Mythic Masters: animation and graphics hill climb to 9/10, rounds 13+ (from #3441) #3455

Continues the animation and graphics hill climb toward 9/10 from #3441 (round 12, PR #3452) and #2943 (rounds 6-11; 6-8 merged in #3409). Part of #2802.

Where it stands

3.5/10 estimated: the owner's own 3 (2026-11-03) plus round 12's half point from two judges. Agent judges called the same build 5, so they run about 2 points generous: read a judge for before vs after, never for the level. One build also drew 4, 4.5 and 5 from three judges, so use two judges a round (or two fight seeds) to tell a half-point gain from noise.

Goal: 9/10, a polished indie 3D game a player would call good-looking and alive.

Next rounds, in order

1. Shots cued on the hit. scripts/burst-shots.ts cues on an attack's start, so its 0.3 s frames rarely catch a hit's sparks. Add one burst cued on the hit event, so hit-feel rounds can be judged.
2. Flyers that engage. The Jersey Devil and Red Dragon deal damage from a body-length or two up. They should dive to the target's height for the strike (src/bot.ts, then src/sim.ts), not only the puppet.
3. Stands with depth. A flat grey bowl and identical crowd figures fill half of every frame: tiers, rails, banners, a darker back, a varied crowd (src/arena.ts, src/crowd.ts).
4. The grey wedges in the sky. Round 10 pushed the hills ring into the fog and judges still saw a dome; find what it really is before fixing it.
5. Framing. Fighters fill about 15% of the side camera's frame.
6. Fur along the limb. Both round-12 judges saw fur strands smear along arms and legs: run the strands along each bone, not rest-pose Y (src/hide.ts).

How to run a round

• bun scripts/burst-shots.ts <dir> <prefix> in apps/mythic-masters takes the bursts: three fights from the side camera, 4 frames 0.3 s apart, plus three close-ups. Shoot the BEFORE build and the NOW build into one folder with different prefixes.
• Spawn a fresh judge agent each round with the folder and the two prefixes. Don't anchor it on your reasoning; keep a change only if the judges see a gain.
• Every foot must still come out as a rig tip (bun run beasts). Imugi stays at budget 3200.
• One growing PR from main saying "Part of #N", with shots in docs/shots-<date>/. End each round by hopping the climb forward: open a new issue ("rounds N+", this body with the table and list updated) and close this one with "Moved up to #M", so the climb stays at the top of the issues. Seed the new one with a comment starting Score: x/10 (target 9) and ending Next: <gap>. After three rounds with no gain, post Stalled: and stop. At 9, file a MANUAL RUN: for the owner's own score.