jchristo - Dota2 Animation Thread

jchristo

Hey everyone!

I just recently started playing Dota and the characters really caught my eye. I saw other people doing some impressive Dota animation stuff on the workshop and got inspired! Here's a taunt animation for the Witch Doctor I've been working on.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kA5PtDixlAw"]WitchDoctor Taunt 01 - YouTube[/ame]

Been staring at it for a while so feedback would definitely be welcome


I've been using the PKD auto rigging system by Pritish Dogra to get the characters ready to animate. Pretty good free tool for getting quick rigs out the door.

I have these two characters set up in case anyone else wants to grab them and give it a go. They work in Maya 2011 for sure. Hopefully they'll transfer to other versions.

Witch Doctor rig: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15267702/DOTA%202%20Rigs/WitchDoctor.zip
Tidehunter rig: https: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15267702/DOTA%202%20Rigs/TideHunter.zip

Thanks for taking a look guys!
- Jim

Plant

I think it would be better to for previewing to remove the camera moves - so we can see the actual taunt and its representation in game.

heboltz3

The opening pose with his left arm at a broken angle is really weird. It doesn't really come from anywhere, I'd expect the momentum from the torso to flow down the arm and cause some secondary rotation either forward or backward. It's held enough and noticeable enough that it bugs me, a little rotation towards the camera wouldn't hurt, besides that its nice and smooth.

If you are looking for "more" rigs, the homie AndrewHelenek has a bunch here you could check out.

Plant brings up a good point too, any type of ingame camera simulation will help us check out the readability, but from the front, it's looking sweet.

Oroboros

Looking cool so far, but I'd recommend showing the preview off from an isometric perspective.

hayes87

Really cool!
But I think it works better as a idle rare for loadout

danjohncox

great timing! but I agree that it's best to see this from the appropriate angle. Maybe a bit long for a taunt?

jchristo

Good feedback here. I'm working on getting some renders from angles that are more representative of the in game look.

heboltz3 - Helenek's rig thread is awesome. That dude's a machine. Thanks for the crit on the animation.

hayes87 - The more I look at it, I totally agree with you. Seems less like a taunt than I intended.

jchristo

Here's another taunt animation I've been working on for a bit now.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqUdbnA6HHw"]Dota 2 - Lycan Taunt playblast - YouTube[/ame]

quockhanhlk

wow love this lycan taunt, sooo intimidating

vertical

Great attention to the weight, love it

Vayne4800

Very nice taunt. Very smooth animation.

christermime

I think the Lycan one fits his personality a bit better than your witch doctor. Since witch doctor is pretty light hearted and goofy in his dialogue, it seems kind of weird for him to let our a primal kind of roar. That said, on both animations the timing, weight, and overlap are really really well done. Awesome work!

heboltz3

The Camera work sells it.

If these are for dota, i would be interested in seeing them from the game view.

jchristo

I 100% agree on the Witch Doctor animation. Totally doesn't fit his personality. I had gotten pretty far on it by the time I actually played the character, so it ended up just being more my take on how he'd move. I learned my lesson on that one

Anyway, here are some renders that give more of an idea of how they'd look in game. Thanks for the feedback everyone!

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_CNletOas0"]Dota 2 WitchDoctor - RoarTaunt - YouTube[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiMZwihhjew"]Dota 2 Lycan - Cheer Taunt - YouTube[/ame]