It’s good. It’s really really good.
It’s a great motif and well executed.
Character Lighting works really well here and the positioning is great. While the lucky bunny is off somewhere ranting about this needing more contrast on the mount, the other two members really appreciated the feeling of exploration, the angle of the camera and the moving animation used for this.
The location was an amazing idea and the cave entrance in the background is elevating the whole picture with spots of colour while the right side is deep darkness.
Also we found this incredibly fitting to your role of Chief Submarine Officer.
Top scores all around.
Jury quote: “I shouldn’t like it as much as I do, but it is making me feel things.”
“I love the idea! It’s always refreshing to see something I couldn’t even imagine coming up with.” –
The glam and the mount are on point. The colour composition is magnificent. The colour filter is well chosen and the background is nicely emphasizing the focus object. The angle is perfect and the lighting is well placed allowing the face to be visible through the ambient light effects.
We’ve got nothing to complain about, except that you don’t take screenshots with the snipping tool. (<- This is the official warning for everyone. Use your printscreen-buttons, you barbarians.)
Well here we are. First place.
Who knew? When we started the ranking discussion this was the first picture we looked at and Long-ear hadn’t seen it until that moment. What erupted was overly joyous ruckus from the other two members. My best attempt to summarize what was said is: Denim’s image invokes a feeling of home, safety, warmth and hope and those are things we just really need right now.
An image that can get such a strong emotional reaction was definitely special from the get go.
So the idea was great, the end result amazing and the effect mesmerizing. But what about the technical side? Is it also really well done?
So this was the only image where I actually went in the game to that same location and tried reconstructing it, because I was really wary on the Depth of Field effect and the whole lighting thing.
If your picture makes me go into the game and double check if it is actually doable then you are damn fine on the technical side.
Congratulations Denim!
Last but not least, there is this disqualified entry from Ryve, which lead to him transitioning to the jury. While he used paint I found it to capture the idea behind the contest the best. These are all screenshots from different times: Starting in the top left you see the standard chocobo colours from the time when Ryve just started playing (1 week, it was?), followed by new barding and colouring in the top middle, while he was questing in Heavensward. The other two are from the current time and show the chocobo and his life-long friend in full gear.
That’s some serious dedication that we can all appreciate!
You all took amazing pictures and this time around I definitely would not feel confident in participating.
Remember that the ranking is relative and it took us close to 2 hours to come to any form consent.
Keep at it with the screenshots and there will definitely be another contest in the future!
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