Mask Sprites

Step 5 · Mask Sprites turns each object you cut out in Step 3 · Locate & Segment into a game-ready sprite on transparent alpha. It inherits those cut-outs for free, but any sprite whose edges were bitten by a mask, or whose middle sat behind another object, comes through incomplete. To finish those, one batched AI call packs every queued object into its own cell of a sheet on a solid magenta field, redraws each object's hidden and cut-off pixels, and a per-run keyer lifts the magenta to clean transparency. The work is queue, generate, and judge — there is no painting; hand mask edits live back on Step 3. You are done when every reconstruction has a verdict and the sprites you keep are approved, so they flow on to Shadow.

The two-column workspace

The left work area is headed Precise Sprite Color-Keying Masker; the right side is a control panel with three numbered zones. Select a sprite and the center pane paints its Asset Preview on a checkerboard, so transparency shows and pixel art stays crisp. Two buttons above it flip both the preview and every tree thumbnail between Original — the untouched Locate & Segment cut-out — and Result — the reconstruction you picked, or the original if none. The toggle hides while a packed sheet is open. Top-right, the {NN}% button prints the zoom and resets it to 100%; scroll to zoom, and middle-drag or Alt+drag to pan. With nothing selected the pane reads Please select a specific sprite from the sidebar to fine-tune its mask.

1. Choose the target sprite

The first zone, 1. Choose Target Sprite (with a live count of non-group sprites), is the same nested tree as Locate & Segment — drag to reorder or nest, and Ctrl-click a set then press Group {N} sprites to fold them into a folder. Rows drop the group and version badges here; renaming, hiding, and mask editing stay on Step 3. Each row carries two controls on its right:

1. The ✓ approve check — marks the sprite, or all of a group's leaves, as kept for the next steps. It is the one place to approve a sprite you never reconstruct, so an untouched cut-out still carries forward.
2. The ＋ queue toggle — adds the sprite to the reconstruct queue and becomes − while it is in. If the row is part of a Ctrl-selection, one click queues the whole selection.

An empty project points you back: No sprites yet. Go back to Locate & Segment to detect them….

2. Generate the queue

The second zone, 2. Generate, spends the credits. Its summary reads {N} queued → {M} sheets · {X} cr: your queued leaf sprites, the packed sheets they split into (one AI call each), and the total. Packing is big-first: a sheet stops taking more once the canvas would pass the model's usable resolution or a text-bearing sprite's output share would fall too low — so small props pack densely and big lettered structures get only a few. A too-large sheet shows an amber ⚠ over cap (and a native versus ⚠ over cap badge on each card); split it in Next run.

• Model — the AI model for the redraw. Each option shows its per-image cost; the default carries a recommended tag and the cheapest a budget tag. The recommended one gives the cleanest final sheets, the budget one suits cheap re-rolls. Changing it re-packs the sheets to that model's capacity, and AI model unavailable shows if the server has disabled every sheet model.
• Complete occluded / Regenerate — the reconstruction intent. Complete occluded, the default, fills only the hidden or cut-off parts and keeps damage and wear as drawn; Regenerate redraws the object clean and whole, which fixes a bitten mask or broken edge. The ✎ pencil opens the one guidance sentence you can edit — the rest of the prompt (grid, cells, magenta, object identity) is always enforced.
• Generate — {M} calls · {X} cr — runs every pending sheet, one call each; it reads Generating… while it works and is disabled on an empty queue.

If some sheets carry their own ⚙ settings, an amber note warns that editing here overwrites them. A failed run shows a dismissible inline notice, not a pop-up; if the AI skips a sprite it keeps its previous image and a note counts how many did not come back.

Next run: arrange the sheets

Open the Next run disclosure for one dashed card per planned sheet — where you arrange the queue before spending, all free. Each card shows its member chips, packed pixel size, and the native/⚠ over cap badge.

