Cast portraits round 1: 8 characters x 2 FLUX 3 renders as takes on canon

Baseline r1a per character (chibi bust, flat cel, dark navy ground, 4:5) plus
one single-variable r1b each. Canon notes from the pixel sheets, results table
and contact sheet in cast-portraits/README.md and contact-r1.png.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

cast-portraits/README.md

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+# Cast portraits, round 1
+
+Round 1 of portraits for the shortlisted swarm members, rendered with FLUX 3 Image as
+takes on their canon designs. These are raster portraits; vectorising comes later.
+The drawings from the earlier rounds (`self/cast-stickers`, `self/cast-designs`) are
+not used.
+
+`contact-r1.png` shows all 16 renders, labelled. Each `<name>/<name>-r1a|b.txt`
+holds that render's hypothesis, its variable, its render record and its exact prompt.
+
+## Canon
+
+Canon is the pixel-art character sheets in
+`GameCult/static/interactive/cotsc-praxis/character-sheets/<name>-sheet.png` (six poses
+each), plus `AquaSynth/icon.png` for Aqua and the Eureka skill's
+`docs/assets/eureka-mascot-clean.png` for Eureka. All the sheets are chibi (a large head
+on a small body) and drawn on near-black with neon glow accents. These notes come from
+looking at the sheets. Where the `cast-designs` briefs disagree with them, the sheets win:
+for example, the briefs give Libby reading-lamp green, but on her sheet she is lavender
+and violet.
+
+- **Libby**: long wavy lavender hair with a swept fringe, a white crossed-bone hair clip,
+  a dark purple diamond-patterned ribbon bow, round thin black glasses, grey-violet eyes and
+  gold drop earrings. She wears a high-collared black scholar's robe with mauve diamond and
+  rune embroidery and a violet gem brooch. Her props are books, a wand, a skull, a stamp and
+  glowing violet panels. She is cheerful and open-mouthed.
+- **Heimdall**: dark brown skin and messy dark curly hair with gold highlights. His eyes glow
+  gold and he frowns sternly. He wears a black coat with royal blue lapels and cape, gold
+  filigree, blue gem studs, a gold key clasp at the throat and keys on his belt. He holds a
+  large gold key. His motifs are gates, glowing blue circuitry and red denial cards.
+- **Kiko**: messy white hair, white fox ears with pink insides, and a white kitsune mask with
+  red and magenta markings worn on top of her head. Her hair ornaments are black with gold
+  bells and magenta tassels. She has cyan eyes and a fang grin. She wears a black kimono-jacket
+  with magenta and teal trim and a gold bell. She has white fox tails with pink tips, several
+  in some poses. Her motifs are a neon magenta and cyan stream UI.
+- **Aqua**: a round goldfish with a golden-yellow face, an orange body, scales, an orange crest
+  fin and big blue eyes. He wears black over-ear headphones with cyan rings. His motifs are
+  bubbles, music notes, a synth and a blue holographic panel. The icon shows the same fish in a
+  glossy painted style inside a glass tank.
+- **Weksa**: warm brown skin and messy dark hair in a half-up topknot with turquoise and amber
+  beads and feathers. Weksa wears large round gold glasses, turquoise earrings, a cream robe with
+  teal embroidered trim, a brown vest, layered bead necklaces and bracelets, and a leather
+  backpack stuffed with scrolls and a carved idol. The props are glyph cards, a magnifier, maps
+  and a field notebook. The sheet does not state Weksa's gender, so these notes use no pronoun.
+- **Nibu**: very long pale lavender hair with a swept fringe, a pink connector-shaped hair clip,
+  a pink ribbon bow and half-lidded violet eyes. She looks calm and serious and folds her arms.
+  She wears a lilac frilled blouse, detached dark purple sleeves with circuit embroidery, a cyan
+  ring device at the shoulder and a long dark purple coat. Her motifs are glitch dissolve and
+  blue worldbuilding panels.
+- **Eureka**: a young woman in a neon-noir dark trenchcoat whose edges are piped in glowing
+  orange. She wears tactical straps and pouches and fingerless gloves, and she holds an orange
+  probe and a lantern. Her eyes are blue-grey. The mascot shows her hair as dark with a blue cast;
+  the operator ruled on 2026-10-10 that it is black with an orange highlight. In the mascot the
+  hood is down behind a high collar.
+- **Void**: a small figure in a pointed indigo-violet hooded robe. The face inside the hood is
+  pure black, with two tall white oval eyes and no other features. Void wears a thick orange scarf
+  with frayed trailing ends and dark gloves. The motifs are a spiral portal door and a glowing
+  violet document.
+
+## Shared style hypothesis (the r1a baseline)
+
+A chibi bust is the baseline: head and shoulders, cropped at mid-chest, a three-quarter view
+facing right, 4:5 at 2k. It is drawn in flat two-tone cel shading with a bold outline and a thin
+rim light in the key colour, in a palette of five or six colours, on a flat dark navy ground.
