Penguin Character Maya
706 views · Published 30 November 2011 · 0:28 · Indexed 21 September 2026
Channel: Gustav Dahl · 2011 · Film & Animation
Gustav Dahl November 2011
With this character I aimed for a cartoon-y penguin model, inspired by the movie "Madagascar". Since it's not exactly human-like, it moves more whimsical and doesn't lift its feet very much.
I used box modeling: I started with the torso and then extruded the arms, legs and head. For reference I used an image plane ("turnaround"). I used the 3D paint tool to paint the character. Lastly I made a rig for the model, as well as a foot roll control. Then I binded the rig to the skin using the Smooth binding tool and made some minor tweaking. After this I made a walk cycle using 33 frames that repeat over and over again. To make the character actually move I changed the Z translations post-infinity.
To add something extra I decided to do staging by having the penguin walk on a road with snow. I played around with various camera controls to make it more lively. I wanted the camera to follow the penguin (orient + aim constraint), but I also wanted to be able to control and rotate it manually. Therefore I baked the keyframes and moved the camera around. I made its origin point to be on a Locator object, so I could orbit around it and make sweeping camera movements (frame 45-400).
Finally I made the penguin glide down a hill (frame 430-650). On top of this I made a particle emitter spawning snow particles.
