League of legends emotion event. Creating visual effects in the style of League of Legends

Stop dying typing messages in chat. Emotes allow you to react to events in real time using a set of in-game icons. To celebrate the launch, every player will receive a free "Thumbs Up" emote!

To begin, select the desired emotions in section "Collection".

You can place up to five emotions on the emotion wheel. In addition, there are two additional cells. The emotion from the first is automatically played at the beginning of the game, and from the second - in case of victory. This way, you won't have to time it to show the emotion right before the nexus is destroyed.

The standard key for calling the emotion wheel in the game is T, but you can choose any other (this will be especially useful for Lee Sin players).

And if you feel like your chair is about to catch fire, you can turn off the emotions of specific players in the score window. Additionally, we have added a "Hide all enemy emotes" option to the game settings. And if during the display of the emotion you receive damage from the champion, the animation will immediately be interrupted, and the emotion itself will go on cooldown.

Emotions can be found in section "Emotions" in the store.

In the future, each emotion can be purchased for 450 RP, but to celebrate the launch we are holding a sale during which they will be available at a reduced price - 350 RP. In addition, the store will feature a “Starter Emote Pack,” a set of five emotes, one of which will be exclusive. Set cost – 975 RP. Discounts and bundles will disappear from the store November 7, 2017, at 10:59 Moscow time.

After launch, emotes will be included in both regular sales of sets and sales of individual products.

If you're not clear on anything, check out our Frequently Asked Questions.

Please don't react too emotionally.

Five days ago, Riot Games announced an exciting new feature called Champion Mastery. The purpose of this system is to show how each player improves on a specific champion. In addition, the teamwork of the players will also improve, since it is for this that precious points will be awarded. But first things first.

Champion Mastery

What is Champion Mastery?

The Mastery system is designed to determine the amount of effort that a player puts into a particular champion, and also uses a specific system to measure the level of mastery of him. When a player wins a game, he receives a certain number of Champion Points (CHP), and then some kind of reward. The number of points earned directly depends on the team’s performance.

Unlocking Champion Mastery

Your Summoner level must be above level five to take part in this program.

Initially, all champions have the first level of Mastery, as well as 0 points. Once you start playing and earning VP, you will be able to earn ranks and unlock rewards that will vary depending on your current rank. In your profile you will be able to see:

• Three best champions;
• Amount of Mastery (total number of levels on all champions);
• Champions who are close to Mastery level.

At the moment, the introduction of the system is planned only for Regular games on the Summoner's Rift map.

Champion Points

Champion Points are earned by playing as a specific champion. Earning these Points will give you the ability to level up the Mastery level on that champion and receive rewards as you level up. Champion points are directly dependent on both your personal performance and the performance of your team. You will be able to see the number of Champion Points earned in the post-match results.

It's also worth noting that you'll earn a lot more Champion Points if you play with friends. The more friends you have on your team, the more points you will earn. For example, if there are five of you, you will receive 50% more PP than if you played alone.

Ratings

After finishing the game, you will be able to find out the score you received on a specific champion in that game. This rating is given to you by the Mastery system. The score completely depends on your performance as well as the role you played.

Awards

Reward levels

Depending on what skill level the player has, he will be able to receive a certain reward. It is worth noting that rewards will begin only at the fourth level of Mastery:

1. Unique Mastery Emblem display emote, loading screen frame, unique banner in announcements

The developers promise that this is just the beginning. Over time, there will be even more levels and even more rewards.

Emblem of Mastery

You will have the opportunity to demonstrate your champion's skill level directly in the game itself. As with other emotions (laughter, dance, etc.), it will be tied to a “hot key”. This binding will be displayed in the game options:

Loading Screen Mastery Frame

If you can unlock this reward, you will see a new frame for your loading screen. The displayed Mastery rank will only be visible to players on your team.

Banner in announcements

• You or your ally killed an enemy;
• Anyone who kills an opponent above rank four.

