Riot Games League of Legends K/DA Art Blast

Hello ArtStation friends!

Welcome to the League of Legends K/DA ArtBlast! This year the girls are back! And they’ve brought a newly discovered up-and-coming star along with them for the journey: Seraphine! This year’s theme was all about ‘MORE’: larger-than-life Pop Queens in a real, living and breathing world. It was an exciting, wild ride from early discovery to going Live on the global stage.

First off, a brief disclaimer since there are so many amazing teams at Riot that all help with a MAJOR milestone event like K/DA, from the actual live event w/ Augmented Reality choreography to the team working on the music video and social media posts, and so, so many more teams that are just stacked w/ incredible talent and creativity. Today we are looking specifically at the work done by the Skins team, but I do really want to give a shout out to all our friends that we took this journey with together!

OK, setting the stage: Since this would be the second time we’ve visited the K/DA line-up, we knew that we wanted to Refresh and Evolve their looks, while at the same time still hit the Affinity for KPop. There was so much storytelling crafted into this year’s journey leading up to their reveal, but for the K/DA skins themselves we knew we wanted that over-the-top-Event look to kick off the Worlds 2020 Opening Ceremony. The outfits had to feel hand-crafted and costume-y, not like something you could just pick up off the shelf in a wardrobe. Bespoke, but not ‘magical’ or fantasy. Some of the main material references we doubled-down on were holographic black leather, iridescent materials, prisms and crystals, holographic vinyl, along w/ lots of leather, latex, and nylon. All of our teams were really aligned and excited by the idea of using kaleidoscope patterns and fractal geometry as a key inspiration this year.

Once we had figured out a lot of the inspiration in colors and shape languages, we were able to move quickly on exploring what those looks might feel like after a year or two of K/DA touring, taking into account their past success and new expectations. Each look had to feel like it ‘fit’ without feeling like a superhero costume or team outfit, while really showing off their individual personality, style, and taste.

We can’t always tell a complete story just in the in-game skin, which is why we were very excited for Seraphine’s Ultimate skin to be released along with K/DA! This skin is 3 snapshots of the story of her journey at key moments in time: from recording and streaming cover songs in her bedroom, to performing at a music-festival in the afternoon, to her huge breakthrough and collaboration with K/DA! Each of those looks to that Ultimate skin had to feel really exciting in it’s own way. One of the tricks was to make sure her K/DA look felt like it really fit w/ the rest of the group, from the costume to the VFX to the Audio, while getting to explore more of her own personal, individual style and tastes in her other two outfits that pull from her background as an artist and songwriter/musician.

In the end, we couldn’t be happier with how K/DA and Seraphine all turned out for Players and fans! We’re very excited to be able to reveal just a little bit of the work that went into it all and we hope you all enjoy it too!! If you’re interested in learning more about our open art roles at Riot Games, check here for more information.

Seth Haak, Associate Art Director, Riot Games

Art Director

Seth Haak – Art Director

Concept Artists

Nancy Kim – Concept Artist

Nancy Kim – Concept Artist – Riot Games – League of Legends

Nancy Kim – Concept Artist – Riot Games – League of Legends

Nancy Kim – Concept Artist – Riot Games – League of Legends

Nancy Kim – Concept Artist – Riot Games – League of Legends

Rheekyo Lee – Concept Artist

Rheekyo Lee – Concept Artist – Riot Games – League of Legends

Rheekyo Lee – Concept Artist – Riot Games – League of Legends

Rheekyo Lee – Concept Artist – Riot Games – League of Legends

Oscar Vega – Concept Artist

Oscar Vega – Concept Artist – Riot Games – League of Legends

Oscar Vega – Concept Artist – Riot Games – League of Legends

Oscar Vega – Concept Artist – Riot Games – League of Legends

Illustrators

Anna Maystrenko – UI Illustrator

Anna Maystrenko – UI Illustrator – Riot Games – League of Legends

Anna Maystrenko – UI Illustrator – Riot Games – League of Legends

Anna Maystrenko – UI Illustrator – Riot Games – League of Legends

Fortune K – UI Illustrator

Fortune K – UI Illustrator – Riot Games – League of Legends

Fortune K – UI Illustrator – Riot Games – League of Legends

Fortune K – UI Illustrator – Riot Games – League of Legends

Character Artists

Liem Nguyen – Character Artist

Liem Nguyen – Character Artist – Riot Games – League of Legends

Liem Nguyen – Character Artist – Riot Games – League of Legends

Liem Nguyen – Character Artist – Riot Games – League of Legends

Kylie Gage – Character Artist

Kylie Gage – Character Artist – Riot Games – League of Legends

Kylie Gage – Character Artist – Riot Games – League of Legends

Kylie Gage – Character Artist – Riot Games – League of Legends

Kylie Gage – Character Artist – Riot Games – League of Legends

Jordan Ewing – Character Artist

Jordan Ewing – Character Artist – Riot Games – League of Legends

Jordan Ewing – Character Artist – Riot Games – League of Legends

Jordan Ewing – Character Artist – Riot Games – League of Legends

Animation Artists

Matthew Johnson – Animator

Matthew Johnson – Animator – Riot Games – League of Legends

Matthew Johnson – Animator – Riot Games – League of Legends

Einar Langfjord – Animator

Einar Langfjord – Animator – Riot Games – League of Legends

Einar Langfjord – Animator – Riot Games – League of Legends

Einar Langfjord – Animator – Riot Games – League of Legends

VFX Artists

Oliver McDonald – VFX Artist

Oliver McDonald – VFX Artist – Riot Games – League of Legends

Oliver McDonald – VFX Artist – Riot Games – League of Legends

Kevin Leroy – VFX Artist

Kevin Leroy – VFX Artist – Riot Games – League of Legends

Kelvin Huynh – VFX Artist

Kelvin Huynh – VFX Artist – Riot Games – League of Legends

Kelvin Huynh – VFX Artist – Riot Games – League of Legends

Kelvin Huynh – VFX Artist – Riot Games – League of Legends

Walker Paulsen – VFX Artist

Walker Paulsen – VFX Artist – Riot Games – League of Legends

Walker Paulsen – VFX Artist – Riot Games – League of Legends

Technical Artist

Isabella Cheng-Henehan – Tech Artist

Isabella Cheng-Henehan – Tech Artist – Riot Games – League of Legends


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About the author

Daniel is the Industry Manager for ArtStation.