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Visual and Sound Effects Update: Anivia

RiotRiot Star Weaver·11/3/2018, 12:23:03 AM·1 votes·167,518 views

Hello everyone!

Similar to the recent Jarvan, Lee Sin, Veigar, and Vi updates, we're working on VFX and SFX updates to more champions whose spell effects are in need of some love to get to current League standards. In Patch 8.24, we'll be releasing updates for Anivia, Dr. Mundo, Gragas (VFX only; SFX shipped in patch 8.21), and Teemo. Keep an eye on this post and we'll add visual previews as they become ready! Please try them out on the PBE—especially if you're a main—when they're in and leave us your feedback here!

Today's preview covers the visual effects updates to Anivia, The Cryophoenix. Audio will also continue to be polished with mix and clarity in mind. Her idles and emotes will also have a bunch of feathery wing sounds!

VFX VFX update across the board to clean up unnecessary noise and improve gameplay clarity. BA - New missile and hit impact. P - Glow should be more emphasized as to where she is in the rebirth process, as well as a more impactful hatching moment! Q - Should more clearly communicate the hit box, with an emphasis on the "sweet spot" center. W - Updated models for the wall, and a frosty ground! E - Missile is distinct from the basic attacks. "Crit" Impact is now brighter and more defined. R - The ultimate has a Freljordian indicator, with a swirling blizzard!

Anivia's Blackfrost and Carnival skins have had their VFX tweaked as well. To keep with the spirit of the skins, only minor adjustments were needed:

  • Blackfrost's Q and R were updated to reflect the changes in base, as to not feel like they lost their uniqueness or power as a legendary.
  • Carnival Anivia's ultimate ring was adjusted to better match the hitbox.

Please use this thread to give feedback on Anivia's VFX. Please leave any questions about other champs to their thread.

89 Comments

Mitsuki11/3/2018, 12:40:31 AM46 votes

Hi Anivia one trick here, would it be possible for you to freshen up Anivia's character model? Make her feathers more defined and make her more visibly icey?

im sorry women11/3/2018, 12:54:31 AM18 votes

anivia main here, thank you so much for giving her some love! You did an awesome job on these new VFX and I love them a lot. The only thing bothering me is that her E is three shards in a "box" formation instead of one large one. It looks very clunky in my opinion. I think it would look nicer as either one large shard or a huge shard with little fragments trailing behind it.

Also, can her egg get some love? The new revive animation is really cool, it feels like the egg model itself should be polished to match (but that might fall under character model stuff)

MoveslikeQuagger11/3/2018, 2:04:04 AM15 votes

I apologize if some of this sounds too harsh - I'm a long-time Anivia main, since season 3 (before the small rework to ult and e, adding of Q indicator, etc) and change is often quite jarring to me, especially when it seems counterintuitive or unnecessary.

Base Skin: Q - Way too bright. It's pretty, but it just feel like the brightness was turned up to 12 and it hurts my eyes - Also, with a little lower brightness, the shape of the projectile would be much clearer. Also, there's been a visual issue on the Q indicator (on all skins) since... Well, really since that old rework, where it just doesn't line up anywhere near where champions actually visually are. You can actually see this pretty clearly (for the small hitbox at least - this doesn't show any suspiciously-missed stuns) in the sample clip during the Q at 1:03, and the one right after it at 1:06. I'd hope this would be somewhat fixed on the visual update... W - That wall is a lot closer to white than Anivia's signature blue, which is quite jarring against the color scheme we've come to know and love. Again, looks too bright, a bit too artificial/opaque for the color - more like marble than ice, more Demacian than Freljord. If whiter ice is really what you want to go with here, it'd be a bit less jarring if it seemed more translucent, or at least a deeper color. E - The triple-shot is visually inconsistent with its effect. There are not 3 hits happening, just 1, and it looks quite strange for an effectively rectangular projectile like that to be coming out of the smooth activation animation. If you must keep the triple-shot visual for clarity, please at least group them closer together so it looks more streamlined/less blocky. Regardless, I don't think the old animation was anywhere near as misleading as this one. R - It's very pretty. It's a little bit visually distracting. Personally I'd prefer it toned down juuust a tad, but this one's really pretty close to okay, again assuming you really want a more white color scheme.

