Crew hero stills - candidate gallery

Premium hero-still exploration for the Crew landing page, benchmarked against cofounder.co's calm-premium animated hero. Each still passes the locked creature.png as a reference image (image-to-image) for identity consistency, then is a candidate to hand to HiggsField for image-to-video animation.

Locked creature reference:

SV PAINTERLY v2 - wide + skyline + scale fixed (2026-07-11): the "chill" scene re-rendered in the now-LOCKED Silicon Valley painterly style with the founder's fixes applied. MUCH wider true establishing shot (creatures small in a big premium landscape, generous sky up top for a headline); the distant CITY SKYLINE kept on the horizon; SCALE fixed (all four creatures the same size, the oak tree a proper big tall tree); the tree-leaner actually LEANS against the trunk (body touching) with clean gentle CLOSED eyes; and good grounded soft SHADOWS under every creature. Creature held via anime_creature_ref.png (round green body, leaf sprouts, big eyes with white catchlight), both style refs passed as image inputs. v1 = green park + distant skyline, v2 = golden meadow + distant skyline, v3 = blend + skyline. Pick: v3 (only one that lands every fix at once - wide, clear skyline, consistent scale, big tree, real tree-lean, clean closed eyes, multi-color beach ball mid-air, grounded shadows).

SILICON VALLEY PAINTERLY - style test (2026-07-11): the same "chill" scene (four creatures: tree-leaner with EYES CLOSED resting, belly-down reader in round glasses + open book, two playing catch with a big colorful beach ball mid-air) rendered in a NEW premium SEMI-REALISTIC PAINTERLY style - the founder's uixhassan reference set (lush green city park + distant skyline under a bright blue gradient sky; golden-hour mountain lake). Aiming for a Ghibli-meets-realism / Linear-Notion-Apple aspirational tech-park mood: soft painterly brushwork, blue gradient sky, layered greenery with depth, warm directional light. Creature held via anime_creature_ref.png (round green body, leaf sprouts, big eyes WITH a white catchlight - not flat black), both style refs passed as image inputs. v1 = green park + distant skyline, v2 = open meadow / golden hills, v3 = best blend. Pick: v3.

ANIME v3 - 3 scenes, wider, catchlight eyes (2026-07-11): the founder's latest fixes, rendered against a creature crop with the CORRECT expressive anime eyes (each large round eye has a single white catchlight/shine, NOT flat solid-black discs). THREE scenes now: Scene 1 "chilling" (oak-leaner with EYES CLOSED resting, belly-down reader in round glasses, two playing catch with a big colorful beach ball mid-air); Scene 2 "working for you" (overseer, note-taker showing a neighbor, laptop typist, chalkboard - NO lightbulbs); and NEW Scene 3 "the army" - a busy Where's-Waldo meadow of 12-20 creatures doing many varied tasks at once (typing, reading, carrying papers, painting, gardening, planning, conferring, delivering). Framing pulled back ~30% further than a normal wide shot. 2 variants per scene, creature held via anime_creature_ref.png. Picks: Scene 1 = a, Scene 2 = a, Scene 3 = a.

ANIME FINAL (2026-07-11): both hero scenes re-rendered in the founder-approved anime / cel-shaded style (crisp cel shading, rich blue sky, DEFINED fluffy clouds) with two flagged defects fixed. Scene 1 now shows FOUR creatures (the two catch-players are both fully in frame with the big colorful beach ball mid-air; oak-leaner + belly-down reader with round glasses). ALL creatures in every image share the IDENTICAL big round close-set black eyes - the #1 fix. Two variants per scene; picks: Scene 1 = v1, Scene 2 = v2. Each via one GPT-image-1 /edits call with creature.png as the reference.

