SUMMON THE PAST: VALORANT'S PIEDRA DEL SOL 

⽂明复苏：太阳之⽯

跟随Raquel和Sammi，步入阿兹特克神话，抓住灵感！原文于2022年10月3在发布于官方

Hey there! My name is Raquel Garcia and I am a weapons artist on the VALORANT Premium Content team here at Riot. I was given the opportunity to work on the Piedra del Sol skinline and I’m excited to talk about my process during this artistic journey. Sammi Pedregon, Art Outsource Supervisor on VALORANT, will also join me! 

嘿⼤家好！我是Raquel Garcia，⽆畏契约⾼级通⾏证⽪肤设计师。今天有幸参加太阳之⽯通⾏证⽪肤创作内容，很⾼兴分享在创作之旅的过程。⽽我 的搭档，艺术包装总监Sammi Pedregon也会与玩家们⼀同分享。 

This post will focus on how the team translated aspects of the ancient art from the Aztec civilization onto our weapons. If you want a complete look at how skinlines are made from pitch to launch, check out our latest behind the scenes look at the Champions Collection. 

本⽂聚焦于我们团队如何把阿兹特克神话各个⽅⾯移植到⽪肤上。想要了解如何完整地设计⽪肤，请查看这篇⽂章【冠军⽪】

BRINGING THE PAST TO NEW AGE GAMING 

复古浪潮

One thing that I enjoyed about working on this skinline was being able to dip my toes into some history and learn a lot more about the Aztec culture. I was assigned to create the Ghost weapon influenced by the Aztec god Xolotl. He was commonly depicted as a human skeleton with the head of a canine who guided the dead through the Aztec underworld known as Mictlan. I wanted to grasp an artistic feel for this gun that would represent him well and would also fit into today's modern gaming world. 

我享受⽪肤设计的⼀件事是能够沉浸在历史中，从阿兹特克神话中学到很多。我分配到创作受修罗特尔神影响的⻤魅⽪肤这个任务。通常把他刻画成⼀ 具能在阿兹特克地狱(⽶克特兰)为名的地下城引领亡灵的⽝头头⻣。我想抓住这种灵感，能很好地呈现修罗特尔以及贴合当今的游戏世界的⻤魅⼿枪

After reviewing the initial concept, I felt that the face had more of a feline direction. I wanted this to appear more dog-like as the deity is described. After rounding the cheeks, squaring off the nose and introducing rounder ears, I was able to bring this design into a mutual representation of the original concept and Xolotl canine attributes with the intent of allowing players to question what type of animal this could be. 

审核初稿后，我发现其⾯貌更像猫脸，我想让他呈现出更像⽝头的外貌，如同描述神⼀样。调整完脸颊后，移除了⿐⼦并添加了更圆的⽿朵，我能把这种设计带⼊到初稿和修罗特尔⽝类样貌的相同代表。旨在让玩家们对这类动物会是什么提出质疑

Thus completing the weapon design to fully immerse Xolotl for players to enjoy all over the world! Next, Sammi Pedregon will discuss the rest of the weapons in the skinline. 

因此完成⻤魅⽪肤设计让玩家全⽅⾯沉浸在修罗特尔以此享受这把⽪肤。接下来，交给搭档，分享余下的内容吧 

Hey there! I’m Sammi Pedregon, Art Outsource Supervisor on VALORANT, here to talk about the rest of the weapons for the Piedra del Sol skinline. I worked closely with Raquel, who brought the Ghost to life, to ensure that the rest of the weapons received the same attention in keeping with historical authenticity. 

⼤家好，我是艺术包装总监Sammi Pedregon，由我来与玩家们分享余下内容。我和Raquel密切⼯作，他把⻤魅带进游戏⾥，以此确保剩余通⾏证⽪肤 能按照历史真实性得到⼀致关注 

As Raquel mentioned with the Ghost, each gun corresponds to an Aztec god. The Phantom represents Quetzalcoatl (Creation), Bucky is Huitzilopochtli (Sun and War), and the Judge is Tezcatlipoca (Night Sky). We worked closely with our Latin American office to decide on the faces for each gun and to find unique color palettes that best represent each weapon’s deity. 正如上⽂Raquel提到的⻤魅，每把枪⽪对应各⾃神话。幻影代表⽻蛇神，雄⿅代表左蜂⻦，⽽判官是烟雾镜。我们与拉丁美洲⼯作室密切合作，决定每把枪的样貌，找出最适合每把枪身上的神的独特配⾊ 

The Melee was based on the Aztec sun stone and a Macuahuitl, a historical Aztec wooden club with obsidian stones embedded as blades. 

近战武器是基于阿兹特克太阳之⽯以及双刃⼑（⻢克胡特），这是⼀把嵌有⿊曜⽯作为⼑刃的悠久⽊质⼑柄 

The toughest part about bringing Piedra del Sol to modern life was transforming the concept into a 3D model and making the weapon look its best. In our first batches of the weapons, the faces, in particular, would look really lopsided, small, or uneven compared to the rest of the details of the weapon. It was essential that we re-worked and adjusted different sections of each weapon so it would match the same beautiful and intricate stone work seen in Aztec culture. 

把太阳之⽯带进游戏最艰难的部分是将概念图转换成⽴体模型，让⽪肤欣赏最佳。在我们最初的稿⼦，尤其是⾯部，看起来不均匀，⽐起其他武器要不 均匀。我们必须重做⽪肤，调整每把枪的不同部分，因此能配得上相同美貌，以及在神话中看到的错综复杂的⽯头 

Here are some early screenshots of how our first batch of weapons looked: 

以下是我们最初⽪肤外貌的早期截图 

Here is a first glance of our first batch of the Melee where we had a longer bottom base to hold the bottom two obsidian blades. We felt that the bottom base didn’t make the Melee feel “aggressive” enough, and that only the top section felt “deadly.” We did a lot of re-work to have the Melee feel practical in appearance and useful in utility as a melee weapon. 

这是我们早期近战武器的最初截图，我们设计更⻓的⼑枕以固定底下的俩个⿊曜⽯刃。我们感觉底下的⼑枕并没有让近战武器显得格外“凶悍”。我们重做了很多次，让近战有着贴切的外貌以及实⽤ 

We went through many iterations of these ancient weapons in order for them to look their best in our modern game. I’m very thankful to our partnered vendor for executing these weapons beautifully, and for Raquel for giving the Ghost the same attention to detail to match the Piedra del Sol skinline beautifully. 

我们在这些⽪肤上经历了反反复复地重做，旨在让它们在现代有着更合适的外观。我很感谢我们的合作伙伴出⾊地完成了这次⽪肤设计，也感谢Raquel 对⻤魅的注意，圆满完成这次⽪肤设计