Dev Blog: Updates and Splash Art

Sharjo·Jan 25, 2016·6 votes·20,958 views

A new Riot Dev Blog pertaining to skin splash art has been released! Take a look!

80 Comments

Moonboy65Jan 25, 20166 votes

Alistar Anivia Annie Fiora Gangplank Garen Heimerdinger Janna Karma Karthus Kassadin Katarina Kayle Maokai MasterYi MissFortune Nasus Nidalee Rammus Renekton Sejuani Singed Sion Sivir Sona Soraka Tristana Trundle Tryndamere TwistedFate Twitch Viktor received quite a bit of attention in terms of Visuals so they want go back to updating their splash arts

Solidair3Jan 26, 20166 votes

I hope Karma gets hers sooner rather than later. She got her sooooooooooo long ago. Also I want more Karma lore.

More Karma, rito. pls.

Murphys LawyerJan 26, 20164 votes

So about that new Swain base skin splash....when is it going to be in the main client, and what's the holdup when we already know it exists in complete form?

RalanrJan 25, 20163 votes

I really hope Sion is the first previous rework they go back to for splashes.

A Superb VillainJan 25, 20164 votes

They really are outdated.

RiotReav3Jan 26, 201611 votes

Sion is diffidently high on our priority list. However, right now we are looking into Trundle, Nidalee and Tristana.

These are being done by various people so they might not come out in that order. These reworks are lower priority then new champs, big future Champ Updates and new skins so they will finish up at different times.

Plan is to have all of a champions old splash art come out at the same time. So all of Nidalee's will come out in the same patch for example.

HigeRJan 26, 20162 votes

uhm... what about karma O.o?

RiotReav3Jan 27, 20164 votes

Karma is fairly high on our list as well.

Part of the reason we chose Nidalee/Trist/Trundle as our first batch was that we already had some part way finished splash art for some of there skins, so it made sense to work through them first.

Varys of Lys Jan 27, 20162 votes

Obviously hers wasn't a full rework like some champs, but Ashe? :D

Solidair3Jan 26, 20161 votes

So does this mean you guys are picking them by severity of need rather than age of update?

Also, more of a production level question: Are Taric's new splashes one of the last things to be completed for his update? I just wonder how much these champions change visually near the end stages of production

RiotReav3Jan 27, 20162 votes

There are a lot of factors that go into which champions we pick. Severity is one of the largest reasons. We are doing these in between are large Reworks (Taric for example) so the amount of splashes that need reworking is a factor. Character popularity is a factor as well though not the primary factor. Age of update is currently not something that we are using.

As I mentioned in another post Trist/Nid/Trundle were largely picked due to the fact that we had partially finished splash art already for them. Tristana is also a champion we use to teach new players about skins (giving Riot girl trist away for free) so it makes sense to update her sooner rather then later.

As for the question about production, the splash arts are generally the last thing we do in a update. This is why Shen's Splash art weren't even complete when he first hit PBE (They went in a week after he hit PBE.) The base splash is usually finished a week or 2 before it gets announced and hits PBE.

exe3Jan 27, 20161 votes

What goes into deciding which particular splash arts need updating? Many older champions have newer skins that already have great art that many would argue don't need replacing (eg: only Magnificent, Tango and PAX Twisted fate splashes need updating imo, and for other champs like Cass I think Mythic and Jade are perfectly fine but the other two could get redone).

Also how do you view the Chinese art that was once used as a stop-gag to replace all the really really really old art? Will they all be replaced eventually for proper splashes?

RiotReav3Jan 27, 20161 votes

First we decide which Champions we want to target, so Nid/Trist/Trundle in this case. After that me and HUGEnFAST (one of the Art leads on Champ Update and Primary Illustrator) sit down and go through each skin splash with the criteria below.

Does the Skin Splash Art match the new model?
Is the Skin Splash Art up to the modern Riot Splash Art Standards?

To answer your questions about the Chinese "Stop-Gaps," I don't think any of those are on par with current splash art standards.

To use Nidalee as a example, when we looked at her skin splashes we determined that only Challenger Nidalee, Headhunter Nidalee, and Warring Kingdoms Nidalee where at Riot's current Splash Art Standard.

I hope this answers both of your questions

VeraJan 27, 20165 votes

{quoted}

First we decide which Champions we want to target, so Nid/Trist/Trundle in this case. After that me and HUGEnFAST (one of the Art leads on Champ Update and Primary Illustrator) sit down and go through each skin splash with the criteria below.

