While we don't have anything tangible on Sivir's future visual upgrade yet, we do have several brand new red posts discussing why she needs an update so badly and what direction, both ideologically and visually, that update is taking.
IronStylus got the discussion rolling by posting what he could about Sivir's upcoming visual update and sharing his thoughts on why she needs an updated identity.
"So, again, can't disclose much, she's not releasing any time soon. But, we have a solid direction, and it allows us to take her current look and update it significantly. It means changing it in a direction that makes it right contextually with her background while trying to maintain, what, if anything, people find in her current look that resonates. I would submit that not much really resonates in her current state. Yellow, black, copy-paste-front-back tabard, yikes.
That said, there's some iconicism that we have to maintain. She doesn't need to be decked out in anything too heavy, she needs to be light and swift, she's the warrior-princess archetype, she should have some badlands/wasteland/desert/nomadic feel. Maybe a little female Laurence of Arabia jazz. For lack of a better term, Battle Jasmine.
The goals are for her to feel like an actual character, not a one-off, not something obtuse and obscure, but something that hits on familiar tropes but still feels uniquely "Sivir". It's hard to nail that, but I think we have a solid solution. She needs to feel connected to the world, and have a look/feel that plants her in that world, and the aesthetics to fit into her faction/region/super-friendship. Artistically with costume, leathers, cloths, a little bit of metal armor here and there, about as much as she has currently, but better defined with nicer material separation and texture work.
Right now Sivir violates a ton of stylistic rules we're implementing. Her silhouette is unique right now but for all the wrong reasons most likely. Pizza feet. noodle arms, rigid static swoop hair, etc. We're want to keep large reads, flowing hair, top/middle/bottom blocks of form and color, boots (not huge though), gauntlets, weapon, etc.
She's extremely loud and noisy, a lot of flickering in her texture. She has a lot of detail that reduces to noise. We want to eliminate that. That will come from decreasing contrast. No blacks to yellows to whites. Those transitions are too intense and don't allow the detail to breakdown into graphic shapes when zoomed out. There's no material separation currently, and we'd like her costume to feel appropriately weathered or used, not just cards of flat color pasted onto her.
She absolutely needs actual.. anatomy.. removing the spaghetti arms, and probably giving her the more "Heroic Female" build ala Wonder Woman (Note: gotta keep the midriff!) I don't think she needs as much boobs as she needs kick-ass abs. The boob area is ripe for some interesting costuming and storytelling components, rather than the bikini top it is now. It's wasted real estate I feel, we could be giving her something more interesting/fitting/pretty/stylish there. Gotta keep the sexy, but have to crank it in one direction.
Right now she's a bit of everything and a lot of nothing. It's hard to make sense of that, but we're taking what we can graphically break down as identifiable Sivir iconography and transplant it to a new body and costume. We have to imbue that overall look with what's appropriate for her origins and story line. The artistic really has to gel with the creative here. That's what I feel yields the most powerful result!
Oh, also, that weapon has to mean something ;)"
He continued, mentioning his preferred age for Sivir:
"...Sivir shouldn't be terribly young. Honestly, my brain puts her somewhere in her late 30's, but still.. ya know.. really hot.."
He also mentioned his idea for her body type:
"This is our feeling as well. RiotTeaTime has helped me a lot in ideation and execution. She certainly knows the ladies. One thing we very much agreed on is that this isn't the voluptuous body type of Miss Fortune, and it's not the svelte athletic body type of Akali. This is tall, a bit amazonian perhaps, and more muscular. Our "heroic female" body types probably encompass such champions as Leona, Sejunai and Sivir. Women who don't have as large of a bust size, rather they have a more powerful frame. Usually still a fair amount of curves, but nothing as intense as to boarder on overly seductive. Wonder Woman, Xena, all of those tropes apply."
When asked what we can expect for Sivir, Ironstylus delivered a succinct:
"Abs. A non-Anglo face. Material definitions such as regionally appropriate cloths and leathers. The blade to have some sort of significance. Some asymmetry. A mature and commanding character that has a lot of confidence without being hokey."
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