Chapter 2 – Scan cleanup and paintover notes

Chapter 2: Scan Cleanup & Paintover Notes

Created by Sarah Choi (prompt writer using ChatGPT)

Scan Cleanup & Paintover Notes for Costume Concept Artists

Scans, Wardrobe & Photogrammetry – Capture & Integration

When a costume has been physically built and captured through photogrammetry or scanning, it can feel like the “art” part is done. In reality, scans are just the beginning of a long integration journey. The raw data is often messy: wonky folds, stretched patterns, lighting baked into textures, incomplete areas, or deviations from your original concept.

This is where scan cleanup and paintover notes become essential—and where costume concept artists, both on the concepting side and the production side, can add huge value. Your eye for silhouette, proportion, material, and story helps guide character art, tech art, and lookdev teams as they transform rough scans into clean, game‑ready assets.

This article will explore how you, as a costume concept artist, can:

Understand what scan cleanup actually involves.
Read scan data critically and constructively.
Create clear, actionable paintovers and note passes that support cleanup and integration.
Collaborate with scanning, character art, and tech art so the final in‑engine costume matches your intent while respecting production constraints.

The goal: turn scans into bridge assets between physical wardrobe and finished characters—not confusing blobs that everyone fights over.

1. What Scan Cleanup Really Is (and Isn’t)

Scan cleanup is the process of turning raw capture into usable building blocks:

Meshes that are clean enough to retopo, rig, and animate.
Textures that are consistent, neutral, and ready for material work.
Shapes that honor the costume’s design and the studio’s base body standards.

Cleanup typically addresses:

Noise, holes, and reconstruction artifacts.
Strange “crunchy” folds or miniature spikes.
Shadows and lighting baked into diffuse/albedo.
Misaligned patterns, scale mismatch, or warped details.

Scan cleanup is not about tracing the scan slavishly. It’s about:

Combining real‑world truth (how fabric actually drapes and wears) with
styled truth (silhouette, proportions, and clarity from your costume concept)
to create a game‑ready, stylized physicality that supports animation, readability, and optimization.

Concept artists help define this balance.

2. Where Costume Concept Artists Fit into Scan Cleanup

You might assume scan cleanup is purely a character‑art and tech‑art task, but concept artists can:

Clarify design intent where the scan diverged from the original concept.
Prioritize what should be preserved from the scan vs. what should be simplified or idealized.
Create paintovers that show the desired final shapes, material breaks, and wear.

On the concepting side, you:

Provide the original vision, shape language, and hero areas.
Set expectations for how realistic vs stylized the scan should end up.
Annotate what details matter most for gameplay and story.

On the production side, you:

Work directly with the actual scan outputs.
Perform targeted paintovers on top of screenshots or clay renders.
Translate concept intent into practical instructions: where to relax folds, sharpen edges, add structure, or tone down noise.

You’re essentially the art director’s eyes at the micro level, guiding continuity between concept, scan, and final model.

3. Reading Scan Data: What to Look For

Before you pick up a paintbrush for paintovers, learn to read scan results as information, not just as an ugly WIP.

Ask yourself these questions when reviewing scan turntables and texture flats:

3.1 Silhouette & Proportion

Does the overall silhouette match the concept? (Length of coat, width of shoulders, flare of skirt, volume of hood.)
Has the fit changed due to real‑world gravity or fabric choice? (Sagging belts, droopy collars, baggy knees.)
Are any major proportions off when compared to the studio’s base body? (Boot height, waistline, glove length.)

If the silhouette has drifted, your paintover should show a corrected target for character art.

3.2 Folds & Volume

Are there beautiful, believable folds that you’d love to keep?
Are there folds that are too chaotic, noisy, or tangling up key reads?
Where do folds obscure important elements (logos, seams, armor plates)?

You can mark keep folds, simplify, or re‑sculpt zones in your notes.

3.3 Material & Surface Read

Does the scan convey the correct material identity? (Canvas vs silk vs leather, etc.)
Are there baked‑in highlights or shadows that would fight with PBR shading later?
Are fine surface details (weave, quilting, seams) readable, or did they get lost?

Not every microscopic detail needs to survive; help prioritize what matters.

3.4 Noise & Artifacts

Look for:

Spiky or jagged geometry where fabric was too shiny or moved between shots.
“Melted” areas where occlusion or overlap confused the solver.
Mismatched edges along seams and hems.

These are places where you can explicitly give permission to clean up aggressively or rebuild, freeing character artists from worrying about “breaking the concept.”

4. Paintovers: Turning Vague Feedback into Actionable Direction

Paintovers are one of the strongest tools costume concept artists have for scan cleanup. Instead of saying, “It feels messy,” you can show exactly what you mean.

