One of our objectives with the Worlds Championship skins this year
was to really move them into a unique space
really evolve what a Worlds Championship skin can be
In the past three years
we've learned pretty heavily into really dark fantasy sort of inspired vibe
and everything was magical in nature
and really leaning into fantasy as a genre
So for this year we wanted to see how far we can push it
and move it into a more energized
a more modern and a more fun sort of space
What we really want to celebrate in this objective was
2019 the Worlds tournament was really all about the Phoenix
from the theme song to FPX's
you know their trajectory throughout the season
It felt like they went from this scrappy underdog team
and they had this rebirth
and they came out blazing like this fiery fiery phoenix
I want this skin to give people a sense of danger
And a sense of fear
When they see this champion cast
Or when you suddenly see him in front of you
I want knocking on the table
In a very very angry way
I told him to help make me cooler
I hoped the abilities have special VFX
We have a concept artist scope three very different directions
and presented those to the team
And they weighed in why they like this
or didn't like this direction
So from there we were able to narrow down what we were thinking
and we were able to work with them continuing on that direction
The design was nice, it looked good
They provided a couple of different models
I asked them to combine two of them
The players wanted the theme of rising from the ashes as a team
to become the undying phoenix
For the visual effects
this means not only fire
but a lot of phoenix decals and motifs
We put the FPX logo into abilities where it makes sense
We also put in other more subtle hints
There are a lot of skin lines that
have used fire as a prominent source of power
So the challenge was to be the abilities stand out
Just as much as the character design
So to make that stand out
we use very bold, graphic, animated shapes
For the color palette, we still use red, orange and yellow
as you might have expected for a fire skin line
But we tried to avoid maroons and near black scorch mark
So to keep everything very energetic, ephemeral
positive and feel like a super hero
we kept everything bright, saturated
and it really helped keep it in its own space
You'll probably notice a couple different things
One is we really wanted to kind of capture
almost that retro-fighting team style
where they transform into this really powerful suits
and they are this dynamic team that comes together
and as able to fight together
We created this special spawning ceremony
to truly capture that transformation moment
We also asked them for recall ideas
and got some awesome footage from the team
that we were able to incorporate into all of these skins
I wanted four stray cats (for the recall)
which we feed at our base
And to find the look and feeling for this performance
that Lwx had originally pitched himself
He had this fantastic idea of incorporating the four team cats into the recall
and also very specific dance for Vayne at the very end
One of our main concerns is always to make sure
that those performance-based animations are valid for pro-play
in the midst of the battle
It was also very important for me to portray Vayne
as a very female and agile ADC
who has style and very strong presence on the battlefield
As a Tech Artist, we are always trying to catch
what could be issues once we get into production
we were always trying to think ahead
and catch potential red flag and make everyone aware of it
So for Vayne, the biggest technical issue that popped up
gaining a red flag right away was the four cats in the recall
So in our game, we had a bone count limit
and because of that limit
we had to be really careful and diligent about
where we add bones and why we need these bones
and can we get away with less to doing more
You'll skin at the start
Like you are looking for the right direction
And then four hands appear
Just like you’re manipulating everyone on the opposite side
And control the flow of the game according to your will
For Thresh I was looking to see in what ways
we can combine super super action, exciting motion
with the much more subtle playing of the piano
Oftentimes with these recalls
animators try to take the core of the original idea and
embellish it in some different ways with exaggerated acting or actions
to make it slightly more exciting
or more interesting to see in the game view
It is always a battle sticking to the original material
or really kind of changing it up so that
even players that don't understand the Esports references can enjoy the skin
For Gangplank, he is this ruthless, unpredictable champion
and throughout his lore we see from time to time again that
he's someone that can't be defeated
This plays really well into the GimGoon’s idea with the recall
And one of the things I really like about his recall idea
is this super meta of Gangplank winning the game inside of the game
but also shows off our tendencies as players as well
I think that all the abilities are pretty cool
The Ult and the sound effects are badass
When we were first challenged
to create these sound profile for the FPX skins
we were thinking about ways to make this different
from other anime inspired thematics and also Infernal skins
So the way we went around that was by thinking about ways to make
these explosions sound more futuristic and cool
by adding a lot of flanger effects to it
Riot Zabo, one of the sound designers here
came up with these three core sounds that
we as a team agreed on being FPX sound
One of them being the flangey fire sound
And the other one is the anime shwing (sound)
The last sound is the synthy base drop (sound)
And yeah, also lots of phoenix cries as well throughout the kit
cause we saw a lot of phoenix rising from the ashes
and we wanted to include that as well
Every year we try to do something different for Worlds winner
that we think that makes the most sense for the team
Some years we’ve done ward skins
when we thought there was a great moment to immortalize with the ward
This year we‘re giving each of the FPX skins an exclusive chroma
Initial design for this skin showcases a fun, brighter color palette
And we thought this was a great opportunity to
offer an edgier look for each of the skins
drawing inspirations from some of the edgier concepts
we showed FPX originally
Whoa!
Both are super cool
For sure
Need to get both
You need to get the base skins before you can get the chromas
Then get both
So at the beginning we did a lot of research
and the creative idea basically just came from the FPX stage suit
Besides colors, we also spent a lot of effort on pattern design
inspired from phoenix
and different Chinese traditional shape languages
to try to enhance overall FPX feeling
Because the head of my Maltphite skin is a phoenix head
Raptors don’t dare to harm you
If you like to clear Raptor Camp
Remember to get it
I'll fly you a kiss if you buy this skin
I appreciate your support
Get the skins
We have four stray cats in front of our base
That needs your support
Come and look at my Lee Sin championship skin
The Q unleashes a phoenix
It feels so cool
Pick it
If you like it