+The hypothesis is that this gives a take on the pixel canon that can be traced into vectors and
+carries the canon's silhouette, palette and hooks. The ground follows the brand's `#07111a`, but
+the prompt describes it in words, with no hex code. Each r1b changes one variable against its own
+r1a.
+
+## Results
+
+| Render | Hypothesis | Variable (vs r1a) | Observation | Agent verdict | Operator verdict |
+|---|---|---|---|---|---|
+| libby-r1a | shared baseline | — | Every hook is there: bone clip, patterned bow, round glasses, gold earrings, rune-embroidered black robe, book. Ordinary anime proportions, not chibi. The ground came out a slate navy lighter than `#07111a`. No visible rim light. | Holds on canon. Misses chibi and rim light. | |
+| libby-r1b | A pale ground separates a black robe | ground navy → pale off-white | The robe edge and hair outline read much more clearly. The clip became crossed bones, which is closer to the sheet, though that is chance and not caused by the variable. | Holds. The pale ground is better for tracing dark-clad characters. | |
+| heimdall-r1a | shared baseline | — | Canon colours, key clasp, blue gems and gold key all present. Younger face, chunky bust. His hair is tamer than the sheet's wild mop. | Holds on canon. Only partly chibi. | |
+| heimdall-r1b | Standard proportions read as generic | chibi → standard anime | Clearly older, taller and more of a generic bishonen. The key becomes a staff-length prop. | Holds: chibi is part of the canon read. Keep chibi. | |
+| kiko-r1a | shared baseline | — | Strong canon match: mask on her head, bells and tassels, fang grin, wave, magenta and teal kimono, pink-tipped tail. The closest to chibi of the set. | Holds. The best of the round. | |
+| kiko-r1b | Lineless vectorises more cleanly | outline → none | FLUX still drew thin dark contour lines, so the variable was only half applied. The figure also came out smaller in frame. | Does not hold: FLUX ignores "no outlines" when the prompt says "anime". | |
+| aqua-r1a | shared baseline | — | Headphones with cyan rings, crest fin, blue eyes and bubbles are all present. The body reads more as a duckling or chick than the canon's round scaled goldfish: no scales, and a beak-like mouth. The key-colour rim outline shows. | Partial: the species read drifted. | |
+| aqua-r1b | Glossy shading is truer to the icon | flat cel → glossy gradient | Barely different: slightly softer highlights and a rounder body. It is still not the icon's glossy look. | Inconclusive: the variable barely moved the output. | |
+| weksa-r1a | shared baseline | — | Beaded feathered topknot, gold round glasses, turquoise earrings, cream robe with teal trim, scroll backpack, glyph card. A strong canon match, with the teal rim light visible. | Holds. | |
+| weksa-r1b | A short prompt composes cleaner | long → two-sentence prompt | Cleaner and more frontal, but it dropped the card, the necklaces and the bracelets. The face reads more masculine and less like the sheet. | Does not hold: the long prompt keeps the canon. | |
+| nibu-r1a | shared baseline | — | Long lavender hair, pink bow and clip, half-lidded eyes, folded arms, detached circuit sleeves with a cyan device. The clip is a plain pin, not the canon connector. Ordinary proportions. | Holds on canon, apart from the clip. | |
+| nibu-r1b | A front view suits her still pose | three-quarter → front | Symmetrical and calm, and it suits her. The silhouette is about equal to r1a. | Weak hold: either view works. | |
+| eureka-r1a | shared baseline | — | Black hair with an orange streak, as the operator ruled. Charcoal hooded coat with orange piping, chest rig, fingerless gloves, orange probe. Reads as a younger, cleaner version of the mascot. | Holds. | |
+| eureka-r1b | Hood up gives a stronger silhouette | hood down → up | The hood framing her face makes a distinctive outline, and the orange lining and streak still show. | Holds, but it departs from the mascot (hood down). Needs an operator ruling. | |
+| void-r1a | shared baseline | — | Pointed indigo hood, black face with two white oval eyes, frayed orange scarf, gloves. A faithful take, with an orange rim outline. | Holds. | |
+| void-r1b | Square suits a wide hood and scarf | 4:5 → 1:1 | The figure came out smaller, with more empty ground. It reads the same and gains nothing. | Does not hold: keep 4:5. | |
+
+## Carried to round 2
+
+- The chibi wording did not land for most of the cast. Only Kiko and Aqua came out chibi. Round 2
+  should test a stronger proportion statement (for example a head-height ratio) as its single
+  variable.
+- The rim light appeared only where the outline took on the key colour (Aqua, Weksa, Void).
+- The flat navy ground renders lighter than `#07111a`. A pale ground traces better for dark-clad
+  characters. Choosing the ground per character, or one shared choice, is a ruling for the operator.
+- Negative style instructions ("no outlines") are weak against the word "anime".