4.1 The Three Main Paintover Passes

Think of your paintover work in three overlapping passes:

Shape & Silhouette Pass – Block in the corrected outer contour, volumes, and big folds.
Material & Breakup Pass – Clarify where one material ends and another begins; adjust panel lines, seam placement, and large pattern blocks.
Detail & Wear Pass – Decide which wrinkles, scratches, and distress to keep, simplify, or move.

You don’t have to do this in separate layers, but thinking in passes helps you keep feedback structured.

4.2 Shape & Silhouette Paintovers

Start by taking screenshots of the scan in a neutral light, orthographic or simple perspective, and then:

Draw over the outer silhouette, pushing it closer to the concept where needed.
Simplify noisy areas into cleaner, bigger shapes—especially in hero read zones like shoulders, chest, hemline, and boots.
Indicate where volume should be adjusted: “pad this out,” “pull this closer to body,” “shorten hem by 5–10 cm.”

Use arrows and labels like:

“Reduce bulk here; match concept’s tapered waist.”
“Add structural support line; coat front should hang straighter.”

4.3 Material & Breakup Paintovers

Next, clarify how the costume is divided into materials and panels:

Color‑block or hatch different fabrics and materials on top of the scan (e.g., leather vs cloth vs metal).
Reinforce seam placement where the scan may have blurred or lost them.
Adjust pattern direction (e.g., vertical stripe vs diagonal quilting) to match concept or work better with deformation.

Label them clearly:

“Panel A – heavy canvas, matte.”
“Panel B – waxed leather, medium sheen.”
“Trim – embroidered ribbon, will be refined in texture paint.”

This helps character art and texturing teams know what to respect and what can be simplified.

4.4 Detail & Wear Paintovers

Finally, tackle surface complexity:

Circle areas where real‑world distress is great and should stay.
Cross out or blur regions where random creases or stains add visual noise but no story.
Add in designed wear patterns that match the narrative (e.g., fray at knees for a kneeling character, soot on cuffs for a blacksmith).

Notes can say:

“Clean this area; distress is too random and busy.”
“Amplify wear along these edges; hero wear zone.”
“Remove fold cluster; simplifies silhouette in mid‑distance.”

Your role isn’t to repaint the entire texture, but to spotlight priorities.

5. Defining What is “Truth”: Scan vs Concept vs Engine

One of the trickiest parts of cleanup is deciding what counts as “right.” As a costume concept artist, you help define which reference the team should lean on in ambiguous cases.

5.1 When to Trust the Scan

Sometimes the physical garment and scan reveal beautiful behavior that wasn’t in your concept, such as:

A more believable twist in a sash.
Organic micro‑folds around elbows and knees.
Subtle wear from real friction points.

In these cases, you can explicitly endorse the scan:

“Keep this real‑world fold structure; it feels better than the original concept.”
“This natural bunching at the waist looks great—use scan as primary reference.”

This empowers character artists to use the scan confidently instead of worrying about deviating from the early design.

5.2 When to Trust the Concept

At other times, the scan drifts away from the intended design because:

The wrong size garment was used.
Gravity pulled a shape longer or wider than desired.
Fabric choice didn’t match your imagined stiffness.

Here your paintovers should pull things back toward the concept:

“Shorten cloak to mid‑calf as in concept; current scan length hides boots and confuses silhouette.”
“Reduce bulk in shoulders; concept calls for softer slope.”

Make it clear when the scan is reference only, not the final say.

5.3 When to Adapt for Engine

Finally, some decisions must be made for engine performance and gameplay clarity:

Excessive tiny folds can create normal map noise and shimmer.
Super dense distress may hurt readability at distance.
Scanned thickness might be too bulky for animation or collision.

Here, offer engine‑aware direction:

“Smooth these micro‑folds; keep only 2–3 big fold families.”
“Thin coat slightly at hem to prevent clipping with knee during run cycle.”
“Simplify distress; keep it concentrated in these key zones only.”

By acknowledging engine constraints in your notes, you become a collaborative problem solver, not just the “vision police.”

6. Capture → Cleanup → Integration: Notes that Travel Downstream

Your scan cleanup notes and paintovers should be part of a traceable chain from capture to in‑game model.

Think of three main handoff points:

From Scan Tech to Character Art – Where raw scans become sculptable meshes.
From Character Art to Texturing/Lookdev – Where materials and details are refined.
From Character Art to Rigging & Animation – Where functional constraints show up.

Design your paintovers so they support all three where possible.

