Syntactical Guidelines

The following images are artistic depictions of fighting in the game World of Warcraft. Both attempt to portray the hectic chaos of battle, however one is much more effective at delivering the message than the other because it follows syntactical guidelines.

This image uses syntactical guidelines to effectively portray the chaos of battle. It is painted at an angle where the viewer appears to be looking up at the massive demon, giving us an unsettling glimpse of the inequality of war. The images is also sharpened in a way so that the focus is on the demon. The lighting contrasts the bright mid ground from the images dark foreground and background, effectively creating a positive and negative effect between the two characters. Nothing in the image is completely horizontal or vertical, diagonal lines throughout the image give it a sense of motion, action, and stress.

This is another image that depicts fighting in the game of world of warcraft, however it's portrayal is less effective than the previous image. There is a strong sense of balance and equilibrium in this piece which creates a less than desirable effect for a battle scene. The characters are about equally divided between the two sides of the screen and are all aligned vertically. The image is very static, without the dynamic qualities of the first image. The colors and lighting are relatively the same throughout the image, creating very little contrast. It gives the image a sense of harmony and uniformity that is very unfitting for a battle scene. The image lacks the stress and movement that can be found in the first image.