Boards›Dev Corner

Thresh VFX Update

RiotSirhaian·12/13/2019, 8:23:32 PM·1 votes·65,901 views

Hello everyone!

Similar to the previous VFX updates we’ve made in the past (Ziggs, Olaf, Lux, etc), we're working on updates to the Visual Effects (VFX) of more champions whose spell effects are in need of some love. Our aim is to get their FX to current League standards and improve gameplay clarity. In Patch 10.1, we'll be releasing a VFX Update for Thresh!

Just like the previous ones, and since these are smaller updates geared toward sprucing up some of the oldest members of the roster, they aren't in the same prioritization conversation as to how we decide who gets a VGU (where we take model, gameplay, and thematic into account too!): they do not affect any other timeline, and are simply dev passion projects.

We're looking for feedback on his VFX changes, which should be up on the PBE soon-ish. Please try him out there —especially if you're a main— and leave us your feedback once the changes are up!

####Thresh THRESHThresh

VFX Update aimed at improving gameplay readability and bringing up his VFXs to today's standards, while improving his thematic feel.

https://imgur.com/TxtmdZc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hS3Oz7ZUj4

##Base Kit:

  • P - New souls and power-up effects.

  • BA - Trails on all skins, and new hit effects.

  • Q - Made the hitbox clearer and adjusted hook position. New hit effects. New link break effect (ie. on cleanse/qss). New wind-up effect.

  • W - New Lantern missile and AOE indicator. Should be more noticeable and in-thematic. New edge indicator. Cleaned up ray of light towards Thresh. Lantern now rotates much more fluidly (no more chunky rotations, except if you're super close to it). Cleaned up overall.

  • E - Added a circle indicator to show the actual hitbox. Yes, there was a circle hitbox around it. Why? How would I know. At least now it's clearly indicated. Also new indicator overall with improved thematic feel.

  • R - Thematic feel improvement, and cleaned up. I kept the original pillars.

  • Idle Effects - Cleaned up and improved idle effects overall to match his actual appearance (read "match the Senna cinematic").

E comparison:

https://imgur.com/nGnRhdl

Skin changes:

  • All Skins: Cleaned up and matched base changes.
  • Deep Terror Thresh: Cleaned up overall, and more bubbles.
  • Championship Thresh: New Championship particles overall, and some cleanup.
  • Blood Moon Thresh: Mostly just a cleanup with some thematic improvements.
  • Dark Star Thresh: Mostly just some tweaks to match base.
  • High Noon Thresh: Mostly just some tweaks to match base.

##Known things to add/fix:

  • Add BA Trails on Dark Star.
  • Add E circle indicators on Pulsefire Thresh.
  • W Lantern fire position is off on High Noon Thresh.

Please test those changes on the PBE once he's up (should be some time next week) and let us know if you have any feedback!

[slayer-jinx-catface]

85 Comments

DerMangoJoghurt12/13/2019, 8:38:56 PM21 votes

WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE IS A CIRCLE HITBOX DURING HIS E?

WHAT?

Visual effects look great btw.
jolsensei12/13/2019, 9:14:22 PM15 votes

Those changes are awesome, as a Thresh main, I really like them

But, it is possible to add a time-marker (Like Lee SIn Q) to the remaining time to re-cast the Q when hooked?

https://imgur.com/NmpyYRW

Thank you so much for this update <3

RiotRiot Beardilocks12/13/2019, 8:53:25 PM12 votes

As a Thresh main, I think these updates are awesome :D

DragonPup12/13/2019, 8:48:38 PM11 votes

Some nice subtle improvements go a long way towards helping him feel more ghostly. My recommendation is that thresh's targetting box for his E include the side curves as well (the cast does show these)

See for reference (with MS Paint skillz): https://imgur.com/a/RTUwaoE

thinkBox12/13/2019, 11:35:01 PM8 votes

I'd love if Dark Star E could feel more unique. High Noon has clear iconography on the ground trail, but the fractures in Dark Star look very similar to Championship, etc. Maybe incorporate some of the skin's rarer red/orange tones?

lol you wild wyd12/13/2019, 8:31:37 PM7 votes

Try to tone down the glow at the hook part of the hook :p

ModThe Djinn12/13/2019, 8:54:52 PM6 votes

So these are awesome. VERY few complaints here, but a few comments:

  • Not sure if it's in-scope or not, but have you considered making the claws on Thresh's ultimate not angled quite so far in? It makes the area seem smaller than it is.
  • E looks amazing, but it's odd not seeing those sharp ground lines on the other abilities -- thoughts on incorporating those a bit more into Thresh's aesthetic, or backing off on them a bit here?
  • Love the new auto-attack animations. They're fucking gorgeous.
  • Is the circular radius on the lantern showing time remaining also the target click radius? If not, is there a way you could better highlight the clickable area to make it stand out a bit more?
DragonPup12/13/2019, 8:51:27 PM6 votes

Also, this is likely out of the scope of this VFX update, but how cool would it be if enemies who break the Ult wall hear the Thresh lullaby at a low volume for a few seconds?

