| name | orbital-hud-motion |
| description | Create tasteful circular/orbital HUD and aura animations around a Blender subject using source-derived arcs, dots, dashes, opacity, parallax, and restrained motion. Use when decorative circles, halos, orbit markers, scanner rings, or HUD effects must correlate with a logo/mascot rather than looking like random oversized rings. |
| when_to_use | Animated circular HUD elements, aura rings, orbit arcs, dots, dashed circles, halo effects, mascot/logo motion graphics, source-derived decorative elements, avoiding bad outside-element animation. |
| allowed-tools | Read Bash Glob Grep mcp__blender__execute_blender_code mcp__blender__get_scene_info mcp__blender__get_object_info |
Orbital HUD Motion
Decorative circles are design elements, not filler. They must be derived from the reference composition and support the subject.
Design rules
- Keep the avatar/subject dominant; rings should frame, not trap or overpower it.
- Derive radii, arc breaks, marker positions, and dash density from the reference image when possible.
- Separate layers:
- far/background aura: faint, slow, soft;
- mid orbit: thin arcs/dashes;
- markers/dots: sparse and synchronized;
- foreground accents: rare and short-lived.
- Prefer opacity/emission/dash phase over large rotation/scale changes.
- Never animate all rings in the same direction/speed; use subtle counter-motion/parallax.
- Do not include context rings in the base avatar mesh/export unless explicitly requested.
Animation recipe
- Create an
HUD_CONTEXT collection separate from AVATAR_BASE.
- Build arcs/dots from a manifest of normalized radii and angles.
- Keyframe:
- dash offset or arc reveal;
- emission strength pulse;
- subtle rotation (1–12 degrees per loop, not full spin unless requested);
- marker opacity/scale blips at beats.
- Render a contact sheet with subject-only and with-HUD views.
- Reject if rings obscure the face/silhouette or dominate the frame.
Hard rules
- No random full circles when the reference has broken arcs/dashed guides.
- No oversized markers unless the source has them.
- No HUD animation until static avatar baseline is locked.
- For GLB, use object transforms/material keyframes or document runtime requirements.
Scripts
scripts/orbit_layout_manifest.py creates a source-independent orbit manifest from simple radii/angle parameters.