Orbital HUD Motion

Decorative circles are design elements, not filler. They must be derived from the reference composition and support the subject.

Design rules

• Keep the avatar/subject dominant; rings should frame, not trap or overpower it.
• Derive radii, arc breaks, marker positions, and dash density from the reference image when possible.
• Separate layers:
  • far/background aura: faint, slow, soft;
  • mid orbit: thin arcs/dashes;
  • markers/dots: sparse and synchronized;
  • foreground accents: rare and short-lived.
• Prefer opacity/emission/dash phase over large rotation/scale changes.
• Never animate all rings in the same direction/speed; use subtle counter-motion/parallax.
• Do not include context rings in the base avatar mesh/export unless explicitly requested.

Animation recipe

1. Create an HUD_CONTEXT collection separate from AVATAR_BASE.
2. Build arcs/dots from a manifest of normalized radii and angles.
3. Keyframe:
   • dash offset or arc reveal;
   • emission strength pulse;
   • subtle rotation (1–12 degrees per loop, not full spin unless requested);
   • marker opacity/scale blips at beats.
4. Render a contact sheet with subject-only and with-HUD views.
5. Reject if rings obscure the face/silhouette or dominate the frame.

Hard rules

• No random full circles when the reference has broken arcs/dashed guides.
• No oversized markers unless the source has them.
• No HUD animation until static avatar baseline is locked.
• For GLB, use object transforms/material keyframes or document runtime requirements.

Scripts

• scripts/orbit_layout_manifest.py creates a source-independent orbit manifest from simple radii/angle parameters.