Red pandas and armor sets: Meet the artists who earn their living creating Dota 2 items

The Dragon’s Ascension

Donald Phan is best known for creating the Dragon’s Ascension set for the Dota 2 hero Dragon Knight, available in the Champion’s Chest — a mythical-rated treasure. But not many Dota 2 players link his Workshop name, Don Don, with his art — at least not yet.

“I found out during TI4 [this year’s International Dota 2 Championships] that more than a few people were surprised when they saw my lineup of cosmetics,” Phan told me via email, “which means my name isn’t easily connected to my work.”

Phan is a freelance character artist by trade, and he draws and paints by hand using traditional media as much as he can. He works on other projects alongside his Dota 2 creations, but he’s wanted to go full-time on the game for a while. Unfortunately, he told me, there’s “always been other stuff popping up preventing me from doing so.”

Phan first heard about Dota 2 modelling during a contest held two years ago at Polycount, a forum for video game artists. Valve selected the best of the contest entries for inclusion in the Dota 2 store.

While Phan was too busy to enter at the time, as soon his schedule cleared he started working on Dota 2 items. At the last count, he had 50 designs approved and in the game.

“I usually start with a very loose sketch,” Phan said, explaining his creative process. “I’m not too worried about details at this point and am mostly scribbling down interesting shapes for me to further explore in [digital sculpting tool] Zbrush, where I can push and pull the forms in 3D space. Oftentimes, I’ll get stuck in this 3D designing stage, so I paint over a screenshot of the model to clarify some ideas and more quickly explore possible variations. Once I’m satisfied with the design, I can then move on to creating the final model and texture and previewing it in-game.”

The Dota 2 Workshop offers an artistic freedom that is rarely found in game development, according to Phan. “I feel more personally invested in what I’m creating when I don’t have to answer to someone else’s art direction,” he told me.

Instant gratification

The joy of seeing his creations enter Dota 2 so soon after they’re finished is also integral to Phan’s ongoing relationship with the game. “It’s different from a typical freelance job,” he said, “where you can’t even show what you’ve worked on until you get clearance from the developer, which is usually some time after the game launches. The Dota Workshop offers a lot of immediate visibility, and, if I’m lucky, I can get a set into the game a few weeks after completion. Being able to see content go live so quickly is a very rewarding feeling.”

Besides providing general creation guidelines to the Workshop community, Valve just leaves Phan to do his own thing. “Valve is pretty hands off with the Workshop,” he said, “and will only reach out to Workshop artists if they feel it’s absolutely necessary.”

That hands-off approach means it’s quite tense waiting to see whether new items actually make it through the selection process, though. “It can be a bit nerve-wracking,” he said, “as you wait and cross your fingers after submitting an item to see if you’re lucky enough to get into the store.”

And this gets harder as time goes by, with more and more artists getting involved with the Workshop. “There’s a crazy amount of competition,” he said, “and it will only get tougher as the community continues to put out higher quality items with each passing month.”

For now, though, Phan continues to find success creating items for Dota 2 even if he doesn’t have much luck in the battle arena himself. “I’m so terrible at it that I’m responsible for the team losing more often than not.”