OK, so like I said earlier, I may just be over thinking things here but it is an interesting thing to note. The funny thing is I was guilty of this is my fake screenshot and no one questioned it so it is not surprising no one thought about it with the leaked screens. To get to the point, the clouds may show signs of fakery and were painted it. Yes, my point of cutting and pasting bits and pieces may be wrong because they just used a brush and painted in the clouds. Of course take this with a pinch of salt because I may just be reading too deeply into this.
Here is a screenshot of battlefield. We have all agreed this is the stage the leaked images are set on. Now I want to focus on the mountain pointing towards the top right hand corner (the / one) and the big cloud to the right of it.
Now what I've observed is that the clouds on this stage are not dynamically generated but simply static images that scroll in the background. This can be seen in the
Developer Direct video. The second point is that the images seem to act like the food item from previous smashes in that they always face the camera no matter the angle.
Images used
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
I haven't resized the images. There's a bit of scaling differences which I assume is from the camera zooming in and out but it does show that that cloud's shape lines up and stays constant.
Now for the leaked image.
Noticed that the slanted / mountain is in the background and to the right is the big cloud. I'd also like to note that in my first screen shot there is no other big cloud to the right so I feel it is reasonable to assume that the cloud on the right hand side of the image is meant to be the same cloud I've been talking about.
Now look what happens when I super impose the cloud from a screenshot on top of it.
Now I'm ignoring shadows and the slight difference in the shape at the top due to it being an off the screen photo. However the area circled is the important part. there is no cloud where there should be cloud. Now I think I've fairly lined up the images and I even changed the perspective to match the slant in the leaked photo. In my opinion the person who made this image thought that adding some cloud to the background would be all they needed to do without considering the fact that the clouds are a fixed shape.
Now of course one could argue that because the clouds that could appear later in the cloud scrolling cycle (which is why I feel the point that the models of Palutena being a bit lifeless looking holds more water) but view
the director's video again from the point starting with the Mario model. We can see the sky fading from dusk to day and the cloud I'm focusing on seems to start behind the slanted mountain with no similar tall clouds to the right or the left. I honestly doubt it could be any other cloud. Especially as all day screenshots of this stage seem to have this tall cloud and no other meaning there's a good chance the sky fades to dawn before any other tall cloud could reach this position.
Yes I realise this is completely mad, but it is an aspect no one really questioned. We all just assumed they would have cut out parts from screenshots rather than just painting them in. Just a shame I haven't really got clear screens of the clouds to the left to compare with.