I just found this on slashdot What Google Engineers do for Fun: Computerized Lego Art Project

I think the most interesting part about this is

I [...] wrote some Java code to use a simulated annealing technique to figure out a layout for Lego bricks that when stacked on each other look like the image (but also try to minimize cost of the parts, and also try to ensure the result has some structure rigidity - these images are held together only by gravity and the Lego bricks themselves - no glue.

I don't like the result very much, tho. Looks too much like generic photoshop color reduce (well, what else? He's a engineer and not an artist!). I like Monsoon2D's approach better, but I know that low-color sprites works better than reduced full-color photographies. Nevertheless I think there could be impressive results if a pixelartist would pixel a picture with the available lego brick colors as a palette and uses the program to calculate how to make the ideal picture in terms of price and rigidity.

Hello rabidbaboy, I gave it a try. Something like this? (I mirrored the image because faces should look against the text imho)

Good start lollige. Currently I'm not sure why he's scared. Is it because of the, uhm, monster in the background? Or the unstable looking bridge? Or the black cube?

I think first I would change the player to a rear view, heading against the monster. This would be good because you don't have to show his emotion in the small character sprite and you can focus on the portrait in the textbox. Further the monster in the background doesn't look scary at all currently. A few suggestion to make it look more scary: Give it twisted horns, less wide head (less round), more bony, bigger nose (boar nose?), sharp teeth, ears. The mimic is unclear right now too. Maybe you find a reference from a movie or something alike.

A small other issue. The perspective of the boards of the hanging bridge are wrong. Currently it looks like the bridge makes a curve which is impossible with that kind of bridge. Look out that all boards are aligned to one single vanishing point (maybe somwhere outside the right border).

The last thing. The perspective / viewpoint doesn't really support a scary mood. Helm made a good post about this in Arachne's Trioculi Thread. Maybe you want to lower the horizon after reading it. Give it a try.

In your last work the horizon is too low (bit higher than the doorhandle). I made a sloppy photoshop-stretch-edit to put the horizon higher to achieve a more natural look of the room.

Hello Helm, great piece of art. Some minor things which comes to my mind.

* The knob of the sword is too bright and contrasty imho, which means it has got too much attention. I lowered the contast and value in Photoshop and I thought it's a good change. I'm pretty sure it's correctly rendered considered by the lightsource, but it's too eye-catching currently.

* The shoes looks to simplified for my taste. It's kind of a detail-level clash. Maybe adding some small details like seams or heavier folds? But not high contrast, just subtle.