C18 Digital Imaging & Computer Art

For my robot I decided to attempt to copy a BB8 driod. I am not very good at Maya so it is not the most accurate duplicate, but I tried to get the most essential aspects in order to make it recognizable. 

Snakes…it always has to be snakes. What kind of a detective investigates snakes? I’m supposed to be solving murder mysteries not acting like a zookeeper.

The detective angrily stepped out of his cruiser into the quickly strengthening rain. As the rain touched his torn jacket, he could barely make out the house betwixt many curled trees. The trees almost…enveloped the house. But purposefully. The branches fingered their way into and out of the windows in an eerie statement of possession.

Well, he thought, at least I’ll have a hell of a story to scare the kids with when I get home. His metallic, green boots heard the pitter patter of rain as they stomped their way towards the house, glumly carrying their owner into the unknown. By the time he had come within 10 feet of what he thought was the door, a hissing sound began to grow in his mind.

He calmly stated to himself, “It’s just the steam from the furnace.” desperately hoping that the decrepit “fortress” had a furnace and nothing something else. The door swung open, almost as if it were being opened to welcome a new vict- guest. The architecture of the house was somehow normal. Living room here, kitchen there. However, the house gave an illusion of almost being shaped in an enormous circle. The arching walls over him reminded him of his favorite movie The Hobbit.

Just like the Shire. Must have been cozy.

Stepping around with his flashlight, the hissing multiplied. The detective began to think out his steps and act more deliberate in order to ground himself.

I’m not crazy. But this isn’t a horror story either. There’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for the hissing.

His own thoughts began to distract him from his quest, as he quickly found himself walking down into the basement, the turning point of any good detective story.

They said there would be snakes…thought I was going to a fuckin’ zoo. But no, here I am like I’m in the damn Blair Witch Project.

The detective felt a cold presence on his shoulder as he made his final steps into the damp basement that was plain wrong. His mouth could barely utter “What in the world…?” as he realized the basement was made of stone and the house sitting on top of it wood. “No…” he eeked out. This wasn’t stone at all. It was painted over to look as if it were stone. His fingers slowly moved their way across the walls.

Scaley.

Is this what they meant by snakes? What kind of sick freak makes a room from snakeskin?

This thought evaporated quickly as he turned to the far corner. His pupils widened, spotting the enormous crimson “circle on the floor” with an object lying in its center.

He had heard of these circles as a child. Ancient denizens of the area practiced a forbidden style of magic that had been lost after a plague wiped them out. But this area felt…fresh. As if it were still being used. The air was clogged and white noise crowding out silence. He walked over to the circle and picked up the object.

I was never a Harry Potter fan but even I know this is a wand. This can’t be real…they said that all the Serpent Wands were destroyed with the plague…and there’s an entire shelf of them just on that wall. This isn’t adding up.

As he knelt down to touch the circle, his stomach turned.

The circle had not been composed of paint…but…

Blood.

The consistency of the blood was…well, inconsistent. The detective had seen enough crime scenes to know what human blood feels and smells like between the fingers.

Is this snake blood? The ancient hymn said something about serpent essence…is this what they meant?

The mysterious disappearance of two seventh grade students, Clarence and Sarah, was quite peculiar to say the least. Every news outlet was trying to get firsthand comments from the school’s principal to ask what went on in the chemistry laboratory. Mr. Davis had been monitoring the students who were making up an experiment when he left for what couldn’t have been more than five minutes for a cigarette. When he returned to the room, the students had vanished, but strangely, their shoes were still at the table where they had previously been working. There were no cameras in the lab, but hall cameras showed no trace of the students leaving the room. The cameras surrounding the perimeter of the school captured no trace of them. Detective Lawrence entered the room to investigate the scene. A strip of yellow tape labeling the classroom as a crime scene spanned across the door. Lawrence stepped over it and peered into the beaker on the lone table in the room. It was mostly empty except for a miniscule amount of liquid. Lawrence stuck a syringe into it to take a sample. He then focused his attention on the four slip-on shoes directly under the table. They looked stretched as if someone was still standing there wearing them. The only remaining objects were a Macbook Air and a number two pencil. Strangely, the pencil was perfectly sharpened at the tip as if it was never used. Lawrence pressed the power button on the Macbook only to be greeted by a login screen. He collected the pencil and Macbook as evidence and left the room to return to the police station. Hopefully, this would be enough to discover what happened to the children.

 

Images used in the concept art:

http://images.esellerpro.com/2308/I/137/792/8987680735262.jpg

https://www.polyvore.com/cgi/img-thing?.out=jpg&size=l&tid=18972238

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/z2IAAOSwdoVZhcXI/s-l300.jpg

https://content.etilize.com/Alternate-Image3/1010041672.jpg

There was a ring at the doorbell. Ella unwillingly got up from eating her lunch to answer the door. It was just the postman dropping off a package. After signing for the package she returned to the table to find her lunch strewn all over the floor. Her glass had been knocked over and her plate was cracked on the floor. She remembered she had broken her rule, don’t leave your food unprotected. She noticed her dog Milo’s food was left untouched and there was a trail of footprints were leading to the kitchen. Milo was in big trouble.

