CC1717 Capybara — flag v3: smooth paw + die-cut recut to the flag (Blue Jean)

REVISED again per your two notes: (1) the paw is untouched original art now — the pole is drawn on the OLD pole's exact centerline, full length into the paw's dark arc, so the grip junction is the original's own smooth fillet (no masks, no patches); (2) the white sticker field around the flag was RECUT to follow the new flag+pole contour at the design's own margin (~110px), trimmed of the old flag's leftover bulge. The lower-left blue stars sit in tightened smooth blobs now (their old backing was part of the removed bulge). Earlier fix retained:

Flag orientation: flag now attaches by the star-field side — union sits top-right flush against a restored near-vertical pole (like the original composition), cloth hoist runs along the pole, pole redrawn in front of the cloth and entering the paw grip. Standalone asset is drawn union-top-left; on a right-side pole it mounts mirrored so the union stays at the hoist (correct flag etiquette — this is the flag's reverse face).

New flag drawn deterministically in code (zero AI): 13 stripes (7 red/6 cream), 50 stars in the true 9-row 6-5 pattern, union top-left, kawaii wave + thick warm-brown outline in the cast palette (sampled from the design itself). Old flag + pole + star-finial connector filled to field white; new diagonal stick pinned at the flag corner, passing behind the cloth into the paw. All edits stay inside the white sticker field — the die-cut outline was never touched.

The new hero render

Blue Jean CC1717, fill 0.92, anchor_x 0.544 → tag line 1933 (the approved centering job)

Flag on fabric — zoom

Displacement wraps the new flag into the weave like the rest of the art

Before → After (design file)

BEFORE — baked flag: ~9 fat stripes, ~39 scattered stars, canton floating mid-flag

AFTER — true construction, stick re-drawn, star sparkle now free-floating (matches the other sparkles)

The flag asset itself (reusable for all 30 designs)

Paw grip at 2× zoom (4500px file)

Measured proofs

Centering: approved anchor 0.544 maps to x=1926.4 on the render vs tag line 1933 → offset −6.6 px (anchor recomputed to 0.5424 for the recut bbox) (tolerance ±10).
Shadow halo: 127 darker-grey pixels (largest cluster 6px) in the 4–30px ring around the sticker — all scattered singles, zero clusters >8px (JPEG/AA noise level, no visible ring). Magenta map below.

Tag centerline (x=1933) through the nose

Every "darker-grey" ring pixel marked magenta — scatter, no ring

What I see that may still be off — your call

Fill seam: the old field had faint baked shading; my fill is flat, so on close zoom the zone around the flag reads slightly brighter/flatter than the rest of the field. Subtle at product scale — judge the zoom above.
Stripes are thinner than the old fake (13 true stripes vs ~9 fat ones) — slightly busier at small sizes; that is what a correct flag requires.
Pose: restored to the original (near-vertical pole in the paw); red sparkle floats free (it was never attached in the source).
Grip: pole rides the original pole's line into the original arc — zoom below; judge the junction yourself.
Tiny bump on the paw's top-right shoulder where the old pole's anti-aliasing merged into the arc outline — sub-pixel at product scale.
Design is un-grained (σ=0, same as ns7 source) — 4% Pavilion Grain gets applied at print-file upload time, per canon.

Old approved render (wrong flag) for reference

Reply APPROVE to batch all 30 designs × 3 contrast colors with this method · REVISE + notes to iterate · 2026-07-07