Blackfrost: Q - Fine R - There's a bit of black wind that goes just over the top of the circle, which is intended to show the back-side of the 3D object that is the blizzard, but it also unintentionally extends the range of what looks like the top end of the circle around the ability's range, if you're not looking closely. This seems bad for visual clarity, especially in teamfights. Frost - Is there any plan to change the color on her frost effects to something darker on this skin? The new frost effect's bright aesthetic, especially compared to the new Blackfrost's accentuated dark/purplish colors, clashes pretty badly.(on twitter update: not quite as bad, since the skin has a bit more of that color in its animations to match - or maybe it just looks better on this spot in the map, I don't know for sure)

CrazyBigfoot2811/3/2018, 12:28:06 AM10 votes

that w looks so good

dotdog2011/3/2018, 12:33:19 AM8 votes

Default skin E looks like a three-pronged thing while bf and fest look like the live version. Is the three-prong going on all the skins, or just the base level, or base, noxus, eagle, etc?

Just A Plushie11/3/2018, 12:33:39 AM7 votes

Anivia main here, wall looks really good. I think E should stay as a single icicle though. Not sure of what I think of the ults yet. Are the changes live on PBE already?

Wendígo11/3/2018, 12:35:50 AM6 votes

No sound on Blackfrost R?

ModThe Djinn11/3/2018, 3:25:23 AM5 votes

Love these.

A few small suggestions:

  • The pass-through hit on Q should be amplified a bit more, given how much power is gated behind detonating the effect AFTER you get the pass-through hit on the primary target.
  • The "bonus damage" duration on E seems like it could benefit from a sharper visual (the blue at the feet seems easy to miss -- it took me two watches just to see it, especially with her other blue particle effects), and I'd love to see a special impact and sound for an empowered E to help with clarity on WHY you suddenly took more damage.
  • I'm not quite feeling the triple icicle -- it's a nice effect and excellently done but, for some reason, nuking a target with a single big ice spike just seems like it feels better to me.
  • Is it worth considering her runic effects on the ultimate and working those in a few other places? The indicator around the Q or the ice of the W seem like possibilities, and it would help tie that thematic in a bit more.

Otherwise no complaints -- gorgeous work as per usual!

Lamboyant11/3/2018, 12:36:42 AM5 votes

I really like the update on the base skin! Although the e seems kind of weird given how it has multiple icicles, I like the clearer visuals on each of Anivia's abilities.

EROTIC RAID BOSS11/3/2018, 12:28:26 AM4 votes

The wall and E look super nice! I don't have any critical feedback just wanted to say good job on those

ARE YOU PC BRO11/3/2018, 3:59:42 PM4 votes

Hextech one could use some extra love...

XxDRAGONsAK47xX11/3/2018, 12:28:18 AM4 votes

I feel like the E for Anivia's Blackfrost and Carnival should look like the new classic one as well

what you deserve11/3/2018, 1:12:15 PM3 votes

I think that empowered E (hitting someone affected by q or r) could benefit from a secondary visual effect. I'm not sure what specifically, but something to give clarity as to how half of my health bar just got removed from a single attack

Mopoii11/4/2018, 7:41:05 AM3 votes

Very nice, but the model really needs an update. Like for Gragas, that's what really would've been more urgent in my opinion

MetaKaizer11/3/2018, 11:20:19 AM2 votes

I think making the E be a single missile when non crit and 3 when crit would look better but that might require some coding that maybe its none of you buisness. Either way, amazing work you are doing with all these champs.

TomiMan711/3/2018, 12:36:56 AM2 votes

Is it just me but the E looks like(sometimes) just a regular AA?

DJ Y4ssin11/3/2018, 1:12:36 AM2 votes

Ily. sincerely, best anivia na

CritDoge11/3/2018, 1:26:35 AM2 votes

Hi Sirhaian!

Everything looks pretty good to me, except for the explosion of Q and the hit particle of E, where they look really...cartoony, for lack of a better word. It just looks like a bunch of unshaded cyan polygons flying off into the ether, and seems really out of place with League's softer, more polished aesthetic.

Rathar Dashing11/3/2018, 2:42:44 AM2 votes

I'm really hoping that Blackfrost gets a bit more love, from what I've seen so far it's much too close to the base skin for a legendary.

warpenguin55511/3/2018, 1:27:20 PM2 votes

The video disappeared :(

HEEBEEJEEBLER11/3/2018, 6:15:42 PM2 votes

Anivia Main here: Especially loving the new walls. Any word on if Blackfrost is going to get a new recall? Thats the only part of her that doesnt feel legendary.

