[scbrown]

Depends on #13: this branch is stacked on art/skull-reference. Until #13 merges, the diff here includes #13's commits. Only the last commit is new.

pxl renders all the loops below from .pxl sources at 8x, and they keep the still's palette, outline and proportions. skull.png is unchanged pixel-for-pixel.

idle	laugh	eyes	talking

What's new

• skull_anim.pxl uses a 44x44 canvas, so the head has room to float and the jaw has room to drop.
  • skull_idle: 24 frames at 120ms. A 1px float, with one blink every other bob: the inner socket walls go dark, half and then full.
  • skull_laugh: 12 frames at 70ms. Jaw chatter with a new wide pose (chin down 3px), and the head tips up a pixel on each open.
  • skull_eyes: the idle float plus an ember glow flickering in the sockets. It uses a new ember palette with four warm shades, and the glow_1..3 overlays can sit on top of any frame.
• skull_talking in skull.pxl now has speech-like timing: 1-3 frame syllables, short closes between them and a longer hold between phrases.
• contact_sheet.py builds skull_contact_sheet.png from pxl render --spritesheet strips.
• The README is updated with the new files and render commands.

Craft notes

• Every move is rigid and the jaw poses reuse the still's art, so the outline never changes shape between frames.
• Compositions can't offset a layer (Compositions ignore derived-sprite shift and the {sprite, x, y} layer renders nothing #17), and derived shift sprites render empty as GIF frames. So the cranium, the jaw poses and the overlays are written out at both head heights (*_rest and *_up).
• I skipped the stretch goal, a head turn toward the viewer. At 40px it would mean redrawing the face at new angles, and I didn't want to degrade the look to get it.

GAPS.md additions

• Add color-mix support tests (CSS-12) #4 now also covers derived sprites rendering empty as GIF frames.
• MDB-16: Final Deployment & Review #6: a frame-list animation has one frame duration, so holds are repeated frames.
• feat: add roles field to Palette for semantic token annotation (TTP-db2k) #7: a palette @include fails with "circular include" on the second use as a GIF frame. skull_anim.pxl repeats the bone palette to avoid it.

Testing

Every animation renders with pxl render --strict and no warnings, and pxl validate is clean. This PR only touches examples/skull/.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

https://claude.ai/code/session_01PXBCFZMofE9EGKzo8J2YKJ