• Member chips — click one to preview that sprite isolated (again for the whole sheet), Ctrl-click to multi-select, drag between cards to re-pack, and ✕ to drop it. A card rings indigo when a dragged sprite fits, rose (won't fit) when it is at capacity.
• The 👁 eye — opens the packed sheet in the center pane exactly as it will be sent, with a ◀ ▶ pager between sheets. Cyan boxes mark each sprite's free space — inpaint room, a guide only, never sent to the AI. Click a cell and a nudge bar (←↑↓→, reset) shifts the sprite a quarter of its free margin per press, to aim the empty room at a trimmed side. Placement locks once a sheet generates — it then shows 🔒 Placement is locked…, and to reposition you queue the sprites again as a new sheet.
• The ⚙ gear — opens this run's settings drawer: its own model, intent, guidance sentence, and keyer.
• The 🗑 trash — deletes the plan; its sprites just leave the queue.
• Run this sheet only · {X} cr — shows when several sheets are planned, and generates just this one.

Two buttons sit below. Combine … into one piece turns on after you Ctrl-pick two or more chips: it queues them as one composite at their true relative positions — right for parts that read as one unit, like a fence or market stall — instead of a grid of cells. Split to empty sheet adds an empty card, or gives a chip dropped onto it its own solo sheet.

The color keyer

Each run carries its own keyer, inside the ⚙ drawer, that turns the flat magenta field into clean alpha. On a planned card its header reads Keyer — keys this run's generation; on a completed Past run it reads Keyer — edits re-key this run live, and dragging a control there re-keys the already-generated pixels for free — no new AI call.

• Tolerance (0–150) — how close a pixel must be to magenta to be cut to transparent. Higher removes more fringe but risks eating real edges.
• De-spill — removes the magenta tint that bleeds into edge pixels.
• Snap edges to palette — recolours edge pixels to the object's own palette, curing the greenish scene anti-aliasing some models paint along a silhouette.
• Anti-alias — smooths the cut silhouette instead of a hard on/off alpha edge.
• Soft edges — keeps a soft alpha matte for anti-aliased art; turning it on reveals a Feather slider (0–4.0 px) for the falloff width.
• ↺ — resets this run's keyer to the defaults.

Past runs

The Past runs disclosure lists every completed run as a slim, view-only row: Run {N} · {time} · {N} sprites, tagged retry of Run {M} when its members all came from an earlier run. These rows are for looking, re-keying, downloading, and deleting — use Pick results below to pick and re-roll.

• The generation strip (Or, G1, G2 …) — a thumbnail of each generation plus the packed original; click one to view it in the center pane, which changes nothing. An emerald border marks the version applied across the run, a cyan outline the one you are viewing, and each generation's own tiny 🗑 deletes just that generation.
• ⚙ re-opens the keyer, ⬇ downloads the latest generation image, ↺ re-runs every sprite in the run as one new variant, and 🗑 deletes the whole run and its generations.

3. Pick results

The third zone, 3. Pick results · {N} sprites · {X} ✓ · {Y} ↺, is a grid of tiles — one per reconstructed sprite, newest first — where you judge each result by eye. The wall never spends.

• The ✓ check (top-left) is the pick: hollow until you choose it, solid emerald after. Picking keeps that result and flows the sprite to Shadow — the same verdict as the tree's approve check.
• The ↺ toggle (top-right) queues that one sprite into Next run for another try, turning amber. Picking and queuing are mutually exclusive — the last tap wins.
• Tap the tile picture to open its versions under that row: Versions of {name} · click one to APPLY it. Each thumbnail (orig, v1, v2 …) applies as the pick when clicked, an emerald ring marks the one in use, and the row's own ↺ regenerates that sprite solo. The v1/2 label on each tile shows which version is applied out of how many.
• hide picked — a header checkbox that leaves only the undecided tiles.

When every tile is picked, an emerald banner reads ✓ All {N} reviewed — approved sprites continue to Shadow; while tiles are queued, an amber note counts them and points back to Generate.

The center pane picks too: the moment a sheet finishes it auto-opens there as the packed sheet, and clicking a sprite's cell keeps that result with the same ✓ verdict as the wall — a solid emerald ring marks each cell you keep. Reopen any earlier generation from its Past run strip and it lands in that same pickable view.

Continue to Shadow

Continue to Shadow advances to Step 6 · Shadow. Nothing forces a reconstruction to leave, but the approval gate decides what follows: only approved sprites reach Shadow, Reconstruct & View, and the exports. Aim for the emerald ✓ All reviewed banner first, so Shadow receives exactly the set you meant to keep.