Riot Games League of Legends: Pantheon, Senna and Aphelios Character Art Blast

By Daniel Wade - December 17, 2019

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

Character Art

Greetings League fans and fellow artists alike. The character team on League of Legends is excited and humbled to share our work from this quarter along with some accompanying thoughts. The latter part of the year was filled with a range champions that allowed us to exercise our skill set further and further. Our focus for these last few champions was to deliver visually unique champions that would meet the standards of our current cast of characters, while carving out their own unique pieces of the League universe.

Our latest visual update and long time fan favorite, Pantheon, came with unique artistic challenges. His archetype is well established in the world of Runeterra. Our quest was to make a unique League forward champion while retaining what was essential to the previous Pantheon aesthetics.

With Senna being a 10-year celebration champion, there were varying opinions about who she was and what she looked like. With her character being so well-established since Lucianâ’s release, it was important for us to design an accurate representation that longtime fans would recognize, with a unique flair, to make her one of our most identifiable characters.

Our latest creation, Aphelios, was a larger champion than most. With a constantly changing kit, we were challenged to create an easily recognizable character, no matter how many times he switches weapons and varies silhouettes.

From the character team on League of Legends, we thank you for you for joining us. We hope you enjoyed learning about the work we do behind the scenes. We look forward to sharing more exciting work in the near future.

Oscar Monteon
Character Art Lead, Riot Games