Champion Concept: Bile

Concept Lore

Zaun has unleashed many horrors upon the world, but their only regret is Barton Shaw -- or better known now as Bile.  Barton was a madman bent on emulating his idol, Shaco.  His spree of murders were responded with a team consisting of specialty soldiers from Ionia, Noxus, Demacia, and Zaun assembled to work together to track and eliminate Barton.  They instead succeeded in making an already notorious murderer into some sort of nightmarish monster.  During their encounter, Barton fell into a vat of chemicals -- as he was presumed to be dead, he emerged as some sort of elemental of acid and poison.  The specialty team was later found partially liquidated.  Since then, Barton has taken up the name Bile -- and written in the liquidated remains of his most recent victims, he has promised to surpass his idol.

Concept Game-Play

Bile is a response to some community need for a blob-like/liquid-esque champion.  Bile plays as an AP jungler/assassin/mage that focuses on poisons, area control, and quiet approaches.  He attacks at range and his body is always "flowing" and "spilling" into movements and weapons.  Spitting, puking, shooting, and becoming poison and acid would be staples of his skill palette.  His dance would most certainly have to be modeled after wacky waving inflatable arm flailng tube man.

Art Direction

Bile, as a community response, was relatively easy to pull inspiration for.  I've wanted to make this character for some time, but it hasn't been until recently that I thought I had the artistic know-how to pull him off.  The biggest inspiration for Bile, to begin, is Spider-Man's villain, Carnage.  Moving from that influence, I knew how Bile would move and look.  The main differences between the two though would be that Bile plays and looks more like liquid and is as such, despite being able to form solid objects -- he doesn't wear a suit.  Bile is also purely poisons and acids.  Playing upon his toxic themes, I chose Bile's colors as purple and yellow-green to push the read as poisonous.  Included in his design are various forms his arms can make -- creating weapons for his deadly purpose.  This is much like his influences, but it plays nicely into the character.

Champion Concept: Elle

Concept Lore
Elle is the last of her kind. She arrived on the shores of Valoran from a distant continent, half dead and missing an arm. When Elle was healthy and able to communicate -- she told stories about how an unstoppable evil burnt and leveled her forest home, and people, to ash. Now she participates in the League to hone her skills, and prepare for the time that evil finds it's path to Valoran's shores as well.

Concept Game-Play
Elle is an AD assassin that focuses on quick bursts of damage and Eve-like stealth mechanics. Additionally -- Elle abilities have an after effect of healing allies who happen to be in the path of her bursts. Assassin's usually have one role in games, and as their namesake states -- it's to assassinate single targets, or targets with low health. While Elle may not (and should not) be able to do this as easily as other assassins, I thought that she would be a character who brings more to team-fights than traditional assassins, by healing allies who get caught in her abilities' paths.

Art Direction
Elle's art direction comes from a myriad of archetypes and tropes. There's a dual reasoning behind this. The first was to combine aspects of my favorite characters from other games, shows, and movies. The second was to make an attempt at new techniques I've been studying (which are hopefully improving myself as an artist). Elle's major influences come from traditional woodland elves, and League has no traditional Elven race.

So let's talk the details of the art direction here. I'm sure many viewing this can spot some really obvious aspects and traits of some of my favorite things in this character...

1. I've been reading a lot of books by Andrew Loomis in an attempt to push my work further into the next level. So to start, I played at making the character proportionate. So after a quick sketch, I made the character seven heads tall. So yes -- she is proportionate. I knew this character was going to be an elf assassin, so she's not bearing any heavy armor, and she's thin. She also uses a long handled blade, (the actual name of this weapon eludes me at the moment) it's purposes is for quick, ranged slashing (not stabbing, parrying, or deflecting). She has a scarf to designate speed and agility. Originally, Elle did not have a missing arm. But during the sketch, I made her right arm thinner and thought; if Elle had a mechanical arm, her right side would seem like a frightening fast extension of her already quick blade. So I gave her a hextech arm in place of a real one. I also enjoy characters who are slightly "damaged" because their faults have visual history; "how did that happen?".

2. After the initial sketch, I started in on my line work. This phase of the line work is tighter than the sketch, but still fairly loose. It's is merely an attempt to pull out the details from the scribbles of #1. It was here I decided that Elle would have a body suit, as opposed to a thin suit of intertwining plates or scales.

3. #3 is a line work stage that defines the details and the character as a whole. It's the final tight stage before more intricate work begins.

4. In this stage, I started thinking of what influences were coming to the table, and where Elle would end up. I dropped a base light source on her -- nothing final, just something to get an idea of light.