cast-portraits/aqua/aqua-r1a.txt

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+# Aqua r1a
+
+## Hypothesis
+
+Shared style baseline: a chibi bust (head and shoulders, three-quarter view facing right, 4:5) in flat two-tone cel shading with bold outlines on a flat dark navy ground will give a vector-traceable take on the pixel-art canon, carrying its silhouette, palette and hooks.
+
+## Variable changed
+
+Baseline: shared style block plus the canon character block.
+
+## Render record
+
+- Model: FLUX 3 Image, `POST https://api.bfl.ai/v1/flux-3-image`
+- Parameters: aspect_ratio 4:5, resolution 2k, safety_tolerance default, grounding default; no seed field; rendered from scratch with no reference image or edit
+- Output: 1824x2288, source format PNG, saved as PNG
+- Request id: 303ee6fc-c9a1-4259-afb2-5749cf62fc92
+- Date: 2026-10-10
+- Composition: shared style block, blank line, character block (r1b of weksa is one short prompt)
+
+## Prompt
+
+Character bust portrait for a game dialogue box: head and shoulders, cropped at mid-chest, three-quarter view with the character turned toward the right side of the frame, eye line in the upper third, clear margin around the head. Chibi proportions: a large head, small shoulders. Clean 2D anime illustration made to be traced into vector art: a bold dark outline around the whole silhouette, thinner inner lines, flat cel shading with exactly one base tone and one shadow tone per material, a thin rim light in the character's key colour on the side away from the light, light from the upper left. No gradients, no texture, no painterly blending, no pixel art, no 3D rendering. A limited palette of five or six flat colours. Large expressive anime eyes with two white highlights. Plain flat solid dark navy blue-black background with nothing else in it, so the silhouette reads strongly.
+
+Aqua, a cartoon goldfish DJ: a round chubby goldfish with a golden-yellow face and orange body, big round blue eyes with white highlights, a small open happy mouth, a little orange crest fin on top of the head, wearing large black over-ear studio headphones with glowing cyan rings on the ear cups. Bright orange fins and a flowing orange tail. The fish's head and upper body fill the frame, one fin raised. A few small cyan bubbles. Key colours: orange and cyan.

cast-portraits/aqua/aqua-r1b.txt

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+# Aqua r1b
+
+## Hypothesis
+
+Aqua's canon icon is glossy; glossy gradient shading will be truer to the icon but worse for vectorising than flat cel.
+
+## Variable changed
+
+Shading only: flat two-tone cel became glossy gradient shading, against aqua-r1a.
+
+## Render record
+
+- Model: FLUX 3 Image, `POST https://api.bfl.ai/v1/flux-3-image`
+- Parameters: aspect_ratio 4:5, resolution 2k, safety_tolerance default, grounding default; no seed field; rendered from scratch with no reference image or edit
+- Output: 1824x2288, source format PNG, saved as PNG
+- Request id: 32e3f15e-e4c9-439c-ae40-1d9fc9db2322
+- Date: 2026-10-10
+- Composition: shared style block, blank line, character block (r1b of weksa is one short prompt)
+
+## Prompt
+
+Character bust portrait for a game dialogue box: head and shoulders, cropped at mid-chest, three-quarter view with the character turned toward the right side of the frame, eye line in the upper third, clear margin around the head. Chibi proportions: a large head, small shoulders. Clean 2D anime illustration made to be traced into vector art: a bold dark outline around the whole silhouette, thinner inner lines, soft glossy shading with smooth gradients and bright specular highlights like a polished app icon, a thin rim light in the character's key colour on the side away from the light, light from the upper left. No texture, no pixel art, no 3D rendering. A limited palette of five or six flat colours. Large expressive anime eyes with two white highlights. Plain flat solid dark navy blue-black background with nothing else in it, so the silhouette reads strongly.
+
+Aqua, a cartoon goldfish DJ: a round chubby goldfish with a golden-yellow face and orange body, big round blue eyes with white highlights, a small open happy mouth, a little orange crest fin on top of the head, wearing large black over-ear studio headphones with glowing cyan rings on the ear cups. Bright orange fins and a flowing orange tail. The fish's head and upper body fill the frame, one fin raised. A few small cyan bubbles. Key colours: orange and cyan.

cast-portraits/eureka/eureka-r1a.txt

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+# Eureka r1a
+
+## Hypothesis
+
+Shared style baseline: a chibi bust (head and shoulders, three-quarter view facing right, 4:5) in flat two-tone cel shading with bold outlines on a flat dark navy ground will give a vector-traceable take on the pixel-art canon, carrying its silhouette, palette and hooks.
+
+## Variable changed
+
+Baseline: shared style block plus the canon character block.
+
+## Render record
+
+- Model: FLUX 3 Image, `POST https://api.bfl.ai/v1/flux-3-image`
+- Parameters: aspect_ratio 4:5, resolution 2k, safety_tolerance default, grounding default; no seed field; rendered from scratch with no reference image or edit
+- Output: 1824x2288, source format PNG, saved as PNG
+- Request id: 98ea977f-db97-49ee-a963-c7367dc8e33e
+- Date: 2026-10-10
+- Composition: shared style block, blank line, character block (r1b of weksa is one short prompt)
+
+## Prompt
+
+Character bust portrait for a game dialogue box: head and shoulders, cropped at mid-chest, three-quarter view with the character turned toward the right side of the frame, eye line in the upper third, clear margin around the head. Chibi proportions: a large head, small shoulders. Clean 2D anime illustration made to be traced into vector art: a bold dark outline around the whole silhouette, thinner inner lines, flat cel shading with exactly one base tone and one shadow tone per material, a thin rim light in the character's key colour on the side away from the light, light from the upper left. No gradients, no texture, no painterly blending, no pixel art, no 3D rendering. A limited palette of five or six flat colours. Large expressive anime eyes with two white highlights. Plain flat solid dark navy blue-black background with nothing else in it, so the silhouette reads strongly.
+
+Eureka, a neon-noir bug hunter: a young woman with messy shoulder-length black hair with one bright orange streak, sharp focused blue-grey eyes, a slight knowing smile. She wears a dark charcoal hooded trenchcoat with the hood down and the collar up, its seams and edges piped with glowing ember-orange lines, over tactical gear: chest straps, buckles and pouches. Fingerless gloves; she holds a slim orange metal probe. Key colour: ember orange.

