3D Character Animation

So, where to begin...

Within this module I must undertake the task of creating a 3d character within 3DS Max to represent a villainous character. Create his persona, character attributes and appearance, whilst keeping in mind that this particular character is to be designed for children between the ages of 7-11.

As with most of my modules and projects I prefer to start with the trusty old pen and paper and so will be keeping a sketch book displaying my thought processes and work throughout the module. Now, learning from some seriously hard lessons in previous projects (and knowing my luck!) I will probably spill coffee over my sketchbook, leave it on the train, or it will just vanish into thin air! Therefore, I have decided that I should probably have an electronic and easily accessible backup of said sketchbook, which brings us to this blog and what it will entail..

First Page of the Sketchbook

So to start with I created a mindmap/brainstorm of 'Villains' and various villains that I could remember from my childhood and more recent films/stories I had seen and read.

I will be scanning in each page of my sketchbook and commenting on my thought processes and noting various features that I have not within the sketchbook itself to explain more fully my work in progress.

Here is a list of the '10 Worst Villains in Children's Books' I found this list online on the Telegraph website, the link to which can be found below;

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/books-life/7545765/Be-afraid-the-10-worst-villains-in-childrens-books-of-all-time.html

A picture of Dick Dastardly, a rather well known and infamous villain, found in the series 'Wacky Races'. This visualises my idea of a stereotypical villain, whether that be due to the fact that I grew up with this image of villainy in my own childhood or that Dick Dastardly has many of the features of some of the most memorable villains of all time. The original image that I copied this sketch from can be found at;

http://www.meh.ro/tag/dick-dastardly/

As a spot of quick research I posted on Facebook as my status "Who was the most memorable villain of your childhood?", to which I received these answers. 

I wanted to research some more recent villains as up until this point I had focused on memorable villains for myself and also 'iconic' villains from the past. Here you can see a list of a few villains that have reared their gruesome faces in some recent films and stories aimed at audiences between the ages of 7-11 (and big kids too of course!)

Here, as with my sketch of Dick Dastardly I wanted to represent the female version of a memorable villain and have sketched Ursula the Sea Witch, who was to be found in the Disney motion picture 'The Little Mermaid'. I chose to sketch out Ursula as I felt she was a very different villain in both appearance and character compared to Dick Dastardly. Personally I was terrified of Ursula as a young girl, whereas I felt Dick was less menacing and took on more of a comedic role than the ruthless and vile Ursula.

http://villains.wikia.com/wiki/Ursula