Mythic Masters: animation hill climb, rounds 9+ (from #3710) #3915

Score: 4.25/10 (target 9, on the owner's halved scale: agent judges halve their number, per the 2026-11-05 reset)

Carries the animation climb on from #3710 (round 8, spine curl on a blow), #3708 (round 7, squash on impact), #3694 (round 6, flight posture) and #3219 (rounds 1-5). Motion only: materials, lighting and effects are the graphics lane.

Where it stands

Round 8's judge saw the squash clearly on Yeti and Sasquatch and weight in the stance, but no overshoot or settle afterwards, and the Hodag change is slight.

Next rounds, in order (the judges' top gaps)

1. A hit that rebounds. After the curl the body eases straight back: no counter-swing past rest, no settle frame. Let the curl ring through zero (round 8 clamps it at 0 because a signed curl shortened the head-to-tail stretch in test/beasts.test.ts; arch the chest without pulling the head and tail in), or give the lean's spring a kick on the hit.
2. Fur cards stretch at peak lean. On Sasquatch and Yeti the fur cards smear into long streaks at the deepest hunch. Look at the skin weights or cap the curl's pitch on fur-carded bodies.
3. Membranes that billow. Wings are stiff planks that hinge. More wing bones (a finger fan from blender/beast.py) or a vertex sag between bones. Every foot must stay a rig tip (bun run beasts). Sasabonsam's wing crumples into a shard pile in the flight close-up.
4. A flyer's forelimbs in flight. Arms hang straight down under a leaning body (Jersey Devil, Sasabonsam). Tuck or trail them.
5. Limbs that whip. The lag reads as drag only; try a stiffer, less damped spring on the arms.
6. No clipping. Wind-ups pass bodies into each other (Yeti into Hodag, Black Shuck into Wampus Cat).
7. Grounded locomotion. Body bob and roll tied to each footfall instead of a sine. Rougarou floats with one foot down or none.
8. The open-world walker's gait. Not judged yet: a closer camera for a harness shot first.

How the shots are taken

• bun scripts/burst-shots.ts <dir> <prefix> --hit (new in round 8): Sasquatch, Hodag, Yeti and Rougarou struck side on in the gallery, the same blow every run; frames at rest and 0.05, 0.12, 0.2, 0.35 s after. Use this for hit reactions: bot-fight hits land at random.
• --combat runs one fight per archetype, cued on a wind-up and on a landed hit. --fly shoots the winged bipeds held in flight. No flag: the art scenes plus close-ups.

For BEFORE, write main's src/beasts.ts into the working tree, shoot, then restore. Shots: docs/shots-2026-11-05-anim-r5/ to -r7/, docs/shots-2026-11-07-anim-r8/. A fresh judge scores BEFORE against NOW; report half its gain.