StarCraft II Artwork Thread

[TheEconomist]

I really wonder why they changed the marines' positioning and the environmental lighting. It throws off the composition considerably.

Now that I look at it, it seems like they're looking directly at the 'head lights' of a ship or something, instead of the lights from their suit illuminating the area. Seems weird.

I wonder if there's a Zerglin', Lester?

[Turalyon]

I really wonder why they changed the marines' positioning and the environmental lighting. It throws off the composition considerably.

It's pretty clear that they're going for a "hero pose" for the guy on the right, especially when you consider the Protoss one. Also, it seems the new one depicts the marines after a firefight what with all the shell casings, the other two marines with their visors down and holding their rifles in both hands. The original one seem to depict the Marines "at ease" given their straighter posture.

The lighting actually isn't too bad for the new one since it reflects the original more closely than any of the the previous ones.

[KaiserStratosTygo]

better than the last 2, still mediocre IMO.

too much SC2 design going on.

[Nissa]

Oh, I just realized what's been bugging me. In the new one, the moon is centered, while in the original it's off to the side a little. The older composition is more attractive, because it's not so symmetric.

In my opinion, anyway.

[Visions of Khas]

Oh, I just realized what's been bugging me. In the new one, the moon is centered, while in the original it's off to the side a little.

There's a reason for that! It's called the Rule of Thirds. People often draw a connection between the Rule's role in composition, and the Golden Spiral.

There is no doubt the new composition is garbage.


The artist was too intent on dumping as much detail in there as possible. Ultimately, it makes for a static image, whereas the composition of the older picture is much more dynamic, actively guiding the viewer's eye into a closed-circle across the image.

[TheEconomist]

That really damn spot-on Khas. Awesomely done.

[Turalyon]

Interesting. Although I can see how the increased overall lighting messes up the composition of the new one, I still think there's enough lighting on the right-most marine what with the obvious source coming from the right offscreen side, the multiple bright lamps on his suit with ample lens flair (note we can see 4 of them whereas the others only have two) and the lit up side of the moon to highlight him. The left-most marine is in a relatively darker lit spot compared to the right-most marine in comparison but I do think the lamps on the marine suits are also partially responsible for the image being messy/distracting/having no specific focal point.

All the "problems" with these remastered images seem to involve or stem from lighting to some degree or another. I wonder if you could darken the new one VoK to try and simulate the original like you did with Protoss briefing screen.

[Visions of Khas]

I did a really fast lighting comp on the screen, sticking to the color and lighting scheme of the original.



I experimented and pushed the saturation and values, and found that, lo and behold, the new image is far too bright all-around. The darks need to be darker, and contrast pushed up. That solved a lot of the problems the new art has. The specular highlighting is what busies the composition the most, while the original had more of a diffuse lighting quality.

[TheEconomist]

Your version is actually pretty good.

[Robear]

I keep hitting the add to VoK's reputation button and it doesn't let me because I've done it too much

so +rep