Sarah Clarity Studios

Chapter 2: Scan Cleanup & Paintover Notes

Created by Sarah Choi (prompt writer using ChatGPT)

Scan Cleanup & Paintover Notes for Character Concept Artists — Directing Capture and Integrating Scans (Concept ↔ Production)

Why cleanup and paintovers matter

Scan data bridges performance, wardrobe reality, and your intended art direction. But raw scans and MoCap solves are never plug‑and‑play. Cleanup and paintover notes are where concept and production meet to protect silhouette, read, and material intent while enabling efficient retopology, UVs, and rigging. As a concept artist—whether you’re blue‑sky concepting or embedded in production—your notes can prevent costly rework by telling downstream teams what is ground truth, what is scan artifact, and what is stylistic correction.

Understanding your inputs: what arrives from capture

A typical delivery from a capture day may include high‑density photogrammetry meshes for body and wardrobe, texture sets from polarized/unpolarized passes, witness‑cam or turntable photography, skeletal marker layouts and takes from MoCap or inertial systems, and calibration assets such as color charts and light probes. Before painting anything, inventory these inputs and note which garments were modified for capture (matte swaps, pinned hems, proxy trims). Your cleanup plan should aim to restore the hero intent while keeping physically measured proportions and performance landmarks intact.

First read: triage before touching pixels

Begin with a visual triage pass. Evaluate silhouette integrity, landmark accuracy, and material plausibility. Distortions near elbows, knees, hips, and clavicles often come from capture pose strain or cloth pinning; shiny elements may read matte due to de‑gloss sprays. Identify moiré patterns, micro‑noise from hair or fur, and floating elements such as lifted collars. This triage defines a to‑do list for mesh cleanup, texture correction, and paintover targets. Write your notes in plain language tied to views and timestamps: “Front three‑quarter, collar roll is tacked; restore 8 mm flare and softer break toward mid‑sternum.”

Non‑destructive paintover philosophy

Paintovers should act like director’s notes rather than irreversible changes. Work non‑destructively so modeling, tech art, and look‑dev teams can separate your intent from the scan’s measurable reality. Favor layered overlays, callout arrows, and value‑only adjustments that demonstrate depth, breakup, and read without inventing unsupported geometry. When you must propose a design correction, add a short rationale that references gameplay reads or deformation needs.

Silhouette corrections that respect measurement

When adjusting silhouette in a paintover, never freehand scale the entire body. Anchor changes to known landmarks like acromion, ASIS/PSIS, greater trochanter, patella, malleoli, and heel‑toe length. If the scan pose is a relaxed A‑pose, remember shoulder width appears slightly narrower than in T‑pose. When restoring garments, keep seam positions and grain direction believable; a corrected hem should still align with the garment’s pattern logic. If you must lengthen a skirt or cape for read, note how that affects gait, MoCap foot clearance, and simulated cloth length.

Restoring capture compromises vs. keeping happy accidents

Scans often include capture‑day compromises: matte variants for shiny armor, pinned drape, proxy trims, or under‑suits visible through vents. In your notes, clearly separate “restore to hero” items from “adopt from scan” items. Sometimes a tacked collar produces a stronger neck read, or the proxy buckle’s simpler profile improves readability at gameplay distance. Flag these as intentional deviations so the team doesn’t erase them during cleanup.

Mesh cleanup guidance from the art side

While model cleanup belongs to production artists, your notes can steer priorities. Ask to remove non‑structural micro‑noise that won’t survive LOD reduction, such as tiny puckers caused by temporary tape, but preserve larger, characteristic folds that define fabric behavior. Where photogrammetry bridged gaps—inside sleeves, under skirts, beneath straps—advise on plausible continuation using your costume pattern logic. Request loop‑friendly edge reinforcement near elbows, knees, corsetry, and backpack straps so rigging can place deformation joints without fighting chaotic topology.

On retopology: art direction for deformation

Retopo is where the scan becomes a riggable asset. Provide paintovers that suggest edge flow around the mouth, shoulders, knees, and glove webs. Call out areas that need twist support (upper arm, forearm, thigh, calf) and where cloth panels should preserve bias or box folds. If the hero requires extreme range, propose hidden gussets or seam re‑cuts in the digital garment to avoid texture stretching. Tie these notes to your action list from MoCap range‑of‑motion reference so the mesh supports the performance you expect to see.

UVs and texel density with readability in mind

Your paintover can visualize texel priority. Mark hero read zones—face, emblem, chest plate, glove backs—for higher density, and de‑emphasize inside‑thighs or back‑of‑cape areas. Suggest logical UV splits that align with real seams to hide texture discontinuities. For patterned fabrics, paint a quick guide to motif scale so production knows how large a tartan, herringbone, or quilting should read at camera distance without moiré.

Texture cleanup: separating albedo from shading

Polarized scans produce excellent albedo, but contaminants creep in. Use your paintover to separate base color from shading: lift stains or directional shadows that belong to the lighting rig, not the material. Add small, well‑placed breakup to overly uniform regions to restore believable micro‑variation. Where matte sprays dulled leather or enamel, annotate the intended specular level and note whether the gloss should be anisotropic or isotropic. If the capture includes both polarized and unpolarized sets, indicate which features should be reconstructed from each.

