Viktor Antonov

Viktor Antonov
Biographical information
Born	February 5, 1972
Place of birth	Sofia, Bulgaria
Died	February 7, 2025
Place of death	Paris, France
Title(s)	Art Director Conceptual Designer
Time period	1999 - 2006

 

Viktor Antonov was an art director and conceptual artist who worked at Valve.

Biography

With a mostly steampunk style, Antonov first entered the video game industry in 1996. He held a transportation design degree from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and had also designed for commercials, animation, and film in the USA and Europe. Antonov immigrated to Paris, France at the age of 17, and he also lived in Montreaux, Switzerland and Los Angeles and Seattle in the United States.

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

In February of 2025, it was reported that Antonov had passed away that month.

Work for the Half-Life series

Antonov was an art director and conceptual artist for Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Lost Coast. He suggested that the team think of setting the game in the suburban and outlying areas around an Eastern European-style city. Antonov 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 paintovers on existing screenshots of work-in-progress maps. Some of these maps can be found in the WC map pack (see a comparison example). During his time at Valve, he also worked on Counter-Strike: Source and finally on concepts for Team Fortress 2 before he departed the company, recommending his friend Moby Francke to take over his position as art director when he left.

In the past, sources on the web once commonly attributed Antonov as being the composer of purported cut Half-Life 2 music. This claim has long been debunked, as Antonov is not a composer, and most of this miscredited music was actually authored by Kelly Bailey or totally unrelated to Half-Life 2 (see That Long Train Ride).

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 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 Skyscraper
• The Wasteland

Half-Life 2: Lost Coast (2005)

• St. Olga's monastery

Gallery

Vehicles

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Air Exchange

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  Slightly cropped, higher resolution version.

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Borealis

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Canals

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Citadel

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  Slightly cropped, higher resolution version.

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  Cropped, higher resolution version.

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City 17

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  Cropped, higher resolution version.

City 17 Trainstation

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  Cropped, higher resolution version.

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Combine Factories

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  Cropped, higher resolution version.

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Depot

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  Cropped, higher resolution version.

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Manhack Arcade

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Ravenholm

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Skyscraper

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St. Olga

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The Coast / The Wasteland

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Real world reference photos

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Selected gameography

• Half-Life 2 (2004)
• Half-Life 2: Lost Coast (2005)

Company biographies

• June 11, 2003 (archived)

Viktor Antonov - Art Director/Conceptual Designer

Viktor has been a conceptual designer for the videogame industry since 1996. He first joined Valve from Xatrix Entertainment where his responsibilities included designing environments, lighting and atmosphere on projects such as Kingpin. 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. Viktor was born and spent his childhood in Sofia, Bulgaria after which he has been living in Paris France, Montreaux Switzerland, Los Angeles and Seattle.

• December 7, 2003 (archived)

Viktor Antonov - Art Director/Conceptual Designer

Viktor has been a conceptual designer for the videogame industry since 1996. He first joined Valve from Xatrix Entertainment where his responsibilities included designing environments, lighting and atmosphere on projects such as Kingpin. 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. Viktor was born and spent his childhood in Sofia, Bulgaria after which he has been living in Paris France, Montreaux Switzerland, Los Angeles and Seattle. You can view some of his art at Vulkanbros.com.

See also

• Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar

External links

• Viktor Antonov's personal website (archived)
• Viktor Antonov at Siggraph on Planet Half-Life (archived)
• GDC Lyon: Antonov Talks Visual Design, Half Life 2 on Gamasutra (archived)