Valve’s 18-page Dota 2 character art guide provides a concise overview of key character design concepts, backed up with before-and-after examples drawn from Valve’s own designs for the real-time strategy game.

Valve Software has released a character art guide for artists aiming to contribute assets to its upcoming free-to-play real-time strategy game Dota 2.

In addition to seeing their work within the game itself, item makers will receive a split of the proceeds from sales in the in-game store.

Normally, we wouldn’t cover modding resources like this, but the guide is one of the clearest overviews of basic character design concepts we’ve seen.

In addition to providing a concise introduction to the importance of a clear silhouette, value patterning and a coherent colour palette, the guide explores ideas of rest and detail and of evaluating assets in context.

Backed up by real examples
But perhaps most importantly, it provides before-and-after examples from Valve’s own characters, showing at a glance how these concepts are applied in practice.

If you’re studying CG or want to work in game development, it’s well worth a look.

Valve’s Dota 2 community website also includes a number of other useful resources, including a step-by-step guide to painting textures for the game, showing all of the layers and blending modes involved.

Read the DotA 2 character art guide

Visit the Dota 2 workshop

Tags: character art guide, character design concepts, colour palette, colour scheme, detailing, Dota 2, free, introduction, key concepts, overview, silhouette, value patterning, Valve