# Successors — Cinematic Workflow Guide

> **This is a placeholder.** Replace the contents of this file with the real
> guide. The download card on `/assets` points straight at it, so no code
> change is needed — just overwrite the file.

A short reference for how a Successors shot gets built, from blockout through
to final grade.

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## 1. Framing before anything else

Solve the camera first. Measure the reference in normalised frame coordinates,
solve height, distance and focal length arithmetically, then place grey-box
placeholders. Framing solved late is framing redone.

## 2. Blockout

Grey boxes only. No materials, no lighting, no detail. The goal is to confirm
the composition reads at thumbnail size before any time goes into surfacing.

## 3. Character

Body, then hair, then garments, in that order — each one collides with the one
before it. Convert to a control rig only once the silhouette is settled.

## 4. Animation

Retarget onto the control rig, correct the reference-pose mismatch (spine
first, then arms, then legs), then layer secondary motion — breathing, weight
shifts, blinks — on top.

## 5. Simulation

Cloth and hair last, after the animation is locked. Cache generously; a cache
that ends before the shot does is the single most common cause of a garment
that appears to explode.

## 6. Lighting

Practicals over HDRI. Build the key from the story, not from a preset: where
is the light actually coming from in this world?

## 7. Grade

AgX, then a restrained glare pass. Resist the urge to add bloom to fix a
lighting problem.

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Successors — https://successors.world