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3 Section Title Page # Section Title Page # Title and Contents 1 Colour and Scale 18 Initial Research 4 VFX Updates 19 Research Analysis 6 Technical Achievement 24 Skin Research 10 Feedback 26 Concept 12 Final 30 Blockout 13 Extension 31
When researching different options, the most enticing idea came from the two games created and published by Riot Games, VALORANT and League of Legends. I thought of these as they both include abilities which rely heavily on visual effects, and it would be easy to recreate some of these in Unreal Engine. After some further deliberation, I decided to create a set of Visual Effects for League of Legends.
Home | Riot Games
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Vel'Koz, the Eye of the Void - League of Legends
Xerath, the Magus Ascendant - League of Legends
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Ball (flash) of light
Emissive sparks
Darker, faded sparks
Bright light/star
Spherical shape
Large edge glow
Dark and light sparks
Flame-like trail
Long trail outline
Dark trail centre
Soft edge glow
Each LoL Champion has 4 abilities, I will be labelling them Q, W, E and R, as is their default key binds in game. I will also be colour coding all of my analysis with the colour of the circled element corresponding to the coloured bullet point
projectile , and the
Bright, quick, impact spark
Bright light flash
Feint sun rays and outer ring
Bright centre
Spherical panning material
Multiple layers of outer glow
Dark spray, fades outwards
Feint trail
Second glow outline
Duplicated on other side
Circle Expand
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7 in front 2
Research Analysis - E 8
Same projectile
) Void sprites explode outwards
Upwards lights appear, and more towards centre, then dissolve
Floor becomes more visible quickly
Ground cracks appear when explosion ends
Research Analysis - R
Bright shine at each point
Curved plane
Electric beams with a light glow
More condensed electricity
Sprites swirl around beam with trail
Edge Glow
Centre beam
Beam grows larger and brighter
Dome model with panning material
Hand-drawn electric crackles
Darker panning material
Impact gets brighter and larger over time
Slight glow
Laser trail burn
s
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Skin Research 10
Base Skin
’koz skins, I had the idea to create a skin for Vel’Koz that would be based off of a pre-existing skin line that other Champions already have. This will give me some strong references and ideas to help with the development process. There are around 200 different skin sets in League of Legends, so applying an existing one to Vel'Koz would not be a difficult task, but as Vel’Koz uses very bright colours and sticks to a general theme using lasers and other dimensions, I would not want to pick a skin line that is very grounded in reality like Academy skins for example.
Red-Laser Drone Skin
Golden God-like/Heavenly Skin
Another issue with some LoL skins is that only premium skins actually change the effects and colours of Champions’ abilities. For example, the Academy skins only change the look/clothes of the Champions, whereas the Pool Party skins give all abilities a water theme/aesthetic.
Disguise Skin (Same VFX as original)
Fire/Lava Skin
Dark Purple Ice Skin
Skin Research
The Arcade skins have a very unique style that is not present in any existing Vel’Koz skins, while still giving me a range of creative choices. I analysed some examples to show what elements these skins contain.
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Concept
I created a rough concept of the style and ideas I have about the effects I will be producing. The aim of this concept was to give myself a starting point to help blockout the main assets in Unreal.
The idea behind these concepts was to give a retro vibe, and a digital dimension that this Vel’Koz skin would open with their abilities. During development, I will be making these effects more pixelated as shown in the references, at the time of this draw-over I did not have access to the correct software. During this time I also looked into other references outside of LoL.
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Begin Blockout
All of these blockouts will begin as basic sprites and shapes, in some cases I do too much development by changing sprite colours and shapes, this is a habit I am trying to break as allowing myself to blockout all systems at once will this will greatly improve my planning and development process, as well as giving me the opportunity to change tasks once this section becomes too monotonous, to help avoid a loss in motivation.
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Blockout - Q
Light Blue Arrows indicate the direction of motion of an asset/system
Hot Pink Arrows indicate the change in state of an asset/system
Beige Arrows indicate the order of development between screenshots
A single sprite with a forward velocity
A small burst of sprites to signify the launch
A second small burst to signify the death of the first projectile and the creation of the second and third projectiles.
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Blockout - W
Light Blue Arrows indicate the direction of motion of an asset/system
Hot Pink Arrows indicate the change in state of an asset/system
Beige Arrows indicate the order of development between screenshots
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Light Blue Arrows indicate the direction of motion of an asset/system
Hot Pink Arrows indicate the change in state of an asset/system
Blockout - E 16
Beige Arrows indicate the order of development between screenshots
I will be changing the model later to a version without the bottom (or “cap”) does not also pan along the bottom.
