# Production: from reference to editable craft

This is an operational method, not a requirement to use every tool. The initial reference combined a high-detail stepped illustration with modern non-pixel type. Its effective lesson was clear visual storytelling and selective light/detail, not a hardware specification.

## Select the build style by the result

| Route | Best use | Working source | Finish | Do not promise |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deliberate native-grid | Small scenes, icons, sprites, grid-specific deliverables | Pixel editor layers, indexed palette where useful | Contour/cluster cleanup and nearest-neighbor export | Game compatibility without engine-specific tests |
| Procedural native-grid | Diagrams, material/light exercises, repeatable palettes | Code plus explicit scene/material parameters | Inspect silhouettes, bands and geometric repetition | Human hand-pixelling or a physically based renderer |
| Contemporary editorial hybrid | Detailed narrative hero images and scenes | Brief, source/reference roles, generated or illustrated revisions | Local redraw, value/crop review; clean layout outside image | Uniform logical pixels or recoverable layers from a flat PNG |
| Concept → grid redraw | Rich concept with precise final pixel control | Original concept plus newly drawn native-grid layers | Redesign forms to fit the grid rather than retaining all detail | That downsampling alone performed the redraw |
| Pixel geometry + modern layout | Web/editorial/product storytelling | Clean image plus semantic DOM or layout document | Actual host typography and accessibility | That a pixel typeface improves every interface |
| 3D block-in → pixel finish | Complex perspective/material reference | Scene model/camera/light plus redrawn pixel layers | Remove noisy quantization, repair clusters, control palette | That a downsampled render is automatically intentional pixel art |

The supplied deterministic workbench exercises the procedural route, not a 3D renderer. Aseprite/editor and 3D workflows here are researched options until actually exercised in a project.

## Resolution and camera

Choose the smallest grid that preserves the story. A face, expressive hand, contact gap and connector require room; an icon doesn't need an editorial scene's density. Make a silhouette thumbnail before selecting exact dimensions. Typical scene-size suggestions are starting experiments, not retro hardware facts. Use orthographic, perspective or isometric construction deliberately; do not mix them accidentally.

At native scale, draw the large form first. Inspect enlarged blocks only to diagnose placements. Judge the final work again at intended scale: clusters that look impressive zoomed in may turn into muddy microtexture. If mobile crops remove the action, recompose or serve a separate crop rather than shrinking an elaborate scene until it becomes illegible.

## Layer/source structure

Keep environment, focal actor, action object, contact/cast shadow, emissive accents and optional treatment independently editable when the authoring route allows it. Save camera, palette and light parameters with procedural work. A flat generated PNG remains a flat generated PNG; layers reconstructed afterwards are new work, not recovered originals.

Preserve:
- untouched clean master and actual decoded dimensions/color mode;
- reference roles, permissions, prompt/tool controls if applicable;
- selected palette and explicitly reserved colors/masks;
- native source, display scale and export settings;
- revision rationale and one before/after for meaningful corrections;
- host adapter separate from the art/treatment.

## Generation brief that can be edited

Describe the narrative before the style: actor count, action, exact object relationship, visible contact, camera and receiving surface. Then give light sources, material response, focal value hierarchy, cluster treatment and negative space. State exclusions only when they prevent a likely failure. Describe an influence by its mechanism, not a request to clone an artist.

For revision split **CHANGE** from **PRESERVE**, and give references a single explicit role. If the scene reads as a smooth 3D painting rather than pixel illustration, ask for connected shade clusters, fewer intentional tone steps, stepped contours and removal of fine grain. Do not request a blanket mosaic filter. If contact is unclear, redraw the relationship rather than adding a glow that conceals it. Reinspect the whole result for drift.

An actual expansion trial requested landscape but returned a 1983×793 image rather than the adapter's requested 1536×1024. This demonstrates why output decoding matters; the package does not treat prompt dimensions or adapter defaults as file facts.

## Palette fitting without losing meaning

1. Preserve the clean original.
2. Decide whether exact palette restriction is needed. Don't quantize solely because the style is called pixel art.
3. Identify small semantic accents: eyes, tiny LED, warning or the action's connector. Select their explicit color slots and spatial masks where practical.
4. Construct remaining ramps from local material plus planned light, balancing value and chroma rather than taking the most frequent colors blindly.
5. Fit colors and compare at target size. Adaptive reduction can optimize large surfaces while deleting a tiny important hue. More colors may help but doesn't replace semantic review.
6. Recheck color membership, count, gradients, outlines and masks. A reserve-color operation can preserve the color somewhere but still map the wrong feature; verify the feature itself.
7. Preserve an unquantized editorial version when it is artistically stronger. Show alternatives honestly, not as an automatic upgrade ladder.

The initial study retained both the weaker coarse conversion and the reserved-accent correction in the private archive. They are evidence that constraints can harm the image, not reasons to ban limited palettes.

## Light/material review before effect

Freeze the clean master. Inspect a grayscale view and colored view separately; grayscale helps hierarchy but removes colored-light information. Confirm key-facing surfaces, cast shadow direction and contact shadows agree. Check that metal highlights are not identical to matte cloth, that emissive pixels are attached to an emitting surface and that bounce tint is plausible. Then allow artistic exaggeration consciously.

“Accurate” must be scoped:
- **File fidelity:** exact decoded palette/token, channel values and export properties.
- **Color-managed fidelity:** named spaces/transforms/profiles with measured or documented conversions.
- **Perceptual coherence:** the scene reads consistently on the inspected display.
- **Physical plausibility:** directions, occlusion and materials make sense under the assumed lighting.
- **Colorimetric/physical accuracy:** requires calibrated measurement and/or a validated spectral/radiometric model. The illustration demos do not establish this.

See `color-light.md` for the sourced theory and the native workbench's limitations.

## Effects and web delivery

Retain original art before any CRT/VHS/glitch operation. Select a treatment to express memory, distance, communication or an intentional interruption—not to cover weak drawing. Do not filter text/controls or let visual damage imply an actual system fault. Keep labels factual: “VHS-inspired approximation” is not a calibrated VHS emulator.

Serve the portable demo over loopback HTTP so modules and asset decoding behave normally. Preserve aspect ratio. For true logical pixels, choose integer display steps and inspect browser zoom/DPR; for high-resolution hybrid art, smooth responsive reduction may be clearer. Keep source processing resolution, CSS display size and device-pixel ratio distinct.

## Export checklist

- File independently decodes; actual width/height and mode recorded.
- PNG for clean lossless pixels; avoid JPEG for strict palette/index preservation.
- Indexed mode, palette size, palette membership and alpha all inspected when required.
- Nearest-neighbor scale verified block by block when exact integer geometry matters.
- Color space/profile handling documented; do not silently relabel wide-gamut or scene-linear data as sRGB.
- Clean master and any degraded export named distinctly; no hidden sharpening or post-resize filtering.
- Intended-size/crop/thumbnail review complete; layout type remains editable.
- Fonts, code, images and source references have separate rights notices.

Do not claim animation merely from a still with an animated filter. Sprite animation, temporal pixel consistency and export formats need actual timelines/frame inspection.