r3f-scene-polish

R3F Scene Polish — Cinematic Look-Dev

Take an already-working three.js / React Three Fiber scene and art-direct it to a premium, cinematic result. This skill owns the aesthetic layer: postprocessing, physically-based lighting, shadows, materials, tone mapping, and camera choreography.

Boundary (read first)

This skill is the second half of a 3D scene — the look-dev pass after it renders correctly. It does not own setup or correctness:

• Canvas/createRoot lifecycle, loaders, GLTF, disposal, SSR/client boundaries, DPR, "blank canvas" and resize bugs → web-three-r3f.
• Native (Expo / React Native) motion → expo-motion.
• Cross-stack motion-system direction / tokens / repo-wide upgrades → design-motion-audit.

If the scene doesn't render yet, start in web-three-r3f, then return here.

Before implementing

• Read references/art-direction.md — the current-API (2026) look-dev recipes: the @react-three/postprocessing quality ladder, drei Environment / ContactShadows / AccumulativeShadows / MeshTransmissionMaterial, tone mapping (AgX vs ACES), selective bloom, and the WebGPU/TSL caveat. Verify every API against the repo's installed versions before editing — the reference pins the versions it was written against.
• Read references/motion-vocabulary.md for named camera/lighting decisions.
• Read references/performance-accessibility.md before final QA.

Look-dev rules

1. Light for form. HDRI (Environment) for image-based lighting; add key/fill/rim intentionally; ground the subject with ContactShadows or AccumulativeShadows (or float it deliberately).
2. Tone-map deliberately. three-core defaults to NoToneMapping; the R3F <Canvas> defaults to ACESFilmicToneMapping. Prefer AgX / Neutral for accurate highlight rolloff; don't double-tonemap (renderer or the postprocessing ToneMapping effect, not both).
3. Build a postprocessing quality ladder, not a pile-up: order effects intentionally, gate expensive ones (N8AO, DoF) behind a device/DPR quality tier, and give reduced-motion / low-power a lighter branch.
4. Prefer PBR material values, HDRI, and physically-plausible lighting over fake tricks; use MeshTransmissionMaterial for glass, sharing one FBO for many transmissive objects.
5. Choreograph the camera with intent (dolly/truck/orbit + easing), not large spins for basic feedback; keep text legible through the motion.
6. Animate hot paths cheaply (refs + delta-time in useFrame); this skill assumes web-three-r3f's correctness rules (no setState in the frame loop, reuse math objects, dispose) — see that skill, don't re-derive them here.
7. Always add a reduced-motion / low-power alternative for camera travel, parallax, heavy postprocessing, and idle loops.

Return complete code changes or a complete look-dev plan, depending on the request.

Optional power tool: art-direction audit

This skill ships scripts/audit.mjs, a static auditor for R3F/three.js art-direction quality — tone mapping (double-tonemap, legacy API), color management (deprecated outputEncoding/sRGBEncoding), lighting (unlit scenes), postprocessing quality (missing quality ladder, legacy SSAO, WebGPU mismatch), and material color-space. This is the visual layer web-three-r3f's lifecycle audit does not cover; run both. Optional — findings are leads.

node scripts/audit.mjs doctor                    # list every rule
node scripts/audit.mjs scan --root . --format json

Verify each finding against the repo's installed package versions before changing behavior.