Why a toadstool?

The environmental message should be clear, but why a toadstool I have been asked, as opposed to say, a mushroom?

Toadstools have more of a "foliage" quality to them. Like they are unwanted weeds waiting to be picked out. I think that adds to the deeper meaning of the show that my character would appear in -- the only one willing to save the environment is the one nobody wants, and what's worse is that nobody will ever know that he is willing to.

Furthermore, as I understand, toadstools are generally poisonous, and mushrooms are generally edible. I can't have a villain (and a hero) who are susceptible to getting picked and eaten while on the job.

I am no connoisseur of toadstools. Maybe some are poisonous and some aren't, and maybe some are edible and some aren't, but nevertheless, my villain would be a poisonous one. And if friendly, non-poisonous toadstools exist, then that's what the hero is.

The reasoning for a toadstool as my character is also aesthetic. I really like the way that it turned out that his cap would act as a makeshift conical hat and his twig as a makeshift samurai sword.

Developing the character further

I like the idea of puns and makeshift items. The toadstool's cap doubled as an instantly recognisable conical hat, and if there was any doubt of the eastern theme, the toadstool would wield a samurai sword.

The more I thought about the sword, the more I questioned its place with the character. Would a sword be too violent, even if it was never really used? Maybe, maybe not. But then I had the perfect remedy. I decided that the sword would too be a makeshift item. Instead of being a sword, it will be a twig shaped like a samurai sword.

This idea sat with me much nicer.

As I was putting the pieces together, I thought about all of the references I looked at of Disney characters. Where do I want my toadstool to fit into that? Do I want him slim and lanky like Jafar? Or big and choppy like Shan Yu?

The answer lay in the arms and legs, as the stem needed to resemble a toadstool stem as much as possible, and not much alteration could be made to it.

This didn't look too bad. I thought, at first, I would create a base mesh where the character is slim, and his arms and legs match the proportions of the sketches above. If I didn't like it, I could make it bigger. At least that way I could see what both versions look like.

Character designs

Once I had the outline of my character, I needed to create a context for him. So he's a toadstool. Great. But why? What is his purpose? Why is this toadstool alive?

Before shedding light on those questions, I thought I'd try a few sketches in order to see how transferable the idea was.

As it turned out, the idea was pretty adaptable. My interpretation of this character was that he is a toadstool who lives out in the wild. In this context, the protagonist is also a toadstool who also lives in the wild. His agenda is that he wants to preserve the wild that he lives in, but the antagonist (my character) wants to stop him in order to help humans create a construction site over it in order for them to become rich, and for him to eventually become spiritual leader of the new site. The overall message of the show would be to protect the environment, and the audience would learn the consequences of not protecting it if my character were to succeed in his plans each time.

I thought a mock-war idea would be an interesting approach, and thought about an army of toadstool men similar to the on above, but something was strangely familiar about my design. Eventually I managed to put my tongue on it.

It was resembling the NVA/Viet Cong a little bit, and I don't want any Vietnam war political backfire. Plus, a subject like this may be too much for children of 4-14 years to grip. In light of this, my immediate next idea was to swap the gun for a samurai sword, which was a better choice.

I added wooden Japanese samurai slippers, and the toadstool cap served as a makeshift conical hat as below:

This, in lieu with the slippers and the samurai sword, would create an eastern theme, which I thought was perfect. Many youngsters these days are inspired by eastern culture and its art forms, such as anime and video games, are becoming very popular.

So at this point, there is a message to be conveyed -- protect the environment -- and there is an appealing eastern theme which makes it more interesting.

My character

After some initial pondering, I decided that I want to create a character who is modelled after a toadstool, that would behave in an anthropomorphic fashion.

The reason why I have opted for a toadstool is because firstly, it gives opportunity to underline a wider message. A message about the environment, and keeping it clean and safe, because after all, the character itself is from the earth. Secondly, I can see a lot of animation potential in a toadstool. Arms and legs can be nicely attached to the stem and the cap could make an interesting quality. Perhaps I can work it into the character's behaviour.

