TheEmulator Profile Joined July 2010 12999 Posts Last Edited: 2013-09-07 00:34:24 #1 Thiago Vidotto: Dota 2 Animator/Character Artist





Thiago doing what he does best. Picture courtesy of Thiago's Website



Recently, TL writer Bruno "shostakovich" Tomaz had a chance to sit down for an interview with one of Dota 2's most popular Item Creator/animator's, Thiago Vidotto. Thiago is an Animator/Character Artist from São Paulo, Brazil. He holds a Architect and Urbanist degree at São Paulo University, and has trained as an Animator at the Animation Mentor's course. His portfolio in Dota 2 is quite large right now. He has done famous courier's such as the Wyrmeleon, Deathbringer, and has even done the animation for Lone Druid's Vicious Panda. In this interview we focus on who Thiago is, and what he has done for the Dota 2 community. We also touch lightly on the recent problems he has experienced in this whole TPL fiasco. These community content creators are one of the most important aspects to the development of Dota 2, and we feel it's necessary to shed light on the awesome work they are doing.





Thiago, thanks for being here with us. I usually start interviews with an easy (or hard question): Who is Thiago Vidotto?



Thiago Vidotto: It's a hard one =] I'm a Brazilian arcitect and animator that started doing some couriers for the Dota 2 workshop one year ago.



How did you discover that you wanted to become an architect and an animator?



Thiago Vidotto: I always liked to build things since I was young, I got that from my Father. So architecture was not a hard choice. I managed to enter a really good university and had to move to another city where I met my girlfriend, she entered the same university when I was in my third year. She was really into animation and was starting to change my mind.



Almost at the same time my father got cancer, which destroyed me. I lost all my strength thinking that he was going to die, and I was thinking about quitting University.



It's funny thinking now, when I was depressed at home I used to play Dota 1, a lot =]



My girlfriend helped me a lot during that time, she managed to help me get back to my studies, and I decided to learn animation. I started working in any kind of job just to get the money for classes, the last one was the animation mentor. It was really hard to pay in dollars, and it wasn't really health to be working, seeing an animation mentor, and going to University at the same time. It worked out though.



My father won that unfair sickness, he was always saying that he was going to win and I never truly believed. My girlfriend is now my wife, we got married one month ago =]



So, the transition to start using the Dota 2 Workshop is pretty natural since you used to play a lot of Dota. How did you get started on creating items in Dota 2?



Thiago Vidotto: My story with games started with quake, in 1997 I think. I used to try doing some videos (at that time you could code with pearl and change the camera position to make some short stories) and some maps with a program called Wordcraft, now it's called Hamme. I started using 3D professionally in the architecture scene, I learned by reading the help on 3dmax and by entering some contests in forums.



I always tried to learn but never could give too much time for that, when I graduated as an architect, graduated as an animator, and got fired from my job, I realized that was the time for something new.



I always looked to Team Fortress hats and pictured myself doing something like that, but never believed that could be possible.



I don't consider myself very talented, but I am determined! I was spending 16 hours a day doing one single courier, the prismatic drake (silly dragon was the first name). I started shifting my days to make them last 26 hours. I was really focused in doing my best on that.



I ran out of money and had to ask for some help with my father and friends. Wasn't a natural transition but i'm glad that I decided to do it that way =]



So, after one year of creating items for the Dota 2 workshop, what would you say about your overall experience as an item creator?



Thiago Vidotto: I learned a lot, not just about creating items but about the Dota 2 community. They are amazing, and I would not be able to continue without all those nice comments on the couriers and the support I got on reddit.



I learned a lot from other contributors too, we use to share our work in progress on the Polycount forum, where I got a huge amount of useful feedback.



Not counting your items, what's your favorite cosmetic item currently in Dota 2?



Thiago Vidotto: Baby Roshan for sure! It has the best animations in Dota 2, really. Did you see him dying?



Tell us about your experiences at TI3, this year Valve made sure that artists had space to show their creations to the public. How was being there, and what was the craziest thing you saw there?



Thiago Vidotto: TI3 was simply amazing, I wasn't expecting being invited by Valve to be there, and they made a huge effort to make us comfortable. They wanted us to show the workshop to the attendees, show some work in progress, talk with them and create a friendly environment there. We didn't have to worry with anything, just to show how to create items.



It was incredible to meet everyone that I knew just from the internet: the workshop guys, the casters, the players and the most strange of all, the fans! Every guy from the workshop was stunned by that, people knew us and wanted our signature, our picture! That was really, really, unexpected.



The entire event was amazing, thanks Valve! =]



People are always talking about money and eSports, and ways to make eSports more sustainable. Do you think teams are exploring the opportunities that the workshop offers?



Thiago Vidotto: Some of them are trying , the workshop is probably not rent-able to help a team, it's more useful for advertising the team and giving something back to the fans. A team has a lot of expenses to deal and people to pay.



