I consider my previous 2020 Ghost of Tsushima gallery one of the most accomplished on this site. Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut has now given me the chance to focus on the magnificent Iki Island DLC, its lushful meadows, the new armor sets and horse gear. I looked for suitable contexts for the God of War and Bloodborne-inspired sets and went back to a few concepts that couldn't make it in the 2020 gallery: the desperate horse charge and Komoda Beach massacre, the poetic Ryuzo duel among floating lanterns, Jin Sakai both embracing his father's legacy and departing form the samurai honor code. Last but not least, a tribute to Kurosawa's filmography featuring black and white gradient and rain. I'm happy to include several horse shots, as horse animations in GoT are so influenced by traditional Japanese art. In this regard, one shot aims to conjure up the Ukiyo-e woodblock printing style through a combination of suitable setting, climate, day time and color filtering. GoT is a game about so many aspects of feudal Japan but, at its core, it tells a story about war. An invasion war, and a liberation war. Both brutal and uncompromising. I think this darker tone is more presentin this set than it was in last year's gallery, so I used forests and Iki's poetic vistas to achieve a more pleasent and colorful overall balance.
No Post-Production: SAMURAI SPIRIT, FISH IN A NET, GHOST OF SPARTA, LAST SAMURAI, HORIZON HERO LAWN, RAINBOW MELODY, GHOST OF YHARNAM, RIDERS IN UKIYO-E, IN THE MANE OF THE FATHER
Minor Post-Production: POND SCUM (brightness/contrast adjustment) ,RACE INVADER (color balance), SPRING INTO ACTION (contrast adjustment), SWINGIN' IN THE RAIN (local contrast adjustment), KUROSAWA MODE (floating horse gear combined from a rain-less shot before the manual climate change resetted the cloth physics), INFRARED PHANTOM (local contrast and color balance adjustment)
Full Post-Production: DISHONORED (perspective correction, contrast adjustment, blood spatter removal and color correction)