animation-quality-gate

The saved excerpt is a snapshot from review. The external source remains the complete and most current version.

---
name: animation-quality-gate
description: Validate Blender animation attempts before accepting them by rendering contact sheets, checking silhouette stability, flicker, framing, subject dominance, layer separation, export compatibility, and motion-design coherence. Use after animation renders or when the user says motion/morph/outside elements look bad.
when_to_use: Animation QA, contact-sheet review, motion critique, morph validation, texture flicker detection, storyboard checks, rejecting bad animation passes, pre-export animation acceptance gates.
allowed-tools: Read Bash Glob Grep mcp__blender__execute_blender_code mcp__blender__get_scene_info mcp__blender__get_object_info
---

# Animation Quality Gate

Do not accept an animation because it rendered. Accept it only after a contact sheet and failure analysis pass.

## Review dimensions

1. **Subject dominance** — the main asset remains readable and is not overwhelmed by HUD/context.
2. **Layer separation** — base subject, texture state, glow, HUD, and background are separate enough to control.
3. **Silhouette stability** — silhouette stays constant unless deliberate morph is specified.
4. **Texture coherence** — no ugly full-image crossfade, crop pop, or unregistered morph.
5. **Motion coherence** — arcs/dots have a reason, restrained speed, and coherent easing.
6. **Export truth** — the final export can reproduce the effect or limitations are explicit.
7. **Frame aesthetics** — sampled frames look good as stills.

## RALPH trigger

If a user calls an animation ugly/bad, stop rebuilding immediately. First:

- collect preview frames/contact sheet;
- identify the failed dimension(s);
- invoke `quality-refinement-autoloop` if the stack lacks a method;
- add/refine generic skills only after sanitization;
- only then rebuild the animation.

## Hard gates

- No final animation without a contact sheet.
- No GLB claim for texture swaps implemented only with Blender Python handlers.
- No decorative context elements in base avatar export unless requested.
- No morph that violates locked geometry constraints.

## Scripts

- `scripts/animation_contact_sheet.py` builds a contact sheet and frame-to-frame difference report from rendered frames.