{"attempt": 1, "what": "prep v1", "looked_at": "photo masks + parts from f009/f012/f037/f038/f046/f000; contact sheet of 24 sprites", "saw": "dog parts read as photographs, but the development (autocontrast + unsharp 90%) posterised the fur", "changed": "unsharp 90% -> 60%"}
{"attempt": 2, "what": "fit v1", "looked_at": "generic frontal portrait rig run blind on 5 heads; review pairs", "saw": "fit lands on the front head only; on the profile it puts two eyes on a one-eyed head and calls the dark neck patch the nose; on the back of the head it places a whole face", "changed": "hand landmarks for the failures; anatomy tests written"}
{"attempt": 3, "what": "actor test sheet", "looked_at": "11 poses drawn from the body template (stand, walk, crouch, lie, look back, back head, turn sprites)", "saw": "lying with legs folded reads; crouch crumples the hind legs into an X; three-quarter and front heads show square background corners", "changed": "crouch hip drop kept small; elliptical soft cut on every head"}
{"attempt": 4, "what": "scene v1, 5 test frames", "looked_at": "plate + person + door + actor", "saw": "dog too bright with a 1 px white SAM fringe; person tabard too light; lying dog only about a third inside the door frame", "changed": "alpha trimmed 1 px; person graded to backlit silhouette; score x mapped to the loins (body centre 0.3 m toward the door)"}
{"attempt": 5, "what": "full render 1 (768)", "looked_at": "flow sheets every 0.5 s and full-res crops", "saw": "choices read; look-in head (f000 cut) pale and tall, reads as a lift toward the light", "changed": "back of head luminance-keyed to the dark fur, neck lowered, head widened 1.25x and shrunk 0.92 (further away), warm rim from the doorway"}
{"attempt": 6, "what": "person check", "looked_at": "crops at 1.7, 3.7, 5.8, 7.1 s", "saw": "her arm hung diagonally across her body and the low hand stayed at shoulder height (anchor points swapped by the mirror)", "changed": "arm anchors corrected; seated lean 24 deg and hand angle 74 deg"}
{"attempt": 7, "what": "film v1", "looked_at": "encode with grain tune, crf 24", "saw": "30.5 MB, over the 12 MB house limit", "changed": "grain amplitude halved, no grain tune, crf 23 -> 9.1 MB"}
{"attempt": 8, "what": "film v2 frames", "looked_at": "frames extracted from film.mp4 at 3.42-3.58 s", "saw": "at 3.6 s (the still) the dog was still mid-turn facing the viewer", "changed": "turn tightened to frames 82-85 (head, three-quarter, front, three-quarter mirrored); back turned from 3.54 s"}
{"attempt": 9, "what": "approach check", "looked_at": "trace head_below_back and crops 14.7-15.1 s", "saw": "first 8 frames of the approach still had the head up (score head 0.8 -> 0.45)", "changed": "head drops with the decision over 4 frames and stays low"}
{"attempt": 10, "what": "fit v2", "looked_at": "error table", "saw": "mirroring the three-quarter cut swapped left/right labels and inflated its error", "changed": "labels swapped for mirrored cuts; three-quarter now accepted at 0.117 of head diagonal; the actor uses the automatic landmarks where they pass (front, three-quarter) and hand ones elsewhere"}
{"attempt": 11, "what": "measure", "looked_at": "onsets from rendered alpha", "saw": "a stale single-frame alpha file could overwrite frame 650", "changed": "render_all clears alpha files before rendering"}
{"attempt": 12, "what": "final", "looked_at": "make.sh end to end (3 min), check_handmade", "saw": "ALL OK; 912 frames, 38.0 s, 9.07 MB (then 9.24 MB after the rim fix below); every frame 80-87 and 178-198 extracted from film.mp4 shows one dog, no double image; soft voice 14 dB under the calls measured on the decoded film audio", "changed": "stop: watchable, invariants hold; independent critique pending"}