5. I knew, as an Elf -- I wanted to dictate Elle's color scheme as "woodland". So I went with a strong green for her character base, bronze for her shadows, and yellow-green for her highlights.

6. After I had all the color bases down, Elle started to take shape. And now I'll explain her influences by addressing her own traits. Her scarf is to designate agility and speed. This was something I always loved from Hotsuma of PS2's "Shinobi". I decided that the scarf would be the visual silhouette that set Elle apart from other champions on screen. So as her "banner", it would of course have to be green to represent her woodland nature and former home.

Her body suit is a bronze, saturated khaki color. The reason I chose the body suit for Elle is because it is another easy way to designate agility and speed. But additionally, I wanted to make Elle something of a "survivor". Her entire life has changed, and battle has become her new life. This character is the last of her race -- she has a tragic origin. So I took influence of making the body suit a little more military in looks, as the BB Corps wear body suits in "Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots". Now Elle is designated as still agile, still fast, but in preparation for a coming war.

Lastly, Elle's overall look (and what I envision as her fighting looks like) comes from the character Lightning of "Final Fantasy XIII". Elle bears a heavier design on one side and a sleeker bearing on the other, akin to Lightning. Elle is no longer a warmhearted elf -- her homeland has been razed and her people murdered -- she herself has become cold, and closed to others.

7. This is where I took what I learned and started moving forward with Elle's design -- keeping in mind all that I wanted to accomplish with her character (while still pulling from so many influences). I added a realism base to eradicate sketch lines and outlines.

8. Finally, I detailed Elle in realist style painting, making sure to pronounce her attributes as militaristic and agile. To further the effect, I chose to tone back the green in her scarf, and up the green in her body suit. While this did ultimately make Elle appealing in a military aimed fashion -- I feel it derailed her too much. Additionally, Elle received a leaf pendent inlaid with emeralds to provide further evidence of her previous life, and what she is about. Feeling that Elle still needing something, I added a pack strapped to her hip. This was added to balance out the offset weight, caused by the difference in her arms, and the negative space provided by her body suit.

9. The final version had it's colors reverted, and additional care was placed on Elle's design. I thoroughly enjoyed working on Elle, and I feel that the concepts came together quite nicely. This was much needed practice with new techniques -- so while I am happy with the result, it is still a ways off of what I aim to accomplish with my concepts. I hope you enjoyed Elle's design, and kudos to you if you made it this far in the text.

Champion Concept: Waitomo

Concept Lore
Waitomo is an ancient being lost to myth -- a creature of lore known for it's rarity and viciousness. Akin to the cave newts of the Kumungu Jungle, Waitomo lived in the darkness -- isolated from the world. Using his luminous tails, Waitomo would lure in prey that had gotten lost within his tunnels. Thinking the light was they way out, Waitomo's prey would stumble right into his grasp. But something above his tunnels and caverns changed -- and the air and earth became saturated with an energy Waitomo knew nothing of. Until he stood upright and openly looked upon day's light -- and he simply understood. No longer bound by the darkness,Waitomo ventured forth with sentience and hunger.

Concept Game-Play
I thought of Waitomo as a stealthy and quick jungler with intense health regeneration. He's a creature of magic now, and I thought that the regenerative capabilities of him would be on a whole new level that not even the league has seen before, something the enemy would keep saying "why won't this thing just die?!". Like the newts he's based on, I thought that he would also be fast -- skittering around the battlefield to catch prey with his luminous tails. The difference between Waitomo and Mundo would be more along the lines of less damage, and a more mobile and utility kit -- with taunts or grabs via the tails and of course bursts of brief stealth. You can think of him as a combination of Mundo, Kha'Zix, and Twitch.

Art Direction
I wanted more creatures for the league -- and it's rare in any fantasy based universe that I see a creature based on luminous cave creatures. So taking cave newts as a base, I worked Waitomo up from there. Creatures like Waitomo scare me a bit -- they put me at an unease. This is something that sees you in the dark, when you can't see anything. Waitomo is something that can skitter around in your peripheral vision and make you jump. And I realized that Waitomo is actually Gollum. They're not the same character, but they share the same roots in concept. So naturally I added the Ring of Power as an homage to the similarities -- otherwise, Waitomo is straight creature. He has a large skull and mouth for catching prey, three tails (two vestigial and one articulated) that can extend and retract, and he is luminous. I picture him as something that runs on all fours -- but he's shown upright in the art to get a better look at him. He has two color variations posted -- his default, and how he would look in typical Gollum/Mountain Troll fashion.