Tell us a bit about your creative process. How does an item become a reality? How many hours do you need to create a good item?



Thiago Vidotto: The good thing of the workshop is that its like doing a personal project, you can do something that you like, and that makes the creativity process a lot more pleasing.



The same reason that is a good thing, it can also cause delays because you want it to be 100% before finishing it.



That is one of the reasons I am running a competition on polycount, each month we have a new theme and the end of the month is the deadline. Deadlines are really nice to people that keep reworking the same thing =] We are getting a good number of new contributors, which shows that is working to help them.



In my case, I like to spend a lot of time on the concept, I show it to some friends and keep updating until I like it. I normally spend almost 50% of the time just creating the concept.



For an item to be finished that depends a lot on the item, the complexy changes a lot from a bracer to a courier (for example). To make a courier I used to take 2 to 3 weeks, now that I am working just on Dota 2 I hope I can make it quicker =]



A lot of community sites are talking about how The Premier League tickets were removed from the Dota 2 store because they withheld money from the item creators. What happened? Have you ever had to deal with people that didn't pay you or wanted you to work for free?



Thiago Vidotto: About TPL, we had an agreement for a certain % of the ticket that went out with the Wyrmeleon courier. But he never added me to the ticket share and decided to pay by himself. I tried to argue with him with but had no success, he said that was illegal and other things...



I was worried of not receiving the money (because some time after doing the courier people started to warn me about Ange) and had to accept that I may not receive my money.



But I hadn't seen the confirmation about the sales numbers, he told me one number on the first week of the sales, and after 3 weeks the numbers were smaller for the entire month.



He payed me the value related to that smaller number, made me pay the taxes in France, and said that he will not pay me again even with the tickets still selling on the market.



About the strange proposals you asked about, it's normal to receive a proposal for a really small amount of money or for free, but it's mainly because people are not used with the time and the study that need to make an item for Dota 2.



And since the eSport is not profitable to everyone, that is a lot of guys that volunteer to work, which makes things complicated sometimes. How fair is it to pay someone's work if you are not paying everyone's? (makes sense?)



If you could choose a game to make an item for, even for games that don't allow it, which game would you pick?



Thiago Vidotto: I can just think on Orcs must die, I love the art style and animations =]



What can we expect from you in the future? Any new items coming?



Thiago Vidotto: A lot of them I hope! But I think the most interesting that I can tell is the panda true form for Lone Druid.



I will join my Spanish friend Cesar to continue the tools of the haruspex set. I want to do from it scratch like I did with the spirit bear, all custom animations and this time add taunt =]



Thiago, thank you for this interview. Do you have any last words or shoutouts?



Thiago Vidotto: Hey thank you guys!



Thanks for the guys on polycount, it's an amazing place to learn and get feedback. I would also like to thank everyone that is helping the guys on the workshop, you guys have no idea how the "Valve, plz add" helps us getting motivated =]



Thanks for everyone that is working hard to make Dota 2 an even better game, like you guys! And a huge thanks for Valve, for giving a unique opportunity to create something to the game we love.







