Designing Mythological Game Characters Beyond Surface Decoration

Academic 6:00pm 15 min

This talk explores how mythological game characters can be designed in a culturally grounded way rather than by applying cultural symbols as surface decoration. Drawing from a practice-led character-design project, it shows how references can be translated through silhouette, anatomy, costume, ornaments, props, material logic and worldbuilding. It also considers the move from 2D concept design to digital sculpting and how that process can support more meaningful approaches to character identity, cultural reference and visual storytelling.

Speaker

Emily Tang

Emily Tang

Lecturer and Animation Discipline Lead · UNSW Art & Design

Emily Tang is a Lecturer and Animation Discipline Lead at UNSW Art & Design. Her teaching and practice focus on animation, game-character design, digital sculpting and visual storytelling. Her current practice-led research explores culturally grounded mythological character design, including how cultural references can be translated through silhouette, material logic, ornament, worldbuilding and creative-production workflows.