visual-asset-remaster

Visual Asset Remaster

When This Fires

Use this for image or animation asset work where quality depends on model choice, prompt strategy, alpha handling, or batch generation: pixelated mascots, sprite sheets, app icons, logo cleanup, transparent PNGs, upscaling, image edits, background removal, contact-sheet batching, and repacking assets into a runtime format.

Near misses: use ui-component-polish for UI layout/styling, product-surface-polish for store/pricing/marketing surfaces, and the built-in image generation flow for a single new image that does not need preservation, batching, or runtime integration.

Procedure

1. Pin the asset contract before touching pixels: source files, renderer/consumer, expected dimensions, frame count, transparency rules, animation names/timing, and the exact visual qualities that must not change.
2. Find the best source first. Search local files, repo history, archives, and public originals when the user asks for provenance; compare per-frame detail, not just total canvas size.
3. Retrieve and validate provider credentials through local-secret-retrieval when API calls are needed. A key's presence is not enough; run the smallest provider call that proves it works, without printing secret values.
4. Build a hard-case pilot matrix before a full batch. Infer acceptance criteria from the asset contract and the visible failure instead of asking the user to define obvious quality metrics. Use representative difficult assets: tiny eyes, thin lines, overlapping props, hands/wires/text, edge transparency, and any animation frames where drift is obvious. Include local baselines, true upscalers, image-edit/generative models, background-removal/matte options, and prompt/control variants.
5. Treat "upscale" and "image edit/generation" as different hypotheses. True upscalers preserve identity but may smooth detail; edit/generation models can sharpen or beautify while moving geometry. Test both when quality demands it, then pick from evidence.
6. Handle transparency deterministically. Inspect actual alpha channels; PNG output alone does not prove transparency. Do not send white matte into the final pipeline. Use filled RGB under transparent pixels, green/blue/chroma backgrounds, background removal, or original masks as experiments, then choose the final alpha source from measured/visual evidence.
7. Judge with visual boards, not vibes. Make before/after boards, focused crops for the failure feature, alpha/checker previews, and per-animation review sheets. Metrics such as alpha IoU or pixel diff are secondary; reject outputs that preserve a number while moving eyes, silhouette, props, or timing.
8. Scale only after the pilot passes. Checkpoint provider outputs, record provider/model/settings/prompt in the manifest, and prefer one-by-one generation when quality review matters more than throughput.
9. Verify in the real runtime. Repack into the actual asset format, run structural tests/builds, launch or render through the consumer, inspect snapshots on transparent and real backgrounds, and review every animation or a per-animation board before calling the asset done.