Hero
"Two rivals, one artifact, no clear villain."
Keys: Space play/pause · ←/→ 10s · F fullscreen · M mute · </> speed
About this film
Daniel Martínez Lara's Blender Studio short pits two steampunk champions—hero and villain—against each other for a glowing artifact that powers their rival homelands. Grease Pencil 2.0 animation blends hand-drawn characters with 3D environments until a twist ending questions whether either combatant deserves the title of true hero.
More about this film
About the production
Themes
Themes & topics
Historical background
Blender Foundation premiered Hero in April 2018 as the sixth Blender Cloud open movie, timed to the Blender 2.8 beta and the Code Quest development sprint in Amsterdam.
Why this film matters
Hero demonstrated that feature-quality 2D animation could be authored entirely inside Blender's 3D pipeline, influencing indie animators and Grease Pencil adoption worldwide.
What critics said
CG press and festival bloggers praised the technical breakthrough and Lara's twist ending; community reception on Blender Cloud highlighted the asset release as a teaching tool.
Did you know?
- Production was led remotely from Barcelona rather than Blender Institute headquarters.
- Grease Pencil 2.0 shipped with Blender 2.8 after this showcase.
Where to watch
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKmSdY56VtY
- Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HERO%20-%20Blender%20Open%20Movie-full%20movie.webm