{"attempt": 13, "what": "rim check", "looked_at": "film frames 22.5-32 s", "saw": "the warm doorway rim outlined the whole dog like a sticker", "changed": "rim gain 150 -> 55; make.sh rerun, ALL OK, 9.24 MB, 28 s still re-checked"}
{"attempt": 14, "what": "critic round 1", "looked_at": "reviews/round1.md", "saw": "does not pass (narrowly): voices 0.3-0.4 s late; look-in reads as a lift with a ghosted head; back sprite jump and pale hood at 8.0; L/R flip at 3.51-3.55; dog a cold blue glowing cut-out", "changed": "five repairs below"}
{"attempt": 15, "what": "round 2 repairs", "looked_at": "film.mp4 frames 3.42-3.62, 7.92-8.21, 12.5, 19, 26.5-28.33; decoded audio", "saw": "voice onsets 0.98/3.40/7.40/10.39/26.39 (all before score); head level and muzzle into the lit doorway, no lift; back sprite same height, dark head; no flip; dog grey in the dusk grade, no glow", "changed": "flite silence trimmed; look = foreshortened receding backlit profile, level; back sprite rescaled and keyed; mirrored 3/4 frame removed; dog grade to set tint + edge band darkened; end card corrected; ALL OK, 9.07 MB"}
{"attempt": 16, "what": "critic round 2", "looked_at": "reviews/round2.md", "saw": "look-in fails: pale hollow front head at 26.17-26.33, then a flat left profile read as looking at the person; 3/4 head at 7.54-7.62 a muddy blob", "changed": "see 17-18"}
{"attempt": 17, "what": "search for a rear view", "looked_at": "kit frames f000, f001, f002, f013-f020, f026, f027, f039-f043, 8x grids", "saw": "no frame shows a legible back of head with two ears; f000/f001 is a dark mass with one point", "changed": "CHOICE: closer shot (2x) on the sill from 26.42 to 28.21, plus a rear-view head assembled from f000's fur cut by a hand polygon (skull + two ear flaps); first try had grey flat ears and expression-patch seams, so the ear patches were dropped for this view and the ear flaps given f000's fur"}
{"attempt": 18, "what": "round 3 build", "looked_at": "film.mp4 full-frame and crops at 7.50-7.62, 25.92-26.38, 26.42-28.75, 31.88", "saw": "profile level before the look; cut at 26.42, profile -> foreshortened -> back of head with both ears, dark against the warm hall, from 26.58; back to resting by 28.25 in the wide shot, lying until the end; 3/4 head with eye and muzzle toward the door at 7.50-7.96", "changed": "ALL OK, 9.02 MB"}
{"attempt": 19, "what": "critic round 3", "looked_at": "reviews/round3.md", "saw": "look-in geometry right, but a one-frame pop in and out, a frozen 1.5 s hold, and the rear head a flat dark cut-out with a pale contour and big wide-set cat ears", "changed": "see 20"}
{"attempt": 20, "what": "round 4 build", "looked_at": "film.mp4 full-frame and crops, frames 634-678 and the end card", "saw": "profile foreshortens over 3 frames, rear head comes round over 2, then holds with a tilt and an ear flick; the rear head is dog-toned with small close-set ears, no pale outline; the reverse over 6 frames out; end card names the back-of-head artwork", "changed": "frame-staged turn in and out; rear head rebuilt (skull fading into the neck, separate ear sprites); close-shot rim 95->28; ALL OK, 9.03 MB"}
{"attempt": 21, "what": "critic round 4", "looked_at": "reviews/round4.md", "saw": "pass, narrowly: rear head dark and slightly translucent against the dark lower hall; 3/4 muzzle faces the camera at 7.50-7.96; hold motion faint", "changed": "see 22"}
{"attempt": 22, "what": "round 5 build", "looked_at": "film.mp4 frames 7.67, 7.75, 26.71-27.96 full-frame and cropped; edge rings from the render applied to decoded film frames", "saw": "head-edge contrast 66-72 grey levels (min 66); muzzle toward the door at 7.67-7.75; ear flick clearly visible (382 px changed > 25 levels)", "changed": "firmer rear-head alpha, hall lamp pool behind the head, lowered-head photo laid toward the door for the head lead, 45 deg ear flicks x2, tilt +/-4 deg; ALL OK, 9.02 MB"}