Hotkeys

"Q", "W", "E", "R" - use of the character's basic abilities.

"X" is a normal attack.

"Alt+Q", "Alt+W", "Alt+E", "Alt+R" - learning the ability. Using Alt saves time, which allows you not to be distracted from the battle, if you were studying skills with the mouse.

"D", "F" - use of additional abilities. For example, a summoned creature.

"A" - send the character "through the attack". Your character will run in a given direction and attack the first enemy he comes across. Convenient when you are catching up with an enemy, and he is trying to hide in the landscape.

"S" is the stop key. The character stops or stops any previously assigned action.

"H" - hold position. When pressed, the character stands still and does nothing. Useful when you are in an ambush or there is no need to attack minions (for example, as a support).

Keys 1 to 6 - use inventory items. Some items can be activated, so it's best to use hotkeys. In the heat of battle, it saves a lot of time.

"Z" - shows chat history.

"B" - teleportation of the character to the base.

"M" - opens a large map.

"C" is the character's characteristic.

"Space" - move the camera to your character. As a rule, players use it constantly. For example, you can quickly see what is happening on the other line and quickly return to your character.

"P" - open a store. You cannot purchase items away from the base, but you can look at certain assemblies and prices.

"Y" - fixes the camera on your character. Useless option.

"G" or "Alt+left mouse button" - make a mark on the map (ping). Warns allies of your intentions or provides information. As a rule, it should be intuitive, for example, that the enemy has left the line.

"Alt+left mouse button on champion" - creates a mark on the enemy champion. Allows you to focus the attention of your allies on a specific target, which is useful during team battles.

"Alt+right mouse button" - allows you to control the summoned creature. You must first hold down the Alt key and start controlling.

"L" - turns on or off the display of minions' health. A useless option, since you always need to see them in order to finish them off on time and get gold.

"Ctrl+F" - turns on or off the display of FPS (frames per second).

"F1 - F5" - moves the camera to your character or an ally's character.

"F12" - when pressed, it takes a screenshot.

"Tab" - shows match statistics.

Chat commands

Enter - opens a chat that only allies will see.

Alt+Enter - a chat whose messages will be seen by everyone.

Basic commands:

/help - description and list of commands.

/W "player nickname" "message" - personal message.

/r - reply to the last personal message.

/buddylist - list of online friends.

/Mute "<ник игрока>" - adds the player to the black list (ignore).

Character emotions:

/joke /j or Ctrl+1 - your character starts joking.

/taunt /t or Ctrl+2 - tease. You can use a taunt, for example, to make the enemy nervous after a successful kill.

/dance /d or Ctrl+3 - the character starts dancing.

/laugh - character's laughter.

Basics from developer Riot Games.

Bookmarks

Riot Games employee Kevin Leroy gave an interview to the portal 80.lv in which he explained how he creates visual effects in the spirit of League of Legends in Unity.

Special effects

I'll talk about spells because that's my path. Take, for example, projectiles - one of the most complex types of effects. Most projectiles consist of three elements: the creation effect, the projectile itself, and the impact effect.

Let's look at a basic projectile:

As you can see, it is very simple, but conveys the most important information: direction. The main concentric circles move in the direction the projectile will be fired and enhance its readability, while the sparkles add style to the effect and also indicate its direction.

The projectile is the most important part of the effect. The player will either dodge it or suffer. It should look so that it is clear what kind of object it is: Nidalee’s spear, which will take away half of your health, or Eliza’s cocoon, which will not cause damage, but will stun. Things get more complicated when you add character images into the mix. The visuals have to be meaningful, but also convey the mood of the character, which is quite difficult considering how many characters and costumes there are in the game.

Here is a shell for Vel "Koz in the form of a Star Defender:

The main point (Hot Point) is the most important. This is the part of the projectile that you need to dodge. It must be visible, precisely defined and easy to read. It should not diverge from the hitbox, because then players will not be able to dodge it.

