, military, menacing, cyclops, single
+> eye, symmetrical matching eyes, human face, text, watermark, busy background
+
+Judge against MOE.md's own tests: **blob-squint** (huggable at silhouette),
+**mismatched-eye** (patched/bright eye reads *different* and warmer),
+**bolted-weapons** (armed, still passes blob-squint).
+
+## Enemies (secondary — tests the menace contrast)
+
+Enemies read menacing by canon — the inverse of Moe's authored softness.
+
+- **Grunt (untagged):** `duelystchar`, a small simple rogue robot, blocky,
+  plain olive-drab, no glow, faintly menacing, plain background, full body,
+  pixel art. *Neg:* cute, friendly, rounded, warm, glowing eyes.
+- **Burster (HEAT):** a round rogue robot with a glowing molten-orange core
+  in its belly, cracked armor, overheating, menacing, plain background, full
+  body, pixel art. *Neg:* cute, friendly, gentle, human, cool colors.
+
+## Batch shape (keep it a probe, not a production run)
+
+- **A — M03 silhouette:** the canonical prompt, ~6 seeds at 512, LoRA
+  `duelystchar` @1.0.
+- **B — house-style compare:** one strong seed from A, re-run through
+  `gamecharactersretro` and `gamecharactersanime` (no trigger — just load).
+- **C — grid ladder:** best 1–2 M03 renders, downscaled to 32/48/64 shown
+  side by side. This is the sprite-grid-size answer.
+- **D — enemies:** grunt ×2, burster ×2 at 512.
+
+## NOT this batch (deliberately deferred)
+
+- **ControlNet from our hand-authored maps.** Our greybox `m03_ph` map is
+  deliberately crude; constraining to it would defeat "let RD propose a
+  better silhouette." ControlNet (Sketch/Pose) is the RIGHT tool once we've
+  PICKED a silhouette — for turnarounds/animation frames off an agreed
+  design. Second-pass, not first.
+- Tag-hue / VFX exploration, rig frames, Khoe — later batches.
+
+## Output
+
+Booth with the A/B/C/D grids; reply on the RD thread to m03-dev with the
+URL + which LoRA carried M03 best (your read) + anything that fought the
+prompt. m03-dev takes the operator's verdict from there.
+
+**Licensing:** weights fleet-internal, not-for-export (operator directive).
+Output is `_ph` ideation, operator-judged.