Hello everyone, I'm Ryan "Reav3" Mireles, and today I'm here to report on the latest developments in the Udir Visual Gameplay Update. The update is expected to go live later this year. After the last briefing, the Udir project has entered the full production phase, so this article will focus on what he looks like in the game. Before we begin, let's briefly review our initial Udir update goals:
1. We want to retain the characteristics of the Udir posture change, as well as the hero positioning based on automatic attack/melee. These are the unique characteristics that distinguish Udir from other heroes. In order to keep his gameplay up to date, we intend to add more changes to his posture and melee style, so that his gameplay will be more in-depth, while making Udir's wonderful operation more prominent (there are no highlight moments in his gameplay at the moment).
2. We wanted to upgrade Udir's appearance to the existing standards of League of Legends while retaining his shaman warrior theme. Our goal was to improve on the Udir look, not to completely redo it.
3. As for his backstory, we wanted to make his image in the game more in line with the description of him in recent years and deepen his connection with Freieldjod.
By the way, after watching the 2022 Hero video released today, we're going to take out Udir's antlers. A lot of people don't like this pair of big horns; After seeing the effects in the game (more on that below), we think that even without antlers, his silhouette is unique enough.
Okay, let's start introducing new things that everyone cares about!
Antlers, go or stay?
Jason "OOYOO" Namgung, Character Artist:
Udir needed a rework long ago. I'm excited to be part of the re-creation of this "elder" member of League of Legends.
At first, I thought Udir's redo would be very simple and straightforward, but that illusion was shattered in minutes.
First I'm going to make a temporary model and put it in the game to test our look and gameplay ideas. However, this needs to ensure that the proportions of each part of the body are correct, otherwise the foundation is not laid well, and it is useless to do more. We wanted to make him a hunk as strong as a mountain, which became the compass for making his body type.
Original version / Updated version 1 / Updated version 2
In the process of adjusting the body proportions, we finally removed his antlers. Although we liked the design of the antlers and tried many ways to keep them, Udir was too big to be coordinated.
In some versions, the antlers look like wings, and some look like propellers. No matter how we try to figure it out, it just doesn't look right for the antlers. While the idea is cool, at the end of the day, Udir's focus is on beast spirits, not antlers. In the end, we decided to abandon the antlers and put our focus back on the power of the beast spirit.
After finishing Udir's basal body type, we began to study his posture. Then we found that this big guy could be a bit complicated.
A model of Udir in production
His basic body design is obvious at a glance, but the four postures are not so simple. We must not only make four gestures, but also ensure that each of them fully reflects the corresponding image of the beast spirit.
Along the way, we strive to create sustainable resources that lay the groundwork for future heroes and greatly reduce the difficulty of skin development and subsequent updates. We decided to use the same set of "skeletons" for Udir's various models, making the work less difficult and improving his recognition in the actual game.
The evolution of Udir's abilities
To do this, we had to try many, many times to find the most suitable solution for this big man. Some parts are simpler, and some require more than a dozen attempts to find the answer.
... But here's the fun of game development!
Macho's beachfront holiday
Udir's production is still in its early stages and all the work is still in progress, but we are also gradually determining the final look and temperament of the big man. Hopefully, when he finally goes live, everyone will like it!
Grasp the many postures of Udir
Koingyeal "Koing" Jang, animator:
Gameplay clarity is very important in League of Legends. I had long recognized the difficulty of redoing Udir, because I needed to consider his four gestures one by one to ensure that they were both different and connected, because we had to retain Udir's temperament and thus ensure his recognition in the game. But when I animate my poses, I also want each pose to look like an independent hero with a distinct personality, so as not to confuse him about what kind of pose he currently has.
Udir has a deep reverence for wildlife, and I hope his animations reflect that. Phoenix gesture animation is the most challenging, and it took many attempts to find the right direction.
We wanted his posture to be like a bird, full of magic, and with elements of ice. This requirement... Quite a few. At the same time, I also wanted to retain his wildness, so after much thought, I came up with a design that attacked with wind.
The design is to simulate the wings of a bird, allowing Udir to wave his arms and fan the wind. I like this design direction a lot, but it also has a few problems: seeing a large stream of air, it's easy to mistakenly think he's going to hit multiple enemies instead of just one; In addition, the team wanted this gesture to focus more on the power of ice than the wind. That said, I had to redesign.
My next thought was to change the wind thrown in the animation to ice so that it looked like he was using magic to make an ice attack. We all felt that this direction was better than the design of the first version with wind, but we were worried that this design was too heavy on spells and deviated from his wild temperament. That said, I need to strike a balance between his magical power and his wild heart.
Next, I decided to emphasize more on the physical texture of ice. Although I liked the direction, it felt like the connection with birds was broken.
So I changed the action of the spike to the first version that mimics the swinging of the bird's arm, while retaining the design of the wings with ice, echoing a certain flying wing demigod of Freird. The ultimate idea is a fusion of ideas I've had so far, something that's all too common in game development. We are all looking forward to seeing the final product.
There are many types of Udir's base attacks, so each pose needs to be animated separately. My approach to each gesture animation is basically the same: first consider his personality, then the function of the skill, while ensuring the uniqueness of each pose. Here are some designs made using the same process:
Awaken the beast of Freird
Luis "Riot Bloois" Aguas, VFX Artist:
Oh my God, Here Comes Udir. And his visual effects!
Udir's visual gameplay update gave me a great opportunity to challenge the boundaries of the League of Legends visual effects style. The first time I thought about it was because I thought about it: "Can I make Udir feel like a fighting game and League of Legends at the same time?"
In a fighting game, players are able to demonstrate their proficiency in a character and their matchmaking skills. Seeing Udir's new gameplay, I immediately thought of the character skill expression in the fighting game. His poses have their own uses: the Bear pose is suitable for 1-on-1 duels with certain heroes, the Phoenix form excels in group attack scenes, and so on.