cast-portraits/eureka/eureka-r1b.txt

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+# Eureka r1b
+
+## Hypothesis
+
+The hood up frames the face into a stronger, more recognisable neon-noir silhouette than hood down (the canon mascot shows it down).
+
+## Variable changed
+
+Hood only: hood down became hood up framing the face, against eureka-r1a.
+
+## Render record
+
+- Model: FLUX 3 Image, `POST https://api.bfl.ai/v1/flux-3-image`
+- Parameters: aspect_ratio 4:5, resolution 2k, safety_tolerance default, grounding default; no seed field; rendered from scratch with no reference image or edit
+- Output: 1824x2288, source format PNG, saved as PNG
+- Request id: e7279e4b-4fe1-481e-8e9e-9ab01f7795dd
+- Date: 2026-10-10
+- Composition: shared style block, blank line, character block (r1b of weksa is one short prompt)
+
+## Prompt
+
+Character bust portrait for a game dialogue box: head and shoulders, cropped at mid-chest, three-quarter view with the character turned toward the right side of the frame, eye line in the upper third, clear margin around the head. Chibi proportions: a large head, small shoulders. Clean 2D anime illustration made to be traced into vector art: a bold dark outline around the whole silhouette, thinner inner lines, flat cel shading with exactly one base tone and one shadow tone per material, a thin rim light in the character's key colour on the side away from the light, light from the upper left. No gradients, no texture, no painterly blending, no pixel art, no 3D rendering. A limited palette of five or six flat colours. Large expressive anime eyes with two white highlights. Plain flat solid dark navy blue-black background with nothing else in it, so the silhouette reads strongly.
+
+Eureka, a neon-noir bug hunter: a young woman with messy shoulder-length black hair with one bright orange streak, sharp focused blue-grey eyes, a slight knowing smile. She wears a dark charcoal hooded trenchcoat with the hood up, framing her face, and the collar up, its seams and edges piped with glowing ember-orange lines, over tactical gear: chest straps, buckles and pouches. Fingerless gloves; she holds a slim orange metal probe. Key colour: ember orange.

cast-portraits/heimdall/heimdall-r1a.txt

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+# Heimdall r1a
+
+## Hypothesis
+
+Shared style baseline: a chibi bust (head and shoulders, three-quarter view facing right, 4:5) in flat two-tone cel shading with bold outlines on a flat dark navy ground will give a vector-traceable take on the pixel-art canon, carrying its silhouette, palette and hooks.
+
+## Variable changed
+
+Baseline: shared style block plus the canon character block.
+
+## Render record
+
+- Model: FLUX 3 Image, `POST https://api.bfl.ai/v1/flux-3-image`
+- Parameters: aspect_ratio 4:5, resolution 2k, safety_tolerance default, grounding default; no seed field; rendered from scratch with no reference image or edit
+- Output: 1824x2288, source format PNG, saved as PNG
+- Request id: 01e00f1f-8081-4a9e-bc9a-d85ec55a4776
+- Date: 2026-10-10
+- Composition: shared style block, blank line, character block (r1b of weksa is one short prompt)
+
+## Prompt
+
+Character bust portrait for a game dialogue box: head and shoulders, cropped at mid-chest, three-quarter view with the character turned toward the right side of the frame, eye line in the upper third, clear margin around the head. Chibi proportions: a large head, small shoulders. Clean 2D anime illustration made to be traced into vector art: a bold dark outline around the whole silhouette, thinner inner lines, flat cel shading with exactly one base tone and one shadow tone per material, a thin rim light in the character's key colour on the side away from the light, light from the upper left. No gradients, no texture, no painterly blending, no pixel art, no 3D rendering. A limited palette of five or six flat colours. Large expressive anime eyes with two white highlights. Plain flat solid dark navy blue-black background with nothing else in it, so the silhouette reads strongly.
+
+Heimdall, a stern young gatekeeper: dark brown skin, a mop of messy dark brown curly hair with golden highlights, glowing golden amber eyes, a serious frown, one small gold earring. He wears a high-collared black coat with royal blue lapels and a royal blue cape trimmed in gold filigree, small glowing blue gems on the shoulder armour, and a gold key-shaped clasp at the throat. He holds an ornate golden key raised beside his shoulder. Key colours: gold and cobalt blue.

cast-portraits/heimdall/heimdall-r1b.txt

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+# Heimdall r1b
+
+## Hypothesis
+
+Chibi proportions are what make the take read as the canon; standard anime proportions will read as a different, generic character.
+
+## Variable changed
+
+Proportions only: chibi became standard anime proportions, against heimdall-r1a.
+
+## Render record
+
+- Model: FLUX 3 Image, `POST https://api.bfl.ai/v1/flux-3-image`
+- Parameters: aspect_ratio 4:5, resolution 2k, safety_tolerance default, grounding default; no seed field; rendered from scratch with no reference image or edit
+- Output: 1824x2288, source format PNG, saved as PNG
+- Request id: ddc56b81-968c-4497-aae7-7907fcf93857
+- Date: 2026-10-10
+- Composition: shared style block, blank line, character block (r1b of weksa is one short prompt)
+
+## Prompt
+
+Character bust portrait for a game dialogue box: head and shoulders, cropped at mid-chest, three-quarter view with the character turned toward the right side of the frame, eye line in the upper third, clear margin around the head. Standard anime proportions: a natural adult-teen head size with full-width shoulders, not chibi. Clean 2D anime illustration made to be traced into vector art: a bold dark outline around the whole silhouette, thinner inner lines, flat cel shading with exactly one base tone and one shadow tone per material, a thin rim light in the character's key colour on the side away from the light, light from the upper left. No gradients, no texture, no painterly blending, no pixel art, no 3D rendering. A limited palette of five or six flat colours. Large expressive anime eyes with two white highlights. Plain flat solid dark navy blue-black background with nothing else in it, so the silhouette reads strongly.
+
+Heimdall, a stern young gatekeeper: dark brown skin, a mop of messy dark brown curly hair with golden highlights, glowing golden amber eyes, a serious frown, one small gold earring. He wears a high-collared black coat with royal blue lapels and a royal blue cape trimmed in gold filigree, small glowing blue gems on the shoulder armour, and a gold key-shaped clasp at the throat. He holds an ornate golden key raised beside his shoulder. Key colours: gold and cobalt blue.

