Illustration & Visual Narrative — Final Project

12.10.2022 — 30.11.2022 (Week 7 — Week 14)

Rachel Madeline Purwanto / 0356994 / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Illustration and Visual Narrative
Project 3 & Exercises

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❥LECTURES 

Week 7 — 3-Act Structure 

3 Acts

- Introduction

- Climax

- Epilogue

Notes :

- Visual hierarchy for the page

- Start story with central theme, overall point of story

- Conflict drives the story and draws interest of the audience. 

- Protagonist(main character), Antagonist(character that goes against protagonist)

- Set-up : introduce the conflict, rising tension (obstacles), conflict (big boss), resolution (end)

Week 11 

Notes : 

- First act into a storyboard

- How to hook the readers on the first page

- last panel is a cliffhanger that draws the reader to turn the page for more

- how to condense your narrative and make the story flow

Transitions : based on your story and narrative structure. Writing cuts down time and understand how to translate it into images. 

Gestalt Law theory of Closure

- Law of closure : Objects are grouped together and are seen as whole. Ignore gaps and complete contour lines. Our minds fill in the missing information to create familiar shapes and images.

Fig 1.1 Example of Gestalt Law theory of closure

Continuity in comics or books

- Left is comprised of various shots, shape and size controlling their length of time in our attention's edit and oblong shapes suggesting subtle camera drifts as our eyes travel. 

- Two extreme close ups of the characters initial meeting, three cutaways to build mood, a close up for dialogue and character introduction.

- Close up for information and then cut out for the epic wide shot 

Fig 1.2 Example of Continuity in comic

Types of transitions 

- How to show continuity (connected and relevant to each other)

- Closure (make audience imagine what happen between panels)

- Gestalt theory (close the gap despite it nothing being there)

- Thin chronologically

- Create participation of reader by leaving gaps that the reader can imagine

• Moment to moment repeats similar panels that show the slow passing of time 
• Action to action can span minutes or hours
• Subject to subject changes subjects and has a gap that readers can imagine
• Scene to scene can span time or locations
• Aspect to aspect shows different aspects of a particular scene

Point of View

- Can tell the story from specific character's point of view 

- emphasize one thread of the story

- get most salient points of the narrative down as they have been told

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❥INSTRUCTIONS 

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❥TASK 

PART 1 — 3 Acts Structure 

The first task requires us to write a plot for our comic based on the 3 Acts Structure.

PART 2— Cover Page 

The second task requires us to design a cover for our comic based on the story that we've written.

Fig 2.1 Sketches of Ideas for the Cover Page

Before designing them on Illustrator, I sketched out 3 rough ideas of what the cover page would look like. The first and second ones feature the main idea or concept of the story illustrated in two sides, the top being the limbo, a plane in between the living and the dead called the 'Inbetween' and the bottom is the living world which portrays what the main character has been dealing with. The third sketch on the very right features a double exposure with the antagonist being the shadow and the two characters reaching for the flower, though according to feedback it is not enough to accurately portray the context of the story from the 3 Acts Structure so I decided to go with the first sketch. 

Fig 2.2 Progress of first draft of Cover page

I did the first draft in black and white as I wanted to focus on the layout and the design of the cover first then work on the colours afterwards. Some modification was needed for the first sketch after showing progress for my first draft for feedback. According to the feedback, to make it more relevant to the context of the story written in 3 Acts Structure and to make the top and the bottom relate to each other, the bottom part needs to act as sort of a reflection. The new sketch after the first feedback was given for the cover is done below in Figure 2.3.

Fig 2.3 Progress of first draft of Cover page after feedback

After finishing up the progress left off from the first draft I decided to work on the colours. For the top I decided to go for a warmer colour scheme to express halloween mixed with a tint of turquoise and for the bottom part I decided to use dull colours to express the unfortunate saddening reality that the main character is actually going through in the real world, which also reflects on her dull life, contrasting from her adventures in the Inbetween.

Fig 2.4 First draft fully coloured

After finishing up the progress left off from the first draft I decided to work on the colours. For the top I decided to go for a warmer colour scheme to express halloween mixed with a tint of turquoise and for the bottom part I decided to use dull colours to express the unfortunate saddening reality that the main character is actually going through in the real world, which also reflects on her dull life, contrasting from her adventures in the Inbetween.

