League of Legends has amassed a following of die hard fans and players worldwide since its creation in 2009. With every update, Riot has been adding to the foundational lore of the many different factions within the game. From wizards wielding spell books, to little girls with deadly teddy bears, to pirates wielding massive steampunk-infused weapons – the League of Legends world has deep pockets.

For all the champions they’ve crafted over the years and the history Riot has written behind them, League of Legends has never had a de facto overworld map, until now. We were honored to partner with the internal team at Riot to craft a trailer teasing the release of Runeterra’s interactive map. Our assignment:

Craft a clear narrative journey connecting each of the 7 locations together through their associated wealth of lore.

Through treatment, redrawing parts of the illustration to align with a sepia-toned execution, we merged assets from Riot’s archives into a journey through the topography. That journey was informed by the initial narrative development we worked through. How we linked each region was important, since there are factions warring with other factions within the lore of League, and we had to acknowledge how each region related to each other. Shurima is League’s equivalent to Egypt – where most ancient civilization began – and so, that is where we start our journey.

Runeterra is driven by various forms of magic, with some nations partaking, and some nations condemning. Our initial vision was to “burn” the map into existence through bright leaded edges of magical energy tied to specific regions that used it. Ultimately, it became too distracting to the map itself, and the idea was tempered to focus on what was important.

Knowing that social media was going to play a role in the teaser’s release, we took further steps to accommodate for different sizes of the final teaser. We built the animation in an adaptable way so we could reframe easily, crafting custom spots per platform without deviating from the core creative.