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Dota 27 years agoDintzibelle

Top weekly Workshop submissions : Oleg Shekhovtsov and his mechanical mount into the spotlight


For this week we have two crazy concepts for both Lina and Disruptor sets.

This week only four sets and a courier were submitted in the Dota 2 Workshop. I really hope that the artists are trying to design some special sets for the Halloween because Valve didn`t do an event like they used to.

Into the spotlight for today we have Oleg 'leshiy' Shekhovtsov, a kind, funny Russian guy that doesn`t ruin your game, I promise!

Hello leshiy! Before you go to finish another quest, tell us something about yourself. When and how did you start designing items for Dota 2 Workshop? Do you have another job besides this one?

Hello! My name is Oleg ‘leshiy’ Shekhovtsov and I'm from a small city in Russia. I`m a System engineer but I don`t work in this area. I`m a Freelancer CG artist and I loved DotA a lot ! Dota 2 is the only game I play. It`s ten years since I started to kill creeps. Every day I want to make it better and that`s why I started with the Workshop.

It all began with a competition on the Polycount forum in 2012 where I made a set for Sniper, HareHunt. It was dedicated to the legendary sniper 62nd Army Stalingrad front - Vasily Zaitsev. After the contest, Valve asked me to change some things about it and then, it was accepted into the game. That set was created only by me. It's important because all my next projects for Dota 2 were made in collaboration with many awesome artists.

At that time I worked for the company and things were rough. I couldn`t continue to work for Workshop. As a result, a year later, I left the company and began to take remote work as a freelancer and I got back at the Workshop. I was very surprised how everything has changed over the year (for the better) and continue to change. This makes me happy.

Now, 99% of the time and effort is given to the Workshop and personal projects. But sometimes I take some remote tasks for different companies if I like their ideas.

What do you like and what do you dislike about your work?

I like the freedom that we have but sometimes it rises to fear, laziness, and lack of confidence. But it teaches you to make risky decisions and to be self-driven.

What are your thoughts about the feedbacks you receive? Does it affect you?

The help I receive from other professional artists is very useful, but nothing can help you if you don't know what you want to do. I mean that you should strongly believe in your direction when you start a project. And if talk about players feedback it always sounds like a noise of crowd that doesn't know what they want.

Which set was your most popular which set did you like the most?

I dislike all of them (haha), but I have a warm feeling to a set that I made for Meepo : "The Family Values" that was made with RocketAlex.



Another set that I like is "Seed of Rebirth" for the Treant Protector with the help of Jeremy Klein. It was a very interesting project. Maybe it has a strange design or technical compromises, but to create this set, I wrote a story and I was going to make a comic about it, but we decided that it is unnecessary and it would require too much time and effort.

Now, about the Disruptor set, The System adapts!. That`s a new, awesome idea! A unique mount, really cool! From where did you take inspiration for it? What were you thinking when you designed it?

Oh. It was very long project - first sketches ware made over a year ago. It was a simple idea to create mechanical mounts for different heroes and bring them to the collection.

For this project, I chose three heroes with different conceptions: CK as the steam locomotive that runs on coal, a mechanical (like a retro music box) KotL and an electric retro-futuristic Disruptor. I knew that this are very risky ideas (especially for the KotL because it has some technical features) but I put my faith in Valve`s decisions.


The mechanical mount for KotL

Later, my old friend Barty told me that he wants to try to make the project for the Dota 2. Previously he has not worked with it but had a good experience with hard surfaces modeling and I thought it was a good chance for him. The Disruptor set has been selected, so I went back to the sketches and finished the design.

The process of design was very interesting because technology in the Dota 2 universe is very low and design (materials, shapes etc.) of any mechanical things should be careful. Development has taken a lot of time, the project was delayed and reworked several times.

Many people see the mount designed ridiculously like a vacuum cleaner. It's true and I did it on purpose because I'm kinda full of the brutal and badass characters in the game. Anyway, I saw that this Valve „universe” is full of humor and satire. A fun fact about the shape of Disruptor mustache is that I made a reference to Nikola Tesla.

Thanks for your time, Oleg! I truly hope to see your awesome mount on the market soon!
 


 

Garog Nightwing

Artist`s description about the set : Garog's a war beast courier inspired by mythical hybrid creatures. Originally created for the Warhammer competition as more of a sphinx, Garog's been revised here with lion facial features and updated textures. It comes with two colors.
 


Flight of the Mayura

Ice Wolves proposes a Drow Ranger set in a unique style. Absolutely different from all points of view, the artis chooses this time to amaze us with seven items that have a peacock as the base theme. Even though is far out the of the box and it has nothing to do with the hero`s lore, we have to admit that this set is truly amazing.



The details are marvelous and he surly put a lot of work on them. I discussed with him some weeks ago to find out more about his style and if he manages to keep himself motivated. You can find the interview here.
 


Reborn Phoenix

Is that Phoenix? Nope, it`s just Lina disguised in feathers and flames. What else can we ask? I love this set and I consider it to be the best Lina set so far. Go vote for it so we can all see it in the game.
 


Supreme Annihilation

It`s been seven weeks since Underlord was added on the Workshop and the artists seem to enjoy it. Seven weeks and ten Underlord sets were submitted. You guys really have to vote for your favorite! I really hope that Valve will eventually add one of them on the market. Who knows? Maybe in the BattlePass Teasure II or III.

Quite different from the others, „Supreme Annihilation” looks pretty cool.

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