Artemis - Character Design

Artemis - Character Design 

A personal project of mine, I wanted to try and create something different to what I usually do. 

The brief was to design a game boss character for an isometric action RPG. The setting was a cyberpunk/futuristic city controlled by A.I.s that are named after the gods of the Greek pantheon. Somehow the A.I.s become infected with a virus that makes them hostile and the city turns into chaos, leaving the players to fight their way through the pantheon and restore order to the city.

For Artemis, I saw her as one of the bosses the players would encounter in the game. She would be one part of a boss duo with her brother Apollo, a challenge for the players before going on to fight the more challenging gods in the pantheon.

Character Thumbnails

After doing some research and notes on key motifs for Artemis, I did some thumbnails exploring some options on looks. The challenge was to balance the business suit attire to the armour plating, as these A.I.s run the city but are also capable of fighting and defending the city from outside forces. I wanted her helm to have a moon motif of some sort, either a halo or a holographic crescent moon, to help convey to the player her moon goddess status, as well as be an easily recognisable symbol.

Character Designs

I then moved onto finalising some designs for her look, leaning more towards the business attire aesthetic as the armour pieces could stand on their own. Her helm ended up having the holographic crescent moon anyway, and her bracers became of her key weapons, a crossbow gauntlet.

Weapon Designs 

Because the character is for an action RPG, she needs weapons. In mythology, Artemis is known for her bow and is also known for wielding a spear, however, her brother Apollo is the god of archery so if he were to be designed I would give him the proper bow. Therefore I was going to give Artemis a crossbow, but I then opted to incorporate it into her bracers as she would switch from her crossbows to her spear quickly in combat. 

Her spear went through more iterations as I was unsure how her spear would work and be able to be deployed quickly in combat along with her crossbows. I chose a light/holographic spear that would work like Hela's weapons from Thor: Ragnarok, as that was the quickest option I could think of, but also look the sleekest.

Final Render

This was to show the character in all her glory with her weapons on show. I added some small details on the tie to add some futuristic flair, but the final look ended up being an amalgamation of the three designs made. The final design I believe achieves the look and feel I wanted the character to have, an almost 'youthful' character with a wrathful nature to her.