You can follow Thiago on his Twitter, or check out his full portfolio on his website. We will hopefully be bringing you more interviews for the Dota 2 Community Spotlight Series, so we hope you enjoyed this, and are looking forward to more that will come. Recently, TL writer Bruno "shostakovich" Tomaz had a chance to sit down for an interview with one of Dota 2's most popular Item Creator/animator's, Thiago Vidotto. Thiago is an Animator/Character Artist from São Paulo, Brazil. He holds a Architect and Urbanist degree at São Paulo University, and has trained as an Animator at the Animation Mentor's course. His portfolio in Dota 2 is quite large right now. He has done famous courier's such as the Wyrmeleon, Deathbringer, and has even done the animation for Lone Druid's Vicious Panda. In this interview we focus on who Thiago is, and what he has done for the Dota 2 community. We also touch lightly on the recent problems he has experienced in this whole TPL fiasco. These community content creators are one of the most important aspects to the development of Dota 2, and we feel it's necessary to shed light on the awesome work they are doing.Thiago Vidotto: It's a hard one =] I'm a Brazilian arcitect and animator that started doing some couriers for the Dota 2 workshop one year ago.Thiago Vidotto: I always liked to build things since I was young, I got that from my Father. So architecture was not a hard choice. I managed to enter a really good university and had to move to another city where I met my girlfriend, she entered the same university when I was in my third year. She was really into animation and was starting to change my mind.Almost at the same time my father got cancer, which destroyed me. I lost all my strength thinking that he was going to die, and I was thinking about quitting University.It's funny thinking now, when I was depressed at home I used to play Dota 1, a lot =]My girlfriend helped me a lot during that time, she managed to help me get back to my studies, and I decided to learn animation. I started working in any kind of job just to get the money for classes, the last one was the animation mentor. It was really hard to pay in dollars, and it wasn't really health to be working, seeing an animation mentor, and going to University at the same time. It worked out though.My father won that unfair sickness, he was always saying that he was going to win and I never truly believed. My girlfriend is now my wife, we got married one month ago =]Thiago Vidotto: My story with games started with quake, in 1997 I think. I used to try doing some videos (at that time you could code with pearl and change the camera position to make some short stories) and some maps with a program called Wordcraft, now it's called Hamme. I started using 3D professionally in the architecture scene, I learned by reading the help on 3dmax and by entering some contests in forums.I always tried to learn but never could give too much time for that, when I graduated as an architect, graduated as an animator, and got fired from my job, I realized that was the time for something new.I always looked to Team Fortress hats and pictured myself doing something like that, but never believed that could be possible.I don't consider myself very talented, but I am determined! I was spending 16 hours a day doing one single courier, the prismatic drake (silly dragon was the first name). I started shifting my days to make them last 26 hours. I was really focused in doing my best on that.I ran out of money and had to ask for some help with my father and friends. Wasn't a natural transition but i'm glad that I decided to do it that way =]Thiago Vidotto: I learned a lot, not just about creating items but about the Dota 2 community. They are amazing, and I would not be able to continue without all those nice comments on the couriers and the support I got on reddit.I learned a lot from other contributors too, we use to share our work in progress on the Polycount forum, where I got a huge amount of useful feedback.Thiago Vidotto: Baby Roshan for sure! It has the best animations in Dota 2, really. Did you see him dying?Thiago Vidotto: TI3 was simply amazing, I wasn't expecting being invited by Valve to be there, and they made a huge effort to make us comfortable. They wanted us to show the workshop to the attendees, show some work in progress, talk with them and create a friendly environment there. We didn't have to worry with anything, just to show how to create items.It was incredible to meet everyone that I knew just from the internet: the workshop guys, the casters, the players and the most strange of all, the fans! Every guy from the workshop was stunned by that, people knew us and wanted our signature, our picture! That was really, really, unexpected.The entire event was amazing, thanks Valve! =]Thiago Vidotto: Some of them are trying , the workshop is probably not rent-able to help a team, it's more useful for advertising the team and giving something back to the fans. A team has a lot of expenses to deal and people to pay.Thiago Vidotto: The good thing of the workshop is that its like doing a personal project, you can do something that you like, and that makes the creativity process a lot more pleasing.The same reason that is a good thing, it can also cause delays because you want it to be 100% before finishing it.That is one of the reasons I am running a competition on polycount, each month we have a new theme and the end of the month is the deadline. Deadlines are really nice to people that keep reworking the same thing =] We are getting a good number of new contributors, which shows that is working to help them.In my case, I like to spend a lot of time on the concept, I show it to some friends and keep updating until I like it. I normally spend almost 50% of the time just creating the concept.For an item to be finished that depends a lot on the item, the complexy changes a lot from a bracer to a courier (for example). To make a courier I used to take 2 to 3 weeks, now that I am working just on Dota 2 I hope I can make it quicker =]Thiago Vidotto: About TPL, we had an agreement for a certain % of the ticket that went out with the Wyrmeleon courier. But he never added me to the ticket share and decided to pay by himself. I tried to argue with him with but had no success, he said that was illegal and other things...I was worried of not receiving the money (because some time after doing the courier people started to warn me about Ange) and had to accept that I may not receive my money.But I hadn't seen the confirmation about the sales numbers, he told me one number on the first week of the sales, and after 3 weeks the numbers were smaller for the entire month.He payed me the value related to that smaller number, made me pay the taxes in France, and said that he will not pay me again even with the tickets still selling on the market.About the strange proposals you asked about, it's normal to receive a proposal for a really small amount of money or for free, but it's mainly because people are not used with the time and the study that need to make an item for Dota 2.And since the eSport is not profitable to everyone, that is a lot of guys that volunteer to work, which makes things complicated sometimes. How fair is it to pay someone's work if you are not paying everyone's? (makes sense?)Thiago Vidotto: I can just think on Orcs must die, I love the art style and animations =]Thiago Vidotto: A lot of them I hope! But I think the most interesting that I can tell is the panda true form for Lone Druid.I will join my Spanish friend Cesar to continue the tools of the haruspex set. I want to do from it scratch like I did with the spirit bear, all custom animations and this time add taunt =]Thiago Vidotto: Hey thank you guys!Thanks for the guys on polycount, it's an amazing place to learn and get feedback. I would also like to thank everyone that is helping the guys on the workshop, you guys have no idea how the "Valve, plz add" helps us getting motivated =]Thanks for everyone that is working hard to make Dota 2 an even better game, like you guys! And a huge thanks for Valve, for giving a unique opportunity to create something to the game we love. Administrator