# Animation pipeline

## Decision — 2026-09-27

The creator locked in AI-generated video converted into sprite-frame animation
as the primary pipeline for now. AI is intended to produce art, animation, maps,
and code, with visual direction and review from the creator.

Character art uses **Codex built-in image generation**, per the creator's latest
preference. Use reviewed character images as Seedance inputs. Seedream remains
available as an alternative, rather than the default for character art.

The [locked art direction](art-direction.md) is Clone Wars-inspired stylized CGI.
Preserve its sculpted forms, painted surfaces, and each character's proportions
through the generated video and extracted frames.

Godot 4 with GDScript is the implementation engine selected for this approach.
Use sprite animation resources for character playback and keep combat logic
separate from visual frames. No animation prototype has been validated yet.

## Intended production workflow

1. Generate character art with Codex built-in image generation and establish a
   reviewed master, camera angle, costume, and proportions.
2. Generate separate action clips from consistent image references using Seedance.
3. Extract useful frames and remove backgrounds consistently across the sequence.
4. Align to a stable anchor while preserving intentional jumps and lunges.
5. Inspect character identity, silhouettes, weapons, edges, loops, and transitions.
6. Pack frames into atlases and create Godot animation resources.
7. Define gameplay timing separately, including impact and projectile release.
8. Test at actual phone display size and measure texture memory on target hardware.

Frame extraction, background removal, alignment, atlas generation, and Godot
imports still need implementation. Model motion quality does not by itself verify
consistent characters, clean transparency, or usable transitions.

## First validation target

One character with idle, attack, hit reaction, and death. Inspect idle-to-attack
and attack-to-idle transitions, then test several simultaneous fighters. Repeat
with a second character to check that the workflow is reproducible. Resolution,
frame rate, animation lengths, and memory budgets remain to be selected.

Keep original art, source clips, prompts, model settings, extraction settings, and
animation timing metadata so the outputs can be rebuilt and reviewed. The existing
credential and generation-recovery rules continue to apply.