[RIOT CREATIVE CONTEST 2017 - Environment Art] - Aaron Lutes

alutes

Never been a big League player, but I've always loved the art. I'm doing something a little... different. But I'm excited to get underway.

alutes

So, I'm going for an bronze clockwork shark turret. I'm going to animate the guy with a real jerky puppet on a string feel (although that's really more for me than the contest). I know typically LoL turrets are stone and fire lasers from a crystal, but this bad boy is going to fire bullets from his mouth. 
I'm going to be using Blitzcrank as a significant source of texture reference. I may be further separating the face into more pieces, like a B52 bomber, but I'm not certain yet. 

For the base, I'm just going to have it be some interlocking clockwork pieces to push the automaton idea further.

For the creep lair, I'm thinking that an ocean cave with some pirate-y stuff would be fun and effective. A hanging skeleton, a half buried treasure chest, maybe a scimitar sticking out of the ground next to his arm bones. To round it out, I'll be adding hanging flowers, and a coconut tree.
As I was drafting up the picture below I decided it might be a good idea to add some vines to the shark and some sandstone to the base, to bring it more in line with the deserted jungle temple vibe, which seems more interesting anyway.

brandimunroe

This is hilarious in the best way. I can't get over your shark turret. I like where you're taking the creep den as well, I'm excited to see your progress.

alutes

Ok, making some forward progress with the turret's model. Added the vines, and I've started the low-poly but that isn't fun to look at. I think a poison Ivy looking vine is going to go well with the palette. 

After talking with an artist friend, I decided to unify the concept a bit more and make this an abandoned steampunk pirate fortress. The treasure chest muddied the waters (why is the treasure just on the beach? did the chest hang that pirate?), so I decided to just have a few gold coins that have floated out of the inner recesses of this forgotten hoard.
Speaking of the hanged man, I think having him be a guardian of the loot would be exciting, although harder to sell. I think having red glowing eyes in his skull and adding some gears to his body may help. The model for it is going to have to be exceedingly simple to keep my constraints, so I'm going to have to keep that in mind as I work. 
The islands' new stone silhouette is more interesting on its own so i've decided to cut the palm tree down to a few ferns just to break up the beach. 
I never did get the hang of concepting in Photoshop, haha.

alutes

Ok, here's the beginning of the coloring process. I'm doing the base layers and feeling out the spaces. I will be moving towards the harder edged Riot paint style as we progress, but I'm going to get the whole thing roughed out before I do the final work.