cast-portraits/kiko/kiko-r1a.txt

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+# Kiko r1a
+
+## Hypothesis
+
+Shared style baseline: a chibi bust (head and shoulders, three-quarter view facing right, 4:5) in flat two-tone cel shading with bold outlines on a flat dark navy ground will give a vector-traceable take on the pixel-art canon, carrying its silhouette, palette and hooks.
+
+## Variable changed
+
+Baseline: shared style block plus the canon character block.
+
+## Render record
+
+- Model: FLUX 3 Image, `POST https://api.bfl.ai/v1/flux-3-image`
+- Parameters: aspect_ratio 4:5, resolution 2k, safety_tolerance default, grounding default; no seed field; rendered from scratch with no reference image or edit
+- Output: 1824x2288, source format PNG, saved as PNG
+- Request id: 45e038c0-b9c7-43da-a00d-7a5f8fdbd015
+- Date: 2026-10-10
+- Composition: shared style block, blank line, character block (r1b of weksa is one short prompt)
+
+## Prompt
+
+Character bust portrait for a game dialogue box: head and shoulders, cropped at mid-chest, three-quarter view with the character turned toward the right side of the frame, eye line in the upper third, clear margin around the head. Chibi proportions: a large head, small shoulders. Clean 2D anime illustration made to be traced into vector art: a bold dark outline around the whole silhouette, thinner inner lines, flat cel shading with exactly one base tone and one shadow tone per material, a thin rim light in the character's key colour on the side away from the light, light from the upper left. No gradients, no texture, no painterly blending, no pixel art, no 3D rendering. A limited palette of five or six flat colours. Large expressive anime eyes with two white highlights. Plain flat solid dark navy blue-black background with nothing else in it, so the silhouette reads strongly.
+
+Kiko, an excitable fox-girl streamer: messy white shoulder-length hair, tall white fox ears with pink insides, a white kitsune fox mask with red and magenta markings worn pushed up on top of her head, black hair ornaments with gold bells and magenta tassels, bright cyan eyes, a wide open-mouthed grin with one small fang, one hand raised in a wave. She wears a black kimono-style jacket with magenta and teal trim and a gold bell at the collar. A fluffy white fox tail with pink tips curls up behind one shoulder. Key colours: magenta and cyan.

cast-portraits/kiko/kiko-r1b.txt

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+# Kiko r1b
+
+## Hypothesis
+
+Lineless flat-shape rendering will vectorise more cleanly than outlined art while keeping Kiko readable through colour blocks.
+
+## Variable changed
+
+Line only: bold outlines became no outlines (flat colour shapes), against kiko-r1a.
+
+## Render record
+
+- Model: FLUX 3 Image, `POST https://api.bfl.ai/v1/flux-3-image`
+- Parameters: aspect_ratio 4:5, resolution 2k, safety_tolerance default, grounding default; no seed field; rendered from scratch with no reference image or edit
+- Output: 1824x2288, source format PNG, saved as PNG
+- Request id: 784e839e-1662-4fc6-ba1f-2e1fc9852547
+- Date: 2026-10-10
+- Composition: shared style block, blank line, character block (r1b of weksa is one short prompt)
+
+## Prompt
+
+Character bust portrait for a game dialogue box: head and shoulders, cropped at mid-chest, three-quarter view with the character turned toward the right side of the frame, eye line in the upper third, clear margin around the head. Chibi proportions: a large head, small shoulders. Clean 2D anime illustration made to be traced into vector art: no outlines and no line art at all, every form defined only by flat colour shapes meeting edge to edge, flat cel shading with exactly one base tone and one shadow tone per material, a thin rim light in the character's key colour on the side away from the light, light from the upper left. No gradients, no texture, no painterly blending, no pixel art, no 3D rendering. A limited palette of five or six flat colours. Large expressive anime eyes with two white highlights. Plain flat solid dark navy blue-black background with nothing else in it, so the silhouette reads strongly.
+
+Kiko, an excitable fox-girl streamer: messy white shoulder-length hair, tall white fox ears with pink insides, a white kitsune fox mask with red and magenta markings worn pushed up on top of her head, black hair ornaments with gold bells and magenta tassels, bright cyan eyes, a wide open-mouthed grin with one small fang, one hand raised in a wave. She wears a black kimono-style jacket with magenta and teal trim and a gold bell at the collar. A fluffy white fox tail with pink tips curls up behind one shoulder. Key colours: magenta and cyan.

