[Riot Creative Contest 2017] - Beau Melo-Robinson

BMelo

Hey gang! Welcome to my work-in-progress thread! 

So - for my entry I wanted to challenge myself and do a rider/mount style of champion. I liked the idea of a yordle-esque character riding some sort of war-chicken into battle. 

I'm not entirely sure what character I'll be using for the rider - so he/she is just a couple spheres for now! 

I'm still undecided as to what my second anim will be but, at present, I'm leaning towards Ult. 

This is a quick test I did in a few hours today just to see if my idea would work. There's a lot of work left to do on the locomotion but, I'm pleased that it looks like I'll be able to sell it with some improvements! 





As always - crit is always more than welcome! 

Best of luck to everyone - I can't wait to see the entries!  
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Rig:  Boxy Bird by Truong

ChristianOrellana

Great concept!! Good luck in the contest, its looking cool already.

BMelo

Thanks man! You too!

KielFiggins

Have the rider be a snowman and call it done!  Haha, cool stuff man, looking forward to seeing more.

BMelo

@KielFiggins Genius!

ajramsey28

haha that is so cute. I cant wait to see the rider!

BMelo

Update - Spent a few more hours on it to add some X-trans in order to give it a bit more of a zig-zag feel. I could push it further but my concern is going outside the realm of what would work in-game. 

Also added some rough overlap in the wings and tail but its still very much early days. 





Thanks for  checking it out! 

KielFiggins

Looking nice man, the side to side really makes it more natural.  Dunno if it's in the rig (or in your interest) but I'd play up the design and motion of the tail feathers, since it makes up such a huge part of the character.  Maybe even modeling out some of your own that have a curve/bend/flare to them.  Maybe the middle one is bigger, flanked by smaller, then the far ones are long and whispy?   This sort of shape?   \ili/  

BMelo

@KielFiggins Yea man I agree. The good news is I can animate each tail feather individually so I’ll add some fan/offset into the tail to break up the spatula-feel it currently has once I move into 1st pass/polish territory.

The bad news is it looks like there’s only two bones in each feather so the deformations are a little angular.

I plan on adding a saddle/reins and maybe some head feathers to give him a sort of crest and make him look a little more exotic. I’ll likely change his colour overall to make him look a little more alien and fantasy-esque but I guess it depends on what I end up using as a rider. 

Thanks!