Riot shows the skin modeling process with Battlecast Illaoi

In its latest Nexus post from character artist SilverUnicorn, Riot has revealed quite a bit more about the new Illaoi skin, Battlecast. For those not in the know, this skin was voted on by fans a few months ago. It seems to be coming along quiet nicely! Since this was fan voted to start, Riot has decided to give us a new look at the modeling and texture process.

The post details the process of dropping her from concept to 3D model. The white paint originally conceived with the skin has been removed to alleviate confusion. Similarly, the greens have been shifted and a bunch of the other colors have been toned to better fit the model.

Riot Games

To get the texture to fit, the team then had to rip out everything from Illaoi’s existing model and create a fresh one. Once they had a basic model, they could go back through and shape it to fit the new skin. After that was done, they created a texture map that would fit the model.

Now that everything is put together, they are able to make some finer touches to the paint job. Her base is now complete but her total model is only at about 40 percent, so they say. The next task is getting the tentacles to work properly.

To end the post, SilverUnicorn showed off some of the highlights of the team’s “Blue Sky” meeting. The highlights include some cool VFX stuff like using a jet pack for her ult dunk or causing a cloned player’s screen to look all hacked. They had some other great ideas for flavor as well, like using her jet pack for Homeguard or having her flip over the Totem head to eat Chips and Salsa while she recalled.

Riot Games

While many of these great ideas won’t make it into the final skin, it’s fun to see stuff like this on occasion. SilverUnicorn finishes the post saying we’ll get another look once her abilities are further along and more developed.