Satakieli11/3/2018, 7:02:41 PM2 votes

Anivia OTP here, I absolutely love the new AAs and the R outer circle symbols, however, there are 2 things that bother me a little:

1: The wall. It doesn't look like ice, and while I like the frosted ground idea, I think it could've been represented better. Right now it looks like a messy white mixed with the map's ground. Feels like an exaggerated smudge+blur in Photoshop, IMO. But I might just be a personal complaint. 2: I like how the R's outer circle expands and fades in from a blurry blue, and then becomes a clear contour with runes and cool symbols and whatever you see there, but I think the transition is too sudden. Like 'hey that R is gloriously expanding' and then 'OH WAIT IT'S FULL already? Did I miss a frame?'. It feels like a lag :(

But again, I might be biased. Great work overall, I'll have to say this again: I simply love the AA missiles. Tiny, sharp icy things which don't look like a winter's goddess wrath at first, but that will quickly eat away all of your HP during the laning phase. RIP.

Pirate Pug11/3/2018, 11:18:58 PM2 votes

Just need an updated Model and Lines (like Ezreal) and she's perfect!

Karunamon11/4/2018, 1:18:01 AM2 votes

I love this - my favorite birdy enters the modern era :D

Two minor, minor nitpicks:

One is the ice wall animation. Currently, it's a smooth melt out and really looks like how you'd expect rapidly melting ice to look. The new version kinda sits there for a bit, and then quickly jumps under the ground as the timeout ends - it's a bit jarring, and II wish the smooth fade was still there.

Also more of a question - why does base Ani not have any falling ice on her ult now, but Blackfrost and Festival Queen do? As I understand it, this is a visual indication that the ult is at max size and is doing extra damage. That feedback is now gone.

Healing Seraphim11/4/2018, 4:10:46 PM2 votes

The murder bird is finally getting some love. Yey.

My only complaint is the E animation which would look better as a single projectile.

This doesn't really her main issue tho. The model is oudated, including the flight animation. Can you make her a bit more feathery and birdy in that regard? A flying animation similar to Phoenix from Dota would certainly look very nice.

Evhel11/4/2018, 11:11:10 PM2 votes

The wall is amazing! The R feels a little empty to me... Maybe some more snowflakes? Also Blackfrost should get some more love, it's her legendary and Festival is a lot better...

Kristian81811/5/2018, 4:49:31 PM2 votes

Except for the already mentioned problems with E (about using 3 small shards) and very bright (almost white) colors one thing that could fit very well is if the runes around her ult would slowly spin the opposite way around when the storm is fully charged. This would give more life to the ability since it feels clumsy to have stationary runes with all that movement and magic inside the storm.

And î oop11/10/2018, 12:08:43 PM2 votes

Are some of the anivia skins and maybe her base model also gonna get an update in near future? Her model is a bit old and clunky and her older skins look... just bad and some of them like team spirit anivia are rly rare so its kinda shame that a really rare skin looks worse then her basic model

Lord Raphel11/12/2018, 2:14:01 AM1 votes

Hi, guys, I want to say my thoughts and opinions about this video.

First of all, have to say that I love Anivia, and she deserves more affection from Riot, she has incredible potential for a new story that connects the other champions and that does justice to her powers, and his years of life.

On the wings: In the original skin they are not fluid, they are hard and strange, the wings flapping of her is still strange. In skin Carnival and BlackFrost the wings are ok! Another thing in the original skin: the wings beat too slowly, as it is slow the flapping of wings becomes even stranger to those who play with her. Quinn's Valor flies a lot more beautiful for example than the Anivia! She looks more like a bluebird flying strange than a bird ice goddess. The self-attack is ok for me but I miss ice in general

(Q) is ok but I miss cold, maybe fractals of ice; The ice wall

(W) got super interesting but it's missing a bit of snow and cold in my opinion. I hope that with this rework projectile attacks are blocked by the "ice wall" as they are blocked by the "Yasuo wind wall" because it makes no sense the wind blocking projectiles and an ice wall does not...

The (E) is amazing with three pieces of ice, although I think they should be spaced out just like the Q of Twisted Fate;

The (R) looks beautiful but I see more wind than cold and ice, I think it is fitting to make icy adjustments in general for her.

And speaking of your passive (P) I miss cold on your sides, it's an icy egg and with that, she needs a cold wind circulating the egg!

As a cold champion, she has to bring this to the battlefield.

I am the snow, wind, and ice. Anivia

[slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

MoveslikeQuagger11/17/2018, 12:55:38 AM1 votes

Haha, coming in again late just to check in...

Is there any chance we could see all of this from the enemy's PoV? In particular, I'm interested to see what the blizzard's ring indicator looks like from the other side.

The Demon Child12/3/2018, 9:43:26 AM1 votes

It feels like Blackfrost is like the classic skin now, but in different Colors, when we think about, that it's supposed to be a legendary skin. Maybe adding something really special to this skin's spells, that it differs to the classic skins.