Champion Concept: Katsumi

Concept Lore
Ionia suffered greatly during the Noxian invasion. After Ionia wrought back their lands and became part of the League -- an order was made in secret. It was clear that the path of balance would not defend them from such a hostile invasion, and the League can only settle so many matters. The secret order began taking youths and training them to be weapons -- assassins of the greatest skill. Among these assassins, Katsumi stood out as simply the best. Her prowess with sword technique was matched only by her incredible speed. After years of harsh training, Katsumi was given an enchanted katana and sent to the League to test her ability to battle, and execute, legends.

Concept Game-Play
Each ability is like Riven's Q (it can hit 3 times. You hit Q/W/E/R three times. They move her forward slightly). Her ultimate is an ability (you level it up like Udyr's Phoenix Stance). Each ability is a "Sword Stance". They are all linked with cooldowns. A combo = 3 abilities. (QWE, QRR, QEE, etc etc). When 3 abilities are used, all abilities go on cooldown for a time. Combining 2 or more of the same ability creates a new effect. Mixed combos (like QWR, QWE, ERW) do nothing but their original effects. (see more about her concept game-play on page.64)

The reason I made Katsumi to play this way, is because I've read a lot of posts asking for the Invoker. I never played any DOTAs, but from what I understand is that the Invoker is a high skillcap mage with a lot of different ability outcomes. This was my answer to that need. The great thing about this version though, is that the character is simple to use (you can just QQQ if you want), but if you can really make use of her combos in the right situations, she becomes very rewarding. It's not overly complex when you understand that there are only 8 effects outside of what the abilities originally do, and 4 of the effects share abilities from the other 4. So QQ inflicts grievous wound. But so does QQQ. QQQ just adds AoE damage ontop. She was made to fit a play-style that rewarded aggressive attacks, but punished ill-timing. She rewards players who take the time to master her combos, as she herself had to master the sword. Her skills are also FAST. She's a blur. QQQ -- or whatever combo you want, is almost as fast as you can hit the keys. I really pushed a concept kit this time around because I wanted people to think that this was a character they could rush in with, and combo in the blink of an eye, and be rewarded for combo'ing correctly given the situation. The "quick combo slash" comes from Samurai battle tropes. One movement, 3 slashes, 1/2 a second -- that's the mentality of Katsumi.

Art Direction
As for her art style, I wanted to giver her a "traveled" look. She's a wandering assassin. The original concept (adding to the idea of stances in her kit) originally had clues to those stances, like a turtle shell shoulder pad, or a foxtail belt. But I thought that way made her too "Female Udyr" so I went a little more rogue in her design, to show that she's bursty, but frail. And the hood is orange because I never see orange hoods, and red was waaaaay too cliche. Other colors also put forth other archetypes. Black was too dominant and cliche again, purple and blue came off too royal, yellow was out of place, and green read as ranger. Katsumi also was made to fill the role of "bad ass chick with a katana". Hopefully she's far enough removed art-wise to be a newer take on that trope. I also wanted to push her away from stealthy -- which I think is something that has a negative cliche attached to it. So instead, she's more like Twilight Sazuka from Outlaw Star, if you've ever seen that Anime. Basically, she's an obvious assassin with enough skill to not have to be stealthy.

Champion Concept: Claire

Concept Lore
Across all of Valoran. There is no criminal more hated than Claire. She's stolen from every major government, nation, city-state, town, and settlement at least once. What's worse is her mocking, signed, and illustrated cards that she leaves behind at every crime scene. What makes her hated though -- is that none of the items she steals are worth any historical, magical, or financial value. Just needed items. (Where did your cane go, Swain?!)

Concept Game-Play
Claire is an AP champion that heavily focuses on tricking her foes using illusions, teleporting, and stealth. I saw this character as being a really frustrating champion to chase. She'd have a lot of blink, teleport, and stealth mechanics -- being an escape artist trope we don't yet have. At the same time, I wanted this type of game-play to also be her means of damage. Maybe she blinks to a location, and causes her previous location to wake with a magic burst. Her position utility would make her a bit of an assassin, but not quite as bursty so much as she would be periodical damage.

Art Direction
Art-wise, Claire plays on rogue tropes. Her cloak, boots, and hood help highlight this. At the same time, to push her elusiveness, I made her a fairy complete with wings. I specifically wanted to avoid the really natural fairies and the Amy Brown style fairies. To combat these cliches, I pushed Claire's appearance into how I envisioned punk-rock might have influence over the fairy fantasy. What I came up with was a lot of color, but not overly rainbow in execution; just hair dye and magic tattoos.