For artists: from export to handoff

Where you are: Artist export → Contract → Developer intake → CI gate → Engine check

You have exported a clip, or cleaned one up, and somebody downstream has to trust it. This page is the order to do that in: keep the file you exported from, check what you actually shipped, make only the changes a tool can prove, and hand over the evidence with the asset instead of a verbal "it's fine".

It keeps the original immutable, makes mechanical changes reviewable, and leaves artistic approval where it belongs. For the meaning of the stages, start with why AnimSmith and the readiness ladder. When something already looks wrong in the engine, start from the symptoms instead and come back here to hand it off.

Outcome and boundary

AnimSmith can inspect source facts, measure and compare motion, evaluate a declared contract, safely repair two quaternion representations, and perform bounded mechanical transforms. It can also produce an offline HTML report. It does not decide whether a performance, retarget, contact, controller, or visual result is acceptable in a game. A clean lint result is scoped evidence, not a blanket “game-ready” verdict.

Keep these artifacts separate:

The broader storage split and its ownership rationale are in the pipeline guide.

Work the candidate, not the source

The commands below are executable examples. $ANIMSMITH, $ASSET_DIR, $CONFIG_DIR, and $WORK_DIR are placeholders supplied by your checkout or automation: the repository test binds them to the current binary, checked-in self-authored fixtures, committed configs, and a disposable output directory. The first comment gives the command's expected exit status; an exit of 1 can be expected evidence that a candidate materially differs.

1. Inventory the untouched baseline. Run inspect and measure before changing the file. Keep the JSON measurement output with the baseline.

   # workflow-exit: 0
   $ANIMSMITH inspect "$ASSET_DIR/report-comparison-before.glb"
   $ANIMSMITH measure --format json "$ASSET_DIR/report-comparison-before.glb"
   

2. Declare only project facts. Add loop, movement-owner, speed, rig-role, required-bone, and set membership declarations only after the team agrees they are true — who writes what says which of those you can settle alone and which need the game developer. The configuration reference owns every key and precedence rule; the contract-config cookbook is the runnable starting shape.

3. Lint and report the baseline. Treat a finding as a precise work order: its check id, measured value, subject, and coverage state say what was and was not evaluated. The built-in check reference owns the check contracts and the machine-output reference owns the JSON fields. Use the existing self-authored comparison pair when a reviewer needs a judged frame, skeleton, root/foot trails, or charts.

   # workflow-exit: 0
   $ANIMSMITH --config "$CONFIG_DIR/report-comparison.animsmith.toml" report \
       "$ASSET_DIR/report-comparison-before.glb" \
       --compare-after "$ASSET_DIR/report-comparison-after.glb" \
       --before-clip acceptance-matrix --after-clip acceptance-matrix \
       -o "$WORK_DIR/author-comparison.html"
   

4. Choose the right remedy. fix can losslessly normalize finite quaternions and correct quaternion hemisphere continuity. transform can make its explicitly bounded slice, hold, gait-anchor, duplicate-endpoint, or constant-track operation. Use the editing cookbook for those operations. Retargeting, pose/contact cleanup, motion redesign, and an intentional scale change remain DCC work; then export a new candidate. Importer settings and controller behavior remain engine/project work. A source delivery defect or missing contractual clip goes back to the vendor/source owner.

   Handed over: the finding as a work order, and a new candidate export back — the immutable source never moves. That round trip is the mocap cleanup gate.

5. Diff the candidate against the accepted baseline. A binary rewrite is not review evidence. Compare the measured effects and hand off the output with the candidate.

   # workflow-exit: 1
   $ANIMSMITH diff "$ASSET_DIR/report-comparison-before.glb" \
       "$ASSET_DIR/report-comparison-after.glb"
   

6. Hand off exact evidence. Include input identity, committed config, AnimSmith version, command, lint JSON (including coverage gaps), diff, and any generated report. State the remaining engine, gameplay, and visual gates instead of converting unknowns into a pass.

   Handed over: the candidate plus that evidence bundle, to whoever accepts it — the receiving side runs the same contract, which is what outsourced-asset acceptance makes a two-sided gate rather than a request.

When to stop and route

Next step

Use the symptom index for a symptom-first route, or hand the candidate to the game-developer intake workflow for the engine-observed gates.