Homepage hero: options (round 5)

R5 slow life + white house — Pier, aerial, porch

Three scenes now, the pond dropped. The aerial is round 4's pull-back with only two movers kept, both on the main street and both checked frame by frame at full size: the silver car coming through the curve from the pond, and the two walkers. Everything else the model moved (the highway traffic and the side-street cars that flickered, jumped the kerb and raced) is frozen under the clip's own first frame, and what's left plays at half speed. The porch is round 2's white house with the black trim and the maple leaf, pushing in toward its timber-framed entry, which sits right of centre, clear of the card.

Source: Client film shot 22, graded; HERO-R3-D2 at half speed inside two lanes over its own first frame (media-src/work/hero/r5/aerial-slow.mp4), under round 4's lake overlay; HERO-D5 (Viggle first-frame mode from src/media/neighbourhood/white-house.jpg), 0 to 3.7 s. scripts/media/hero-r5.sh reel slow white.

Not chosen (2026-10-02): the car still moves at an angle and the walkers glide, while the background traffic is frozendesktop 4.00 MBmobile 2.36 MBtablet 2.77 MB16.4 s loop

R5 still + white house — Nothing moves but the camera

The same reel, the aerial made from the hero photograph itself (the keyframe every Viggle clip started from) under the same lake overlay: the same pull-back, and nothing in the frame moves. Nothing can misbehave; nothing is alive either.

Source: As R5 slow life, but the aerial is media-src/work/hero/r3-keys/k-w.jpg. scripts/media/hero-r5.sh reel still white.

Chosen (2026-10-02): now the live homepage herodesktop 3.90 MBmobile 2.30 MBtablet 2.67 MB16.4 s loop

R5 slow life + blue house, mirrored

The R4 porch, mirrored so the front door and the yellow chairs sit on the right, clear of the card. The house number on the porch column was painted out with the column's own paint before the flip, so no backwards '13' shows. But the mirror isn't the real house: its garage is on the other side, and anyone who knows the street will see it. That's the fidelity cost.

Source: As R5 slow life; the porch is HERO-R3-porch 0 to 2.55 s, number painted out and flipped (media-src/work/hero/r5/porch-flip.mp4). scripts/media/hero-r5.sh reel slow flip.

Candidate: the blue porch, mirrored (a fidelity concern)desktop 3.98 MBmobile 2.41 MBtablet 2.85 MB16.4 s loop

R5 slow life + pond still + white house — Four scenes

R5 slow life with a fourth scene between the aerial and the porch: the pond photograph (the white house across the water), a slow push in on the still. The house sits high in the frame and clears the card at 390 and 768 px, but at 1440 px the card covers half of it, the same problem as the film's pond. It's also a 1672 px still, so softer at 1920 than the film scenes. Better on the neighbourhood page.

Source: As R5 slow life, plus src/media/neighbourhood/pond.jpg. scripts/media/hero-r5.sh reel slow white pond.

Not recommended: the card covers the pond's house at 1440 pxdesktop 4.06 MBmobile 2.42 MBtablet 2.83 MB20.4 s loop

R4 zoom-out — Pier, then the lake pulling back to the streets

The R3 reel in Gabriel's order: the pier and range light, the aerial, the pond, the porch. The aerial opens close on the lake and Chantry Island and pulls back, steadily, to the whole neighbourhood: the lake leads straight on from the pier, and the streets, the silver car and the walkers arrive as the frame widens. The lake, island and far shore are the original drone photo (sharper than the hero master, and its lighthouse is white, as it is); everything below is round 3's life clip. The pier is now the film's own 1920 px shot, not v1's 1280 px copy.

Source: Client film shots 22 and 5 (git-prov/imports/film/clips/), graded; HERO-R3-D2 under a lake overlay from git-prov/imports/drive/aerials-2026/2-2.jpg (media-src/work/hero/r4/), camera move added in post; HERO-R3-porch. scripts/media/hero-r4.sh reel zoomout.

Round 4's pick; superseded by round 5desktop 4.05 MBmobile 2.46 MB16.8 s loop

R4 push — Pier, then a push in toward the lake

The same reel, but the aerial starts on the whole view (the live hero's framing, with the car coming down the street) and pushes slowly in toward the horizon over the island, 1.8x over 7 s, as round 2's E did, forward only. It ends close on the lake and the town, so it cuts from lake to pond; the zoom-out instead hands lake to lake.

