brand-lock

name	brand-lock
description	Extract real brand assets to clean alpha for post compositing instead of letting a model draw them. Trigger - /brand-lock, during pre-production before keyframes.

Brand Lock

Generative models approximate logos. Fine detail — calligraphy, wordmarks, heraldry, letterforms — comes back subtly wrong. On an institutional or corporate film that is a brand failure, not a stylistic choice.

The rule

Use	How
Logo as an environmental element — etched glass, wall plaque, distant signage	May be generated. It reads correctly at scale and in motion, and a perfect logo would look pasted-on.
Logo as a hero element — end card, title, any static held frame	Must be the real file, composited in post. No exceptions.

Extract to clean alpha

From dark artwork on a white background, derive the alpha from luminance rather than keying the white:

magick logo.png -colorspace gray -negate -level 10%,60% mask.png
magick -size WxH xc:white mask.png -alpha off -compose CopyOpacity -composite logo_white.png

This yields a white mark with correctly antialiased edges, usable over any background. Keying the white background directly leaves fringing.

Also lock, before any generation

• Palette — sample real hex values from the client's own artwork. Never eyeball brand colour.
• Character identity — if the brand has an avatar or mascot live in the product, use that exact asset as the reference so the film matches what users already see.
• Layout grammar — mirror the client's existing marketing artwork. It is pre-approved design language, and reusing its structure makes the film feel native to the brand rather than adjacent to it.