Champion Concept: Nadine

Concept Lore

Nadine remembers her king, who accepted her into his family when she lost her own. She remembers her training -- bending the fabrics of magic with swordsmanship. She remembers becoming a paladin and taking up her charge to uphold the law of the Isles -- and to protect her king.

What Nadine doesn't remember, is when she died. Attracted by the dimly pulsing magics of her former king, Nadine has stumbled upon the League -- where her training will serve her well.

Concept Game-Play

Nadine is a Shadow Isles fighter meant for top lane. She is a spell sword champion that specializes in mana absorbing, mana scaling, and skills shots. She is the fighter version of Ezreal. She is supposed to be a high risk high reward AP based champion.

Art Direction

So Nadine's design was founded on the idea that not everything that comes out of the Shadow Isles is evil. So I came up with this idea of this order of paladins, who upheld the law, that existed on the Isles. From there, I used typical white and blues to cover her palette. I wanted her to be distinct though, and instead of solid white -- I made her this marble color with organic protrusions. I also wanted to avoid the overly "sexy" approach, so I covered Nadine with armor and gave her a helm that covered her eyes -- which is still impractical; Covering the eyes I think adds to the idea of her being an apparition and well versed in magic, it is also intimidating. She sports a partial cloak that is solid -- to differentiate her from Fiora.

Riot Penguin Stops By

Riot Penguin stopped by the thread today to share a few words!

Riot Penguin

Ahhh! I feel so bad - I don't know how I missed your reply!! Sorry about the absurdly long delay.... :'( 

(lovin' the new art btw!) 

So regarding in games -- What I do for skins, is when I have a design I like the look of, I just snap a screenshot of the character in game - and then just paint directly on the screenshot -- that way I have all the perspective, proportions, and posing done for me!  

This will give you a really good sense of the strengths and weaknesses of the design. In general, you'll find that the head and shoulders are your biggest areas of interest, and you don't really see as much of anything else (so no super decorative belt buckles!).

As far as designing new champions in game -- you can try finding an existing champion with similar proportions to get you started, and then make alterations to better suit the personality of your character.
Hope that helps, and sorry again for taking so long to find this thread again!! 

(ps, in general if I'm not replying to your replies in a timely manner, you can always just hit me up on twitter, which i check regularly - @riotpenguin)

Skin Concept: Death Blossom Zyra

Art Direction

I know that Riot has a new Zyra skin somewhere in the pipeline (my luck is it will be a Death Blossom skin) -- but I had to make this. So there were a few goals fleshing this skin out. 1; It had to share the base palette of Death Blossom Elise. 2; I wanted to include Spring colors. 3; It had to be different enough, that if you had Zyra and Elise rocking Death Blossom skins -- you can tell them apart on the field. Unlike Zyra's current models, Death Blossom makes her asymmetrical; the blooms on one shoulder/leg are larger than the other. For contrast and pop, I added a high saturation magenta color to areas; mostly in petals. Zyra also now has only 1 vine circulating her arm as I thought this would help pop her silhouette in game more, and distinguish the skin.

Revision: Elle

Art Direction

Not to toot my own horn -- but it's amazing how far along I've come being able to draw the figure. I was never happy with how Elle turned out -- the themes I wanted to convey worked against me. I had to bring her more in line with a traditional woodland elf. At the same time, I needed to add a little more League flavor to her. There are more vibrant colors used in Elle's design now, so that she stands out and conveys "Elf" to the player. Disregarding the conflicting concepts, Elle's mechanical arm is now a mangled growth of roots that acts as her new arm. This affects her lore a bit -- but like all the concepts, nothing is set in stone.

Champion Concept: Ardok

Concept Lore

A juggernaut of magma and flesh, bone and steel, Ardok is a punishing foe. In their arrogance, Noxian spell weavers once sought to control the forces of Earth and Fire by creating an abomination; a dual Elemental. The ceremony went horribly wrong and Ardok came into the world -- slaying the sorcerers with his explosive birth. Ardok possessed key attributes of the elements Earth and Fire, but was not the dual elemental his creators had hoped for. Ardok would not be calmed and Earth and Fire gave rise to his strength and recklessness. It took Noxian's best magicians and fighters to eventually subdue Ardok after weeks of effort. Impressed by their ability to hinder him, Ardok joined his Noxian creators in pursuit of more strength. His new path of has led him to the League.

Concept Game-Play

Ardok is a tank that excels at absorbing and redirecting damage. His kit would revolve around dual abilities, both for defense and for offense. Defensive attributes would scale off of Armor, Health, and Attack Damage; Offensive attributes would scale off Magic Resist, Health, and Ability Power.

I toyed with the idea of Ardok being able to shield himself while exploding at the same time, causing AoE knockbacks and damage. Absorbing magic attacks to regurgitate magma covered weapons. Deflecting physical attacks while increasing his strength. Everything he does is a quake and torrent of fire and rock.

Art Direction

I wanted to avoid traditional cyclops -- and make Ardok a bit of a wrecking ball. I borrowed from some God of War elements, and started meshing in my own interpretation of the creature. I covered more of his hide and made it a bite more gravel and scale -- instead of rough skin. I also enjoyed the idea of Ardok being this juggernaut sort of creature that couldn't be stopped; So I thought it would be interesting to have him carrying these wounds from weapons that could not stop him. Because Ardok is supposed to be this failed attempt at Earth and Fire combined, his colors are reds, browns, and tans; also adding to the idea that he is a sort of tank.

Adding a bit of mystery to his lore though, Ardok also has this huge scar across his belly -- a wound he suffered at the hands of another champion. A champion I'll be exploring soon.