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Base-only M03 recipe, 64/48/32 sprite budget, style-LoRA reservation for tiles/icons. Art direction = watercolor scenery (waterland-dev) + pixel sprites; ratified to advisor CONCEPT.md 3eeeaf4.
68 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
68 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
# Retro Diffusion — M03 sprite-ideation findings
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Durable record of what the batch-01/02 ideation runs established about
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driving the local RD stack for U R M03 sprites. Design canon for the
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art direction lives in the advisor repo (CONCEPT.md § Technology & art
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direction); this is the implementation-side how-to.
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**Status: IDEATION / pipeline proof.** Shipped sprites are human-authored
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(asset policy). M03's canonical visual reference is locked (syn02/syn04b,
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advisor repo). These findings say how to make RD *propose* sprites, not
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what ships.
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## Art direction (operator, 2026-08-14)
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**Watercolor backgrounds + scenery, pixel-art sprites.** Scenery pipeline
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is owned by **waterland-dev** (watercolor generation stack). Sprite
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ideation is the local RD base checkpoint, below. Per-asset direction dials
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in later.
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## The M03 sprite recipe
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- **Base `rd_pixel_v14` + repaired `rd_vae_v14`, NO style LoRA.** On this
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checkpoint the un-LoRA'd base is the only config that holds M03 as a
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character; every style LoRA imposes an object/subject prior that
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displaces the subject (character LoRAs → fantasy battle units / cyclops;
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flatshading → lanterns; frontfacing+trigger → pots; 1bit → abstraction).
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- **Render 512×512, downscale nearest-neighbor** to the target budget
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(512 is above the model's floor; 128 direct is mush).
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- **Foreground wanted features positively; do not rely on negatives** — a
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strong prior beats a negative on this checkpoint (cfg 7.0). The base's
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own weak negative let `pedestal`/`busy background` through repeatedly.
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- Signature detail first in the prompt (objects, never abstractions/animal
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similes — "column legs on flat pads", not "elephant feet").
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## Sprite budget (resolves the sprite-grid open question)
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Readable-detail floor tracks feature-size-relative-to-frame, not a fixed
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number:
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- **64px** — full-body sprite; silhouette + mismatched-eye read both hold.
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- **48px** — bust/head-dominant crop only; a full-body sprite loses small
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features (recessed lens dissolves).
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- **32px** — blob-squint silhouette only.
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## Mismatched eyes
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Diffusion CAN render them — the base drew a large pale lens beside a small
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dark recessed lens unaided at 64px (batch 02, `I_s1004`/`I_s1001`). So the
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eyes are NOT forced to be hand-authored by a pipeline limitation (though
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MOE.md's "authored, not procedural" may still hold them by choice).
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## Style-LoRA reservation
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The 24 style LoRAs are counterproductive for the hero character but are
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the right tool for **tiles / icons / environment props** — `tiling*`,
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`gameicons`, `uipanel`, console-palette LoRAs — where an object/style
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prior is a feature. Reserved for whenever environment-prop work starts
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(scenery itself is watercolor via waterland-dev, not RD).
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## Trigger words
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See `lora-triggers.md` (this dir) for the full per-LoRA trigger map.
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## Batch briefs
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`batch-01-brief.md`, `batch-02-brief.md` (this dir) — the run specs and
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their booth results (booths ephemeral, ~24h).
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