The Twist — Francesca Coad

Research/Moodboarding

Unlike season one which featured historical Australian crimes, season two focused on International crimes. The crimes spanned from 1911 - 2021 and came from ten different countries. Each episode felt like a unique opportunity to really showcase different time periods, locations and cultures. Prior to storyboarding, I would extensively research and create moodboards for an episode. Be it lapel and tie styles of the early 1900s, hat styles of the 1940s, car models used by the French police in the 1970s or determining the configuration of a modern day Greek courtroom, each episode required countless visual references. Whether putting an early 2000s flip phone front and centre in a character’s hand or hiding an Atari in an open cupboard in the background, I felt these small details added a layer to each story.

Storyboarding

I storyboarded all 15 episodes. The lead animator and I would then use these to create an animatic and refine the scenes until lock off. The storyboards then informed all asset creation.

The above storyboard in action

Background Development

When multiple scenes took place in the same location, I would build a 3D model using SketchUp. This was a real time saver when it came to framing, rendering final backgrounds and also ensuring consistency across scenes. Some locations were well documented and had multiple photographic references while others were entirely unknown. Whether real or imagined, my primary considerations when designing backgrounds were; creating spaces that hero the animation, including subtle elements to aid in the storytelling and staying as true as possible to the time and place.

Character Development

When it came to visually developing characters, there was anything between a plethora and no sources. When no visual sources could be found, I would look for written/verbal descriptions if available or take inspiration from the hair and beauty trends of the time period.