How League Of Legends Champions Are Illustrated | Modern Icons

League of Legends is one of the most popular video games in the world. While the game is played using small 3D models of characters, Riot Games invests a lot of time and effort into creating detailed 'Splash Art' and lore for its characters so that players can fully immerse themselves in the world of League of Legends. Insider's Harry Kersh spoke to Chengwei Pan, a Senior Illustrator at Riot Games, to find out how he brings League of Legends Champions to life.

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#LeagueOfLegends #VideoGames #Insider

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How League Of Legends Champions Are Illustrated | Modern Icons

[victorzoela]

when his art looks Perfect even when it's flipped

Me as a smaller artist: *HM yEs sAtiSfacTion*

[noxlotl_]

"can you draw me" oooh he went there

[anaru]

The artwork of League of Legends is beyond incredible, I hate it when people generalise the game as trash and overlook all the amazing artwork. Splash arts/illustrations and cinematics are all some of League of Legends most under appreciated elements, the game itself has nothing on all the creativity and skill that goes into it.

[zacharyvangrack]

As an artist, I cringed so hard when he asked if he could draw him.

[tokioeee]

His facial expression when the host asked for him to draw for free was too relatable

[FingeringThings]

The artwork for the champions are just amazing, props to the artists

[MKRhaenerya]

"how about a drawing challenge?"
:^)

"You have to draw me"
>:^(

[dae]

he did all that for basically a proof of concept drawing??? that composition and lighting better than my finished drawing

[TheOriginalFayari]

Chengwei Pan is frickin amazing, Jesus Christ. In fact, all the Riot artists are. Their splash arts are some of the most beautiful art pieces I've ever seen. The level of quality and detail required in each one is insane.

[beere_taran]

The Artist do a lot of work and their work goes unnoticed they should be praised and recognized more.

[raidenmei]

Can Insider have a Video about How League of Legends / Riot gameS make their Music!

[maiwei]

Over 1000 layers for an illustration!? This coworker is insane.

[notimetothink]

"can you draw me?"
"sure"
*starts drawing a cockroach*

[Cubnooble]

Interviewer: "As a challenge... I would like you to.... draw me. In the League of Legends style."
Artist: "OH. HAHAHA-"
Interviewer: "As a hero. With a sword. A good guy. A good guy hero with a sword please."

Rlly couldn't help but cringe at that one, every artist is tired of hearing about it already.

[jhienja]

for me, this is more like the tutorial that really give a tutorial rather than those video of "tutorials"

[Drae_mon]

This is one of the reasons I cannot take my eye off the loading screen before the game. The splash arts. As an artist myself I've always admired the artists for league, I aim to be as good as you guys. :')

Kudos to everyone.

[MrFourth]

a lot of young artist see these beautiful art and then try it on their own and get frustrated at their work. One thing they don't realized is that you don't get there overnight, it takes years to achieve that level. Practice your fundamentals don't jump straight into detailing.

[sjb_]

I can see why they chose the version of Aphelios where he is kneeling. I think it emphasises his subservience to his cause, defending the faithful.

[mytylest]

"You've got a pretty good body shape for Aphelios there"
Aphelios: ⌛

[improvementTime..]

8:17 layer mode for light experiment
Need to translate it, not sure what it is

9:07 color balance to get some more warmth into shadows
It’s like less control ver of rgb curves in matte painting workflow
Thus also seems to be how he mainly gets that unique blue to purplish mood he typically has, it’s not just blue but has something else to it= color balance helps to establish that as a main bg mood in thumbnail will bled over during refinement stage

9:30 he uses blur and then mask to get camera focus effect

9:51 seems to have a list of different filter effects for post processing like with camera photography or film
It’s a trick he says that riot does often to get that splash art look
Another way to think of it is like filters for Instagram pics,
By doing this you treat it as a photo/film screen cap
rather than just a painting
and that’s potentially adding that cinematic camera look to the splash art look

10:52 he does something to get the color edge burn effect, not entirely sure what it is, I believe Steve Corman explains it too

11:05 so basically after doing all this then he can just focus on render, essentially big pic stuff is done for the most part
But I think the additional lights added during render makes it more impactful so I dint actually think big oic stuff is necessarily over