Kassadin - League of Legends Splash Art Painting Process

High Res - https://www.artstation.com/artwork/eJ...

My first ever base splash! Super thanks to West Studio and Riot for assigning this to me! This was a different kind of challenge too because I got Covid while doing this so I had to stop midway during the thumbnail stage. Thankfully, my art director, Mingchen ( https://www.artstation.com/mshen ), took over the sketch and he made some cool thumbnails! Once I got better, I colored and rendered his approved sketch.

Unlike Porcelain Kindred where I overkilled the 3D and masks, here I did not use any 3D and only used minimal masks. I was also just working on a laptop when I did this so it was beneficial to keep my process simpler. Rendering was very straightforward since the approved sketch and colors was already painted over by Riot. I just had to follow their lead. I really enjoyed putting all the subtle texture details and figuring out the vfx while limiting my color palette.

Two lessons I learned here:
1. Even if the pose is boring, a simple Dutch camera angle and some nice foreground elements can make it more dynamic.
2. VFX is fun but make sure it is more readable and simple.
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𝗣𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝘆: David Villegas (Deiv Calviz)
𝗜𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗥𝗶𝗼𝘁 𝗚𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘀
𝗖𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁: Riot Games
𝗥𝗶𝗼𝘁 𝗚𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗔𝗗: Jessica Oyhenart
𝗪𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗼 𝗔𝗗: Mingchen Shen
𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵: League Splash Team
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𝗙𝗢𝗟𝗟𝗢𝗪 𝗠𝗘 𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘:
• INSTAGRAM:   / deivcalviz  
• TWITTER:   / deivcalviz  
• FB:   / deivcalviz  
• PORTFOLIO: http://www.deivcalviz.com
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𝗠𝗬 𝗧𝗨𝗧𝗢𝗥𝗜𝗔𝗟𝗦 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗕𝗥𝗨𝗦𝗛𝗘𝗦 𝗔𝗩𝗔𝗜𝗟𝗔𝗕𝗟𝗘 𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘!!
• https://www.artstation.com/a/1142983

𝗔𝗙𝗙𝗜𝗟𝗜𝗔𝗧𝗘 𝗧𝗨𝗧𝗢𝗥𝗜𝗔𝗟𝗦:
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• https://www.wingfox.com/c/8584_33516_... (15% off coupon code : WFR15 )

Level Up Your Digital Painting Skills: Beginner to Advanced by 黄裕仁Fishman
• https://www.wingfox.com/c/8294_33516_... (15% off coupon code : WFR15 )
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𝗦𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗦𝗛 𝗙𝗔𝗤

► A splash takes 4-5 weeks. 1st week for multiple sketches. 2nd week to figure out the colors. 3rd to 5th week to render and polish.

► I paint with the canvas size 8,000 x 4,500 px but it is shrunk down to 7,000 x 3938 for final. Final file is around 800mb.

► This video is 40x speed up. Do the math based on this video's time. Usually, the real time is around 40-80+ hours. (if the other thumbnails were added in). Actual work hours are more than 100+ hrs when you factor in the other thumbnails, research, and contemplating time.

► The toolbar at the left side is called Lazy Nezumi. It helps me get smoother lines and have perspective guides.

► To quickly color a grayscale, I use two methods.

GRAYSCALE COLORING 1ST METHOD:
• Layer on top: The grayscale set to multiply. Brighten it up and colorize depending on the mood you want. This Acts as an AO pass.
• Layer below: Use a solid brush to paint in the flat local colors.

GRAYSCALE COLORING 2ND METHOD: (Messier)
• Layer on top: Set this layer to softlight and add in your colors. This makes it a bit look dull on the highlights so you need to manually fix the highlight colors.
• Layer below: Grayscale here.

► Tip for revisions. You can use liquify on multiple layers. Right after you do it on one layer. You can press Alt+Ctrl+F to apply it again to a different layer. Make sure not to deselect your selection if you are doing this.

► I use color dodge and sometimes linear dodge blending mode to add in lighting layers.

► I group layers using this logic:
1. Post processing
2. VFX, magic
3. Character
4. Some fog
5. Background people, elements, etc
6. Sky and far background

► Here are my tools:

2008-2020:
• Wacom Intuos 3 6″x8″
• Samsung T190
• Intel Core i7 3.50GHz, 16GB RAM, Windows 7
• Photoshop CS6, DAZ 3D, Alchemy

2021:
• XP Pen Artist 24 PRO
• Dell UltraSharp
• AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 8-Core, 32 GB RAM, Windows 10
• Force Series Gen.4 PCIe MP600 500GB NVMe M.2 SSD (this is important for faster everything)
• Photoshop CC, Daz 3D, Zbrush, Maya

► To open a second window of your artwork in Photoshop it is located in Window - Arrange - New Window.

► To temporarily convert your artwork into grayscale. Go to View - Proof Setup - Custom - Select Dot Gain 20%. Then Press Ctrl + Y to toggle this view.

► I am not going to upload longer or shorter versions of this because that takes too much of my personal time. I'm already giving this away for FREE.