6.1 Notes for Character Art

Character artists use your paintovers to:

Decide which folds to preserve in high poly and which to smooth.
Adjust silhouette and volume before retopo.
Plan additional sculpting to restore concept shapes.

Your notes can emphasize:

“Primary fold flows.”
“Hero silhouette lines.”
“Non‑negotiable design landmarks.”

6.2 Notes for Texturing & Lookdev

Texturing and lookdev teams care about:

Where to push or neutralize color and value.
Which scan details to keep vs paint out.
How materials should respond to light.

Provide:

Quick color and roughness paintovers showing gloss levels and color corrections.
Markups on texture flats: “Remove lighting gradient; flatten to neutral base,” “Add subtle dirt pass here.”

Even rough overlays can prevent misinterpretation.

6.3 Notes for Rigging & Animation

Rigging and animation teams need to know where the costume must move freely and where it can be more rigid or layered.

Your cleanup notes can help by:

Indicating where folds must remain soft for believable motion.
Marking areas that should be stiffer to avoid unnatural warping.
Flagging potential collision risks (overlong coats, straps near joints).

Short comments like “Knee area: keep folds simple, avoid heavy thickness” can save weeks of trial‑and‑error later.

7. Concept‑Side Workflow: Building Cleanup Thinking Into Your Designs

You don’t have to wait for scans to start thinking about cleanup. As a concept artist, you can design in a way that will make future scan cleanup much easier.

7.1 Design with Cleanup in Mind

When you create your costume concepts, consider:

Avoiding unnecessary micro‑patterns that will scan as noise and then need to be removed.
Grouping folds and detail into readable families instead of random chaos.
Using clear, strong seam lines that will remain visible through capture and cleanup.

Mark on your sheets:

“These folds are important; preserve structure here.”
“This area should remain relatively clean for UI readability and easier cleanup.”

7.2 Deliver a “Target Cleanup” Example

For key hero costumes, you can provide a target cleanup paintover even before the scan exists:

Show a fully realized version of how you expect folds, distress, and materials to look in‑engine.
Label which areas can be simplified or exaggerated for readability.

Later, when scans arrive, character art can compare them against this target to decide what to correct.

7.3 Communicate Tolerance Ranges

Not every difference is worth fighting over. Indicate where you’re flexible:

“Boot height can vary by ~5 cm.”
“Fold direction around elbow is flexible; just keep it simple.”
“Color saturations can shift within this range.”

This reduces friction during cleanup; teams know where they must match the concept and where slight deviations are fine.

8. Production‑Side Workflow: Practical Paintover Routines

If you sit closer to production, you’ll often be the one doing or coordinating paintovers on actual scan outputs.

8.1 Set Up a Reusable Template

Create a reusable scan review template that includes:

Front/side/back screenshots in neutral light.
3/4 angle close‑ups of key costume areas (torso, hips, boots, sleeves).
A space for notes next to each view.

You can then quickly drop in renders from new scans and paint over them without rebuilding layout every time.

8.2 Work in Layers for Different Audiences

Use layers or color‑coded lines to distinguish:

Red – silhouette & shape adjustments.
Blue – material and seam clarifications.
Green – wear, distress, and texture details.

This makes it easy for each team to focus on what matters to them.

8.3 Timeboxing & Prioritization

You will rarely have time for pixel‑perfect paintovers on every scan. Timebox your passes:

Spend most effort on hero characters and central cast.
For background NPCs and tertiary costumes, focus on the top 3–5 issues that hurt readability or integration.

Always ask: “If I could only fix three things, what would they be?” and highlight those first.

9. Collaboration Habits That Make Scans Smoother

Scan cleanup and paintover notes are ultimately about communication. A few habits can make this collaboration smoother:

Share early WIPs: Look at test scans as soon as they’re available; don’t wait until everything is “final.”
Be specific, not vague: “Reduce noise here” is less helpful than circling an area and showing the desired simplified shape.
Respect constraints: Understand that not every scan artifact can be fixed the way you’d like; be willing to trade small aesthetic details for performance or schedule.
Celebrate wins: When a scan captures an especially good fold pattern or material feel, call it out so teams know what to repeat.

As a costume concept artist, your role around scans is not just to critique but to guide—to point out the path from raw capture to integrated, readable, and beautiful in‑game costumes.

When you treat scan cleanup and paintover notes as a natural part of your design and production workflow, you:

Protect the spirit of your concept through messy real‑world constraints.
Help downstream teams move faster with fewer revisions.
Turn photogrammetry from a mysterious black box into a collaborative, iterative tool in the costume pipeline.

That’s what it means to own capture & integration as a costume concept artist: you don’t just design the clothes—you help shepherd them from sketch to scan to fully realized, playable characters.