Illustration & Visual Narrative - Final Task
12/10/2022 - 09/12/2022 // (Week 7 - Week 15)
Denise Anjali // 0342430
Illustration & Visual Narrative // Bachelor of Design in Creative Media
Final Task: Comic cover & animated one-page comic
LECTURES
Week 7:
3-act structure; introduction, climax and epilogue. Think of this as the pilot episode of a show. Think visual hierarchy for the cover page. Don't give too much away. With the animation, think about looping animations that work well when replayed over and over again.
Start the story with a central theme, the overall point of the story. Think of a genre. The conflict drives the story and draws the interest of the audience. Characters carry out the story, the protagonist (main character) and antagonists (the annoyance).
The 3-act structure has the set-up (the world, introducing the conflict), the rising tension (series of obstacles, each bigger than the last), the conflict (the big boss), and the resolution (the end, what happens next?).
Week 9:
The process has value. It takes time and working through to get out of the comfort zone to create a piece that makes sense. Illustrator is a necessity despite how hard it is to work with. Designers solve problems and identify problems that crop up along the way.
Start the comic with a log line (an interesting line that draws in the reader). What will be judged is how the composition transitions the story and how it flows. We have this comic project as it is similar to the design process of reference to sketch to illustrator to colours to line quality. We can take photographs or 3D model poses and trace over them in illustrator.
Illustrator tips: when tracing with the pen tool, hold down alt and drag the line to curve it. Guarantees a smooth line due to only adjusting the 2 nodes rather than curvature tool adding nodes. If drawing with the pencil tool, you can adjust the smoothness of the line by double tapping it. Also can simplify it. Can change the tapering. As well as changing the brush. Manually this can be done using the widen tool. Gradient tool has linear, radial and free form. Don’t overuse it though as it can get out of hand.
Windows to brushes to open brush library to other library to install brushes on illustrator (brusheezy). Make sure it is an AI file.
Week 10:
Framed ink (book/pdf)
Being aware of what you are doing and where you are placing it is important to make it tighter. When we see we look at the sum of things, that’s why we look at the silhouette of everything. If the silhouette is not strong, the character is not strong.
Sketch everyday and learn from it
Week 11:
Breakdown the first act into a storyboard. When creating the first page, think about how to hook the readers. Try to have the last panel to be a cliffhanger that draws the reader to turn the page for more. Think about how to condense your narrative and make the story flow.
Transitions
Sequential arts, comics, have been around for quite a while. Transitions are based on your story and your story is based on your narrative structure. Writing will greatly help you cut down time and understand how to translate it to images.Every story, based on the 3-act structure, will have its ups and downs.
There are 5 types of transitions which serve different purposes based on the book, Understanding Comics. The transitions serve different purposes and show how quickly time is passing. How to show continuity, that it is connected and relevant to each other. Closure, gestalt theory, is when we close the gap ourselves despite nothing being there. Closure can be used to make the audience imagine what happens in between panels. When creating the comic panels, don't think about it second by second, think about it chronologically instead. Create participation of the reader by leaving gaps that the reader can imagine.
Moment to moment repeats similar panels that show the slow passing of time. It tends to have closure after. Action to action can span minutes or hours. Subject to subject changes subjects and has a gap that readers can imagine. Subject to subject transitions account for early as many as action to action. Scene to scene can span time or locations. Aspect to aspect shows different aspects to a particular scene. This transition is commonly used in Japanese media.
Week 12:
Create each panel as it’s own art board. Only start animating/planning to animate after your panels are set. When animating only focus on secondary action and overlapping action. Think simple animations that provide depth to the illustration? An example would be animating smoke. Use blend in AI to create the in between of the frames and then make it loop in Photoshop. The assets must be made in AI but the animation can be done in any software. Can download AI brushes. Abr brush files only work for PS. Don’t go too far, limit to 15 frames and below.
INSTRUCTIONS
Final Task: Comic Cover & Animated One-Page Comic
We are expected to create a cover page and one-page introduction for an original comic. The page should also include at least one animated panel. The page must have a minimum of 3 panels or a maximum of 15 panels.
We are to start with the narrative writing and visual research based on comic references. One website we were advised to look at was Webtoon. My main visual references are Crow Time (slice of life) and School bus Graveyard (drama) on Webtoon, and a drama graphic novel I have called Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me.