cast-portraits/libby/libby-r1a.txt

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+# Libby r1a
+
+## Hypothesis
+
+Shared style baseline: a chibi bust (head and shoulders, three-quarter view facing right, 4:5) in flat two-tone cel shading with bold outlines on a flat dark navy ground will give a vector-traceable take on the pixel-art canon, carrying its silhouette, palette and hooks.
+
+## Variable changed
+
+Baseline: shared style block plus the canon character block.
+
+## Render record
+
+- Model: FLUX 3 Image, `POST https://api.bfl.ai/v1/flux-3-image`
+- Parameters: aspect_ratio 4:5, resolution 2k, safety_tolerance default, grounding default; no seed field; rendered from scratch with no reference image or edit
+- Output: 1824x2288, source format PNG, saved as PNG
+- Request id: 97b1a57c-d813-4a47-9409-27a357100df5
+- Date: 2026-10-10
+- Composition: shared style block, blank line, character block (r1b of weksa is one short prompt)
+
+## Prompt
+
+Character bust portrait for a game dialogue box: head and shoulders, cropped at mid-chest, three-quarter view with the character turned toward the right side of the frame, eye line in the upper third, clear margin around the head. Chibi proportions: a large head, small shoulders. Clean 2D anime illustration made to be traced into vector art: a bold dark outline around the whole silhouette, thinner inner lines, flat cel shading with exactly one base tone and one shadow tone per material, a thin rim light in the character's key colour on the side away from the light, light from the upper left. No gradients, no texture, no painterly blending, no pixel art, no 3D rendering. A limited palette of five or six flat colours. Large expressive anime eyes with two white highlights. Plain flat solid dark navy blue-black background with nothing else in it, so the silhouette reads strongly.
+
+Libby, a cheerful young librarian-witch: long wavy lavender hair falling past her shoulders with a swept side fringe, a white crossed-bone hair clip on the left side of her head, a dark purple ribbon bow with a mauve diamond pattern tied in her hair on the right, round thin black-framed glasses, large grey-violet eyes, small gold drop earrings, pale skin, smiling with her mouth open. She wears a high-collared black scholar's robe embroidered with dusky mauve diamond and rune patterns and a small violet gem brooch at the collar. She holds an old brown leather book with a faint violet glow at the bottom edge of the frame. Key colour: soft violet.

cast-portraits/libby/libby-r1b.txt

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+# Libby r1b
+
+## Hypothesis
+
+A black-robed character on a dark ground loses her silhouette; a pale ground will separate the robe edge and make tracing easier.
+
+## Variable changed
+
+Ground only: flat dark navy became flat pale warm off-white, against libby-r1a.
+
+## Render record
+
+- Model: FLUX 3 Image, `POST https://api.bfl.ai/v1/flux-3-image`
+- Parameters: aspect_ratio 4:5, resolution 2k, safety_tolerance default, grounding default; no seed field; rendered from scratch with no reference image or edit
+- Output: 1824x2288, source format PNG, saved as PNG
+- Request id: 47c38113-18cb-4e8a-930c-130d3f699b97
+- Date: 2026-10-10
+- Composition: shared style block, blank line, character block (r1b of weksa is one short prompt)
+
+## Prompt
+
+Character bust portrait for a game dialogue box: head and shoulders, cropped at mid-chest, three-quarter view with the character turned toward the right side of the frame, eye line in the upper third, clear margin around the head. Chibi proportions: a large head, small shoulders. Clean 2D anime illustration made to be traced into vector art: a bold dark outline around the whole silhouette, thinner inner lines, flat cel shading with exactly one base tone and one shadow tone per material, a thin rim light in the character's key colour on the side away from the light, light from the upper left. No gradients, no texture, no painterly blending, no pixel art, no 3D rendering. A limited palette of five or six flat colours. Large expressive anime eyes with two white highlights. Plain flat solid pale warm off-white background with nothing else in it, so the silhouette reads strongly.
+
+Libby, a cheerful young librarian-witch: long wavy lavender hair falling past her shoulders with a swept side fringe, a white crossed-bone hair clip on the left side of her head, a dark purple ribbon bow with a mauve diamond pattern tied in her hair on the right, round thin black-framed glasses, large grey-violet eyes, small gold drop earrings, pale skin, smiling with her mouth open. She wears a high-collared black scholar's robe embroidered with dusky mauve diamond and rune patterns and a small violet gem brooch at the collar. She holds an old brown leather book with a faint violet glow at the bottom edge of the frame. Key colour: soft violet.

