Hi everyone! The Champion team is excited to welcome you to our end of year Art Blast. This time, we want you to experience the step-by-step process we use to take champions from initial concept to what we see in game. It’s truly been one of our most exciting years, we hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as we have. 

Danny Kim
Associate Art Director, Riot Games

Schedule

• Monday December 16: Concept Art/Illustration
• Tuesday December 17: Character Art
• Wednesday December 18: Animation
• Thursday December 19: VFX
• Friday December 20: Pre-season Reveal

Concept Art/Illustration

The concept discipline always strives for resonating with different types of audiences. Through collaboration with product, narrative and gameplay, we are able to strategize what character archetype we would ship for that specific event. So we have a diverse sets of champion released every year. This is where the “form follows function” starts, by identifying what type of players we want to serve for this specific character, whether that be broad appeal top lane, niche support or a cute assassin? Challenges come in different forms in every character. First, asking the question—what are the new visual features we can bring to the table while maintaining the relatability to our target audience. Secondly, whether its technical challenges—with collaboration with our cross art disciplines (3D, animation, vfx, riggers) we will perform experiments like proxies and some quick block-ins. Lastly, how can we challenge some existing archetypes and make it unique for League of Legends? From timeless designs to latest trends, both are essential factors that combine to create an iconic, relatable character. Take a look at this process in action with Pantheon, Senna, and Aphelios.

Gem Lim
Concept Lead, Riot Games

Pantheon

Justin “Riot Earp” Albers – Concept Artist

Oussama Agazzoum – Concept Artist

Taylor Jansen – Concept Artist

Ian Su – Concept Artist

Angelina Chernyak – Concept Artist

Jeremy Anninos – Concept Artist

Alex Flores – Senior Illustrator

Senna

Justin “Riot Earp” Albers – Concept Artist

Julian del Rey – Concept Artist

Oussama Agazzoum – Concept Artist

Hicham Habchi – Senior Concept Artist

Nancy Kim – Concept Artist 

Jason Chan – Senior Concept Artist

Angelina Chernyak – Concept Artist

Bo Chen – Illustrator

Aphelios

Sunny “Kindlejack” Pandita – Concept Artist