I envisioned an Udir player who knew exactly what posture to use when and when, and that was the fundamental difference between "playing" Udir and "playing well.". He's a very flexible all-rounder hero, and that's my favorite genre in fighting games.
But fighting games and League of Legends are two types of games, and the style of visual effects is different. How do you find the ideal midpoint?
Before I come up with a concrete example, I'd like to talk about Udir's passive skill, which is my main point: if Udir is already in a certain posture and the pose is cooling, he can wake it up. Each gesture awakens (tentatively translated) to gain a strengthened state or ability.
With this in mind, his passive skills should visually feel powerful when he awakens (tentatively) each pose. Going back to my original goal (which was to fuse League of Legends with a fighting game), I decided to adopt a strong, sharp, angular shape to embody that "sense of power."
The first version of VFX for Udir's Passive Skills – I first outlined it in simple white and then added color effects
After watching the first version, I judged that although this direction was good, it did not fit the visual effects style of League of Legends. that... What to do?
I went to Udir's spiritual power to seek answers. What should this power look like when it is used? What connection was there with the beast spirits he cherished?
I replaced the angular design with softer shapes that better fit the League of Legends visuals style, while adding color to deepen the overall image. But I've never forgotten the original fighting game design, so I wanted to... What if we fused all of this together and used color to distinguish his different gestures?
Explore new VFX combinations
There are four poses, and I need to create a color scheme for each one. They use exactly the same visual effects, only in different colors!
On the left is the giant bear posture, on the right is the Aries posture (provisional translation)
This version of the design is cool, but does not show that Udir has entered a more powerful form. So I decided to weaken the current visual effect and focus on the enhancement of the performance state.
Up to this point, I was making visuals from old models of Udir. Around the same time, OOYOO completed a new temporary model that allowed us to better understand his image in the game. This meant that I could make visual effects with Udir's new skills and new models, and I no longer had to imagine out of thin air based on old images.
Before I started working on Udir's new model, I needed to be clear about which elements of his gameplay were meant to be expressed first. For example, after the player presses the Q key, three things happen:
1. Udir enters the giant bear pose
2. Udir's next two normal attacks gain additional attack speed
3. Udir gets extra attack speed for a certain amount of time
The Extra Attack Speed effect lasts longer than passive skill wake-up (tentative), so the visual priority is higher. But the highest priority is to show the posture that Udir is in.
In League of Legends, the enhancement of normal attacks is usually reflected through visual effects on the hero's hand. For Udir, I added a lightning effect to the bear's paw in the giant bear's pose to show that Udir's general attack received a bonus. I needed to make three visual effects, each unique and related to each other: standby visual effects after bear paw activation, gesture activation under the Wake (Tentative) bonus, and Cast and Buff effects for Passive Skill Awakening (Temporal).
Udir Giant Bear Pose Standby Visual Effects
The Urdir Giant Bear Pose is activated
Udir Passive Skill Awakening (tentative) cast and buff effect visual effects
You may notice that some of the visual language in this comes from my early exploration of "fighting games", then you... That's right! I combined the sharp shapes with the lightning bolts in the theme and incorporated them into the visual effects style of League of Legends, while retaining the unique temperament of Udir.
Then there are special effects when interacting with the enemy. When Udir's Bear Pose awakens, the next two normal attacks will unleash chain lightning bolts that hit the main target and attack nearby enemies. (Familiar?)
In addition, if the lightning strikes only one target and does not catapult other enemies, the damage inflicted increases. It feels like a giant lightning bear is nibbling at your face.
That's all I want to say about Udir's visual effects! I would also like to remind you that the content I have shared is still under development, and the final product may be different from our current direction. I hope you enjoy our design and look forward to hearing what everyone thinks after you get started. Thank you all~!
Summon the Soul of the Dragon God
Justin "RiotEarp" Albers, Original Concept Artist: Udil has several very famous classic skins (does anyone like Soul Guard?), and we didn't forget his skin concept when it came to determining the basic scheme. We decided to start with his latest skin, the Power of the Dragon God.
The skin is beautiful and the theme is wonderful, so a lot of things can be retained, while also adjusting some of them to match his new personality. In addition, the theme and color scheme of the dragon are also very suitable for what the new Udir wants to express.
We did extensive exploration. The large number of skins made before gives us a solid understanding of the world of this dragon. Finally, we decided to focus on several areas. We decided early on that his connection to the dragon should be more on the side of the mystery of the dragon than the image of the dragon slayer warrior, but he could still summon the spirit of the dragon and slightly embody the power of the dragon. But this begs the next question: How much should he be like a dragon? How much influence did the beast spirits he summoned affect his appearance? (This is a problem that Udir will always have to face!)
We decided to make Udir more like a human than a dragon, thus demonstrating that he could fully harness the power of the dragon he summoned. This skin will be cooler with some dragon elements, such as dragon scales and dragon horns! But overall design, we needed his arms and shoulders to be able to move freely to show his posture and animation.
Next, we will continue to polish the details of his basic image, and then make an in-game version, as well as the concept of posture in dragon form!
Next, our plan for this skin is to confirm the effect and model the color scheme within the game.
Udir's skin will still have a lot of work, stay tuned for the next update!
What happens next?
As you can see, we have made a lot of progress, which has laid a good foundation for his image. It's worth mentioning that Udir does have several skins, but due to the gesture changes involved, each skin takes longer to develop than the average hero, not to mention that he also has an ultimate skin.
With that in mind, there's still a long way to go before the brand new Udil meets you. Before putting him back into the wilderness, we want to make sure he and his skin are in the ideal condition, and we're always ready to share more information with you as our future hero plans become clearer.