Source: As R4 zoom-out; scripts/media/hero-r4.sh reel push.

Candidate: the same reel, the aerial pushing indesktop 4.10 MBmobile 2.44 MB16.8 s loop

R3 chain — The streets with life in them (AI, Viggle keyframe chain)

The live hero photograph, with life in it: a silver car turns off by the pond and drives down the main street out of frame, two people walk down the street, a dark car drives off along the side street, someone mows a lawn, and the cars on the road behind move. Every keyframe is the photo itself or the photo with those few things pasted in, so the houses are the photograph's own pixels. The camera drifts slowly on a small ellipse, the same speed all the way round and seamless at the loop point. A 0.25 s dissolve covers the join between the two generations; the loop closes with a 0.6 s dissolve in which the car and walkers fade in, small and far off by the pond.

Source: Viggle first+last-frame mode, two segments of a keyframe chain (HERO-R3-D2, D3). Keyframes: the 16:9 master of src/media/hero/aerial-21x9.jpg, and copies of it with cars and people added (codex image edits, pasted back only inside a small box per addition). The camera drift is added afterwards.

Round 3's pick for the hero; superseded by round 4desktop 3.70 MBmobile 1.78 MB13.7 s loop

R3 reel — Streets, pond, porch, pier (mixed)

Four scenes, each moving one way only, joined by 1 s dissolves: the aerial with the car coming down the street (drifting sideways), the white house across the pond from the client film (a slow push-in, the film's wordmark cropped out), the yellow-chair porch (a gentle glide in, a sprinkler on the lawn), and v1's quiet pier. It says more than any single shot, but it keeps changing behind the headline.

Source: HERO-R3-D2 (Viggle); client film 14.25 to 16.45 s (git-prov/imports/film/clips/film-0013.8-0017.0.mp4), graded; HERO-R3-porch (Viggle first-frame mode, from the photo behind D2); v1's shoreline-loop.mp4, graded. The pier is a 1280 px source, so it's soft at 1920.

Candidate: the place, in four scenesdesktop 4.24 MBmobile 2.00 MB15.7 s loop

A — Static aerial (the live hero today)

The graded aerial as it ships. No motion, no cost, no risk: the baseline every other option is measured against.

Baseline

E — Drone push-in toward the lake (AI, Viggle)

A real camera move from the live hero photo: the clip starts on the photograph itself, and the model draws the parallax as the drone glides forward over the streets toward the lake. Only the first 2.75 s of the 10 s generation is used, slowed 3x and played in and back: after that the model flew past everything the photo shows and started inventing town. A second, slower-prompted generation (E2) tilted down into the streets and lost the lake, so it was rejected.

Source: Viggle first-frame mode. First frame: src/media/hero/aerial-21x9.jpg (the live hero).

Recommended for the homepage herodesktop 4.60 MBmobile 2.26 MB16 s loop

C-lite — Push-in on the still (remade)

Round 1's version barely moved (its middle frame measured 63 dB PSNR against its first: effectively a still). This one pushes in 10% toward the lake over 6 s and eases back out, one smooth cosine cycle, so the loop joins itself exactly. The same pixels as the live hero, only reframed.

Source: src/media/hero/aerial-21x9.jpg, no model.

Candidate: zero AI, zero riskdesktop 3.19 MBmobile 1.66 MB12 s loop

F — From today's field to the finished street (AI, Viggle)

Remade 2026-10-14 (F3) on the recoloured finished-street image. Locked-off drone view: the bare Phase 3 field, then the two surveyed streets pave, foundations go in, houses rise on their lots and lawns green over, and it holds on the finished street before dissolving back. Both ends are pinned to the before/after pair on the Lots page, so the neighbourhood around the field stays put and the camera doesn't move at all. It shows houses that aren't built yet, so it needs an 'illustration' caption wherever it runs.

Source: Viggle first+last-frame mode (MiniMax H3). First frame: src/media/lots/phase3-start.jpg, the real August 2026 aerial (graded). Last frame: src/media/lots/phase3-future.jpg, the finished street on the surveyed plan. Both cropped to Viggle's 7:4 frame. The same pair on fal's H3 and H3 Max did no better.