cast-portraits/nibu/nibu-r1a.txt

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+# Nibu r1a
+
+## Hypothesis
+
+Shared style baseline: a chibi bust (head and shoulders, three-quarter view facing right, 4:5) in flat two-tone cel shading with bold outlines on a flat dark navy ground will give a vector-traceable take on the pixel-art canon, carrying its silhouette, palette and hooks.
+
+## Variable changed
+
+Baseline: shared style block plus the canon character block.
+
+## Render record
+
+- Model: FLUX 3 Image, `POST https://api.bfl.ai/v1/flux-3-image`
+- Parameters: aspect_ratio 4:5, resolution 2k, safety_tolerance default, grounding default; no seed field; rendered from scratch with no reference image or edit
+- Output: 1824x2288, source format PNG, saved as PNG
+- Request id: 62be2da1-23d4-4453-85cb-b52b048c2371
+- Date: 2026-10-10
+- Composition: shared style block, blank line, character block (r1b of weksa is one short prompt)
+
+## Prompt
+
+Character bust portrait for a game dialogue box: head and shoulders, cropped at mid-chest, three-quarter view with the character turned toward the right side of the frame, eye line in the upper third, clear margin around the head. Chibi proportions: a large head, small shoulders. Clean 2D anime illustration made to be traced into vector art: a bold dark outline around the whole silhouette, thinner inner lines, flat cel shading with exactly one base tone and one shadow tone per material, a thin rim light in the character's key colour on the side away from the light, light from the upper left. No gradients, no texture, no painterly blending, no pixel art, no 3D rendering. A limited palette of five or six flat colours. Large expressive anime eyes with two white highlights. Plain flat solid dark navy blue-black background with nothing else in it, so the silhouette reads strongly.
+
+Nibu, a quiet, serious worldbuilder girl: very long pale lavender hair with a swept side fringe, a small pink hair clip on the left, a large pink ribbon bow on the right, half-lidded violet eyes, a calm unsmiling expression, arms folded. Wears a sleeveless lilac blouse with a frilled collar, detached dark purple sleeves with circuit-pattern embroidery, a small glowing cyan ring device on the shoulder, and a long dark purple coat. Key colours: violet and pink with a cyan accent.

cast-portraits/nibu/nibu-r1b.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+# Nibu r1b
+
+## Hypothesis
+
+A straight front view suits Nibu's still, arms-folded canon pose and makes a stronger symmetrical silhouette than three-quarter.
+
+## Variable changed
+
+View only: three-quarter facing right became straight-on front, against nibu-r1a.
+
+## Render record
+
+- Model: FLUX 3 Image, `POST https://api.bfl.ai/v1/flux-3-image`
+- Parameters: aspect_ratio 4:5, resolution 2k, safety_tolerance default, grounding default; no seed field; rendered from scratch with no reference image or edit
+- Output: 1824x2288, source format PNG, saved as PNG
+- Request id: 1f7e033d-f0c4-46b0-b604-8dfc51875929
+- Date: 2026-10-10
+- Composition: shared style block, blank line, character block (r1b of weksa is one short prompt)
+
+## Prompt
+
+Character bust portrait for a game dialogue box: head and shoulders, cropped at mid-chest, straight-on front view with the character facing the viewer directly, symmetrical framing, eye line in the upper third, clear margin around the head. Chibi proportions: a large head, small shoulders. Clean 2D anime illustration made to be traced into vector art: a bold dark outline around the whole silhouette, thinner inner lines, flat cel shading with exactly one base tone and one shadow tone per material, a thin rim light in the character's key colour on the side away from the light, light from the upper left. No gradients, no texture, no painterly blending, no pixel art, no 3D rendering. A limited palette of five or six flat colours. Large expressive anime eyes with two white highlights. Plain flat solid dark navy blue-black background with nothing else in it, so the silhouette reads strongly.
+
+Nibu, a quiet, serious worldbuilder girl: very long pale lavender hair with a swept side fringe, a small pink hair clip on the left, a large pink ribbon bow on the right, half-lidded violet eyes, a calm unsmiling expression, arms folded. Wears a sleeveless lilac blouse with a frilled collar, detached dark purple sleeves with circuit-pattern embroidery, a small glowing cyan ring device on the shoulder, and a long dark purple coat. Key colours: violet and pink with a cyan accent.

cast-portraits/void/void-r1a.txt

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+# Void r1a
+
+## Hypothesis
+
+Shared style baseline: a chibi bust (head and shoulders, three-quarter view facing right, 4:5) in flat two-tone cel shading with bold outlines on a flat dark navy ground will give a vector-traceable take on the pixel-art canon, carrying its silhouette, palette and hooks.
+
+## Variable changed
+
+Baseline: shared style block plus the canon character block.
+
+## Render record
+
+- Model: FLUX 3 Image, `POST https://api.bfl.ai/v1/flux-3-image`
+- Parameters: aspect_ratio 4:5, resolution 2k, safety_tolerance default, grounding default; no seed field; rendered from scratch with no reference image or edit
+- Output: 1824x2288, source format PNG, saved as PNG
+- Request id: 4006b3c6-6cfb-4f83-bdf5-8f8dfb82f0db
+- Date: 2026-10-10
+- Composition: shared style block, blank line, character block (r1b of weksa is one short prompt)
+
+## Prompt
+
+Character bust portrait for a game dialogue box: head and shoulders, cropped at mid-chest, three-quarter view with the character turned toward the right side of the frame, eye line in the upper third, clear margin around the head. Chibi proportions: a large head, small shoulders. Clean 2D anime illustration made to be traced into vector art: a bold dark outline around the whole silhouette, thinner inner lines, flat cel shading with exactly one base tone and one shadow tone per material, a thin rim light in the character's key colour on the side away from the light, light from the upper left. No gradients, no texture, no painterly blending, no pixel art, no 3D rendering. A limited palette of five or six flat colours. Large expressive anime eyes with two white highlights. Plain flat solid dark navy blue-black background with nothing else in it, so the silhouette reads strongly.
+
+Void, a small hooded shadow figure: a deep indigo-violet robe with a large pointed hood, the face inside the hood completely black with no features except two tall white glowing oval eyes, a thick bright orange scarf wrapped around the neck with frayed ends trailing to one side, dark gloved hands. Key colours: indigo violet and orange.

