This project involves a group of students working as a team to build a crime case by using a mystery bag and its contents as evidence. The case will then be fleshed out to a story outline with its own character profiles and film posters and explore the process of storyboarding and animation with different softwares available. 

Adobe Photoshop Sketch, Adobe Photoshop CC, Adobe Illustrator Draw, Adobe Illustrator CC, Adobe Comp, Adobe Fuse, Adobe Mixamo, and Adobe After Effects

1. Analyzed and documented contents of mystery bag

2. Brainstormed different hypotheses on possible storylines based on presented evidence

3. Created a visual map to establish connections leading to possible crime and suspects

4. Finalized hypothesis with the group by receiving input and giving feedback from their suggestions

5. Established characters involved in the story and background information as well as the settings for the storyline

6. Briefed Storyline to class and received critique

7. Refined character profiles and sketched designs for their appearance using Adobe Draw

8. Illustrated storyboard panels on Adobe draw detailing scenes for storyline

9. Created roughs for a film poster

10. Created 3d models for the characters using Adobe Fuse

11. Imported 3d model to Mixamo to animate 

12 Used After Effects to render the 3d animation with a background

As a group established from Scotland Yard, we collaborated with each other to answer the 5 W's: when, where, what, why and how. Based on the evidence we were able to make connections to answer those questions. We also had to work out the details for the story arc, climax, plot twists and the final resolution to make our story well developed and realistic.

Name: Jacob Williams 

Age: 40 

Place of Birth: Australia 

Occupation: Unemployed 

Height: 5 6"

Weight: 160 LBS

Eye Colour: Dark Brown 

Special Features: A deeper voice, average personality, smart on his feet, good with cards. 

Accessories:  Round Sunglasses 

Hobbies: Gambling, Drinking, Travelling 

Bio: John Williams was born in Australia, a 41 year old man who likes to travel. John has a criminal record from his hobbies which includes gambling, alcohol, and drugs. John falls for a girl named Diana at a Golf club called Pennant Hill that hosted illegal card games. John finds himself in a situation where he wants to give Diana a new life, but for that to happen, they would need money. John finds a solution that is dangerous and involved picking up drugs from the Moose Factory in Ontario, Canada.  John has to "buy out" Diana from the brothel house organized by Madame Elise Fleur before time runs out. 

Name: Diana Banks

Age: 27

Place of Birth: Australia

Occupation: Prostitute

Height: 5'5

Weight: 143.3 lbs

Eye Colour: Green

Special Features: Beauty mark under left eye, bold red lips, braided half-updo hairstyle

Accessories: Rose hair pin

Hobbies: Swindling money from clients, smoking, drinking

Bio: Diana is a femme fatale character who seduces John into a life of crime. She turned to a life of prostitution after a rough childhood and is working under Madame Fleur. She swindles money from her clients and she has turned to John to further her schemes. She poses herself as a helpless damsel in trying to escape the clutches of her madame and convinces John to ask Madame Fleur for a job and once they've earned enough, they would elope together. .

Madame Elise Fleur

Age: 48

Date of birth: December 13th 1945

Place of  birth: Montreal QC, Canada

Occupation: Elise manages criminal operations involving prostitution, drug trafficking, and gambling.

Height: 5'9

Weight: 145lbs

Eye colour: Grey 

Hair colour: Dark Brown, shoulder length 

Special features/ accessories: Elise is usually seen with her hair teased in the back, side swept bangs, and thigh high black boots

Hobbies: Elise is an avid reader, her favourite genre is true crime. She also enjoys trying to read others which is what lead to her interest in poker and gambling (both playing and organizing illegal games for high rollers).

Bio

Elise was born in a rough neighbourhood in Montreal. Her parents were involved in petty crimes and drug use leaving Elise to fend for herself. She quickly learned that there are losers and winners in the world and decided she would do whatever it took to come out on top. She was always intelligent and began running scams as a kid to provide for herself. As she grew older she developed a taste for analyzing others and using what she saw to her own profit. She escalated and began bringing others into her various operations. Her main hustle was running a network of prostitutes in the Montreal which eventually even broke out into an international operation. Through her girls and the contacts she met through them she also distributed drugs and began running under-the-table gambling events for the upper-class clientele. 

Name: Derek "Big Gunz" Smith
Age: 46 years old
Place Of Birth: Tide Water, ON, CA
Occupation: Runs illegal distribution of narcotics for Hells Angels
Height: 6'5
Weight: 251 Ibs
Eye Colour: Brown
Special Features: Deep voice, short range of vocabulary, aggressive, long grey beard, tattoos on both arms of a gun, a heart that says "mom" and the words " BIG GUNZ" 
Accessories: Bandana on head, sometimes chain in pocket for wallet, possy of goons at his disposal
Hobbies: Drinking, drugs, selling drugs, long motorcycle rides along the concrete highway

Bio: Derek "Big Gunz" Smith is the leader of the Hells Angels biker gang in Moose Factory, Ontario, Canada. He sells drugs and participates in other illegal activity. Derek is only in the story near the end. He creates conflict with the main character John who is sent to him to pick up drugs for Madame Elise Fleur. Big Gunz is a greedy guy so his plan was to kill John and take the money and the drugs leaving him with double the profit. 