Disney attributes in 3d

I question whether the attributes of these villains would be fully appreciated in 3d glory, and wonder if I will be able to achieve the same effects with my character. As some form of consolidation, some of them have seen a 3d reworking through the video game Kingdom Hearts, though not in very high definition.

They possess all of the qualities mentioned already, such as sharp corners, grim facial expressions, "evil" colour schemes, but don't compare to the professed villainy of the original 2d counterparts.

They are still recognisable however. Fortunately, I have the luxury of being able to create a higher definition character as I'm not creating for a game, but I will still be mindful of falling into the trap of creating a lifeless, expressionless character.

Typical attributes of a villain

Taking into account everything that I have seen first-hand from both heroes and villains of Disney characters, I have been able to notice recurring attributes. I have already touched upon some. For example, villains are often disfigured, baring scars or some other ailment.

Other aesthetic qualities include sharp corners on eyes, or spikes in some form or another. Interestingly enough, there were a lot of rounder, burly qualities amongst them, such as with Stromboli and Shan Yu, which are attributes I would expect to find among protagonists, as they would make up the definitions of their handsome faces and muscular physique.

Facial expressions are another factor. They are so much more diverse amongst villains because villains are sometimes made to look deliberately ugly, sporting undesirable features, such as with Disney's rendition of Hades, and his pointy nose and long mouth and chin.

This type of face is so common amongst young hotshot Disney prince-types:

As opposed to more of:

Also, what do these villains often use as weapons, other than their minions, that is. Typically deception, but a more tangible weapon would be magic, and even more so, a staff of sorts. I may need to properly conisder my character's weapon. If he is all too powerful and always loses, then the audience may question how this can happen week in week out.

Colour scheme. Black and red is very common for obvious reasons as they bare connotations of death, danger, and foreboding, and these villains embody those attributes.

A look at Disney heroes

In order to create a successful villain, I must look at all aspects of what makes a villain, including his adversary, is counterpart -- that is, the hero.

Who is the hero to the villain? What does he look like? Does he make the villain look scary in comparison to himself? These are the questions I want to address here. Each of the villains that I have touched upon so far all find an obstruction, or a hindrance, in the hero. The hero is someone they need to overcome through whatever means. Whether by scaring them, killing them, exiling them, however.

Mulan has a boyish look to her, which is something that many heroes possess. The thing to note here is that this effect has been achieved on a character that is originally a girl. So it's a female, posing against a male, who is up against Shan Yu. It doesn't look like the odds would tip in Mulan's favour. The audience would be enthralled with how someone like Mulan would defeat such a mountain of a man.

The character designers at Disney studios can be as creative as they want with the lead villains, but while a common trend amongst them is to have them disfigured in some way, one thing is always certain about the heroes: they are all moderately attractive, especially in comparison to the villain.

Mufasa is a lion, and it's difficult to tell what an attractive lion looks like, but he has an all-wise, all-heart face. He's also quite plump, unlike Scar, who is skinnier than he is. He is truly the alpha male.

Aladdin, the Prince from Sleeping Beauty, and Peter Pan are the human parallels of  Mufasa. Handsome, charming, boyish, not rough around the edges. All good opposites and contenders to challenge their respective villain counterparts.

Hercules is known as a demi-god with great strength, and his father Zeus is King of Olympus, so how does someone rival that? It is obvious that Hades will ever out-fight either of them, so he has to be resort to his primal villainous instinct and outsmart them by whatever means necessary. 

Even if a character isn't handsome and boyish, it is acceptable for him to have a plucky streak. Look at Flik from A Bug's Life.

He is the opposite of Hopper in that he is smaller and weaker, so just like Hades and Hercules, Flik will have to use his wits to defeat Hopper. I would like my villain to possess the smarts that Hades has, which may be challenging to achieve even with a context, as it would require some character interaction. It will be challenging to see if I can achieve that simply through visuals.