[Riot Creative Contest 2017] Warring Kingdoms Illaoi

Zerahtai

SR_Comp:

Model:
model


So, here's the overall plan:

Illaoi as a martial arts master in a temple type idea.   The idol is a large dragon head ( from a statue? ).  I've not decided on what kind of armor to put on her.  Still iterating on that notion.  The plan is to stray from having tentacles everywhere.  They're replaced by chinese style long spirit-dragons instead.  Much like her current tentacles, they go to sleep when she's not around, and willingly strike at whatever their master commands.  Illaoi is a difficult champion to work on, because so much of her identity is rooted in the presence of her persistent skills, rather than her stature.


Starting Point : Head & Reference Images.

Zerahtai

More progress on body / proportions.  Still struggling to make her substantial but not manly.  Tis a difficult balancing act.

Zerahtai

Giant Dragon-head Idol.   Still haven't quite decided whether this will be stone or Metal.

Zerahtai

Just a quick visibility & scale test.  I needed to move the eyes and brows a bit already to get a good read from top-down view.

Zerahtai

More WIP:
Really struggling with Armor placement and Overall "feel".  I'm torn between "Armored Monk" and "Illaoi Classic" themes.  I keep mashing them together and being displeased with the result.

Zerahtai

Getting near the end of the concepting phase.  Anyone got any insights? Feedback? Critique ?
Anything is appreciated !

leoartz

Lovely Character ad Concept.I feel you might need to work on the proportions of the character a bit if you are following the concept 

Zerahtai

Yeah!  Illaoi is a bit more heroically proportioned than where I was comfortable pushing the model to at the start.  That was more or less my next step: Pushing it into more of a stylized form, and seeing where the limits are, specifically her legs.  Also still haven't settled on what to do for shoes.

Zerahtai

Also : She still needs earrings and her facial tattoos.  Which I haven't quite figured out what I want to do with that.

Zerahtai

On her in game model her deltoids are nearly the size of her head.  But every time I try for that it just feels silly.

Silvarspark

It's about exaggerating shapes for small ingame models so they can still be read from afar.
Small details are going to disappear or might as well be texture at some point.

Zerahtai

Yep yep!  I tried to keep things at the scale where they'll at least be visible in texture at game viewing distance.  But the necessary levels of  over exaggeration tries my sensibilities sometimes.

Zerahtai

Next on the to-do list: refine the hair a bit, puzzle out my clothing wrinkes and do a "wear" pass cutting chips out of things etc.  Any suggestions / critiques before I start in on Retopo?

Zerahtai

More detailing & Damage passes done.  Pretty much settling in on calling the body complete at this point.   Next I need to revisit the Idol and then on to retopo ?  

She finally is starting to feel like she might mesh with everything that is "League of Legends" to me and like she wouldn't need an introduction anymore.



I know small braids don't work at game res, hence why the only champions with braids are Jinx and Zoe, their hair is simply enormous.  But I wanted them anyways.  They'll turn into something more akin to Lucians hair in the bake.

Zerahtai

Some more iteration on the Idol:
"Spherical Menacing Dragon Head" is proving to be difficult.

Zerahtai

More Idol Iteration : 


I think I'm pretty much calling it done for now until I find some problem with it later  =p

Zerahtai

Low Poly Model & Color Blockout.  Still working on color schemes and masks.  But I figured it's a good time to update:

Illaoi is 11040 Triangles ( Idol Included ) 

Zerahtai

Some Preliminary Showcase images :





Final Triangle count 11056:  2048x2048 texture ( though it works at 1024 rather well too ).

Had to go through a lot of color iterations to find something appealing.

I'm a bit irritated that the standard "Warring Kingdoms" palate is more or less Illaoi's standard palate with more saturation.  But I tried putting her in blue, and it didn't work out.  Orange was just weird. So, here we are.

Zerahtai

model