Our story begins in New South Wales, Australia in 1993. A man named John Williams, a 41-year-old slumming it around from place to place. He’s got a criminal record and struggles with gambling, drugs, and alcohol. You must be wondering how he gets by, right? Cards. The guys a genius with cards. John heard about an underground poker game taking place at Pennant Hills Golf Club. The game was being hosted by a Madame Elise Fleur. Madame Elise Fleur deals in illegal card games, running a brothel, and selling illegal drugs. Elise provided some girls for entertainment for the game.

One of the girls was a starlet in the brothel and she was Diana Banks. She caught John’s eye right away. After John won the game he sparked up a conversation. He usually struggles talking with people, but because Diana was a prostitute, it took some pressure off. They spent the whole night together. They fell in love. John has little experience with women, but there was just something about Diana. They wanted to create a fresh start together, so they made a plan. 

Diana would ask Elise if she had any work for John and once they had enough money, they would leave and start over. Elise had a job for John which he would receive half the profit, but it was dangerous. John had to do this if he wanted a fresh start with Diana, so he took it. The job was to pick up drugs at Moose Factory, Ontario, Canada from a local biker gang. John goes to Moose Factory and meets the bike gang.

The tension in the air is thick. Somethings not right, and John can feel it. They start screaming at him to give them the money. Next thing John knows is there are guns being fired and he is hiding out. He manages to fight a guy and steal his weapon. He fights off the gang, barely escaping with the drugs, and his life. 

He returns to Australia to meet Elise to give her the drugs. He’s finally about to have the life he has wanted. Simple and calm with the woman he loves, Diana. When John goes to meet Madame Elise Fleur, he finds her dead. He then sees Diana and he rushes over to see if she is alright. 

All of a sudden Diana starts asking for the money, nonstop. Diana then pulls out a gun and points it at Johns head. She begins to explain how she used him to get the money to leave. She killed Madame Elise Fleur because she found out about Diana and was going to kill her. John went numb. His heart was broken, and the life he always wanted started to fade away. Filled with rage John charges at Diana, takes the gun, and tries to shoot her fatally, but failed; instead heavily wounding her. Diana attempts to escape while John gathers the strength to finish her off, but all of a sudden the door gets blown off the hinges and Scotland yard busts in. They arrest John Williams on the scene and Diana was admitted to a hospital only to be questioned once she recovers and Scotland yard begins to assess the crime scene.

Illustrated below are the overall roughs for our storyboards and was made by Lucy McCaw and the rest of the group interpreted their assigned panels after

Panel 1-2 by Fang Connett

1. The scene begins in South New Wales Australia where John is admiring the view contemplating about life.

2. While gambling, John looked over and his attention drew to a beautiful woman.

Panel 3-4 by Heather Stevens

John and Diana wanted to create a fresh start together, so they made a plan. Diana would ask Elise if she had any work for John and once they had enough money, they would leave and start over.

Elise had a job for John which he would receive half the profit, but it was dangerous. John had to do this if he wanted a fresh start with Diana, so he took it. The job was to pick up drugs at Moose Factory, Ontario, Canada from a local biker gang. John goes to Moose Factory and meets the bike gang. The tension in the air is thick. Somethings not right, and John can feel it. They start screaming at him to give them the money. Next thing John knows is there are guns being fired and he is hiding out.

Panel 5-6

For the poster roughs, I wanted avery stylized look with only using 3 main colors, red black and white for a really bold appearance.

After the storyboard and poster roughs, we began the next phase of the project which was to render our character designs into 3D models using Adobe Fuse

After completing the project, I learned that there was so much more elements to incorporate when building a story, beyond the simple pen and paper. I was able to explore different softwares to to add depth to the characters and the design process when it came to storyboarding and film posters. Perhaps, the most challenging aspect of the whole project was to create a coherent and realistic storyline. It was easy coming up with ideas and coming up with the characters, but to have them connect logically was a whole other element my group and I faced with difficulty. Once we overcame that, it felt great to advanced further and flesh out the scenes as we saw them fit. Another challenge was using a new software in fuse and rendering with after effects. However, I knew that if I asked for help the problem would be solved.

I really enjoyed the process of character design and storyboard as I am more familiar and comfortable in illustrating them and I was proud to show my designs to my peers and receive feedback for them. I also enjoyed just getting in touch with the story and see how it could develop further.

This project was an eyeopener for me as its hard to know what hard work came with the process just by looking at a novel or a movie or any other finished product. However, once you are behind the scenes, working out the details and have everything run smoothly once its done, it really puts perspective into the work storytellers do for us today