Red Post Collection: Discussion on Nasus & Various Other VU ideas, Next Diana skin tease, and more!

Posted on at 2:12 AM by Moobeat
This late night red post collection features IronStylus squawkin' about all sorts of topics, ranging from the Nasus VU and the next Diana skin to ideas on what a Morgana, Gragas, or Shaco VU might bring to the table. You'll also find a reminder that the Xerath rework was not cancelled and an update to the Sejuani portrait IronStylus shared the other day!
Continue reading for more information!

Nasus VU Dance and VO

Popping into a conversation on the new Nasus VU dance, IronStylus commenented on the simplicity of the dance.
"I don't think you're wrong at all in terms of judging the simplicity or understanding the process. If I remember correctly, this might simply have been an artistic licence choice. I don't track animation, and often the teams themselves sort of decide what dance they want to go with, but I think they just ran with the idea of the silly Vaudeville dance. I don't know if there was any particular reason aside from it being hilarious when we saw it blocked out. Some champions have a lot of thought put into emotes and dances, others sort of just.. happen. Usually it's up to the individual animator and their surrounding discipline unless there's some amazing idea floated by someone else. I guess it depends. This isn't really a case of resource allocation, I think it was more like.. "Hey, this is hilarious.""

When asked if there was a chance to get a "classic Nasus" or something to provide players with a way to keep the old Nasus voiceover, IronStylus commented:
"Nasus is essentially feature complete at this point. I'm sorry, but I don't see any real chance of a traditional skin. We've had generally very positive feedback about the VO. Again, it's sad that his original VA passed away, but we felt this was a quality VO replacement."

When asked if there was some way to incorporate an alternative voice pack and if Nasus could retain his sand and dust swirlies on his ultimate, he replied:
"Voice packs are a feature thing and way beyond my scope of knowledge I'm afraid.

About the particles, from what I understand, sand effects cause a lot of visual noise, and there was a lot going on already with Nasus' effects. That'd be technically a RiotDudeBro question. He'd be more fit to answer that."

Morgana VU

As for Morgana getting a visual upgrade, IronStylus commented that RiotZeronis has been hard a work exploring concepts for her.
"I can't remember where she is on the list, but RiotZeronis has been making some really awesome concepts for her. They're just early exploration as she's nowhere near to being slotted, but yeah.. her everything could do with some leveling up."
He continued,
"We only have about 4 champions in the immediate pipeline currently planned and slotted. 2014 will be decided sometime soon I'm sure but is always subject to change. I'd say there's a chance but I can guarantee anything. I'd like to see her further up than further down on the priority list honestly."
He also commented that RiotZeronis has:
"He also has some neat champion ideas.."

Status on a New Diana Skin

When asked for a status update on the next Diana skin, IronStylus commented:
"Concept was finished a while ago and it's off to 3D. I have no idea about release date or anything like that unfortunately :/"
When asked for a small hint on what the skin might be, he noted:
"More elegant than her base or launch skin."

Gragas VU Ideas

When asked if Gragas is on the list for a visual upgrade, Ironstylus replied:
"No idea about his dance, if it's something insanely unique, chances are we'd replicate it. Gragas is interesting. He's not in the worst shape, but seeing him all over the place in Season 3 really made a lot of art dudes cringe. We would love to give him some much-needed attention. I think he's in relatively good shape animation-wise, but his model could use some polish. Something I'm more curious about though:

Should he remain "fat"? In that.. should he be blubbery? Should he be sort of E. Honda fat? Maybe giant gut but have some muscle to him? I'm genuinely curious as it's a question that's been asked as we consider what to eventually do with him."
He continued:
"I know he should remain fat. I'm wondering what kind of fat. There are a few varieties which I've listed."

When asked if Gragas really needs a total VU or if he could just benefit from a texture update like Rammus got in patch 3.13, IronStylus commented:
"Usually it's easier to just remake the whole thing. Gragas sort of "slides" in his walk cycle. Animators usually like to fix that stuff. Plus if we did do a VU we could make a new rig and we could LITERALLY put controls in his belly to do all sorts of fun stuff!"

Shaco on the VU list?

When asked if there are any plans or ideas for a Shaco visual upgrade, IronStylus commented:
"I think bright colors would probably stay, but minus the over-simplicity and general visual noise. He's such a low poly model that there's a lot of room to add some nuance or flavor to him. 
He's potentially high-ish on the list as Design, Creative, and Art agree that he's a good opportunity. No idea when we'd work on him, there's nothing officially slated. Some ideas I have heard floating around was actually hinting that there's something behind his mask. No idea what that'd be. Demon, deformed monster, another mask, something other than his current straight up clown face. We can probably find something unique that he has in him already and dial it up a bit.

We're certainly open to ideas."

Status of Xerath Rework

When asked if the Xerath's rework had been cancelled after being pulled off the PBE, Meddler reminded:
"The rework's still coming and should be back on the PBE in a while. We're testing out something new with Xerath where we put a much earlier version of a rework onto the PBE, compared to others that get put there just before their final release."

Updated Sejuani Portrait

IronStylus also shared an updated and high-rez version of the Sejuani portrait he shared a few days ago.
"This is still really work-in-progress though. "

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