The next part is the trail. It is very important because it shows the direction. There are also secondary elements, they change depending on the image. For example, if this is an image of a Project, then there will be digital squares or sparks. Stars and shine meet in Star Guardians. Secondary elements remain on the screen a little longer than the trace.

Finally, what remains is the glow and shadow. A logical question: “Why do you need a shadow when you shoot a bright star?” The shadow is needed to enhance the glow. It appears brighter against a dark background.

The hit effect usually occurs when the projectile's hitbox collides with an enemy character.

I divided it into several parts. The first and most important is the moment of impact. It should be very short (about one tenth of a second) and attract the player's attention: the projectile has hit! Then the glow disappears and only the effects remain. In this case, the glare disappears at almost the same speed as the glow. After it, the sparks disappear, and only bokeh dots remain.

Creation process

I usually do everything in Unity as I mostly use particles and shader effects. I use Photoshop for textures and Maya for meshes. I create particles using Shuriken's built-in particle system.

As a rule, I start creating an effect with a simplified version of it. If it's a projectile, I create a new particle system, specify the basic shape they should come from, and the color. After that, all that remains is revision. I add and subtract parts of the effect depending on what I need: if I need a highlight, I create a particle system that displays one highlight. If I need a trail, I add it and load the texture. If none of the existing textures are suitable, I create a new one and, through trial and error, bring it to perfection.

I draw all the textures in Photoshop. I'm not a very good artist, so I rely on simple textures. Here are some examples:

Most of them are black and white because it makes it easier for me to control the color of the particle. If I suddenly want to change its color, I don't have to launch Photoshop again. I can do this directly in Unity using the Color over Lifetime value.

Animation

There are three ways to animate visual effects. Most often I do this through particle systems, setting changes in their values.

For example, the Start Speed ​​parameter gives momentum to the particle. If it is equal to 20, then the particle will move at a speed of 20 units per second. If you add Velocity over Lifetime, you can control the speed of the particle. Limit Velocity over Lifetime allows you to make the particle appear to be slowing down due to friction.

Color over Lifetime changes the color of the particle. Let's say if you add an alpha layer gradient that looks like 0 - 0.5 - 0, then the particle will first be invisible, then gradually appear, reach a transparency of 0.5 and eventually disappear.

Another way to animate is with animated shaders, like this one:

They allow you to create complex movements. This is useful for shock waves, beams and many other things. Often I use them in conjunction with particle systems via particle meshes. To do this, I create one mesh particle and animate it using the particle values. This is much easier than using a timeline and creating an additional animation file.

Finally, there is traditional mesh animation. It is sometimes used together with the previous method, which leads to interesting effects.

Reuse of materials and textures

When you just start your career, you have no experience, and you have to create everything from scratch. But over time, your library grows. A single shower of sparks can be used as a starting point for most of these effects. You just change the speed, color, and so on. The same with textures: when you have a dozen good noise textures, there is no need to create a new one. You can choose the most suitable one and adapt it a little.

This is useful if you always work with one engine. But if you have to switch, say, between Unreal Engine 4 and Unity, then everything becomes more complicated. Most materials for one engine cannot be used in another. But textures are possible.

Do you need to know how to program to work in this field?

Yes and no.

Visual effects artist is a very broad term. For me, this is the one who creates magic, literally and figuratively. There are artists like me who create stylized spells and effects, some who specialize in realistic environmental effects, some who create shaders, some who create particles, and so on. In some areas there is practically no need to program, in others it is the opposite.

I haven't written a single line of code in my entire career. We have all the necessary tools, and if the code is still needed, then programmers write it. In any case, it is important to at least understand how programs and games work. Your job may not look like programming, but it is very code dependent.

How to organize work correctly

I can only talk about Unity. The only plugin I use is ShaderForge - a shader generator. It allows me to create simple and complex shaders without having to write code. All you need is logic. There are a huge number of training videos on it on the Internet, I also recommend official tutorials.

