Character Walking

Before having issues with my model I managed to use the default walk animation from the CAT object but with my own touch, such as the arms not flailing in the air.

This is a brief test render of the walk:

Morpher

Due to unforseen problems with the model within 3DS Max and after speaking to Jo Bowman I was told to stop animating the character and just show that I had the knowledge of how to use the morpher tool.

 Using the same head I used for my model character I simply added some basic facial expressions and then using the morpher modifer.

Annoyingly my file has some errors and will not allow me to reopen it but I do however have a video of a test I rendered before the corruption.

To create the different facial expressions I simply moved around the vertices and polygons.

Below is the test of the morpher:

Rigging the character

So after I finished building the model of my character, I needed to create the rig for the character, this allows the character to have a skeleton and therefore be moved and manipulated like a normal human being.

To start the rigging of the character I decided to create the skeleton using the CAT object rigging system, this is done by selecting the "helpers" section of the "create" tab and selecting the CAT Objects on the drop down box, once this has been done you will see the same as the picture below.

 

Once this had been done I selected the CATParent tool and dragged it into the scene, this will create what is shown in the picture below.

 

 

After this has been created the next thing I did was to click the parent object and then go to the "Create Pelvis" tool shown in the picture below:

 

This tool creates the beginning of the skeleton that I have choosen to make, after creating the pelvis and moving it into my desired position, see the picture below:

 

I then created by creating a single leg by using the "Create Leg" tool shown in the picture below:

 After creating the leg and position it how I wanted it was simply a matter of copying the bone settings with the tools provided in 3DS max and then using the paste/mirror bone settings to create a mirrored version of the leg.

  

 After I was happy with the legs I created the spine by using the "Add Spine" tool, which places a basic layout of the spine, after shaping the spine how I needed I ended up with the picture below:

  

After the spine i started on the arms using the same technique as the legs except by clicking the "Add Arm" tool, once i was happy with the arm i again used the copy bone settings and paste/mirror tools to create a duplicate, see image below:

  

The last thing that was needed for the rig to be completed was to create a head, this done by simply using the "Add Bone" tool which added an extra bone to the top of the spine from which I then scaled into shape, see image below for the full rig:

 

After the rig was completed I had to connect the skin of the model i had built to the rig,  this was done using the skin modifier see image below:

After adding all of the bones to the required section in the skin modifer panel, I could instantly start moving the character around like a normal human.

 

The picture below is of the character fully rigged and skinnedand moved into a waving position

Creating the character

To start creating the model of my evil villian I started with by using a cube which was turned into the shoe of the charater and from this I extruded upwards to create the leg.

The leg of the model was created by simply extruding upwards for the whole thing but also by scaling at certain intervals to give the leg a defined shaped such as the knee.

The above image is the leg above the knee again using the same technique as above.

This image is of the leg finished and then cloned and mirrored to create the second leg. This image also shows the creation of the bum which allowed for the back and stomach to be created by extruding.

This image is of the body being made without any real definition added to it, this was done by extruding from the legs and bum.

After creating the stomach the chest was then created and pulled into place to give it some definition, after this was done the start of the arms were created which just involved moving some vertices into a circle and then extruding the edges, a hole for the neck was also left which would make it easier to create when it come to it.

This image is of the arms being created, the technique that was used was again extruding from the previous section and then scaled into shape.

The above image is of the start of the neck which was extruded from the hole that was left whilst making the chest.

After creating the body I started on creating a head by simply using a sphere and then reducing the amount of sides, which gave the head a more rough look as heads arent perfectly smooth. After creating the sphere I moved vertices and polygons around to create the above image.

After a few changes such as the shape of the head and deleting the eyes I added some eyes that were space warped, I then used the turbo smooth modifer and added some textures, I also created a mask of such that i personally felt gives the villian an evil look as it looks like he is trying to protect his identity. 

Villain Animations

I was looking for some examples of animated villains to look at facial features and the way the characters move and act, I came across a few examples of villains that I think look the best in the way they have been modelled and the way they act, so I posted a few videos showing the villains incase people aren't familiar with them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBGbdQ27Ad0&feature=related
- Randall from Monsters Inc. You need to go to about 9:20 to first see Randall as this was the only video I could find that wasn't a music tribute of some kind, I like the way that this character has been modelled as the way he moves and acts are creepy and come across as evil, such as the smile or the way he slides across the floor as he walks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySGod3QKEIc 
- Jafar from Aladdin, this character just shouts pure evil with his facial features and his long pointy fingers, which when they close around something look like a spider closing in on something, again modelled with this in mind to give a creepy feeling without the watcher even realising its happening. The way he talks is smooth and cold unless he is angry, I believe this is a good way to come across if you a villain as it seems you have no emotions, besides rage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2I-BvceYTbw&feature=related 
- Shan - Yu from Mulan, I actually believe this is one of the darkest characters that Disney has ever created as not only are his looks screaming villain and evil but his personality is cold and precise with no pretences of being good, one of the only villains who doesn't act like a good guy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfeaIiDc8kw 
- Mojo Jojo from Cartoon Networks PowerPuff Girls, I used this example as I found him to be a mixture of being extremely smart but also quite amusing as he does things a normal evil doesn't do, such as ranting over a small thing such as needing a single egg, also as a monkey with a huge brain its quite a rare site for an animation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Cx7jzq2Bx4 
- Yzma from The Emperors New Groove/New School is a comical villain as the things she says and does just end up in something comical happening, almost like shes gone completely insane but in a funny way. Her looks are extremely creepy, such as her been thin with long limbs etc. She is actually one of my favourite villains because of her comical aspects.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv-VlJnDvuw
- Hades from Disney's Hercules, another villain who comes across as evil just from the looks and who he is (show me a non creepy god of the underworld), things such as having fire for hair and long pointy bone like fingers and nose. He is also quite comical in ways with the things he says and does, usually whist trying to be sarcastic.

Overall I have found that the majority of villains have long pointy features such as there fingers and hands and these give off the effect of being evil, such as the fingers closing around something looking like a spider closing around something. I also have found that most modern villains have some kind of comical aspect which i believe actually enhances the experience.

MoodBoard

For my character idea I researched lots of different evil characters throughout different genre programs as well as a couple of games.

I started off by trying to think of villains that had had a big impact on my childhood but weren't also the popular Disney ones, such as dick dastardly and Hades from Hercule's. After finding quite a few commonalities between cartoon villains I decided to look at villains played by people such as the Joker from Batman - The Dark Knight, The Riddler from Batman Forever and James Moriarty from the BBC's Sherlock. I found these characters in particular very well played as they are all extremely smart or geniuses but are always insane which seems to make the hero of the story able to conquer them in the end.

I also took a couple of images from a batman game as I felt it showed the characters in there full blown insane glory and this is showing the point i wanted to make, in that all the true bad guys in stories are smart but insane.

Reaction to the brief

I think that this assignment will be quite enjoyable as well as quite difficult as it requires a lot of attention to detail, with facial expressions, posture and the way the character acts in general.

I am quite looking forward to starting this assignment but first I will need to start to put together an idea of a character and what kind of animation I will be creating.
This blog will be used to keep track of my progress and will be updated regularly