Light Blue Arrows indicate the direction of motion of an asset/system
Hot Pink Arrows indicate the change in state of an asset/system
Blockout - R 17
Beige Arrows indicate the order of development between screenshots
Colouring and Scaling
The next task was to decide on a colour scheme and make sure all of the abilities were scaled correctly in relation to each other. I changed some of the original blockouts as I wasn ’t happy with the design and I felt that they were too simplistic.
Changed the moving sprite to a rotating cube that explodes into two more rotating cubes
Changed the large horizontal sprite to multiple smaller sprites rising upwards.
Turned the 4 outward sprites into multiple cubes, Changed the colours to Black and Green
Turned all of the colours to Green with a high intensity.
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Map Update
I then decided to import a remake of the League of Legends map “Summoners Rift” off of Sketchfab, this model was listed for educational purposes, and as I believe my usage fits under fair use, I will be including it in my project
The imported map is very dark, I was able to bulk edit all of the textures used and change their brightness to 5.
Some of the map materials require opacity, so I will be coming back to change this later
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Updated - Q
Launch
Vibrant green and black sprites burst out fast but die quick.
Faded Green sprites are slower, have more drag but last longer.
Projectile
Full Effect
Cube rotating randomly while travelling forwards with a trail.
Square sprites, digital zeros, and pixel ring trail from the Cube. All scale down in size, with the square sprites fading to black
Second Projectile
Similar to first projectile with a smaller trail and less overall sprites
Effect duplicated to other side. Cubes disappear and trail fades out
Impact
Square sprite explosion, attracted back to the centre to highlight power. Second explosion with vertical sprites, including digital zeros. Pixel ring scale outwards.
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Launch
Launch
Sprite unmasked on the floor using material dynamic parameters.
Full Effect
The sprite then changes material and increases intensity.
Square and zero sprites explode upwards
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Updated - W
Launch Impact
Square sprites burst outwards from origin point. Cube moves towards point of impact with a trail.
Full Effect
Pixel circle expands with grid centre until it reaches the outer circle
When cube gets to the centre, the effect explodes. Sprites and Cubes burst outwards with trail
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Updated - E
Updated - R
Full Effect
Power
3 Starting points with rising sprites and scaling ring.
Beam coming off of each point meeting at the contact point
Point attraction force pulling sprites from start points with curl noise
Beam
Bright beam with panning faded outer beam. Cubes rotate randomly around beam towards impact point with short trail.
Point attraction sprites move towards impact point. Square sprites move away from beam.
Impact
Cubes explode square sprites on impact.
Sprites fly away from impact point in dome shape to portray enemy being hit
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Technical Achievement
When creating the origin points for the beams on the R Ability, I had to duplicate the same emitter 4 times to have them in the correct places for each beam.
Before After
I created an array of positions and multiplied the spawn rate by 4, so the particles will be evenly spread out between the 4 selected locations without needing 6 extra emitters.
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Technical Achievement
To mask out the floor texture on the W ability, I created a vertical mask that faded from 1 at the top to 0 at the bottom, which I then used a step function on to change from a fade to a direct value.
With this dynamic parameter controlling the mask, I was able to take this into Niagara and have it scale upwards from 0 to 1 over the lifetime of the emitter.
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Optimisation
After creating the video I realised that I could optimize the abilities further so these are the before and afters of the W, E and R Ability optimizations.
W Changes Before After
E Changes
R Changes Before After Before After
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What Went Well
The main aspect that went well with my project was the research and analysis of my references. Doing this allowed me to accurately focus on the design I was wanting to replicate and gave me a strong starting point, giving me plenty of time to experiment with details and materials.
I also think that the design and creation process of the Q ability went well as I am happy with the way it turned out. The final design is very close to my original concept, and also follows some of the champions original VFX principles and ideas.
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Possible Improvements
A standout improvement that can be made within my project is the W ability VFX. I am not too confident with the final product and I really struggled to come up with an idea for the pattern/texture on the floor. If I had time to recreate this ability, I would like to add some depth to the effect as it felt very flat and basic.
Another improvement that could have possibly been made on my project is the colour scheme. I am happy with the black and green scheme from existing skins in the game and the style of the old digital/matrix vibe, but I think the effects include too much green and not enough variation, so I would have liked to look into additional colour schemes
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Industry Feedback
I decided to send my project to some industry professionals in the hopes that I can gather some helpful feedback and work on this for the Grads in Games: Search for a Star competition, as I am not confident I will hear back from these VFX artists in time for the project submission.
I have asked both of these industry professionals for feedback on earlier projects and also with general tips for achieving a role in the industry. Both artists have a key significance in this project, as Jason was previously a Senior VFX Artist at Riot Games, the AAA Games Studio that created League of Legends, and has personally worked on hundreds of champions and their thousands of skins. Whereas Guillaume (Golembok) is currently a VFX Artist at Cloud Imperium Games, a company that currently supports Grads in Games and their Search for a Star competitions.
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