Normal and displacement intent

Scans can oversample high‑frequency noise and miss crisp edges. In paintovers, describe where normal detail should be softened into broad planes (cheek, deltoid, thigh) and where hard bevels must be re‑introduced (armor seams, boot welts, stitched piping). For knit or weave, show a tile direction and scale that won’t shimmer at gameplay distance. If deep quilting or embossed sigils are part of the design language, state whether they belong in displacement/geometry or in normal detail depending on silhouette contribution.

Color consistency and calibration

Reference the capture’s color chart in your notes. If skin or fabric strays due to exposure shifts, include a corrected swatch set that matches your approved palette. Avoid pushing saturation to concept‑painting levels on scan‑based paintovers; instead, indicate grading intent separately so look‑dev can preserve true albedo while applying art‑direction LUTs later. When a garment’s dye lot appears inconsistent between turntable and witness cams, flag the preferred source and include reasoning.

Hair, fur, and fuzzy edges

Photogrammetry struggles with filamentous detail. Propose a cleanup plan that replaces halo noise with designed haircards or groom volumes. In paintover, abstract the edge into readable clumps with controlled negative space rather than trying to “paint every hair.” For fur collars and trims, suggest a depth falloff and clump size that supports silhouette at distance and keeps rig/cloth sim feasible.

Hard surfaces, jewelry, and translucency

Highly specular or translucent elements are often captured as proxies. Paintovers should define final forms, edge thickness, and refractive or subsurface quality without forcing impossible solve requirements. For gems, glass, and enamel, draw clean silhouette shapes and note expected IOR/SSS character in words rather than rendering scene‑specific highlights. This keeps the signal unambiguous for modelers and shader authors.

Integrating MoCap: aligning wardrobe and motion

When MoCap drives the body, verify that cloth features align with skeletal landmarks so deformation reads correctly. If a belt sits too high in the scan due to performer posture, correct its relationship to the ASIS and navel in paintover and note the measure in centimeters. Where animated straps cross marker clusters, propose alternative routing or breakpoints so rigging can maintain volume without occlusion. If the hero relies on secondary motion (capes, tails, tassels), include a note about which are simulated vs. bone‑driven so cleanup preserves appropriate topology and thickness.

Perspective, lens, and camera match in paintovers

Your paintover should not fight the lens. Match field of view and camera height from the turntable or witness cam so your form edits translate. If a screenshot shows barrel distortion at the edge, avoid “fixing” it in paint unless you also note the corrective lens model. For orthographic callouts, include side, front, and three‑quarter views so production can understand volumetric intent beyond a single hero angle.

Anatomy corrections with restraint

When a performer’s anatomy differs from the character archetype, nudge rather than replace. Tie proportional edits to believable skeletal changes—slight humerus lengthening, pelvis tilt, or ribcage flare—so animation weight and balance remain natural. If you must change foot size, specify outsole length in millimeters and note how it affects stride and collision in gameplay.

Communicating certainty: must‑keep vs. nice‑to‑have

Not all notes carry the same weight. In your document, clearly mark must‑keep items (brand silhouette lines, faction iconography, safety‑critical clearance around joints) versus nice‑to‑have polish (extra micro‑wrinkle pass, fine contrast tweaks). This prioritization helps production plan sprints and avoid churn when schedule pressure hits.

Versioning, naming, and handoff etiquette

Paintover files multiply quickly across takes and variants. Adopt a readable naming convention that encodes date, subject, view, and status. Keep layer groups for silhouette edits, material intent, topology suggestions, and color notes separate, and include a flattened preview for quick browsing. Ship a brief changelog so modelers, texture artists, and tech artists can scan what changed at a glance.

Collaboration loop: getting feedback early

Send early paintover drafts to scan cleanup and retopo leads for feasibility checks. Invite rigging to weigh in on edge flow suggestions near joints, and ask look‑dev whether your spec/gloss targets fit engine constraints. Build a short, recurring loop: a 15‑minute weekly sync focused on one character is often enough to catch issues before they calcify.

Accessibility, readability, and performance considerations

Bake accessibility into cleanup. Maintain sufficient value contrast for major reads: emblem versus tunic, glove versus sleeve, boot versus trouser. Avoid hyper‑busy microdetail that erodes silhouette at distance and increases texture memory. For color‑vision diversity, safeguard key reads with value and shape rather than color alone and document this intent so later grading does not erase it.

Budget‑aware choices you can influence

Every extra cleanup pass costs time. Use your notes to prevent wasted work: call out where a bevel can be normal‑mapped rather than modeled, where a pattern should be simplified to avoid moiré, and where scan noise can be ignored because it will vanish at LOD2. Conversely, insist on preserving hero details that anchor identity—unique seam geometry, signature embroidery, or iconic damage—so budget cuts don’t erase character.

Deliverables checklist for your note packet

Include a scan‑overpaint with labeled views, a silhouette correction sheet with measurement annotations, topology flow suggestions over joints, material intent swatches for albedo/roughness/metalness in words and samples, and a short ROM storyboard indicating stress points. Round it out with a one‑page summary distinguishing restoration items from intentional deviations adopted from the scan.

Final thought

Cleanup and paintovers are not “fixing the scan”; they are directing it. The goal is to retain the authenticity of captured performance and wardrobe while guiding the asset toward gameplay readability and art direction. When your notes respect measurement, call out priorities, and communicate clearly across disciplines, the scan becomes a solid foundation rather than a constraint.