Viktor Antonov

Viktor Antonov
Biographical information
Born	N/A
Place of birth	Sofia, Bulgaria
Occupation(s)	Art director Conceptual artist Design instructor Writer Director Teacher

 

Viktor Antonov (born in Sofia, Bulgaria) is a video game art director and conceptual artist who worked with Valve on Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Lost Coast.

Biography

With a mostly steampunk style, Antonov has been in the video game industry since 1996. He holds a transportation design degree from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and has also designed for commercials, animation and film in the USA and Europe. Antonov has been living in Paris (France), where he immigrated at 17, Montreaux (Switzerland), Los Angeles and Seattle.

He has founded the entertainment design studio "The Building" in Paris, France. The firm provides design services and consulting for multiple platforms, ranging from video games, feature films, commercials to television series. He is also a visiting design instructor at the Baden-Wuerttemberg Film Academy.

Antonov was art director and conceptual artist for Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Lost Coast. For Half-Life 2, he designed most of the City 17 style and the Combine architecture and technology. As it is commonly done during a video game's development, most of his concept art for Half-Life 2 was done with Photoshop on existing screenshots of work-in-progress maps. Some of these maps can be found in the WC mappack (see a comparison example). At Valve, he also worked on Counter-Strike: Source.

Antonov can be seen credited across the web as the composer of cut Half-Life 2 music. This is incorrect, as Antonov is not a composer and most of this miscredited music is actually credited to Kelly Bailey or is most of the time totally unrelated to Half-Life 2.

Work

Video game

Half-Life series

Half-Life 2 (2004)

• The Air Exchange
• The Canals (with Tri Nguyen and Dhabih Eng)
• The Citadel (with Jeff Ballinger and Dhabih Eng)
• City 17 (with Eric Kirchmer and Damarcus Holbrook)
• The City 17 Trainstation
• The Coast
• The Combine Factories
• Most of the Combine technology (with Eric Kirchmer and Dhabih Eng) and architecture
  • The APC
  • The Combine Assassin tanks featured in the Borealis
  • The Combine Barricade
  • The Combine Prisoner Pod
• The Combine Smart Barrier (with Eric Kirchmer)
  • The Combine SWAT Truck
  • The Depot teleport
  • The Door / Guard Tower
  • The early Mobile Wall
  • The Razor Train
• The Depot
• The Manhack Arcade
• Nova Prospekt (with Dhabih Eng and Eric Kirchmer)
• Ravenholm (with Eric Kirchmer and Horia Dociu)
• The Wasteland

Half-Life 2: Lost Coast (2005)

• St. Olga's monastery

Other

• Redneck Rampage (1997)
• Redneck Deer Huntin' (1997)
• Redneck Rampage Rides Again (1998)
• Quake II Mission Pack: The Reckoning (1998)
• Kingpin: Life of Crime (1999)
• Counter-Strike: Source (2004)
• Dark Messiah of Might and Magic (2006)
• Dishonored (2012)
• The Crossing (on hold)

Film

• Renaissance (2006)
• The Prodigies (announced)

Gallery

Vehicles

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Air Exchange

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Borealis

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Canals

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Citadel

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City 17

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City 17 Trainstation

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Combine Factories

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Depot

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Manhack Arcade

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Ravenholm

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St. Olga

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The Coast / The Wasteland

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References

See also

• Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar

External links

• Official website
• Viktor Antonov at Siggraph on Planet Half-Life
• GDC Lyon: Antonov Talks Visual Design, Half Life 2 on Gamasutra
• Viktor Antonov on MobyGames