For the first time in the event’s history, a group of students majoring in Digital Entertainment Technology (DET) are teaming up to create Film Fest’s first fully animated feature film.

Each participating student has a different role. Between establishing a script, creating characters, creating concept art, building a storyboard, creating models, and working out character movements and facial expressions, there are many roles to fill. “It is a big project, but I know we can finish it and it is one of those things that will show who DET is and what we do and what we are able to accomplish.” said Mullen

The film will be a 1940s Noir 3D animation, taking place in Chicago.

“It is about a murder mystery and the lead character, Hazel, is a strong independent woman lead,” said Lauren Mullen, A Senior DET major from Austin.

Mullen, who has many roles with the film, including director, producer, main editor and writer, got the idea for the film when Dr. Brian Burton, a DET professor, was explaining what he wanted Mullen to do as a research assistant.

“I was going to enter FilmFest regardless,” said Mullen, “But then Dr. Burton gave me the idea of doing a 3D animation.”

The film will use Unity Game Engines to create the characters and scenes of the movie.

“The process is a lot about first getting everything set up, then working on lighting, and finally tweaking everything,” said Dakota Matthews, a Senior DET major from Lampasas.

The team went to some big industry leaders in game engine design like Naughty Dog and Gearbox and told them about their ideas. The industry figureheads were very excited about this project. According to them, “this is something that has not been done much before and will make you stand out.”