cast-portraits/void/void-r1b.txt

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+# Void r1b
+
+## Hypothesis
+
+Square framing suits a wide hood-and-scarf silhouette better than 4:5 and tests the square-versus-4:5 framing choice.
+
+## Variable changed
+
+Aspect ratio only: 4:5 became 1:1, against void-r1a.
+
+## Render record
+
+- Model: FLUX 3 Image, `POST https://api.bfl.ai/v1/flux-3-image`
+- Parameters: aspect_ratio 1:1, resolution 2k, safety_tolerance default, grounding default; no seed field; rendered from scratch with no reference image or edit
+- Output: 2048x2048, source format PNG, saved as PNG
+- Request id: 4f1021fa-8917-4339-99a5-701abede11f3
+- Date: 2026-10-10
+- Composition: shared style block, blank line, character block (r1b of weksa is one short prompt)
+
+## Prompt
+
+Character bust portrait for a game dialogue box: head and shoulders, cropped at mid-chest, three-quarter view with the character turned toward the right side of the frame, eye line in the upper third, clear margin around the head. Chibi proportions: a large head, small shoulders. Clean 2D anime illustration made to be traced into vector art: a bold dark outline around the whole silhouette, thinner inner lines, flat cel shading with exactly one base tone and one shadow tone per material, a thin rim light in the character's key colour on the side away from the light, light from the upper left. No gradients, no texture, no painterly blending, no pixel art, no 3D rendering. A limited palette of five or six flat colours. Large expressive anime eyes with two white highlights. Plain flat solid dark navy blue-black background with nothing else in it, so the silhouette reads strongly.
+
+Void, a small hooded shadow figure: a deep indigo-violet robe with a large pointed hood, the face inside the hood completely black with no features except two tall white glowing oval eyes, a thick bright orange scarf wrapped around the neck with frayed ends trailing to one side, dark gloved hands. Key colours: indigo violet and orange.

cast-portraits/weksa/weksa-r1a.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+# Weksa r1a
+
+## Hypothesis
+
+Shared style baseline: a chibi bust (head and shoulders, three-quarter view facing right, 4:5) in flat two-tone cel shading with bold outlines on a flat dark navy ground will give a vector-traceable take on the pixel-art canon, carrying its silhouette, palette and hooks.
+
+## Variable changed
+
+Baseline: shared style block plus the canon character block.
+
+## Render record
+
+- Model: FLUX 3 Image, `POST https://api.bfl.ai/v1/flux-3-image`
+- Parameters: aspect_ratio 4:5, resolution 2k, safety_tolerance default, grounding default; no seed field; rendered from scratch with no reference image or edit
+- Output: 1824x2288, source format PNG, saved as PNG
+- Request id: 337dbab5-7910-4769-bb61-4704503bbb96
+- Date: 2026-10-10
+- Composition: shared style block, blank line, character block (r1b of weksa is one short prompt)
+
+## Prompt
+
+Character bust portrait for a game dialogue box: head and shoulders, cropped at mid-chest, three-quarter view with the character turned toward the right side of the frame, eye line in the upper third, clear margin around the head. Chibi proportions: a large head, small shoulders. Clean 2D anime illustration made to be traced into vector art: a bold dark outline around the whole silhouette, thinner inner lines, flat cel shading with exactly one base tone and one shadow tone per material, a thin rim light in the character's key colour on the side away from the light, light from the upper left. No gradients, no texture, no painterly blending, no pixel art, no 3D rendering. A limited palette of five or six flat colours. Large expressive anime eyes with two white highlights. Plain flat solid dark navy blue-black background with nothing else in it, so the silhouette reads strongly.
+
+Weksa, a cheerful wandering field anthropologist: warm brown skin, messy dark brown shoulder-length hair tied partly up in a topknot with turquoise and amber beads and small feathers, large round gold-rimmed glasses, warm amber-brown eyes, dangling turquoise earrings, an eager open smile. Wears a cream linen robe with teal embroidered trim over a brown vest, beaded necklaces and wooden bead bracelets, a brown leather backpack stuffed with rolled scrolls showing behind one shoulder. Holds up a small paper card with a hand-drawn glyph. Key colours: teal and amber on earthy browns.

cast-portraits/weksa/weksa-r1b.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+# Weksa r1b
+
+## Hypothesis
+
+A short blunt prompt gives FLUX room to compose and may read cleaner than the long specified one, at the cost of canon detail.
+
+## Variable changed
+
+Prompt length only: the long style plus character blocks became a two-sentence prompt with the same core features, against weksa-r1a.
+
+## Render record
+
+- Model: FLUX 3 Image, `POST https://api.bfl.ai/v1/flux-3-image`
+- Parameters: aspect_ratio 4:5, resolution 2k, safety_tolerance default, grounding default; no seed field; rendered from scratch with no reference image or edit
+- Output: 1824x2288, source format PNG, saved as PNG
+- Request id: bc83967c-179f-40ba-ab1a-97cb77403f99
+- Date: 2026-10-10
+- Composition: shared style block, blank line, character block (r1b of weksa is one short prompt)
+
+## Prompt
+
+Flat cel-shaded chibi anime bust portrait, bold outlines, plain dark navy background. Weksa: brown skin, messy dark topknot with turquoise beads and feathers, round gold glasses, cream robe with teal trim, scroll-stuffed backpack, eager smile.