STYLE EXPLORATION (2026-07-11): the same "chill" scene (four creatures: oak-leaner, belly-down reader, two playing catch with a ball mid-air) rendered in FOUR more MATURE art styles - the soft storybook paint read too childish. Anime / mature 3D cartoon / clean flat vector / semi-realistic painterly (Ghibli-grade). Each via one GPT-image-1 /edits call with creature.png passed as the reference to hold the character. Pick a style direction.

FOUR-creature scenes (2026-07-11): two premium blue-sky hero scenes, each with FOUR of the locked creature, generated via one GPT-image-1 /edits call per image with creature.png passed as the reference (the same call that held identity for the single-creature win). Direct approach held identity cleanly across all four - no composite fallback needed. Same bright midday palette (blue sky, white clouds, green wildflower meadow). Picks: Scene 1 = chill v3, Scene 2 = work v2. Animation loop plan lives in claudecode-harness/docs/CREW-HERO-ANIMATION-PLAN.md. Prior single-creature blue-sky + warm-sunset stills kept below for reference.

SV PAINTERLY v2 - wide + skyline + scale fixed The "chill" scene re-rendered in the LOCKED Silicon Valley painterly style with the founder's fixes: MUCH wider establishing shot (creatures small in a big landscape, sky up top for a headline), distant CITY SKYLINE kept, all four creatures the SAME size + a proper BIG oak tree, tree-leaner actually leaning against the trunk with clean CLOSED eyes, and grounded soft shadows under every creature. Creature held via anime_creature_ref.png, both style refs passed as inputs. v1 = park + skyline, v2 = golden meadow + skyline, v3 = blend + skyline. Pick: v3.

SILICON VALLEY PAINTERLY - style test Same "chill" scene rendered in a NEW premium semi-realistic PAINTERLY style, matching the founder's uixhassan reference set (lush green park + distant skyline; golden-hour lake). Ghibli-meets-realism / Linear-Notion-Apple aspirational tech-park mood: soft painterly brushwork, blue gradient sky, layered greenery with depth, warm directional light. Creature held via anime_creature_ref.png (big eyes with white catchlight), both style refs passed as inputs. v1 = park + skyline, v2 = golden meadow, v3 = blend. Pick: v3.

ANIME v3 - 3 scenes, wider, catchlight eyes The founder's latest fixes: expressive anime eyes with a white catchlight/shine (not flat solid-black), tree-leaner's eyes CLOSED (resting), framing ~30% more zoomed out, and a NEW Scene 3 "the army" - a busy Where's-Waldo meadow of 12-20 creatures doing many varied tasks. Creature held via anime_creature_ref.png. 2 variants per scene.

ANIME FINAL - 4 creatures + consistent eyes Founder-approved anime / cel-shaded style with two fixes: Scene 1 now has FOUR creatures (both catch-players in frame + big beach ball mid-air), and ALL creatures in every image share the IDENTICAL big round close-set black eyes. Rich blue sky, defined fluffy clouds, wide + scattered. 2 variants per scene, creature held via creature.png reference. Picks: Scene 1 = v1, Scene 2 = v2.

REFINED v2 - wide + scattered - anime vs flat Refined poses + WIDE pulled-back framing (meadow seen from a bit afar, clean sky up top) with creatures SCATTERED naturally, not a lineup. Both hero scenes in the two finalist styles: anime cel-shaded vs flat Stripe/Notion vector. Creature held via creature.png reference.

Style exploration - same "chill" scene, 4 mature art directions Pick a style direction. Same base scene (oak-leaner, belly-down reader, two playing catch), creature held via creature.png reference. Softer storybook paint dropped for being too childish.

Scene 1 - "they already did your work, chilling" 4 creatures: leaning on an oak, reading in the grass, two playing catch (ball mid-air). Calm, cofounder.co-quiet, sky space up top.

Scene 2 - "they are working for you" 4 creatures: overseeing, note-taking + showing, typing on a laptop, a chalkboard with simple equations + floating ideas. A bit busier, still premium and legible.

Prior single-creature blue-sky + warm stills (reference)