12/29/18

Detective Morse ducked under the tape and into the crime scene. His hairs were standing on edge. The scene was electrifying: he hadn’t seen anything this abnormal in his 23 years as a detective. The room was perfectly normal with the train still going around the Christmas tree and the goldfish swimming freely in its bowl. Santa’s cookies were half eaten and the tv was showing the morning news. But that was the issue: things weren’t supposed to be this perfect. They were lifeless on the ground, gathered around the Christmas tree, gifts and wrapping paper tangled amongst their bodies. Their pulses were non-existent: they were unquestionably dead. There were only blunt trauma wounds, no blood, yet they all appeared to have died peacefully.

“Morse, you got any ideas as to what happened here?” inquired his assistant Alfred.

He didn’t respond. He had no idea what happened. 1 adult, 3 children, and a dog. All deceased. The only person who survived was Mrs. Chase a pharmacist who was at a medical expo to give feedback on newly released drugs. She was supposed to arrive by Christmas but the snowstorm delayed her until the 27^th.

“Albert, can we get anything to cover that window?” Morse requested. The glass of the window was on the floor, shattered into a million pieces. The number 7 marker labeled the bullet used to shoot out the window, a 9mm bullet.

However, things were not adding up. Who would kill 3 children, a dog, and a man? Why was the window shot out? How did no one in the family react to the window being shot open? How were they killed by blunt trauma? Why did the killer not steal anything?

Objects:  goldfish, gifts, glass, bullet, cookies, tree

The answer to this is that the mom did it. I wasn’t sure how to add a motive into the little skit without making it too obvious. The main points are that the goldfish survived 4 days without being fed, the people died peacefully, yet it was made to look like blunt trauma, and how the mom is a pharmacist so she would have access to drugs (yea she drugged her family with the cookies).

 

So I know what you’re all thinking, but I promise you, my actual model of this scene will be better. Now on to the story.

Detective Lopez got a call about a murder from the police department of the small town of Trilsborough. Lopez is from out of town, but was called in because Trilsborough doesn’t have many experienced detectives. He shows up to the scene and this is what he sees. The mayor of Trilsborough lies dead in a pool of blood on the floor with multiple stab wounds. Lopez next looks towards the broken window and notices the snow outside. He goes to the window and looks outside to see footprints that lead to the road and then disappear. He thinks to himself “What happened here?”. Can you figure what happened to the mayor?

Tonight is the night of New Spirit’s Moon, and you, having been raised on stories of the guardian spirits, decided to camp out in the woods beyond the village. Perhaps you hoped to catch a glimpse of one of these spirits, or maybe you came here on a dare. The night was quite uneventful, until all of a sudden, you heard a large commotion coming from the north! You scramble to your feet and rush towards the source of the noise, but it stops as suddenly as it starts. Pressing forward, a break in the trees reveals a large clearing inbetween two hills. You gaze at the strange and chaotic scene in front of you. A magnificent fountain, with what appears to be a recently extinguished flame in the center, above the flowing water. Two pillars: one with a giant stone snake wrapped around it; the other left with markings suggesting something similar had once been there. A tree seemingly having sprouted right out of the stone tiles. Two red crystals on either end of a circle of ash. A spell book; likely belonging to one of the monks. And finally, an old wooden mask. Oddly enough, you find the mask to be the most concerning thing here. If the legends were true, then this was the mask of the guardian spirit. The mask is here, yet there is no spirit. The monks, if they were here, most certainly came to destroy this sacred place, but it is unfathomable that they’d leave such a powerful tome here. The circle of ash is broken; a ritual interupted. What in the world happened here?

“Cause of death?”
“Her throat was slashed in 4 places”
“Time of death”
“Twelve o one am last night”
“Did she live alone?”
“No, she lived with her husband”
“And where is he?
“Unknown”
“Last question. What flower is that on the ground next to where she died?”
“Aconitum, sir”
“English, please”
“Wolfsbane”

The narrow scene is of a wall in a workshop. Lighting is bright and natural, but side-on and casting shadows, presumably from a window off screen. The edge of a curtain sways gently in and out of frame. There is a workbench littered with tools and materials, fabrics, sewing equipment, scissors, and the like. Above hang two marionettes, one in the likeness of a soft teddy bear, the other a doll of a young girl. To the right is another hanging space, but no puppet. The strings trail off hallway down, not clean cut but frayed. The wooden paneling behind is slightly worn but otherwise clean. Further up, several books and a small fragrant plant occupy a neat shelf. A closer look at titles reveal the books to be mainly craft guides, with a few notable exceptions.

It had been days since they last saw her. What started off as a friendly picnic had turned into a horrible nightmare that seemed to last for what feels like forever. Today they were searching the forest to the east of the park where she had gone missing. The group trekked through the forest paying attention to every little detail searching for something, anything that would lead them in the right direction. The main detective on the case was right at the front leading the investigation and spotted a river up ahead. When they reached the water, the team was shocked at the sight. There at the water side was her backpack a long with several other smaller possessions of hers. But the question still stands, where is she now?