Esports.gg had the opportunity to speak with Vegod about the amazing VALORANT skin concepts he has created.
After gaining a large following through his creations, you may already know him. If you aren't familiar, however, let Esports.gg introduce you to Varun "Vegod" Vegad. The 24-year-old from Dallas, Texas is a master of his craft. Vegod originally started making edits in the Fortnite scene, but eventually shifted to designing otherworldly VALORANT weapon skin concepts.
He holds many labels, such as content creator, creative director, animator, designer, and artist. You'll find him creating awesome content with Oni Studios or spending his time putting together his VALORANT skins and trailers to reveal them.
Working for Oni Studios and the SypherPK Icon Series glider
Vegod puts a lot of effort into his creations. When asked what he'd call his "day job," he said working with Oni Studios. That role led him to shaping the reveal of Ali "SypherPK" Hassan's Fortnite Icon Series glider.
First, he touched on the process of creating the trailer. "I worked on that video for about two to three weeks. The first two weeks, I was working on the whole environment — the 3D aspect of it," Vegod said. "Then the last week was just me animating everything, putting it all together, and rendering."
The group assigned to glider reveal was cutting it close after hours and hours of work. The finishing touches were the sound design from another member of Oni Studios and the trailer was ready for the masses.
His origins in Fortnite creation and competitive play
Aside from his work with Oni Studios, Vegod designs his VALORANT skins and freelances for other content creators and gaming organizations. Before that, however, he was an avid Fortnite competitor who had to make a choice regarding his future.
Vegod said to us, "I made a couple thousand in earnings and I would play like 12 hours a day. That was not cutting it. I made some money from tournaments. but it was not sustainable. So, I got into content creation. I started making TikToks and kind of blew up [on TikTok]."
"I have a huge passion for movies and cinematics. So, I would create my own Fortnite edits and make them super cinematic, using songs that are in movies and stuff," Vegod continued. "I'd get clips from pro players and make a montage out of it. And I'd put it on Twitter to see if they react to it."
Well, they did in fact react to it. NRG Clix and TSM Reet were the top names at the time, and the use of their clips in his montages gave him his first taste of his soon-to-be large following.
Vegod on the switch to creating VALORANT weapon skin concepts
Vegod explained to us that he felt Fortnite was getting stale. VALORANT was picking up steam with the FPS community and he felt there was no better time to switch sides, "I played the game and I learned a lot about it. I gained a lot of passion just playing VALORANT."
If he was going to immediately change his focus to VALORANT, he knew he had to make something big. He decided to create collaborations between popular media and the Riot Games title. It all started with a Stranger Things-themed video.
"I made a video that I spent a month on. It was almost a three minute video, a full montage of 3D cinema with Stranger Things [in VALORANT]. It blew up on Twitter and the four creators [used in the video] followed me back."
He then kept pairing the game with movies and other trends. That saw him create skins and trailers for VALORANT weapons styled around the likes of Spider-Man, Assassin's Creed, the World Cup, Dragon Ball Z, Pokemon, and many others.
Eventually, Vegod began designing alternative versions and sequels to in-game VALORANT skins. He created his own Ion Vandal before Riot revealed theirs. He's put together Oni 2.0 bundle and a large collection of pink skin variants.
He even has a group of voice actors to call upon for his trailers. The work put into these creations can't be explained with words. He targets a variety of different demographics with his VALORANT skins which saw him finish a single month with 17 million Twitter impressions.
A potential, and charitable, collaboration with Riot Games
His favorite Riot-made skins in VALORANT are the Prelude to Chaos and Reaver lines. He believes his best work is the Pokemon Chronovoid Vandal, including the Love Ball variation. Now, with a strong foothold in the VALORANT creation space, Vegod looks to what's next.
He's sure Riot Games knows of his existence, "I've had a few people from Riot follow me." One even reached out in a DM on Twitter and gave him the highly sought after Gun Buddy. That's how you know you've made it.
But Vegod's not done yet. No one from Riot has contacted him regarding a collaboration at this point, but we asked for his thoughts on the matter. Ultimately, that's the main goal now after seeing his designs gain the attention they have.
"It would honestly be amazing to do that. There have been a lot of people that vouch for me, but I don't seek anything like that," Vegod replied. "People in all chat will ask, 'Vegod?' And I'll say hi and they'll say Riot should hire me."
If a collaboration opportunity does appear for him, he wants to make it worthwhile and utilize his skills making pink weapon variants, "I want to do a charity stream for breast cancer. Create my own skins and make them pink with ribbons on them. I think that would be a cool way to increase my brand and do something good for the community."
"I have made tweets before, asking Riot to collab with me to create a sick breast cancer awareness skin bundle. All the proceeds would go to charity, but no reply back. I do have a lot of comments on that, though."
It is clear that Vegod is more than simply passionate about his VALORANT skin creations and his work with Oni Studios. He has good intentions with the following he has gained and plans to continue pumping out breathtaking concepts. It would be amazing to see him get the chance to create something that actually appears in VALORANT someday.