Does the Skin Splash Art match the new model?

Is the Skin Splash Art up to the modern Riot Splash Art Standards?

To answer your questions about the Chinese "Stop-Gaps," I don't think any of those are on par with current splash art standards.

To use Nidalee as a example, when we looked at her skin splashes we determined that only Challenger Nidalee, Headhunter Nidalee, and Warring Kingdoms Nidalee where at Riot's current Splash Art Standard.

I hope this answers both of your questions

I think Leopard Nidalee's "Chinese stop-gap" is certainly better than a number of the splashes you've released in the last year or two. For instance, Challenger Nidalee's... and most definitely the recent Snow Day and "RPG-themed" art piece.

Photos of GhostsJan 28, 20161 votes

What about base Xin Zhao? The Chinese Stop-Gap would help a lot on him.

InquizelusJan 27, 20161 votes

{quoted}

Sion is diffidently high on our priority list. However, right now we are looking into Trundle, Nidalee and Tristana.

These are being done by various people so they might not come out in that order. These reworks are lower priority then new champs, big future Champ Updates and new skins so they will finish up at different times.

Plan is to have all of a champions old splash art come out at the same time. So all of Nidalee's will come out in the same patch for example.

Why tho? All 4 of those champions have had recent updates.

Moonboy65Jan 27, 20161 votes

he means the skin splash arts bruh

InquizelusJan 27, 20161 votes

{quoted}

he means the skin splash arts bruh

All of Nid's skin splashes have already been updated too ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Moonboy65Jan 27, 20163 votes

actually, only Snow Bunny and Leopard got updated with their Chinese versions

Shroom JunkieJan 27, 20161 votes

{quoted}

Sion is diffidently high on our priority list. However, right now we are looking into Trundle, Nidalee and Tristana.

These are being done by various people so they might not come out in that order. These reworks are lower priority then new champs, big future Champ Updates and new skins so they will finish up at different times.

Plan is to have all of a champions old splash art come out at the same time. So all of Nidalee's will come out in the same patch for example.

I think all of those splash arts are fine, why change them? They're high definition, capture their personality and gameplay, and let's be honest man, Sion's looks freaking awesome. I think you guys at Riot should just leave those splashes alone, and fix old-old splashes like Rammus, Warwick, maybe Kennen's to add more personality. Though, you'll probably be reworking Rammus and Warwick at least and I know Taric is being reworked, so I can only assume you'll be updating their splash arts too. ... Unless you mean updating their skins, in which I will walk out of the room hanging my head down in shame.

Moonboy65Jan 27, 20161 votes

he means the skins lol

RiotReav3Jan 27, 20162 votes

Correct, I am referring to the skin splash art, not the base splash art.

Spider QueenJan 27, 20162 votes

With Miss Fortune's VU do you think she will be getting new splashes this year? MissFortune

RiotReav3Jan 27, 20165 votes

MF is on the list.

I can't really to speak to when and what champions we get to next. As I mentioned above, these are lower priority then the big reworks like Poppy and Shen. The champions we do next and when we get to them will depend on the bandwidth at that time.

The reason we are able to make a large push on 3 champions right now is mainly due to the fact that the 2 big champion updates we have in development, Taric and Yorick, have very few skins. This frees some of our resources up to work on some past champions skin splashes.

Which and how many champions we do next will depend on what champion reworks we have in development after Taric/Yorick. MF has A LOT of skin splashes that need to be updated so we would need to do them at a time where we had decent bandwidth, where as someone like Karma has much fewer in need of a update.

Photos of GhostsJan 28, 20162 votes

Will her base splash ever be updated? It carries much less personality than she has in her lore.

If you guys plan on keeping it, I might have to buy Cap'n MF for decency reasons...

KieferrJan 29, 20161 votes

Pppppsssshhhh. Her base splash is fine! If it offends people, then good.

Photos of GhostsJan 30, 20161 votes

Did I say offensive? I said dull. Sluttiness is first and foremost cheap and uninteresting. In particular in that shade.

OriannaMontanaFeb 3, 20161 votes

This slutshaming tho

Photos of GhostsFeb 4, 20161 votes

You missed a major point, but let's talk about that later, and assume this was "slutshaming".

I am a citizen. I am the source of the judiciary, I delegate the judges to do a part of it for me, but I mantain the dominion on the "everyday" part of it. And being a slut is a conscious choice, not a birth character. As any conscious choice, from killing someone to avoiding a war to eating ice cream, it has a moral value. Negative, neutral or positive. In this case, I consider it to be negative.

