Lock Down

Work has me bogged down at the moment.  Next champ will be later this week or the next -- depends on when my hours let up :)

Champion Concept: Mort

Concept Lore

Bilgewater is a busy place.  Between trade, thievery, bounty-hunting, and other shenanigans -- occasionally a story is told about Mort, the great Water Sage.  The stories vary from traveler to drunkard; How Mort uses the ocean itself to crush pirates, or calms the currents to provide safe passage for ships.  Everything said about Mort has been just a story.  Few believed Mort even existed.  Until the old sage himself rowed into Bilgewater from the ocean.

When he appeared -- the only thing Mort would say is "must warn the two of the danger," and then proceeded to hobble toward the League.

Concept Game-Play

Mort is a Bilgewater Mage and Support that specializes in titanic ocean spells that shield, slow, and crush.  Some of his abilities are meant to be terrain altering or terrain creating.  He's meant to be a little more tanky than typical Mages and Supports too.

Art Direction

This is my first approach at painting the champion without being reliant on outlines and sketches (looking for feedback about that).  Mort is super old to provide a change of pace from the typical hyper-athletic champions we already have.  He also fills the old hermit/sage archetype.  He houses this really colorful shell on his back, which is about as big as he is.  I wanted players to think "what's under that thing?".  One of Mort's eyes are missing and he has a crab claw for an arm -- which suggests that Mort may not be human at all.  He's also missing a leg, which is why he has a staff -- it's for walking and magic!

Champion Concept: Millia

Concept Lore

In Bilgewater, thieves are commonplace.  But no thief has a reputation as Millia does. As a master thief; Millia is one of the most wanted criminals in all of the world -- not because of her crimes, but because she is a thief for hire.  Looking for more of a challenge Millia has sought to test her abilities against the champions of the League... and perhaps make a little coin doing so.

Concept Game-Play

Millia is a Bilgewater support that scales off of Attack Damage and Critical Chance.  She manipulates gold gain both to the advantage of her allies and to the detriment of her opponents. She is quick and agile with abilities that reflect her cunning.  She is supposed to fit a role focused on speed and gold manipulation that is currently absent from support archetypes.

Art Direction

Millia has been one of the most difficult champions I've had to design -- mostly in part because I didn't quite know in which direction to go in for a Bilgewater champion.  Eventually I decided to make another thief type champion, and I started putting a pirate take on rogue tropes.  I put her in leathers for armor as it was more appropriate considering her thematics, and added a lot of yellows and golds to represent her obsessions as a thief. She came out a little too bland, so I had to pop her with a violet tint in her leather and a magenta tattoo on her arm.  Afterwards, I added just a little bit of silver to contrast the leather more so.

Revision: Castor/Pollux

Art Direction

The long awaited Castor/Pollux revision is here! Going off of the feedback I received from the original versions -- this Champion is now a mirror of the Summoner's Rift minions.  This all ties back to an attempt at duality -- and as such, Castor and Pollux both represent two different kinds of minions.  Of course, they're their own champion, so they're a little more "beefed up" than the minions.  I think they share enough resemblance to get the idea across.  Also, Castor and Pollux are different enough from each other to dictate how they play differently depending on which one you are playing.  One's a hero, one's a villain -- and they're both very childish about it.  Hope you enjoy the revision![

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.

Skin Concept: Prehistoric Trundle

Art Direction

Trundle needs skins. So I made this one. I really like the Jurassic skin theme that's been given to monster champions, and I thought branching from that theme would make for a cool contrast (like Crimson Elite/Commando contrasts). Anyways, Trundle seemed the perfect choice given his abilities and weapon choice. I gave Trundle more untamed hair (including a flashy new beard) and some tusks. His skin is an off ochre color with white war paint -- to bring him more in line of "clay" colors to emphasize age in the theme.