Tutorial 1 - How to make cartoon eyes

During the discussion in class and upon researching information outside the classroom, I have discovered that emotion and how someone can be percieved can be shown through the eyes. For example, if someone is shifty eyed then you may not be able to trust them, which could be good for a villain type of character.

In this tutorial, we learnt how to create cartoon like eyes which could be useful when we come to creating our own character.

First of all, I had to create a sphere and edit the hemisphere spinner in order to give the eye a pupil shape. Upon experimentation, a spinner of 0.06 was appropriate size. Then, I had to create two other sphere shapes with a higher hemisphere spinner threshold (0.5).  After applying materials, I grouped the eye together to form one object and applied a geometric/deformable FFD (box) space warp around the entire eye. In the image below, I decreased the number of points to 2x2x2. In order to apply the space warp to the eye, I bound the space warp by dragging it.

Eyes are not symmetrical, especially when it comes to villains. Therefore, if you increase the number of points, it makes it easier to manipulate the eyelids without impacting on any animation or movement. In order to make the eyes move to a target, a point was created and a rotate motion controller was applied.

After uploading this tutorial to my blog, one of my friends noticed the black faces around the top and the bottom of the eyelids and suggested I used a smoothing tool to remove them. I used TurboSmooth on all of the spheres and this is the finished result: 

(Thanks Mel! :))

Videos of Childhood Villains

Here are some videos I have discovered of childhood villians. I have chosen animals as the focus because animals tend to have

Efrafa In Watership Down

Available online at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPBck3xcUJc&feature=related

The video link shows Efrafa in Watership Down and it has to be noted how he is different to the other "good" rabibits.

• Heavy black eyelids to emphasise the eye.
• Eyes at an angle to show anger and hatred.
• Marks or cuts out of the rabbits ears to mak it look bedragled. 
• Eyebrows that are emphasised.
• Blood around the mouth - signifies the character is dangerous.
• If you compare Efrafa to the other rabbits, his fur is jagged yet the others are created with more smooth lines. 
• Efrafa tends to be bigger than the rest of the other rabbits - signifying dominance. 

As for body language, Efrafa is violent towards the other rabbits, which is the main communication that this character means business. 

Bruce In Finding Nemo

Available Online At: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1x9W70LJKVw

The video link shows Bruce in Finding Nemo. It has to be noted how this villain comes across more as the different fish ar compared.

How Bruce is effective:

• Use of grey, black, white and red which are common villian colours. If you look at Dory and Marlon, they are really bright vivid colours.
• Sharks tend to be quite ferious animals in the wild, known for their temperament.
• Emphasis on the eyes and eyebrow line.
• Big jagged teeth.
• Deep voice, which is exentuated by the other fish having softer voices.

As for body language, Bruce's movements are very exaggerated. There is excess smiling to reveal the horrible teeth and he comes across quite wild, even though he is trying to convince Marlon and Dory at the beginning of this clip that "fish are not food they're friends". WHen Bruce smells the blood, he goes crazy and the inner villain really shows itself.

Odd One Out?? Lots o Huggin Bear (Lotso) in Toy Story 3

Available Online At: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjSv2cB5NJA

Lotso is a different take on villains by Disney and is rather effective dispite how unusual he is as he won best villain in Summer 2010. The majority of the characters in Toy Story are toys anyway and when you think of bears as a toy, you would think that they are cuddly. Especially as this bear is called "Lots O Huggin" which is rather misleading and also he is bright pink, fluffy and smells of strawberries. However, despite this, he tries his upmost to stop Woody and his pals leaving the Sunnyside Daycare where they are played with roughly by children.

The use of props is one of the only elements about him which allows you to tell he's a villain as he is carrying around a mallet and uses it to show that he is in charge. To begin with he seems like a nice friendly character however as the movie progresses and reaches a climax, demonstrated in the video I have linked in this post, you notice how actually he is an evil two faced liar.

The reason why I have looked at this villain for inspiration is because when I went to see it in the cinemas, the audience really sympathised with the other characters who Lotso was nasty to and tried to control. Many children found the sarcasm in the character extremely effective and also unique, which meant that it stuck in the viewers mind.

Character Analysis

A character is “the aggregate of features and traits that form the individual nature of some person or thing.” (Dictionary, 2012). What can define the difference between people other than their physical appearance are their personalities and their character. In this module, I am going to research different types of villain character to help me gain a feel on what traits are required to make children’s villain characters look like “baddies”.

I have created a mind map combined with a mood board below:

As you can see from the images, although my characters of selection look very different, they have similar traits to make them look evil. The first and probably one of the more obvious traits is that the eyebrows tend to be quite pronounced and angular. This is to make the character look angry or menacing. In the samples I have taken, the mouth area is also very important. Whilst some have more pronounced mouths such as the Joker and Cruella De Vil, others also have pronounced teeth, for example Jafar from Aladdin and Ursula. Eyes tend to be either quite scarily wide or squinting. The scarily wide eyes are usually seen in characters with a bigger personality. They tend to be more out there whilst the other kinds of villains who have squinty eyes are usually more cunning. Some characters also have “props” which people relate to being evil. This especially applies to Sid out of Toy Story, who is easily recognisable by the braces on his teeth and by his black and white skull t-shirt. Captain Hook has the hooked hand as a weapon and Cruella De Vil has the coat made out of real animal fur.

The image below shows an example character analysis diagram:

Basically, it picks apart the character of Cruella De Vil and exposes the key features which make her so recognisable as a villain. Before I start designing my character physically, I will start considering what traits I can carry over from the research I have already conducted/I am going to conduct.

As part of my research, I have also looked into another two characters and created analysis diagrams for them as well (see below):

Scar from the Lion King

The Joker from Batman

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References 

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Reaction To The Brief

Upon looking at the brief that has been set for my final semester in my final year of university, I am really excited about this module because it feels like all the other modules have led up to this and this is what I came to university to do.

I have relatively good knowledge in the software I am using, 3D Studio Max, as I have used it for the past year. I do find 3D Studio Max very temperamental however, providing I keep frequent backups of my work in more than one location, I should have little trouble.

I have used rigging before in my past two animation modules so I am hoping to refine my technique further to produce a quality piece of coursework, with a suitable product ideal for the target audience as I am aiming for a first class degree.