Orrery

Spacecraft anatomy art — generation runbook (#367) ​

How to generate the remaining spacecraft anatomy illustrations in the same style as the 72 already shipped, and wire them in end-to-end.

The art is AI-generated (Higgsfield nano_banana_pro) editorial cutaways. The whole point of this doc is style consistency — a new batch must look like it came from the same hand as the existing set.

0. The golden rules (read first — this is how we avoid drift) ​

Batches look different when the recipe drifts. To prevent that:

  1. Copy the prompt recipe VERBATIM. Only swap the bracketed parts ([CRAFT], [KEY PARTS], [AGENCY]). Do not paraphrase the style clauses ("watercolor and ink-wash on faint graph paper …"). Those clauses ARE the style.
  2. Never change the model. Always nano_banana_pro.
  3. Never change aspect ratio per style: watercolor = 3:2, pencil = 2:3.
  4. Strongest guard — pass a reference image. Hand the model one of the existing illustrations as a style reference (see §3). This locks the look far more tightly than text alone. Use a watercolor reference for watercolor craft, a pencil reference for launchers.
  5. QC every batch against the existing set — render a contact sheet (build-anatomy-webp already lists ids) and eyeball it next to a few of the shipped ones before committing. Regenerate any that drift.

1. Style assignment ​

  • Launchers (rockets) → PENCIL sketch (2:3, white sketchbook paper).
  • Everything else (crewed, cargo, orbiters, landers, rovers, observatories, stations) → WATERCOLOR cutaway (3:2, graph paper).

2. The two recipes (verbatim templates) ​

Watercolor (payload craft) — aspect 3:2 ​

Technical cutaway illustration of [CRAFT], watercolor and ink-wash on faint
graph paper, exposed internal structure — [KEY PARTS]. Handwritten engineering
annotations, dimension lines, faint physics equations in the margins,
ink-splatter wash clouds, warm muted metallic palette, vintage scientific
sketchbook / editorial infographic aesthetic. [AGENCY] markings.

Palette hints you may append where apt: rusty for Mars craft, with solar gold for sun-facing, ochre-metallic for Venus.

Pencil (launchers) — aspect 2:3 ​

Loose hand-drawn pencil sketch of [CRAFT], vertical, on white sketchbook paper.
Graphite shading, expressive cross-hatching, rough artistic linework,
monochrome grey, engineering concept sketch. [KEY PARTS/STAGES]. A few sketchy
handwritten labels.

[KEY PARTS] = the craft's real structure (bus, antenna, solar config, engines, booms…). Accuracy matters — research the actual layout per craft.

3. Generating (Higgsfield MCP) ​

One call per craft (mcp__claude_ai_Higgsfield__generate_image):

jsonc
{ "model": "nano_banana_pro",
  "params": { "prompt": "<recipe>", "aspect_ratio": "3:2", "count": 1 } }

Up to 8 concurrent on the PLUS plan — fire a wave of 8, then poll (job_status with sync:true) to get the result URLs. Each image = 2 credits.

To pin the style, attach an existing illustration as a reference:

  1. media_import_url (or media_upload) one of the shipped images, e.g. the raw URL of static/images/anatomy/voyager-2 (a clean watercolor) — get back a media_id.
  2. Pass it in params.medias: [{ "value": "<media_id>", "role": "<style/ref role from models_explore>" }]. Check models_explore for the exact role name nano_banana_pro expects for a style/reference image.

Keep one watercolor ref + one pencil ref handy and reuse them across the batch.

4. Download → master → wire (per wave) ​

The set was re-mastered at 4K and folded into the responsive ladder (RFC-030/ADR-080); original-assets/anatomy/ was retired. Masters are now the source of truth. Save the highest-res render you have (upscale to ~4K via Higgsfield upscale_image if the generator capped it) as the master:

bash
# 1. Save the full-res render as the master (git-LFS tracked), named by id:
#    (encode PNG → webp; keep it big — the ladder downscales from it)
cwebp -q 90 <id>-4k.png -o masters/anatomy/<id>.webp   # or sharp/any encoder