Naerly12/13/2019, 8:39:37 PM6 votes

Like everytime your VFX are awesome dude. I love your work! Every champion that you make a VFX Update of bring them much more personality and it's a lot more clear at the same time! Love it!

F Roy DeanSchlip12/15/2019, 12:24:17 AM4 votes

I think this is the very first time since I started playing in 2014 that I've ever felt I had reason to use the forums, but I'm a 1.7 million mastery Thresh one trick who feels very disconcerted at the prospect of what in some cases here appear to me to be gratuitous changes. The effort you've expended in designing these updates overall is quite readily apparent, and while it isn't my intent to undercut your hard work, I'd like to try to communicate with some seriousness and insistence that what you've done to the hook graphic dramatically changes the emotional dynamic unique to the game feel of each skin. After thousands of hours of playing Thresh, I can tell you that throwing a Championship hook feels distinctly different from throwing a Blood Moon hook, for instance, due to the shape and character of the projectile as it travels across the screen; a rounded sickle embodies a clean, industrially streamlined sort of feel that corresponds to the Championship aesthetic, while Blood Moon's sharp and harshly-angled blade evokes a ninja or assassin-like feeling. Standardizing the graphic across every skin genuinely compromises the thematic integrity of each, in my view, and I'd urge you to consider finding some other way to accomplish the goal of visually concentrating the spell's focal point of attention than by drowning it in particles and erasing its unique character. This is especially noticeable with Dark Star's hook, which originally looked more like a wad of energy and is now just. . . pink.

Thanks for taking the time to consider my input.

Tenryuu Tatsuta12/13/2019, 8:42:20 PM4 votes

Great changes, can't wait to see the white aura SSW Thresh might get.

Shnabbydoodle12/13/2019, 9:15:05 PM2 votes

maybe this will be enough for people to CLICK THE LANTERN

Ceai12/13/2019, 8:45:56 PM2 votes

More mist under his legs and less fire in the eyes and its damn perfect

DartExplosion1012/13/2019, 8:48:06 PM2 votes

could you maybe add the circle indicator to the actual spell indicator when using it? it looks weird to have a complete rectangle when casting and then having a random circle

Gabifel12/13/2019, 8:54:19 PM2 votes

holy shit, the base model looks so much better now. no more glowing hairs, his hands actually look like hands not like green gloves and the green in general is darker and less shiny. great work

Soossi12/13/2019, 9:11:10 PM2 votes

The updates seem extremely good compared to the last one and the time you were able to bring it to pbe. However I would have one suggestion, is there any possibility to give Blood moon Thresh's hair some glow? It just looks too bland in my opinion. I know that it didn't have VFX before but in my opinion, it would make it look more lively. Good work nonetheless!

Best Veigar FL12/13/2019, 9:20:54 PM2 votes

I'm going to sort my opinions on this into the good parts and the bad parts. Good:

  • R looks amazing Don't really got much to add to this but the darkened colors look great
  • E having particles around it better show where it is and look great Once again don't really have anything to add to this.

Alright: -Autos They look fine, not really great with all the particles in the after autos but toning it down could be a decent fix

Bad: (these problems mostly revolve around base and deep terror Thresh) -The particles on base and deep terror Thresh's model The bright glow around the head is gone and replaced by those darker glows that make the pieces on his head stick out like a sore thumb and when they have no particles around them they're pretty unattractive. It's like you shaved his head. Also the eyes stick out so much compared to the rest of his face and honestly it looks kind of goofy like some halloween decoration. -Q is covered in particles It just looks so big and plastered in particles like that's instantly going to make it look better. I can get if that's supposed to be making it more noticeable when someone gets hooked but that doesn't solve the lollipop hitbox and how some dashes and whatnot work with champion models. He's never even really depicted with all these particles around it and instead it's just green with at most a slight aura to it. This isn't really as bad with like dark star, high noon, and to an extent championship. If you really wanted to make the Q more noticeable just keep the particles to the head rather than plenty on the head and plenty on the chain too. -E The random stuff on the side and the needless amount of particles just make it look like a mess. There was never even a problem with the hitbox being visible like with Q to even properly justify the stuff on the side showing the direct it's going in or the bright colors to show it's there. And if you want to go further you can compare it to the newest champ, Sett, and how his E is pretty similar to Thresh's E and even less visible.

