Our character reveal for League of Legends: Kayn

With over 100 million monthly active players - roughly four times the population of Australia - League of Legends is one of the biggest video games in the world.

So, whenever a new character is unveiled by developer and publisher Riot Games, it needs to be greeted with great fanfare.

Jumbla’s expertise was called upon to help with the hype via the creation of a reveal video for social media, and two separate login screen animations.

A scary, suspenseful mood

Riot Games wanted Kayn’s reveal to be dark, scary, and full of suspense. It shows Kayn holding a deadly-looking scythe, which (as it turns out) is sentient and can transmit energy through his veins. Cool.

Quick transitions to and from darkness build the tension, while blue and red ‘vision magic’ helps to convey Kayn’s dual thought process.

The final scene shows Kayn’s face softly lit by the living scythe, which causes the surrounding air to circulate around him. Two silhouettes hang over Kayn to illustrate the contrasting connotations of this powerful yet perilous weapon.

Burning the midnight oil

“We continually iterated on the animation by sending Riot Games nightly renders, which they would provide feedback on every morning,” said Jumbla Motion Designer Josh Le Good, who collaborated on the project with fellow creatives Callan Woolcock and Jeric Ilagan.

“The effects are top notch,” said Josh. “The animation is also wonderfully detailed in all its subtleties - you can watch it over and over and over and still see new details.”

Within just two weeks of going live, the Kayn teaser had racked up 1.1 million views on Facebook and over 800,000 views on YouTube.