Updated Spellblade VFX on PBE

RiotRiot King Cobra·6/27/2018, 12:53:06 AM·1 votes·32,595 views

Hi everybody! We’re here with a visual update to some of our older item effects in League.

There are new VFX for the Spellblade passive on Sheen, Iceborn Gauntlet, Trinity Force, and Lich Bane on PBE. We want to maintain the current readability, but get these effects to better match League’s current art style.

You can check them out in some images below! (Old on left and new on right)

Sheen / Trinity Force

https://i.imgur.com/zRNJPJY.png

Lich Bane

https://i.imgur.com/kZbf5Su.png

Iceborn Gauntlet

https://i.imgur.com/5vM72nf.png

Do these still read as the same buffs to you? Are the new buffs as noticeable as the ones on Live? Do they feel cleaner and clearer than the Live versions? We'd love to hear your thoughts!

33 Comments

Battalion6/27/2018, 2:02:11 AM12 votes

I don't agree that the new spellblade particle is better, I believe that detail is lost when removing the white highlighting starburst. I would, however, use the smokey crimson colour instead of the original. Basically: Take the dark red from the right picture, keep the white starburst from the first, keep the ray effect from the first.

The others seem great.

[slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

the Anarchit3cht6/27/2018, 1:33:56 AM7 votes

Looks like you just made them not shiny which imo will make them blend with other visual effects even more. For instance, look at sheen/trinity force. The red over the hand above her body blends in pretty significantly. The old version is much easier to make out due to the shine it provides.

Rathar Dashing6/27/2018, 1:18:44 AM5 votes

They look great, but the one for Sheen/Trinity is a little dull. I'd be interested to see an animated comparison.

Altiverse6/27/2018, 1:06:37 AM5 votes

That's pretty neat! My only complaint though is how Iceborn's new VFX kinda looks more galactic-themed with its new colors rather than icy-themed.

ModThe Djinn6/27/2018, 2:22:48 AM5 votes

Iceborn Gauntlet looks great. The others are definitely not as noticeable due to the softer colors and greater diffusion at the edges, although they are cleaner. Lichbane would also probably be entirely invisible in Singed's poison, which worries me.

AtaxiChaos6/27/2018, 11:34:25 AM4 votes

From a VFX perspective, they look nice; there's definitely a concern of readability though.

Checking just in gray-scale, Sheen/Trinity Force doesn't stand out much and Lich Bane is basically invisible.

Putting them through some Color Blind filters, Iceborn looks great, Lich Bane is difficult to see with tritanopia, and Sheen/Trinity Force is questionable with protanopia and deutanopia.

The takeaways here are that the bright white aspects of the current ones help them stand out, especially for Sheen/Trinity Force. For Lich Bane, the visibility is primarily in the harsh edge distinction of the starburst effect between its brighter interior and darker exterior colors. If you wanted to achieve a similar effect for that, the lighter parts could possibly be swapped out to something like a darker black, maybe making it look a bit void-y?

Mordepool6/27/2018, 12:57:04 AM4 votes

Clarity nice!

Cosmic Star6/27/2018, 12:57:55 AM4 votes

Definitely a 11/10

M00ndanc36/27/2018, 1:30:36 AM4 votes

[slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

SeeKerŻ6/27/2018, 1:59:03 AM3 votes

From what I can see the lich bane looks better.

Crimson Cobalt6/27/2018, 3:20:49 AM3 votes

I like most of them, though they seem a bit blurry. It's like a combination of the old effect and the newer one we've had for a while.

Also as a related question: Why not give Triforce its own effects? It could have like a golden aura instead of a red one to differentiate between it and Sheen.

La Bello6/27/2018, 2:16:27 AM3 votes

looks fine but this change is really out of the blue. any reason behind suddenly wanting to change the particles?

Zkaiser6/27/2018, 3:39:54 AM2 votes

Too soft imo. Iceborn is the best.

Spideraxe6/27/2018, 2:25:00 AM2 votes

Looks pretty nice tho i didnt think Sheen needed an update to its VFX since it isn't super dated

Nîcky6/27/2018, 2:57:18 AM2 votes

Sheen does look kinda flat and dull by comparison, but the Lich and Iceborn ones look awesome! Definitely more distinguishable and instantly recognizable [slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

DorkunedAuras6/27/2018, 4:17:42 AM2 votes

What worries me is that Sheen/Triforce is still impossible to see in combination with Nunu's blood boil. It uses very similar particles of the same colour that completely masks it, and this doesn't seem to change that.

Frontline Fury6/27/2018, 7:06:52 AM2 votes

Sparkles!

Ozzie Storm6/27/2018, 7:33:47 AM2 votes

for the most part yes, although when it comes to lich bane the spikiness of the effect is the 1st thing that gets noticed in teamfights rather than a purple hue. Nothing against it but maybe some spiky white on the new one would fix that.

LetMeHasagi6/27/2018, 9:52:07 AM1 votes

Maybe a yellow aura for trinity rather that the same as the sheen

Garentheon6/27/2018, 10:23:13 AM1 votes

Lich and ice look great. Sheen/trin I feel doesn’t have a unique enough look to it.

Maybe explore with the shape?

SlashStriker6/27/2018, 9:07:20 AM1 votes

I think the old one is better. Lich bane for instance it just makes your character purple rather than having an effect

Old effect -- have color and texture New effect -- have color but no texture

EyesOfTheFox6/27/2018, 2:51:35 PM1 votes

The ones on the left (old) are definitely clearer and less muted. I don't know if pushing them back (new) is what you really want to do if your goal is to improve clarity as the more muted affects could be even harder to notice. The new version on Irelia almost looks like it's part of her actual skin design. I also don't know if people had a problem with this in the first place, I never did, must be busy work for the graphics team.

Tormentula6/27/2018, 2:55:05 PM1 votes

Some of them might be hard to identify under the effects of:

item 3504 item 2139 item 2140

Granted that might already be the case but its something worth mentioning.

Trying to think of more..

I would've made tri-force more yellow, lich bane more red, and ice born more blue, not only fitting to their item colors, but also you're less likely to see those kind of buffs interfer visually this way.

Yellow for triforce would work because there is a lack of yellow particles so its more unique and most champs will be fine with it. Orange if worried about color blindness.
Red for lich works out because there are no AP items that also give red effects, AP typically doesn't get ardent censor focused on them, so it stands out better rather then purple meshing with dark blue sorcery (and purple just seems strange, why purple?)
Blue for ice born works out for most tanks since visually tanks don't get a lot of particles or sorcery elixirs. Only case I can think of is ice born skarner with W but its such a niche scenario.

And friendly reminder to address colorblindness if you haven't already. Usually this kind of stuff ships and it gets assessed later.

Dactylogram6/27/2018, 9:47:05 PM1 votes

Old is 10x better and I have no clue why you're changing this.

bad element7/6/2018, 8:08:09 PM1 votes

I guess the new effects actually remind me of the old engines effects.. similar to the mawofmalmortius effect current red hands particles for the sheen. I would still prefer to see the old yellow Lich Bane effect from vanilla league

Merbstrom7/8/2018, 12:37:17 AM1 votes

As long as the softer tone doesn't reduce clarity on overlapping effects like item 2015 , item 3042 this is a good direction if a bit too opaque.

Also I was wondering what your thoughts would be on adding a similar charged effect to item 3285 , item 1414 . Unlike other items with singular on-[action] effects these I don't think they have any indicator other than the buff bar.