What does a hero truly fear? (Dota 2 Short Film Contest 2017 - 1st place winner)

We've heard about what heroes need... but what do they fear?

Thanks for your support, everyone! This is my third win in a row. A hat trick! And of course, I couldn't have done it without the help of these lovely people:

——— FULL CREDITS

▶ Shaylyn "Chemical Alia" Hamm

3D character art (naked Axe, young Invoker)
Classroom props (refresher orb, floor planks, desk)
Video thumbnail paint-over

▶ Alexandra Kern

Classroom educational posters
2D environment backgrounds (reused from "King of Pain" video)

▶ Maxime Lebled (c'est moi)

Animation, rigging & engine setup of custom assets, editing/post
All Source Filmmaker work

▶ Matt Williams

Original soundtrack, additional sound effects

——— AND ALSO

Special thanks to:

▶ Stephanie "Anuxinamoon" Everett
whose 3D wall sculpts for the "King of Pain" video were reused here

▶ Ricky van den Waardenburg
for MaxScripts that helped automate rigging workflow

▶ Erick "EDJE" Wright
for additional motion capture performance

——— RESOURCE CREDITS

▶ Paper Parchment Rustling by duckduckpony (CC-BY)

#Dota #SFM #TI7 #Animation

[MaxLebled]

Thank you for the 3 million views ❤

EDIT: since everyone's talking about it in the comments and messaging me about it... Shaylyn (among other things, she modeled the naked Axe and the young Invoker) and I had nothing to do with the Persona that was released for TI9. Maybe we inspired the Dota team? We don't know! Either way, we really like their take on a younger Invoker! Though I don't think they're really comparable; ours was intended to be kindergarten age (4/5 years), and I didn't want it to stand out too much from the other chibi-style Courier models that stand in as other heroes in the nightmare. Meanwhile, the Persona looks to be 10 to 13 years old? The intent and context is very different!

[Borja]

0:09 It's funny because you can actually know that Axe is on a nightmare. It's on his status !

[OxyParadox]

Axe naked imo√
Invoker 4 y.o persona√

Next patch
Pudge can hook roshan

[QuestionableObject]

I want 1:28 to be the actual sound he makes when he gets hooked.
Or tossed.
Or forcestaffed.
Or basically anything that sends him flying.

[jimmosio]

I just noticed the Nightmare debuff at 0:08. Simply put, a nice touch.

[midormeepo]

i just got mindfucked

oh wait i just got mindfucked again

[jdombi]

This video predicted unleahed axe and invoker persona. OMG

[Brathize]

Now i can guess you work for valve right? they just stole your naked axe and young invoker.. you have to be working for them.

[zhiyuanzhou]

They are nightmares within Bane's nightmare. Bane was using nightmare to pudge but got reflected, and so Bane was in his own nightmare. His nightmare was getting silenced by skywrath when using nightmare to other heroes.

[MickMania]

Not gonna lie, Axe has some nice muscly buns.

Erotic jokes aside, fitting all of those stories into 1:30 seconds without it feeling too fast paced is masterful. Most other entries that tried to tell a story was so badly paced...

[XC]

Always the best from Max. Will definitely upvote on steam.

[amenkaya]

0:33 the couriers in the background are such a nice Touch.

[susserylesussers]

I just happen to watch every video you made. DON'T STOP DOING ANIMATIONS PLS

[Dazen]

I'm so glad to see Valve is going to use your Invoker model!

[fuwarashi]

Have you ever wondered what kind of nightmares he can give you


*NOPE*

[pkpkpk]

Lovely flow of animation and attention to detail, from audio to visual transition this really does shine as one of your best yet. Will continue to support you!

[farisnazri]

This is probably the best and most realistic to the hero's abilities... the others that i've seen is not as well-thought as this one. WELL DONE!

[Neurotripsicks]

I have completed the All Hero Challenge 3 times now and whenever Invoker comes up, I take a week vacation from work.

[kasteenkain]

Voted! And OMG, it's amazing! I really hope you'll win <3

[wongsaraf]

OG, 4 times Major
Max, 3 times SFM contest winner.