Under Investigation: A rock that shines is not always a diamond💎
Team: Mall Cops
INTRODUCTION:
The Under Investigation activity required us to put on our detective hats and work in a groups to investigate artifacts in an evidence box that we've been assigned. We were then to create a clue mind map of the artifacts connecting them to a story. Next was to create a hypothesis and outline a Hard Boiled / Film Noir inspired story.
The individual part of the project was to write a character bio/ description and create a sketch of one of the characters. After creating the sketch a storyboard and Poster then was made. A 3D rendering of the character was created in Adobe Fuse CC and uploaded to Mixamo and the creative cloud. Using Photoshop we were then to create a animated scene using the models.
MATERIALS:
HARDWARE USED: HP Envy, Phone Camera, Clues
SOFTWARE USED: TUFTS VUE, Autodesk Sketchbook, Adobe Fuse CC, Adobe Mixamo, Adobe Photoshop
SOFTWARE USED: TUFTS VUE, Autodesk Sketchbook, Adobe Fuse CC, Adobe Mixamo, Adobe Photoshop
PLATFORMS: Creative Cloud, Behance
CREATIVE PROCESS:
We used mind maps to brainstorm how all the artifacts could work together to create a narrative. Then put together a hypothesis to get an overview of the story. After all the elements of the story were laid out we created a outline of the story.
Mind Map Created in Vue
Artifacts
Hypothesis
WHO:
John Paul/ The French Man - Thief with a slight of hand
Clare Bennet - Femme Fatal
Henry Hoxman/ The General - Host of gala, Rich
WHAT was the crime or mystery?
Theft. Diamonds (hidden inside a velvet bag equal a high value). Broaches and earnings (not as valuable). (Ordinary rocks maybe to switch with the valuable diamonds.)
WHERE is the story set? (Geographical and physical location(s))
Geographical Locations:
The story takes place in New York City. There are other countries.
(There are many items that link to different countries. These Countries would not be getting along around that time period and so it makes sense that this story take place in the USA. New York is a destination for people of different backgrounds and so the most likely location. The artifacts included items from England, France/Germany, Russia, and China.)
Physical Locations:
Gala hosted at Hoxmans mansion.
WHEN does the story take place?
New Years Eve(Fire crackers from China which are used on the Chinese new year)
Between 1945-1950 (After World War 2 French-German star)
WHY was the crime committed (Motivation) or WHY did this mystery reveal itself?
Money (Diamonds). Hoxman had a lot of money and that attracted the attention of John Paul and Clare (They are thieves who like to associate with those in the upper class). John Paul seduced by the promise of a riches and a beautiful woman.
HOW:
Clare seduced the wealthy Mr Hoxman and was able to freely wander the mansion. being so close to him gave her access to the whereabouts of the diamonds and the key. John Paul was a distraction so that she was able to not be noticed.
My interpretation of the story
I'm reminded of 1948, a case I worked in New York City. It started with a man,a filthy rich one. He was known as the General, real name Henry Hoxman. He met a beautiful woman you see, and he couldn't see anything else. Clare I think her name was, was it her real one, who knows. The General was known as a war hero, a respectable man around town just ask anyone. Was he that respectable? Had that woman living with him, not a wedding ring in sight. Now that Clare dame, a sneaky one I tell ya. Did all sorts behind his back. Bar after Bar talking to all sorts of men. That's most likely where she met that french man. When that mans around people tend to loose their belongings. he could take the watch right of your wrist just as your checking the time.
The General owned a jeweler, had all sorts of rocks dazzling throughout his home. A man like that was the biggest target there was. Now what people didn't know was where he got his Gems. The other side of his business, he imported stolen goods from all over the world. His ties to the mob ran deep. He had one stolen diamond he kept hidden to himself, he kept it in his home secured in his safe. He couldn't sell it to the public it was too risky, he made arrangements to sell it to the underground market. He had a gala, a masquerade, with all sorts of people coming to his house to bring in the new year. A front for the deal going on in the back.
Clare was privy to this info. She watched everything the General did, knew everything about everything. That sweet face had a cunning mind. She invited that french man to the party, it was everything he loved, a gathering of the rich folk dressed to the nines. He spent the night charming women even charmed the men. Talked about his family's business back in France. They were in real estate or was it a fashion empire? Maybe they owned a bank? Whatever he said, all lies. Everyone he spoke to remembered how impressive he was. Everyone he spoke to seemed to have lost some sort of valuable too. A brooch a ring, anything that looked expensive, a coincidence I think not.
While the french man was charming the crowd Clare was charming the General. He was all over that dame, hands in places I couldn't say. That's how she got the key to the safe, that key was always with him. Just as she got the key the french man showed up to introduce himself to the General. He was charming said all the right things to get his attention. Talked business, about how his family owned a jeweler in France and how he could introduce him to his so called suppliers. Talked about that beautiful woman on his arm. They talked for awhile long enough for Clare to sneak away. She went to the back room, the room she was to stay out of, the room with is safe. She opened the safe and found the diamond they were in a velvet bag. Took out the diamond and replaced it with a rock she found outside. she was quick, by the time the General started to miss her she was right by his side.