Recommended, as a feature; a hero only with a captiondesktop 3.82 MBmobile 1.85 MB13.7 s loop

D2 — Push-in toward a porch (AI, Viggle)

Eye level, a gentle glide in toward the covered porch and the yellow chairs, and back. The house holds: the four-lite yellow doors, the garage-door windows, the dormer and the siding match the photo frame by frame. The model adds a few clouds to the sky in its first half-second; that part is cut.

Source: Viggle first-frame mode. First frame: git-prov/imports/v1/gallery/blue-porch.jpg, graded (the photo src/media/neighbourhood/porch-yellow-chairs.jpg is cropped from).

Candidate: street leveldesktop 1.79 MBmobile 0.90 MB7.4 s loop

D5 — Push-in toward a front door (AI, Viggle)

From the end of the driveway, a slow glide toward the timber-framed entry, and back. The house holds: the wood garage door, the black windows, the timber posts, the number 7 and the maple leaf, the wicker chairs. The calmest of the street-level clips.

Source: Viggle first-frame mode. First frame: src/media/neighbourhood/white-house.jpg.

Candidate: street leveldesktop 3.56 MBmobile 1.71 MB11.9 s loop

B — Fixed film loop (round 1)

The client's drone film, retrimmed before its hard cut to the entrance sign, slowed 1.8x with motion interpolation and closed with a crossfade. Real streets, the pond and houses; the join is a soft dissolve rather than seamless.

Source: Client film 00:17.0 to 00:20.6 (git-prov/imports/film/clips/film-0017.0-0021.0.mp4), graded.

Candidate: real footagedesktop 1.84 MBmobile 0.71 MB6.3 s loop

C — Viggle, round 1 (reference-image mode)

The model redrew the photo rather than starting on it. The wide view holds; up close, one house's upper windows become round ornamented ones, its white door becomes a teal-and-pink panel, and the black house behind it loses its geometry. docs/content/review/2026-09-23-hero-options/c-what-changed.jpg shows exactly where. Softer than the others (768p output, upscaled).

Source: Viggle reference-image mode. Reference: src/media/hero/aerial-21x9.jpg.

Your call: see what changeddesktop 2.24 MBmobile 0.78 MB8 s loop

v1 B — Lake in motion (v1's recommendation)

From v1's unsettled hero choice: two moving shoreline shots from the client film, slowed 2x and dissolved. v1 recommended it for the hero. It's the lake and the beach, not the neighbourhood, and 1280 px wide, so soft on large screens.

Source: v1 branch codex/hero-choice-prototype-20260908, public/media/hero-prototype/B.mp4 (film 55.3 to 57.35 s and 65.8 to 67.22 s), imported; graded here.

Candidate: real footage, mostly waterdesktop 1.62 MBmobile 0.77 MB6 s loop

v1 A — Quiet pier

v1's live hero: the pier lighthouse over the lake, slowed 4x until it is nearly still. Gabriel liked its calm; it's the loop that prompted 'show more than water'. Better as a quiet section break than the hero.

Source: v1 main, public/media/shoreline-loop.mp4 (film 51.15 to 53.29 s), imported; graded here.

Candidate: the calm onedesktop 1.75 MBmobile 0.82 MB8 s loop

v1 C — A sense of place

v1's narrative option: lake, the neighbourhood aerial, the woods trail and the harbour, dissolving into each other. v1 judged it too busy behind hero copy, and it is; it would suit a 'the place' section lower on the page.

Source: v1 branch codex/hero-choice-prototype-20260908, public/media/hero-prototype/C.mp4 (four film spans), imported; graded here.

Better as a community introductiondesktop 3.29 MBmobile 1.60 MB13.1 s loop

D1 — Across the street to the navy house (AI, Viggle)

The houses stay true, but the two photos were taken from quite different spots and the model got between them by diving in to a close-up of the porch and pulling back out. Faithful, not calm.

Source: Viggle first+last-frame mode. First frame: src/media/interim/neighbours-two-houses.jpg. Last frame: src/media/neighbourhood/garage-set-back.jpg (the same house).

Not recommended: restless cameradesktop 2.02 MBmobile 0.96 MB7 s loop