Figure 1.1: Comics visual references, Week 7 (16/10/2022)
Everyday, Abby (Absinthe) lives a normal life. She also happens to have a demon that haunts an old mirror in her room and likes to give her advice using the red marker pen she conveniently set out to avoid all the blood she has to clean up.
One day, she gets into a fatal car accident while skateboarding home. Because of this, she is now a ghost stuck on this mortal plane. Due to this, she has to find the demon she lives with because her soul was supposed to be taken by it. Unfortunately, for the first time she can't find it and it refuses to communicate with her. With the help of her relatively new guardian angel and a little ghost sensitive cat, she sets out to find it and get it to claim her soul so that she can finally get her end of the deal (finding the soul of her beloved pet). Her starting point? The witch who sold her the old mirror in the first place.
Through a series of trials and mishaps, piecing the trail together clue by clue, she finally finds the demon. She has to negotiate yet another deal between the demon and the local park creature for its release before she can, at long last, be reunited with her pet cat and leave the mortal plane.
(225 words)
Before sketching, I looked through Pinterest to get an idea for comic covers that would fit the story I was trying to tell. From there, I started with thumbnail sketches of the cover page.
From these thumbnails, I explored a few sketches and after some feedback, started the process of creating the cover on Illustrator.
Figure 1.2: Thumbnail sketches of comic cover ideas, Week 8 (18/10/2022)
From these sketches, I created several sketches of the cover and eventually decided on one, with the help of some feedback.
Figure 1.3, 1.4 & 1.5: Alternate comic cover sketches, Week 9 (26/10/2022)
Figure 1.6: Final cover layout sketch, Week 9 (26/10/2022)
From this sketch, I also changed the orientation of the sketch based on the feedback given. Below is the process of creating the cover page.
Figure 1.7: Process of comic cover page, Week 10 (02/11/2022)
Figure 1.8: Process of comic cover page, Week 10 (06/11/2022)
Additionally, I struggled to figure out the title for the comic. I got some feedback from my peers for the final outcome but below are some of the sketches I created while brainstorming.
Figure 1.9: Title idea sketches, Week 10 (05/11/2022)
Here is the final comic cover outcome.
Figure 1.10: Final comic cover, Week 11 (07/11/2022)
From here onwards, I started with the introductory comic page. I wrote down what I wanted to happen as thumbnails and then planned out the layout in sketches. I wanted to start with the main character feeling disorientated and leading up to her discovery that she is a ghost.
Figure 1.11: Pre-planning comic page layout, Week 12 (15/11/2022)
From this stage, I sketched out the general layout of the panels and actions in an A4 size page.
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Figure 1.12: Comic page layout sketch, Week 12 (17/11/2022)
Based on the above sketch, I moved onto creating the entire page on Illustrator. I mainly used the pencil tool to draw out the details and filled in colours with the pen tool. I did adjust the panels as according to feedback.
Figure 1.13: Process of creating comic page on Illustrator, Week 13 (21/11/2022)
Figure 1.14: Process of creating comic page on Illustrator, Week 14 (27/11/2022)
Figure 1.15: Process of creating comic page on Illustrator, Week 14 (30/11/2022)
Finally, it was time to put it together to create a looping animated comic page. I chose to do so on Photoshop as it is a minimal animation on one panel of the page. I created the frames as separate artboards on Illustrator before importing it into Photoshop.
Figure 1.16: Screenshot of animation process, Week 15 (07/12/2022)
Here is the final static comic page and animated comic page.
Figure 1.17: Final static comic page, JPEG, Week 15 (08/12/2022)
Figure 1.18: Final animated comic page, GIF, Week 15 (08/12/2022)
FEEDBACKWeek 10:
Specific feedback: Turn the building diagonal or sideways to invoke more dynamism. Use a spooky but not too halloween-esque.
Make the angel bigger to make the negative space like a third, make the angel more of an imposing shape rather than a character. (See photo sketch) angel is background, character is mid ground, building is foreground. Have the signs on the building be on the front and side, have the light playing on it.
REFLECTION
Exploration: During this task, I realised that I tend to focus on a sequence of steps to create the work. With both the cover and the comic page, I follow the same steps to try and achieve results that I would be satisfied with.
Observations: I noticed that many of my classmates have a good sense of how to create a comic page and I can learn from them as well by observing their work.
Findings: I have found that while it is difficult to adjust using Illustrator, it is always possible to go back and redo a part of the task if it is necessary.
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