The online video game League of Legends attracts a staggering 27 million daily players.

We’re thrilled to continue providing our animation skills to the makers of the world’s most played online video game - League of Legends.

This sequence was created for the game’s load screen, to be seen by each of the 27 million people who play the game every day – so no pressure there!

For this one, we worked directly with the game’s makers, Riot Games, based in Los Angeles. Their dedicated staff have been busy reworking their colossus champion, Galio. This meant completely revamping the character’s look, abilities and play-style.

Telling a subtle story

Riot supplied the artwork for this clip – a large image file mapping out the whole scene. Jumbla Creative Director Callan Woolcock and Motion Designer Josh Le Good spent about a month separating all the components, making it move and adding effects. At the heart of this project, was telling a story without giving away too much.

For Josh, this project was a dream come true...

“Adding to the fact that videogames are my life, this is the single biggest job I’ve worked on. It’s also the most fun I’ve ever had at work and the job most relevant to my interests – encompassing things like fantasy and digital painting," said Josh. "I feel really fortunate that Riot chose Jumbla to introduce the world to Ivern… and that Jumbla chose me to help with this project.”

Double-edged sword

But, there’s a catch. Josh admits he’s never actually played League of Legends before, as he was loyal to another multiplayer online strategy game.

“The game I played is considered by many to be the ‘rival’ to League of Legends. I wanted so much to be able to tell all my gamer friends that I was working on this project, but in a way it was a double-edged sword. They’d be excited for me, but no doubt they would also laugh at the fact that I was 'courting the enemy' – so to speak!”

Just as well, for that entire month Josh couldn’t tell his friends – because everything to do with Ivern had to be kept strictly confidential until well after the champion launch.

“It was definitely hard going to work every day to chip away at my dream project, and having to keep my excitement within these walls,” he said. But, the excitement didn’t end when the project was completed.

“The day of the launch was exciting – every time I hit F5 to refresh the page, the views would jump up by hundreds of thousands at a time. It was incredible to think millions of people were seeing the work that we’d been doing.”

“Reading the comments was amazing too – everything was trying to guess what all the various components represented, and what that said about what this mysterious champion might be capable of.”

Switching allegiances? 

So – is Josh now a League of Legends player?

“I haven’t jumped into it yet, but I think – given the circumstances – it’s time I reconsidered. I’ve come to realise how incredible Riot Games is as a company. In our video calls to them, you could absolutely sense their passion in every word they spoke,” he said.

“They were so meticulous, in a good way. You realise that every tiny facet of animation is there for a reason – it’s been thought about, it’s not there by accident. If this level of care and attention is applied to every champion, every ability, every element of the game – then the game must be absolutely incredible.”

We asked Josh what his friends thought, now that he’s spilled the beans about having done a League of Legends job.

“Many of them feel like I’ve betrayed them and aren’t talking to me for now, but that’s OK – I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to convince them to join me on the other side soon enough.”