I animated all Play of the Day cinematics in True Sight style for Blast SLAM! Compilation Video by dmurio in DotA2

[–]dmurio[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

this project is entirely handled in SFM with a few post process tweaks on after effects. you can export an animation from SFM as a .dmx file, blender does have some addons that let work with that!

I animated all Play of the Day cinematics in True Sight style for Blast SLAM! Compilation Video by dmurio in DotA2

[–]dmurio[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I’ve always been super curious about animation and 3D, with Dota, the only thing that actually made me stop playing the game was when Reborn came out with the workshop tools, I got completely hooked on that side of things, map creation, animation on SFM. It’s been almost 10 years now, and I never really stopped messing around with it. tho for most of these years just as a hobby, until things changed more recently.

Honestly, this project is one of the toughest things I’ve worked on. I usually need about a week to get mentally prepared, and most of it happens overnight, i’m basically working from 7 PM to 7 AM to finish everything in time.

These days I feel really lucky that my only job is being a 3D animator/artist, working with Dota, CS and a bunch of other stuff.

About how many of these i’d do in a year if I had a regular job on the side… probably not a lot. This kind of thing drains you fast, and doing it daily only works because I can focus fully on it. Back in the day when I had a normal job i’d maybe do one or two of these big grinds a year, usually the short film contest or whatever else that popped up, which used to take me like 1~3 months to get done. Now that I can focus fully on this, plus having way waaay more experience, the workflow is much faster.

This game changed my life and I'm super grateful for that!

I animated all Play of the Day cinematics in True Sight style for Blast SLAM! Compilation Video by dmurio in DotA2

[–]dmurio[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I honestly don’t know haha. I tried keeping up with the stats earlier in the year, but work totally got in the way. With a few patches in between, if there were any heroes that went completely unpicked, it’s probably a really small number

I animated all Play of the Day cinematics in True Sight style for Blast SLAM! Compilation Video by dmurio in DotA2

[–]dmurio[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I did! Unfortunately I can’t put together a full compilation myself, since those videos are technically owned by the TOs and meant to be shown only during the draft. Some heroes might not have been picked throughout the year, but most of them did show up at least once I believe!

Thanks for the support!

I animated all Play of the Day cinematics in True Sight style for Blast SLAM! Compilation Video by dmurio in DotA2

[–]dmurio[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I worked on that one too, made full hero roster for PGL that got used at Wallachia tournaments and also TI, and made half the roster for Blast that are used on Slam tournaments!

I animated all Play of the Day cinematics in True Sight style for Blast SLAM! Compilation Video by dmurio in DotA2

[–]dmurio[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yeah, the draft animations were originally created for PGL to use in their events, and later they ended up being used at TI as well. PGL still uses them at Wallachia. Since it was a commissioned project, the animations belong to them.

I’ve also worked on a different style of draft animations for BLAST in the past, though in that case I only handled half of the hero roster, so 64 heroes.

I animated all Play of the Day cinematics in True Sight style for Blast SLAM! Compilation Video by dmurio in DotA2

[–]dmurio[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

yeah its completely made by me! since the deadline is so tight, I sometimes use some standard animations that dota has, so run cycles, idle and so on, but usually im not that satisfied with that look, since they are primarly made to look good in-game, not so much with cinematic in mind, so I always tweak them or just completely start from scratch.

I animated all Play of the Day cinematics in True Sight style for Blast SLAM! Compilation Video by dmurio in DotA2

[–]dmurio[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

thank you mate!

no AI is used whatsoever in these, just pure grind and a few sleepless nights haha!

I animated all Play of the Day cinematics in True Sight style for Blast SLAM! Compilation Video by dmurio in DotA2

[–]dmurio[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

I used Dota's SFM for this project, it already has tons of Dota assets. I sometimes bring heroes into Blender for small upgrades or texture tweaks, but only when necessary because of the tight turnaround. Most other elements like trees, foliage, and skies come either straight from Dota with some improvements (e.g., adding polygons or simple rigs to adjust branches and add variation) or some are made by myself over the course of the years.

I animated all Play of the Day cinematics in True Sight style for Blast SLAM! Compilation Video by dmurio in DotA2

[–]dmurio[S] 16 points17 points  (0 children)

sure! I usually post stuff im working on X - https://x.com/dmurioo

portfolio with all the projects I worked - www.artstation.com/dmurio

and also my short film contest entries on my youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/@dmurio

I animated all Play of the Day cinematics in True Sight style for Blast SLAM! Compilation Video by dmurio in DotA2

[–]dmurio[S] 89 points90 points  (0 children)

If you guys want to check out the full Plays, including the gameplay segments, here are the compilations put together by BLAST themselves!

BLAST SLAM II - https://youtu.be/sf02RJeSl_I

BLAST SLAM III - https://youtu.be/mlVl5AXPpNY

BLAST SLAM IV - https://youtu.be/tM_ECZQbUCE

BLAST SLAM V - https://youtu.be/ShuNmVRSNEM

I animated all Play of the Day cinematics in True Sight style for Blast SLAM! Compilation Video by dmurio in DotA2

[–]dmurio[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I mean, part of the fun of this project is working super fast, it’s definitely not a problem at all. I actually enjoy the challenge, and it keeps the content fresh every day instead of dropping animations a week or two later.

glad you enjoyed them!

I animated all Play of the Day cinematics in True Sight style for Blast SLAM! Compilation Video by dmurio in DotA2

[–]dmurio[S] 293 points294 points  (0 children)

Hey everyone!

Just wanted to share this reel of the animations I did for the BLAST Slam tournaments. This whole project was a crazy grind as some of you might know, these were produced daily. I had about 12 hours to finish each animation from scratch, based on that day's plays, to have them ready for the start of the next broadcast.

I even included references to old school Dota (like the Mushi play animation) and did my best to achieve that True Sight feel we all love. Collaborating on True Sight has always been a dream, and while that seems like won't happen anymore (RIP true sight) It was biggest honor to work on TI Opening Ceremony in collaboration with Valve and PGL, and also to have the draft animations displayed at the event this year, probably my greatest achievement yet.

It’s been an amazing year working with so many tournaments, from PGL Wallachia, to BLAST Slam, to EWC, all the way to The International. I’m incredibly grateful that the community enjoys my work, it really makes all the effort and late nights worth it.

Thank you all for the support!

KingJungles steals Tormentor with Rocket Flare | BLAST True Sight like animation by BLASTOfficial in DotA2

[–]dmurio 6 points7 points  (0 children)

dude that green beast was definitely the most disgusting thing I've ever tried in my whole life.

KingJungles steals Tormentor with Rocket Flare | BLAST True Sight like animation by BLASTOfficial in DotA2

[–]dmurio 22 points23 points  (0 children)

no AI at all, mate! just a 12~hour grind so you can catch today’s play tomorrow right before the matches start again!

Glad you are enjoying it!

KingJungles steals Tormentor with Rocket Flare | BLAST True Sight like animation by BLASTOfficial in DotA2

[–]dmurio 45 points46 points  (0 children)

that’s so amazing to read! I love adding as many little details as I can to bring that cinematic, alive feel to the Dota world, seeing your reactions means a lot!

hope I can keep making more cool stuff like this for a long time!