The Art of Athena: Crafting a Modern Icon

In the gaming industry, visuals are the first thing that impacts the audience, whether it’s through expansive 3D environments or explosive VFX. It’s crucial for artists to understand who and what they are trying to communicate, whether for a Triple AAA or an indie title.

A concept artist must be able to balance creativity and storytelling to make a cohesive, and impactful design. Each step in the production pipeline, from research to final presentation must be filled with intention and a clear understanding of the project's goals.

For this project, our in-house team of artists demonstrate our 2D character concept design process for reimagining the classic Greek icon Athena, mixing ancient mythology with modern, sci-fi aesthetics to create a timeless character design.

References & Research

Every art project at our concept art studio begins with a detailed brief. The brief will act as a guide for our art team to communicate ideas, parameters and challenges.

For character design, we start by answering high-level questions: What is the character’s purpose? Personality? History? What emotion should they make the audience feel? Who is the target audience? Are there any constrains from the 3D game art team that we have to consider? When you answer questions like these, you can begin to focus your researching efforts as you gather references for the brief. The brief can also act as inspiration, and a guide to the artist, while also leaving less ambiguity as to the benchmark and quality expected for the project.

‘Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft.’

Source: Wikipedia

We knew early on that we wanted to evoke positive emotions with the redesign, and we began to define our brief with words such as 'regal', 'powerful', and 'divinity'.

We knew early on that we wanted to evoke positive emotions with the redesign, and we began to define our brief with words such as 'regal', 'powerful', and 'divinity'. From there, we began to research who Athena - the Greek goddess - was in literature and art. Our research found that her major symbols included owls, snakes and the gorgon, Medusa and that she is often depicted holding a spear and wearing a helmet.

This combination of familiar (e.g Classic Athena symbols) and unfamiliar elements (e.g sci-fi language) is key to delivering unique concept art that can meet both client expectations but still make it recognizable to audiences. As our Senior Concept artist, Titas Zenevicius says about design, "(a) lot of things contribute to a good design. Often great design is something derived from reality, and then exaggerated or elevated."

When starting any project, we create a brief which can be used to clearly communicate ideas, parameters and challenges to the team.

Getting the Right Attitude: Silhouette and Sketching

Once the brief is finalized and our character concept artist has read through and asked any questions, we kick-off by focusing on the larger picture. We begin with black and white 2D concept silhouette sketches, focusing on the character’s pose. If we were to have the character in the wrong pose, or no pose at all it can lead to a design being disliked or rejected because it didn't tell the story, or have the right emotion behind the character. This step is crucial for game art design, as it lays the foundation before we invest time into more detailed 2D art.

It is a good idea to begin with the silhouette, as a posed character can sell the storytelling and emotion immediately to the viewer.

Early sketches are a perfect chance to explore as many ideas as possible, and to keep them loose to allow for rapid iteration. By using this process, you can start wide and get narrower as questions are answered without wasting time getting into small details. It is important to be able to work quickly, and move on when an idea doesn't work.

It is important to work loose and when an idea doesn't work, move on quickly.

At Athena, our Art Director will provide feedback and guidance to ensure that the project aligns with the brief and the desired game art styles. The Art Director will review the sketches, and give feedback on what is working and what is not. At this time there may be discussions about what other ideas and avenues we can try.

In this instance, there were quite a few sketches with interesting ideas, and our Art Director asked for several of these designs to be combined into one sketch.

An example of mixing together multiple elements from different designs.

Experimenting with Design

As the design process moves along and ideas become more solidified, we focus on key aspects like the character’s helmet and shield, experimenting with different styles and motifs. Designing is much like cooking—sometimes a recipe comes together, and sometimes it really doesn’t!

When we looked at creating different helmet designs for Athena, we quickly realized that straying too far from the iconic classical Greek helmet began to make her too unrecognizable to the audience.

Art Director’s and concept artists need to be flexible, and willing to go back to the drawing board when an idea doesn’t work out, but also realize that it wasn’t wasted time. It has helped to define the direction further, and closed off an avenue for the project.

While the idea may not have worked it helped to define the direction further, and closed off an avenue for the project.

The familiar silhouette of a shield, and Athena's icon of Medusa but combined with sci-fi, modern language.

Choosing Colors

Color plays a vital role in how the audience perceives a character.

For Athena, we drew from ancient Greek symbolism, where gold was associated with divinity and power. This choice not only added a regal touch but also helped break up the modern, clean lines of white and black, resulting in a high-quality concept art piece that conveys both strength and purity. Once the character has been approved, it can move onto 3D modeling.

Color is another a way to communicate to our audience how they should feel about this character.

Designing Legendary Characters with Expertise

Crafting legendary and iconic characters takes years of experience and a deep understanding of both art direction and project management. At Athena Productions, we excel in creating game worlds that are immersive and visually stunning, all while maintaining the highest standards. Our game art outsourcing services bring together a team of skilled concept artists, each contributing their unique skill sets to deliver the best game art whether it is for Triple AAA's or blockbuster indie titles.

To see how our outsourcing company can bring your character designs to life with exceptional creativity and storytelling, contact our team at info@athena-productions.com. With our expertise in concept art design, we’re ready to take your project to the next level!