A ruckus was starting as people were noticing their valuables were gone. The police was called. Seeing this the General was suddenly aware his ring was gone the ones with his initials. Alarmed he checked for his key the one to his safe, it was gone. He thought about who could have stolen from him. He had spent the whole night with Clare, but it couldn't be her, who else. That french man. The General spotted him sneaking out. He went after him and had the police grab him. They searched him and found the valuables of all the victims including his ring and key of the General. The general thought all was good as the search didn't turn up any diamonds. As the police left with the french man a relieved General continued with the party. Later that night the deal was to take place the general went to his safe and grabbed the diamonds in the velvet bag. As he was showing the rock to his clients he looked and saw that although the rock might shine, it was no diamond. Clare? Gone, like a ghost there was no trace of her.
PRODUCTION METHODS & WORKFLOW:
Used SketchBook To create the character sketch. In this assignment we were to use Adobe draw but as I do not have a tablet I wouldn't be able to work on it at home. Instead I used the Autodesk Sketchbook app I have on my laptop. I do feel I am more comfortable using the sketchbook app than the draw app but that might just be because I've been able to spend more time using sketchbook than adobe draw.
Using References I created the sketch for the French man
Character Sketch And Bio
Jean Paul AKA The French Man
Jean Paul AKA Trickster AKA The French Man
Protagonist
Race: Caucasian
Sex: Male
Age: 34
Nationality: French-American
Occupation: Thief (Con Man)
Residence: New York
Occupation: Thief (Con Man)
Residence: New York
Height: 5 ft 8 in
Weight: 175 lbs
Hair Colour: Brown
Hairstyle: Parted slicked back
Eye Colour: Hazel
Facial Features: triangle shaped face, forehead wrinkles, thin lips, wide nose
Athletic build
Traits: Charismatic, Ladies man, Compulsivelsive Lair, Thrill Seeker
Biography
Growing up, back in his birth home of France, John Paul was wealthy. After the war his family emigrated to the USA and ended up in New York. Running from war, they lost a lot of their wealth and John Paul ended up learning to steal to get by. As he had grown up in wealth, he was very good at pretending to be rich as to be able to hang around the upper-class. He always had a figurative mask on to tricking everyone into believing he was someone else. This made him elusive to the authorities. He would create identities that were charismatic and lovable and once he got close enough he would take what he wanted and disappear. He felt he had a good read of people so that he could easily use anyone to get what he wanted and leave. He loved to trick people into believing the wildest things, it was great entertainment for him. Affected by the war he saw how people just took without concern for others and this influenced his world view.
Storyboard
Created storyboard on sketchbook
Storyboard
Storyboard 2
Poster
Google images that inspired the poster
right image from The Big Combo (1955)
Created the poster in sketchbook
Poster
MODELING:
Used Adobe Fuse CC to create a 3D model of the character
Uploaded to creative cloud and sent to mixamo
Opened the 3D model to Mixamo
Added animation in Mixamo
Compositing
Created Photoshop file for film and video an added background image
Saved animation as dae file and tried to import to photoshop but was not working.
Imported fuse model from cc library
Scaled the model to match the background scene.
Adjusted the position and colour of the light shining on the models
Added second character from the library created by my group members. Added animations under properties.
Added music from freesound.org. I chose a jazz sound with a upright bass as there is a jazz band in the picture.
Exported animation to MP4. The general disappeared in photoshop and the quicktime video, so I restarted photoshop and exported again.
Final Animation
This is the scene where the general confronts the french man as he's trying to sneak away. I didn't create the exact scene as the storyboard as I did not have access to the same characters.
The General created by Ben Redhill
CONCLUSION:
The challenge of this project was the group aspect. It's very frustrating as a creative person when you have a vision that may not align completely with the group. I did my best to contribute to the narrative without forcing my ideas. In the end the story evolved from what we came up with as a group in the beginning, making it somewhat confusing to me what the story was. Once this turned into a individual portion I decided to go with the original narrative as I understood it. I do see how working in a group can be difficult and so having more experience going forward would benefit me in learning how to dealt with the challenges. Another challenge was figuring out the new softwares. Finding a backdrop that was fitting to create the scene was difficult on its own let alone adding the animation into the scene. I was stuck for awhile after sending it to mixamo as I don't understand why that was included if the same thing could be done in photoshop. I will have to practice more with the programs to see what else I can create. This project has encouraged me to look more into character design as I found it difficult to draw the same face at different angles for the storyboard. Hopefully I can improve on that skill. Overall the experience was interesting and beneficial in learning different software's to create animations.
