In video games and films, the visuals are the first thing that impacts the audience. It is important that an artist understands who and what they are trying to communicate, whether it is characters, environments, props or other forms of concept art.

A concept artist must be able to balance creativity and storytelling to make a cohesive, and impactful design. From research to reference gathering, to experimenting with silhouettes and creating fast iterative sketches, to the final presentation. Each step must be filled with intention and a clear understanding of the project's goals.

As an example, our team at Athena Productions will be walking you through our character concept art process of redesigning the classic Greek icon Athena, from the beginning stages to the final concept.

References & Research

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

With character design, we start by answering multiple high-level questions. What is their purpose? What is their personality? History? What emotion should they convey? Will this character be in a video game or film? Are there any constraints for the 3D team that we have to consider?

When you answer questions like these, you can begin to clearly focus your efforts on gathering references and research that will make up the brief.

By setting out a brief with references it can act as inspiration, and a guide to the artist, while also leaving less ambiguity 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 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athena

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. We 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.

With this research we were able to establish certain ideas to make sure that key aspects of Athena stayed recognizable, while achieving our goal of making a unique, modern and timeless design.

For our redesign we blended two themes. We used familiar depictions of Athena, with the new idea of mixing in modern and sci-fi language. By using the familiar and new we are grounding the concept so that it is accessible, and recognizable, but unique to viewers. 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.’

Getting the right attitude

Once the brief is ready and the character concept artist has read through and asked any questions, we kick-off by focusing on the bigger picture by creating quick sketches to understand the silhouette of the character, while keeping to black and white so that our artist can detach from color and materials.

It is a good idea to begin with the silhouette, as a posed character can sell the storytelling and emotion immediately to the viewer. Having a character in the wrong pose, or no pose at all can lead to a design being disliked or rejected because it didn't tell the story or have the right emotion.

Sketching

Early in the project, it is the perfect chance to explore as many ideas as possible and to not get too focused on any specific idea. It is a process of iteration where you can start wide, and get narrower as questions are answered.

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

When the sketches are ready, they are submitted to the Art Director. From the eight sketches that are done, the Art Director will give feedback on what is working, and what is not. The Art Director's job is to ensure that the project brief is being met, and to help guide and push ideas. There may be feedback, or discussions about other avenues to try at this time.

In this instance, there were multiple sketches that had interesting ideas, and the Art Director asked for several of these designs to be combined into one sketch.

Experimenting with design

As the process moves along, ideas are becoming more solidified and we turn our attention onto other areas of the design such as the helmet and shield.

Designing can feel like experimenting with cooking, sometimes a recipe comes together, other times it does not work out. A good example of this, is when we looked at creating different helmet designs, but quickly found that we were straying into unfamiliar territory for the audience, and that Athena was becoming unrecognisable without the classic Greek helmet which is a strong and knowable icon.

In this, the Art Director and concept artists need to be flexible, and willing to go back to the drawing board, knowing that while the idea may not have worked it helped to define the direction further, and closed off an avenue for the project.

Choosing Colors

Color is another a way to communicate to our audience how they should feel when looking at visuals. Using certain colors can make the viewer relaxed, happy, fearful or nervous and it is important that an artist understands what each color can convey.

From our research we knew that gold in Ancient Greece was believed to be the skin of the gods, and shows divinity and power. It was also a great way to break up our use of white and black, which pushed a more modern, clean appearance.

Designing legendary characters takes years of expertise, especially when balancing diverse client goals. At Athena Productions, Our character concept artists are seasoned in crafting characters from Triple AAA games to blockbuster films, and excel in merging design and storytelling.

To see how our skilled artists can bring together your character concepts with exceptional design, emotion, and storytelling, reach out to our team at info@athena-productions.com