# 2. Derive the served responsive ladder (base {id}.webp + width rungs) from it:
node scripts/vision/build-display-ladder.mjs            # scope to masters/anatomy if iterating

# 3. Regenerate the id manifest (anatomy-ids.json) from the masters:
node scripts/build-anatomy-webp.mjs

# 4. Regenerate the colophon bill-of-materials:
node scripts/build-original-work.mjs

That's it — the manifest is auto-derived:

  • src/lib/spacecraft-diagrams.ts builds SPACECRAFT_ANATOMY_IMG from anatomy-ids.json (no hand-edit). The fleet DETAIL tab + station panels read it. Underscore station-visitor ids alias to the kebab webp via ANATOMY_ALIAS — add an entry there only for a NEW underscore/kebab split.
  • /colophon "Spacecraft cutaways" section + the consistency test pick the new ids up automatically.

Verify + commit ​

bash
npx vitest run src/lib/spacecraft-diagrams.test.ts   # ids <-> webp in sync
npm run i18n:compile && npx svelte-check --tsconfig ./tsconfig.json

Commit only the anatomy files (parallel agents work this repo — never git add -A):

bash
git add masters/anatomy static/images/anatomy static/data/image-ladder.json \
        src/lib/anatomy-ids.json static/data/original-work.json

Full-res masters live in masters/anatomy/*.webp (git-LFS, 4K); the app serves the responsive ladder (static/images/anatomy/{id}.webp + width rungs) via <img srcset>. The legacy original-assets/anatomy/*.png archive was purged.

5. Remaining craft ​

Style in (): P = pencil, W = watercolor. Marko's call was notable first, obscure long-tail last.

✅ The 72 notable craft are DONE (generated 2026-06-22, all on disk + wired). The full notable set — 53 watercolor + 19 pencil launchers — shipped in one batch using the locked recipe; ids and prompts are preserved verbatim in /tmp/anatomy-prompts.mjs (regenerate any time with node). The [tail] craft below are all that's left, and were deliberately deferred as obscure.

Don't re-generate the 72 — node scripts/build-anatomy-webp.mjs + the missing-check (§4) will show they're already present. Only the tail is open.

[tail] launcher (P): atlas-lv-3b, atlas-slv-3d, proton-k, r-7-vostok, soyuz-fg, soyuz-u, titan-ii-glv, vostok-k, voskhod-11a57

[tail] orbiter (W): change-1, change-2, clementine, giotto, phobos-2, vega-1, vega-2, luna10, viking1-orbiter, mars2-orbiter, mars3-orbiter, lunar-orbiter-1..5

[tail] lander (W): mars-2, mars-polar-lander, vikram-cy2, luna24, change6, viking2-lander, mars6, beagle2

[tail] station (W): salyut-2, salyut-3, salyut-4, salyut-5

[tail] crewed-spacecraft (W): the named Shuttle orbiters (atlantis/columbia/discovery/endeavour/challenger/enterprise — visually identical to the existing space-shuttle-orbiter, skip or do one), buran-ok-gli, soyuz-7k-ok, soyuz-t, soyuz-tm, voskhod, apollo-csm-block-i

[tail] cargo-spacecraft (W): cygnus-standard (alias to cygnus-enhanced instead), progress-7k-tg

6. Where everything lives ​

ThingPath
Full-res masters (git-LFS, 4K)masters/anatomy/*.webp
Served responsive ladderstatic/images/anatomy/{id}.webp + {id}-<w>.webp
Ladder manifeststatic/data/image-ladder.json
Id manifest (auto-derived from masters)src/lib/anatomy-ids.json
Resolver + visitor aliasessrc/lib/spacecraft-diagrams.ts
Ladder builderscripts/vision/build-display-ladder.mjs
Ids script (from masters)scripts/build-anatomy-webp.mjs
Colophon bill-of-materialsscripts/build-original-work.mjs → static/data/original-work.json
Consistency testsrc/lib/spacecraft-diagrams.test.ts
Fleet DETAIL tab rendersrc/lib/components/FleetEntryPanel.svelte
Colophon showcasesrc/routes/colophon/+page.svelte

Orrery — architecture documentation · MIT · No tracking

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