But the point you missed is: I'm talking about game characters, not actual people. Riot doesn't want us to discuss real life issues on the forums. And a story character who's a slut is cheap, annoying and uninteresting.

Makuta TeridaxJan 28, 20162 votes

Crosses fingers for future Galactic Nasus updated splash

I must ask though, why are you choosing those specific champions though. Besides Trundle and Nidalee, who everyone agrees on due the reowrks being fairly "old", why choose Trist and Sion over Nasus, Renekton or Karthus? Do you guys feel the skin splashes are less representative of the real product than the cases I've listed for example?

RiotReav3Jan 28, 20165 votes

We wanted to get a wide variety for the first update. There isn't one singular reason for each champion being chosen. While there are many reasons that went into these 3, I can try and break down the primary reasons real quick.

**Trundle ** - Highest disparity between current skin splash and current in-game model Nidalee - We already have a majority of her skin splash are 80%-90% complete Tristana - This is the champion we teach new players how skins work (through the riot girl Tristana facebook give away)

As for the reasoning behind Sion being high priority. Sion currently has the lowest skin usage in the entire game. This means that people use skins on Sion less then any other champions. Not sure if this has to do with the models or that Sion has 0 high quality skin splash art. I personally love the new Hextech Sion Model, but the current splash art doesn't really reflect how awesome it is imo.

This isn't to say we will do Sion next as we haven't talked about who we will tackle after we get through the 3 mentioned above.

Nagoh ShanJan 28, 20163 votes

I can't speak for everyone, but I don't use Sion skins because I'm still salty AF that he didn't get a traditional skin.

Splash arts have historically represented skins fairly poorly, so I don't think it's that. If I had to throw a guess it's because there's no skin that matches what his is now. All his skins are Arnold Schwarzenegger references on a character that isn't one anymore.

The moment you get Fullback Sion out, with uprights as his axe, you'll see a jump in usage because that matches what he is.

EapenatorJan 28, 20166 votes

Maybe it's because his current skins are low tier ones, with Warmonger being his highest tier skin, and even that skin has no cool particles or backing animations or voice overs or anything???

Like, there is literally no reason to pick up any of his skins because they offer nothing except fun little themes. Personally for me, who loves sion, I have been dying to pick up a skin for him in the longest time, but when i look at the selection, I just don't like whats offered.

Maybe if you released a new 975 skin or 1350 skin with beautiful particles etc, i would definitely instantly purchase, but sadly, his base model is much much better than any of the skins he has at the moment

GarrotteJan 28, 20161 votes

{quoted} As for the reasoning behind Sion being high priority. Sion currently has the lowest skin usage in the entire game. This means that people use skins on Sion less then any other champions. Not sure if this has to do with the models or that Sion has 0 high quality skin splash art. I personally love the new Hextech Sion Model, but the current splash art doesn't really reflect how awesome it is imo.

This very well could just be me, but the biggest thing thats preventing me from using/buying skins for Sion, is that his Base is SOOOOOO good, like SGU levels of good. I just have no desire to play with a skin, when I love the look of the base model.

InHaruhiWeTrustJan 29, 20161 votes

same for me with tristana and poppy lol really hope they don't read this and start making crappy base models though XD i still bought dragon trainer tristana cause it's the best thing ever

GreenHandzJan 29, 20161 votes

What abou the mundo skins? For example mr. Mundoverse. He has nothin from splashart.

RaxistaichoJan 29, 20162 votes

{quoted}

We wanted to get a wide variety for the first update. There isn't one singular reason for each champion being chosen. While there are many reasons that went into these 3, I can try and break down the primary reasons real quick.

**Trundle ** - Highest disparity between current skin splash and current in-game model Nidalee - We already have a majority of her skin splash are 80%-90% complete Tristana - This is the champion we teach new players how skins work (through the riot girl Tristana facebook give away)

As for the reasoning behind Sion being high priority. Sion currently has the lowest skin usage in the entire game. This means that people use skins on Sion less then any other champions. Not sure if this has to do with the models or that Sion has 0 high quality skin splash art. I personally love the new Hextech Sion Model, but the current splash art doesn't really reflect how awesome it is imo.

This isn't to say we will do Sion next as we haven't talked about who we will tackle after we get through the 3 mentioned above.

Any chance we'll get the Irelia splash that's been teased in lcs games since last year?

