The purpose of this assignment is to apply material shaders, textures, and bump maps to your "main character", and other models in your scene, such as props, and the environment (a terrain, or a room, and sky).
Properties of the shaders, such as transparency or reflectivity, should also be rendered at this point. You will also need to light your scene, place your camera, and render that view.
For rendering, I recommend the TV NTSC 4:3 preset in the render tab, at 100% (720 X 486 px). The image should be rendered as a .png file at full quality (no compression).
Think about how the shading and lighting conveys the narrative of the scene. Is it dark and scary? Or warm and bright? If the target audience is children, consider using the toon shader.
For more realistic rendering, experiment using ambient occlusion and environment lighting in the scene. Try out different levels of softness in your shadows.