"Marked by the Wind" Riot Creative Contest Submission

Hello everyone! This is my submission for the Riot Games Creative Contest.

Each part of its process had its own exciting challenges.I struggle a lot on the idea, taking almost 2 weeks o research, drawing and feeding my head with references. At the end of it I had like 5 different ideas but it was almost funny how there was something really similar when I started looking into it and the thye idea was discarded. So I went with a something I always do:Mixing. I based the character vfx on characters such as Karma, Janna , Rakan and Senna

I always wanted to make something related to spirits, I found them fascinating, intriguing and mysterious. So I somehow knew what my vfx was going to be related to. After reading and watching a lot of videos on Leagues lore, I decided to go with an idea of a new character, whom I think is important to introduce a bit to later talk about her ability. Feel free to skip this part if it's not of your interest:)

CHARACTER INTRODUCTION

Rowa is a believer and extreme devotee of Janna and was blessed since young age with the power of the spirit of wind. For most of her life Rowa was a innocent and kind soul who didn't over use her powers for anything evil. She was tought not to use her powers for bad things because it was not meant to take lives and Janna wouldn't wanted either. But the world changed her, as a lot of other people, she was forced to.

A world where worshipping ancient gods and spirits alike was something prohibited as It could endergen the political struggle of power of the city,a belief that was not supported even if that god only wanted to help. The people on the high society were never going to let a new power arise and so they threaten and persecuted the worshipers and destroy any evidence of it.

Rowa and her family were one of them. After being relentlessly persecuted for months her family, her parents and big brother were capture, and, after some time executed. She was able to scape that destiny thanks to her brother hiding her behind a hole in an old house they were resting at that time. But she witness everything, her family being publicly executed and felt her own powerlessness. She felt to tiny, as if anyone could step over her head, everything she had in her happy life was taken from her and destroyed just like that, in the snap of a finger.

She had her powers, but for what purpose? she wondered. Janna did disrupted a lot of times the persecutors attempts of capturing them but seems unwilling to kill. What if her blessing was so she, Rowa, could? Maybe it was time to dirty her hands and judge the people that weren't worthy of Janna to deal with. And just like that a tint of evil, revenge and madness tinted her wind powers hiding in the name of justice.

VFX IDEA

So, the VFX in the submission is the Ultimate Skill of Rowa, "Marked by the Wind", She formes a Wind ball that when impacts an enemy , damages all surrounding enemies in the area(more damage to the one it hit, like Karma empowered Q) and then creates and area that it's marked by the wind spirits and after 2 seconds everyone inside it is judged and Knocked Up in the air. The ability doesn't slow enemies itself but Rowa's passive does. Each of her abilities slow the impacted enemies because, as janna helps her allies making them faster with
wind, she uses it to curse the enemies and making them slower.

At first I thought of making the ability just related to wind and spirits but kinda felt that if I could go with another theme I could work with more exiting colors. And that is why I thought of the Spirit Blossom skinline, I thought it matched Rowa perfectly. Spirit blossoms feels very harmonious, soft and elegant but in my opinion it also has a kind of chaos and evil hiding deep withing it and that is roughly who Rowa is. I also personally really like the colors and elements and thought I could work well with them .

PROCESS

It was the first time for me to always tried making paintovers on my own current effects along the hole project, thinking on how I could enhance it and art direct each part was a great experience. It certainly consumes more time but it's worth it and it's something I will probably continue doing if I have the time in future projects. Paying attention to the black and white version, the values of the overall VFX, was also a great way to keep things clean, I don't know if I did the best job in that area it is something I will continue to practice and improve.

I know is a lot of text haha but if you have read till now thank you and I hope you guys like it!:)