CrowthenJan 29, 20161 votes

Speaking of high disparity between splash and ingame model, old splashes for twitch dont even have legs! Also a question regarding traditional skin splashes, will you be preserving the "style" of them? For example Traditional karmas skin splash redone with todays art standard but keeping the same pose and backround etc.

Kuronok2Jan 30, 20161 votes

{quoted}

We wanted to get a wide variety for the first update. There isn't one singular reason for each champion being chosen. While there are many reasons that went into these 3, I can try and break down the primary reasons real quick.

**Trundle ** - Highest disparity between current skin splash and current in-game model Nidalee - We already have a majority of her skin splash are 80%-90% complete Tristana - This is the champion we teach new players how skins work (through the riot girl Tristana facebook give away)

As for the reasoning behind Sion being high priority. Sion currently has the lowest skin usage in the entire game. This means that people use skins on Sion less then any other champions. Not sure if this has to do with the models or that Sion has 0 high quality skin splash art. I personally love the new Hextech Sion Model, but the current splash art doesn't really reflect how awesome it is imo.

This isn't to say we will do Sion next as we haven't talked about who we will tackle after we get through the 3 mentioned above.

Although i have Hextech and Lumberjack Sion's skin, it's about time for him to get a new one. He was reworked more than a year ago and never got any new skins. Champions release after his rework already got a new skin. Where is the love for Sion?

BM GoyuFeb 1, 20161 votes

{quoted}

We wanted to get a wide variety for the first update. There isn't one singular reason for each champion being chosen. While there are many reasons that went into these 3, I can try and break down the primary reasons real quick.

**Trundle ** - Highest disparity between current skin splash and current in-game model Nidalee - We already have a majority of her skin splash are 80%-90% complete Tristana - This is the champion we teach new players how skins work (through the riot girl Tristana facebook give away)

As for the reasoning behind Sion being high priority. Sion currently has the lowest skin usage in the entire game. This means that people use skins on Sion less then any other champions. Not sure if this has to do with the models or that Sion has 0 high quality skin splash art. I personally love the new Hextech Sion Model, but the current splash art doesn't really reflect how awesome it is imo.

This isn't to say we will do Sion next as we haven't talked about who we will tackle after we get through the 3 mentioned above.

On the subject of Sion, I think the reason his skins show such low use is that all of his skins are garbage compared to his base skin. Hextech, Lumberjack and Barbarian are ridiculous as well as just painful to look at. Warmonger is ok, but feels like the wrong colors. Compared to his base skin, they're just a bit garbage.

The splash arts looking horrible probably doesn't help though. I play a decent amount of Sion, and have several skins, but mostly just leave the classic skin on.

KrakenMaster86Jan 27, 20161 votes

Any info about Visual Updates for reworked champions? Not just splashes. Mordekaiser for example.

The new splash arts for Shen look amazing by the way!

ShökJan 28, 20161 votes

Any plans for Reneketon? Love how Outback Renekton is blue in-game but not in the splash. Lol.

RiotReav3Jan 28, 20161 votes

All previously reworked champions are on the list. So yes, Renekton is on the list.

I can't comment on which champions we will tackle next or when we will get to them.

BrutusnessJan 28, 20163 votes

{quoted}

All previously reworked champions are on the list. So yes, Renekton is on the list.

I can't comment on which champions we will tackle next or when we will get to them.

Can you say if Swain's still on the list, even though he has a way far off rework? I feel he should still get something considering how long it will take for him to get a rework.

RetillinJan 28, 20161 votes

And he had a splash update that was teased. But never released for some reason.

Malicious MetalJan 28, 20161 votes

Does Mordekaiser qualify? he did get a rework after all :^)

xLuminøusDreamerJan 29, 20161 votes

but his models didn't really change, just a texture update. unless they update the entire model they might not do one.

IiIianaJan 28, 20161 votes

Is Annie on the list? I don't mean to ask something that seemingly has already been answered, but her rework was quite a while ago and her splashes aren't thaaat bad, so I don't know what's you guys' stand on her. Most of her skins splashes are average looking, but then there's Annie in Wonderland... Also, I believe Goth Annie had its splash reworked in the past? So I don't know if it's already outdated.

RiotReav3Jan 29, 20163 votes

Annie is on the list.

Gothic Annie is fine as is and would not get updated. Since hers aren't the worst offenders currently, she probably isn't as high priority as some other champions, but we would like to get to her eventually.