Overall: The good stuff is good but is drowned out by all the bad and this whole VFX update just brings to light how sometimes things are shown as "improvements" by plastering a bunch of particles on them. Please if you go forward with these lessen them a lot and keep this update in effects more faithful to what it was before. Yes we know he's from the shadow isles and yes people know Thresh's hook is usually a death sentence (it's called that for a reason) but we don't need it forcefully shoved in our faces.

FusionAqua12/13/2019, 9:31:51 PM2 votes

Hello! Really love your art, as always. The E FX is gorgeous. Some things I notice in the video:

  • When the lantern's lifetime is over, it disappears suddenly, instead of properly playing its death animation. The death animation is only played if Thresh goes too far from it.
  • When grabbing someone, the "rope" of the hook sticks to them for a few time, then suddenly disappears. Is it possible to have a small fx or animation when it disappears?
  • For some reason from 1:00 to 1:10 your E always spawn a dark-green FX on Annie if the circle part of the hitbox hits her, but there is no FX if the extremities hit her.

Congrats anyway!

Lord Raphel12/14/2019, 12:33:59 AM2 votes

Dark star green hook? WHY?

I bought this skin exactly because I hate the green color of the base skin.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ELtPbeSWwAENq73?format=jpg&amp;name=small https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ELtQmY9XsAEC_pY?format=jpg&amp;name=small https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ELtQmZBX0AAQl4B?format=jpg&amp;name=small https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ELtQmZBWsAEBjuV?format=png&amp;name=small https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ELtQmZEWsAA8lzs?format=png&amp;name=small

[sg-janna]

J Eevo12/14/2019, 8:58:24 AM2 votes

This looks great but for real, that circle hitbox should've been there soo much sooner...

But we get sweet W vfx whooo

Naιto12/14/2019, 7:57:55 PM2 votes

On one of your replies you said that "SSW Thresh is a 750rp skin, so he'll just be using base VFXs!" ... overlooking the fact that this skin somehow is not 975 anymore, do you mean to say that he will actually throw a green hook, and his W and R won't have SSW elements anymore?

I can't stress enough how much I love the VFX changes for the other skins, BUT it would absolutely break my heart if you gave that skin such treatment. It would be such a downgrade.

RaedXray12/16/2019, 7:13:51 PM2 votes

I love this update to his animations and the color changes to his model, I always thought Thresh looked weird and unfitting of his lore and scary thematic without the shadowy outlines he has here.

But this got me thinking, will there be a similar update to Nautilus? As a Nautilus enthusiast I would love to see that happen. These updates really make the game feel more alive and I feel like a lot of other champions could use something like this.

Regardless I'm a fan of this improvement!

ModRowanstar1/9/2020, 12:04:34 AM2 votes

My main issue is the glowing fire from his tendrils on the head is gone and it just looks weak without it. like even a soft glow would be nice. why was this removed at all? even his splash has the glow.

Côco Atrevido12/13/2019, 8:33:38 PM1 votes

When is Rumble getting one of this? Every skin besides SG you cant tell the Q range. Plus his classic model is so clunky, always shaking and his autos are so clunky.

Mudkas Meat Hut1/18/2020, 10:52:24 PM1 votes

thank you! love seeing improvements across the game that don't require new purchases. great work.

Le Nécromancien12/13/2019, 8:37:29 PM1 votes

U know there is some champions that needs a visual update, like Udyr or Draven. Why did u choose Thresh who was (imo) okay with his VFX in game

Soossi12/17/2019, 9:11:19 AM1 votes

I was wondering if Thresh's W could get more souls spinning around the lantern as he gets more stacks? It would be clearer to see how powerful his shield now actually is.

Aria1376RedHood12/14/2019, 12:54:15 AM1 votes

Riot tell me Where is Aatrox ult? in his story says he is immortal.in the video you showed it shows he can revive.do you even care for this champ? or you just love to keep buffing master Yi and keep giving the lux a great skin every day and give Aatrox a stupid skin that looks exactly like his other skin.this is so stupid that you never ever cared for this champ.Aatrox

ShadowSamurai812/19/2019, 8:53:56 AM1 votes

Can Darkstar and High Noon get Autoattack Trails too?

evilgod942/20/2020, 4:02:00 PM1 votes

Hey Riot games! I don't know if you already thought about reworking Twisted Fate's basic attack at higher speeds but I just wanna give you an idea (because I would love if it got into the game). The idea is that when TwistedFate reaches around 2.00 or 2.10 attack speed then he changes from single hand throws to throwing with both hands (not at the same time) while spinning or doing some fancy card throw move. This could also be applied only to his "Tango" skin because he's a dancer there. I thought of this a while back but now I really felt excited about telling you about my idea. In any case I really hope that you take look at this idea and I would also love a reply or a notification ;D I posted a discussion at the gameplay board about this and now I found this!

Sincerely A player who Loves League Of Legends