Evaluation

Overall I am pleased with the way my villain turned out despite the problems I had at the start with the cat objects used for the rigging stage. This forces me to start over again using the biped instead. My villain also quite closely matches my preliminary sketches with a few small changes due to time constraints such as the facial hair. I am particularly pleased with the face and the hook hand, which brings a sense of evil and danger to the character and also provides a little more back story. The face looks rather menacing with the shifty and slightly mismatched eyes to the jaw and mouth which looks to be locked in place. It also makes his teeth look too big for his mouth adding a little more grotesqueness to him. 

If I could change one thing about my character apart from adding a little facial hair it would probably be the hand. It doesn’t really feel quite right and due to problems with the cat objects I wasn’t able to add bones to it in the allotted time frame.

Final Video

Below is my final video of my animation:

Animating

Due to problems with the cat objects I wasn’t able to add bones to the fingers of the villain. Because of this my animation plans have changed slightly so that instead of gripping a broom handle at the start I will have him walking along a corridor to start with and pick up a bucket with his hook hand as he walks along.

Now that the scenes are ready I imported my villain into the scene and altered the footsteps making more of them but moving at a slower pace. I then placed the bucket in the path of the footsteps and using the link constraint so that when the villain approached it he would pick it up as he moved.

Firstly select the bucket handle and go to animations, constraints and link constraints. A dotted line will then appear then select the finger of the biped. Click on link to world so that for now the bucket is part of the world objects. Switch on the auto key and move the slider along until just before the biped reaches the bucket then select add link and choose the finger on the biped. Now when the biped reaches the bucket he will pick it up as he passes and carry it with him. Some minor adjustments need to be made so that the bucket handle looks like its attached to the hook hand.

Once the walking was sorted out with the appropriate speed I thought the villain should be walking at I moved on to the posture. My villain has quite a hunched back but with the default walking settings it makes the biped stand up straight and the biped loses part of the effect. Using auto key I can rotate the spine and shoulders forward a little to make the hunch stand out a little more.

Next is animating the eyes which are a little more difficult as it is a consistent animation with a regular pattern. To make it easier I am going to animate each eye once and then copy the key frames down the line so that the character blinks on a regular basis.

I then added another small animation with the right hand pushing the caretaker’s hat up a little further on his head. This was done using auto key and selecting and moving the arm up towards the head. Once the hand reached the hat the hat tilts backwards slightly exposing the eyes a little more to the scene.

The villain then keeps on walking until it approaches a trolley loaded with evidence outside the evidence locker. This then merges over to the next scene of animation. Here for a few seconds the camera will focus on the eyes of the villain as he shifty looks left and right checking to see if anyone else is around. This will be animated in the same way the eyes when they blink.

I then moved onto the animation sequence where the villain pushes the trolley of evidence away. I tried using the link constraint for this but unfortunately it moved around too much when attached to the hand. Instead I used the auto key technique and as the villain walked I moved the trolley in time with the footsteps occasionally moving the hand to make it look like he was touching the trolley as it moved.

The next stage of the animation involved the villain pushing the trolley of evidence through the door into the caretaker’s office. As the villain walks the eyes shift from side to side to make sure he’s not being watched as he walks away with a trolley of evidence. As he approaches the door to his office the door opens and he walks through and the door slides shut behind him. The camera then moves down to look at the bottom of the door preparing the final part of the animation.

The last part of the animation involves the camera looking down at the door moving slowly upwards towards the glass panel in the door where the villain pulls down a curtain preventing anyone from seeing what he is doing in his office. The hook hand appears the other side of the glass frame and pulls down a curtain.

Now that all of my scenes and animations have been created I can now render the separate files out. I have also chosen a track to play as the villain walks down the corridor; it is another one bites the dust by Queen. This track has been edited so that the starting beat loops a few times and then fades out towards the end of the animation.

Character Biography

While designing my villain I wrote up a back story for him to give him a more believable feel.

Name: Cyril Rhyme (C.Rhyme)

Alias: TJ – leaves a calling card at crimes he’s committed, police know the alias but don’t realise he’s the janitor

Age: 32

Appearance

·         Longish face

·         Long thin Bony fingers

·         Hook on left hand

·         Slightly curved nose

·         Sharp eyes, narrowed

·         Gap in teeth

·         Slightly hunched over broad shoulders

·         Thin legs

Parents: Dad – Respected Police Officer

Mom – Border Patrol Officer

Cyril’s History

·         Born in Devon, Moved to Norfolk at a young age due to father getting promoted in the police force

·         Went through school with only one dream, to becoming a police officer

·         Trained and studied hard to become a police officer

·         Failed the Health check-up test preventing him from joining the force at age 26 due to heavy asthma

·         After failing the test had an accident in the lift which resulted in his left hand being cut off, police covered up incidence dodging responsibility. This caused him to feel betrayed by the police after idolising everything they stand for.

·         Spent 2 years roaming around the country bitterly plotting revenge. His appearance changed becoming thinner in the face.

·         Developed Lock jaw due to gritting his teeth so much in anger. Cannot open and close his mouth very far but can still talk in a slightly muffled voice.

·         Discovered he had a talent at trickery, deceit and bribery. 

·         At age 28 Applied to become a janitor at a nearby establishment waiting for an opening at the police station.

·         Got together and created a variety of surveillance and spy equipment practising on the current establishment

·         At age 31 grabbed the opportunity to work as a janitor on the police force

·         Spent the next year creating a secret underground lair with the entrance located within the janitor’s closet. There are multiple other entrances for his minions/servants to come to him

·         Spends his time around the police station picking up new information, potential new recruits, leads on current crimes being committed, able to cover up some of his own plots by tampering with evidence, planting bugs around the police station for complete surveillance, making life as difficult as possible for the police force as he gradually brings them down from the inside.

Favourite Foods

·         Soup

·         Spaghetti

·         Haribo sweets

Hates

·         Doughnuts – because it’s a policeman’s favourite food