AHRI ASU - All Abilities | League of Legends

AHRI ASU - All Abilities | League of Legends

Ahri’s process had the added unique opportunity of taking place after the release of Ruined King: A League of Legends Story. However, this left us with a decision: Will base Ahri's new script be pre- or post-Ruined King? Talking with our concept art lead Thomas “Riot Hylia” Randby, we decided that post-Ruined King Ahri would be the most exciting for players. After seeing her grow so much over the course of the game, it felt like a loss to revert her back to who she was before: Someone running from the pain of her past rather than moving forward with her chin held high.

This updated version of Ahri was so much fun to write and it gave us the space to play in when it comes to what Ahri’s future holds for her. Now that she's finally let go of the burden of her past and the pain of her regrets, she can see the world and approach her future with excitement!

Concept
Thomas “Riot Hylia” Randby, Lead Concept Artist:

As new champions, events, and cinematic experiences are released, players are able to immerse themselves in the world of League of Legends in all sorts of new and exciting ways. Oftentimes though, the speed at which the narrative evolves and changes may leave certain characters feeling lacking. Caitlyn, for instance, felt like a relic of the early days of League where Piltover had a less unique identity and existed simply as a steampunk inspired whimsical city of technology.

In Ahri’s case, players have had several opportunities to see higher fidelity and more nuanced iterations of the character. She’s been in cinematics for League, Wild Rift, and Legends of Runeterra, and she was a key character in Ruined King with new designs and more unique character interactions. More than reinventing Ahri, we really wanted to bring her up to par with what players already experienced.
Ultimately we opted to blend elements from her appearance in A New Dawn, her Wild Rift turntable, and some small homages to her Ruined King appearance, making use of luxurious silken fabrics and long flowing hair but retaining certain elements to emphasize her more wild side as well as her innate Vastayan grace. Her hair is a bit wilder, paying homage to her more feral appearance in Ruined King as she struggles to control her power and the desire to sate her baser instincts. This more feral side reveals itself when she lets loose during Spirit Rush, and a dangerous glow appears in her eyes and her tails unfurl in all their glory!

Ahri also posed a unique challenge in the sheer number of skins in her catalog. In a similar vein as her base, many of these skins have featured in other experiences that allowed us to draw inspiration for their updated designs.

K/DA and K/DA All Out, for example, featured smaller, more intricate details in their cinematic appearances that we were able to use in her newly updated in-game visuals thanks to her fresh rig and proportions.

One of the most common responses we’d see when we’ve released new skins was the matter of her tails. In her previous iteration, Ahri’s tails didn’t originate from a single point and clipped pretty badly through her thighs and back, even as low as her shins! To resolve this issue, we opted to include multiple layers of fabric on each skin where Ahri’s tails connect to her body physically. One layer masks the origin point, and the other sits beneath the tails to communicate that their origin point is on her body.

Working with the team to bring Ahri’s visuals into the modern era of League was an absolute joy and privilege, and I can’t wait to see her running wild on the Rift!

Tech Art
Izzy Cheng, Senior Technical Artist:

On the rigging side I knew Ahri’s tails were very important for her in-game read and fantasy. Not only did they need to feel right, but we also wanted to make it easier for devs to work with them on future skins from a sustainability standpoint.



VFX
Riot Sirhaian, Senior VFX Artist:

Just like Caitlyn, working on Ahri’s ASU was made easier and required less work thanks to her VFX Update. Since ASUs don’t change gameplay, and most of our older VFX have now been updated across the game, there wasn’t as much VFX work required. Ahri mainly needed adjustments to some of her spell sizes to match the hitboxes and some cleaning up of older particles. She needed a bit of love and more details here and there to elevate her visuals, but nothing too big.