Fig 2.5 Typeface for title on cover page

 

For the font of the title, I used DK Lemon Yellow Sun and added shadow with gaussian blur as well as my own modifications with the branches to emphasize on the word 'Autumn'. According to the feedback, the white blended in with the moon and needed to stand out more so I was instructed to change the colour into a warmer tone such as the warm orange tone I've implemented on the top part of the cover. 

Fig 2.6 Details on the typeface of the font after adjustments done

I decided to add gradients on the branches as they branch out into the orange sky because they blended in the sky without it being a darker tone than the sky. It also gives a better affect on the design as it is realistic to tree branches.

Fig 2.7 Changes on the design of the side character

For the side character, I decided to change her look as her colour scheme did not jar well with the colours and the design used in the top part of the cover and it made the Inbetween part of the cover looked dull so I decided to give her a new design with her own colour scheme inspired by Coraline. For the real world part, I gave the side character a light blue pale colour scheme to match the hospital's dull vibe and to signify that she is actually a spirit living in the Inbetween which means she was never alive in the first place.

Fig 2.8 Adjustments on the Final draft of the cover page

For the last adjustment I had to make according to feedback, I had to try and make the Inbetween top part of the cover to leak into the real world which is the bottom part of the cover by adding leaves falling down and bushes.

Fig 2.9 Final Design of Cover Page

PART 3 — One Page Introduction Comic 

For the next part of the project, we are to create a one page introduction to our comic based on the story and the cover page design. One panel should be at least animated. We are to arrange the panels in a visual sequence. The panels that must be created range from 3-15 panels.

I started off with a sketch introducing the main character and the side character. It starts off with the climax of the movie hinting the main character's fate in the real world then shifts to the panels where the main character would wake up in the Inbetween, greeted by their friend. The petal flowing through the panels is to keep them connected, but it would change colours as the settings of the story shifts onto the Inbetween. 

Fig 3.1 Sketch #1 of One Page Introduction Comic

After receiving feedback for the first sketch, I decided to refine it and combine the first three panels into one. For the panels with the hands, colours are meant to contribute to a large part of distinguishing the mortal plane and the Inbetween. The 2 hands reaching out for each other are a direct inspiration from the cover page, which emphasizes more on the story and the cover page of the comic.

Fig 3.2 Sketch #2 of One Page Introduction Comic

The sketch for the comic still needed more work according to feedback as the panels did not have much of a flow of connection between the panels so I decided to go for another layout.

Fig 3.4 Improved Layout of Sketch #2

Once the improved layout of the sketch was approved, I started to digitize the comic on Illustrator.

Fig 3.5 First digitized progress

I was conflicted with what art style to go with so I decided to search for some inspiration and decided to take inspiration from a game called Omori.

Fig 3.6 Character from Omori, Inspiration for Art style

Fig 3.7 Before and after some refinement of details

To add to the mysterious sense to the comic and to catch the viewer's curiosity, I decided to remove the word on the first panel and remove the face on the last panel.

Fig 3.8  Final Non-Animated Intro Page

PART 4 — Animated Panel Comic 

I decided to use photoshop to animate my comic into a frame animation so before doing that, I had to make the frames in Illustrator one at a time.

Fig 4.1 Progress of making the frames in Illustrator

After making the frames, I exported them onto Photoshop to create the frame animation and adjusted the timing for each frame.

Fig 4.2 Progress of creating frame animation on Photoshop

Fig 4.3 Final Animated comic page

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❥FEEDBACK 

Week 10 — Unclear and too many things going on at once. Directing away from the main storyline. 

Week 11 — The word 'Autumn' needs to stand out more thus changing the colour might work.

Week 12 — Try to make some parts of the Inbetween world to leak onto the real world (bottom part) by adding leaves and bushes and extended the blanket down to touch the plane of the Inbetween.

Week 13 — There is no closure or continuity with the placement of the panels thus it needs adjustments on its positions. Try to maintain the warm colour scheme used on the cover on the comic page. 

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❥REFLECTION 

This project was really enjoyable for me as I've always wanted to create a comic of my own. I did not only learn how to digitize my comic in illustrator and animate it on photoshop, but I also learnt how to how to create an eye catching composition and to implement design principles on my comic.