If you're looking to start a career in VFX, there's only one thing I strongly recommend: references. This is the most important thing. If you want to create something, you can, of course, start from scratch. But you are unlikely to succeed unless you are incredibly talented. When you want to create an effect, explore it first. Play games, watch anime, movies, pictures, things like that. An example of any effect can be found in a couple of minutes. Take advantage of this.

Another important thing is to ask people's opinions about your work. When I first started, I had no idea that there were groups of people sharing their experiences with each other for free. For example, RTVFX. Go there, ask questions, ask for an assessment. It's a great community, always ready to help. You can also find many resources and references there. Feedback is progress, don't be afraid to ask people to rate your work.

Recently, the popular esports portal Dot Esports published a short but useful material for new summoners who want to improve their skills and generally improve their game. Let's see what Western journalists recommend to beginners.

Minimap tracking

As a rule, most beginners try to follow exclusively their character and the events around him. However, do not forget that the game is still a team game, and you should learn to follow the progress of the game using the mini-map. Professional players only need one glance at the map to understand the balance of forces, the enemy’s tactics, calculate further actions and take advantage of it. This skill, of course, comes with experience, understanding the basics and specifics of tactics, as well as the characteristics of the champions of your team and the enemy team. However, you won’t be able to develop the skill of predicting a game with the help of a mini-map if you don’t start doing it right now.

Free review

Like the previous point, the possibility of a free view is an important criterion for assessing what is happening during the skating rink. By default, in the game the camera is assigned to the character, which introduces a number of restrictions into your game. First of all, disable this function by pressing the “Y” key, so you can keep track of teammates and opponents who are in their field of view.

Pinging

Those. Mark important events on the map, alert about threats, and communicate your intentions. Let us remind you that the game is a team game, and if you notice an enemy ambush, you should warn your team about it by indicating the dangerous region on the map. The “G” and “V” keys are responsible for marking zones on the map, but you shouldn’t overdo it so as not to distract your comrades again.

Ignoring chat

For communication and coordinated play, the functions of marking or pinging the mini-map are enough, but text chat can be very ineffective, and sometimes even leads to disastrous consequences. Don't be distracted by typing text or commands - use the card's markings. Moreover, in the chat you will not always meet friendly players; you can get rid of annoying messages using the commands “/mute” or “/ignore” + player nickname. You can block chat in this way not only with allies, but also with opponents.

Using Quick Attack

Using your champion's abilities needs improvement. If previously, to activate the ability you had to use the “Q”, “W”, “E”, or “R” keys + the left mouse button on the enemy, which takes up precious time during the fight, then more advanced players should learn to use the quick attacks. Enable this feature in the game settings, and after activating the ability, it will immediately be applied in the area of ​​your cursor. This skill requires constant concentration on the cursor so that your ultimate does not fly away in an unknown direction, however, having mastered this technique, you will significantly improve your game performance in general.

Movement and Attack

Using a quick attack will free up the left mouse button to use it more effectively - moving and attacking. This will cause your champion to stop and attack nearby enemies.

Killing minions

The final blow to minions adds power to your champion. You should learn to monitor the health level of creeps and deliver the final blow at the right time. In the future, you will become so skilled that you will be able to manipulate entire waves of minions.

Ignore Baron Nashor and the Dragon

Beginners should not interfere with the bosses on the map, even if the entire enemy team is dead. In this case, it is better for beginners to focus on pushing and destroying towers, this way you will help your team more.

Using Totems

Use totems wisely, which will allow you to see what is happening on a hidden area of ​​the map while you are online. Particular attention should be paid to places at the entrance/exit of the forest and approaches to the river. Supports, on the other hand, prefer the Seeing Stone and the all-seeing magnifying glass, which allows you to find hidden mercenaries.

Have fun!

And most importantly! While playing, it is important to learn to have fun and enjoy the process. Learning is always difficult, but doing it in a game is a lot more fun! Good luck on the Fields of Justice!