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Illustration and Visual Narrative / Task 3

14.10.2021- 25.11.2021 (Week 8 - Week 14)
Cheryl Voo Yie Qi / 0349878
Illustration and Visual Narrative / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Task 3 / Graphic Novel

LECTURES

Week 7 (7/10/2021) - 3 Acts Structure
Storytelling basics

  • Central Theme 
    - The theme is what the story is really about. It's the main idea or underlying meaning.
    A story may have both a major theme and minor themes.

    Major Theme : An idea that is interwined and repeated throughout the whole narrative.
    Minor Theme : An idea that appears more subtly, and doesn't necessarily repeat.
  • Conflict
    - The conflict is what drives the story.
    - It's what creates tension and builds suspense, which are the elements that make a story interesting.
    - If there’s no conflict, there won’t be any compelling story to tell.
  • Characters 
    - A story usually includes a number of characters, each with a different role or purpose.
    - There is almost always a protagonist and antagonist.

    Central Characters : These characters are vital to the development of the story. The plot revolves around them.

    Protagonist : The protagonist is the main character of a story. He or she has a clear goal to accomplish or a conflict to overcome. Although protagonists don’t always need to be admirable, they must command an emotional involvement from the audience.

    Antagonist : Antagonists oppose protagonists, standing between them and their ultimate goals. The antagonist can be presented in the form of any person, place, thing, or situation that represents a tremendous obstacle to the protagonist.
Three-Acts Structure
  1. Setup
    - The world in which the protagonist exists prior to the journey.
    - It usually     ends with the conflict being revealed.
  2. Rising Tension 
    - The series of obstacles the protagonist must overcome. Each obstacle is usually more difficult and with higher stakes than the previous one.
  3. Conflict
    - The point of highest tension, and the major decisive turning point for the protagonist.

Resolution (The conflict’s conclusion)
- This is where the protagonist finally overcomes the conflict, learns to accept it, or is ultimately defeated by it. Regardless, this is where the journey ends.


Fig 1.1, Three Act Story Structure, https://blog.reedsy.com/guide/story-structure/three-act-structure/

Then, we are given a short narrative exercise like below, and there are examples too.


Fig 1.2, Short narrative exercise, source from lecture


Fig 1.3, Short narrative exercise example, source from lecture


Week 8 (14/10/2021) - Visual Techniques : Transitions
Comics - Frame to frame storytelling 

Ideas come from our experiences ( ideas never came from browsing google aimlessly)


Fig 1.4, ideas never came from browsing google aimlessly, source from lecture

How I come up with ideas ?
- Brainstorming
- Mind mapping (organize ideas)

Fig 1.5, how to come up with ideas, source from lecture

Week 9 (21/10/2021) - Making comics : Transitions
  • Moment-to-moment
    - One of the most common forms
    - Metaphorically think of it as a blink or two between seconds of a film
    - It can be used to slow down and draw out action

Fig 1.6, example of moment-to-moment, source from lecture


  • Action-to-action
    - Really it’s more or less a less finely sliced version of Moment to Moment
    - Typically focuses on signicant events or movement from panel to panel, and over larger intervals of time between moments. 


Fig 1.7, example of action-to-action, source from lecture


  • Subject-to-subject
    -     A cut between to related moments, but focusing on a dierent subject in the same scene.

Fig 1.8, example of subject-to-subject, source from lecture

  • Scene-to-scene
    -     A Scene is a series of events that happen in one location, and continuous period of time. 
    - A change of location or signicant jump in time between panels is considered the end of a scene and the start of a new one. 

Fig 1.9, example of scene-to-scene, source from lecture
  • Aspect-to-aspect
    - It can be an interesting way to jump around a scene, taking in key details or letting the characters focus wonder. 
    - It’s also a good way to introduce their environment to a reader, though the players eyes perhaps or inviting them to wonder away from the players a bit.

Fig 1.10, example of aspect-to-aspect, source from lecture

    • Symbolic
      - Can       see it a lot in various forms, partial montages depicting the contents of a flashback or inner dialog.
      -       Symbolic transitions deal with the unreal, the felt, and the imagined. Moving the readers from an imagined or recalled space to either another, or a real one.

    Fig 1.11, example of symbolic, source from lecture


    • Rolling transitions
      - I      nstead of having panel gutters or boarders as separate graphical elements at all, the images are melded and mixed together. Overlapping and interlacing.
      - Giving a ‘Rolling’ sense of movement through space and time in the story.

    Fig 1.12, example of rolling transitions, source from lecture

    • Non sequitur
      - Not common at all, outside of surreal abstract or gag comics.
      - It makes readers think it is more like Aspect to Aspect transitions.

    Fig 1.13, example of non sequitur, source from lecture

    INSTRUCTIONS



    EXERCISE
    Story
    Once there was a kid called Leo. He went to the graveyard with his parents to worship her grandmother who passed away a few months ago. He saw a new tombstone covered in red paint beside her grandmother's tombstone. It is a murderer's tombstone that killed 13 people in 3 years, he committed suicide in the mental hospital, in room number 13. Leo thinks that it is a good thing that he committed suicide after killing lots of people and said it in front of the murderer's tombstone.

    But when he searched on the internet about the murderer's news, the murderer kills people because those people mocked his appearance and make fun of him. And Leo started to be afraid. 

    That night, he can't fall asleep because he was still thinking about the murderer, he open up the toilet's door to let the light comes out of the toilet, so his room became brighter and he fell asleep after that. But he dreamed a dream that the murderer is coming for him. The next morning, he told his dream to his mother, but his mother thought that he is just being afraid and not getting enough sleep, his mother doesn't believe that the murderer is coming for him.

    Later that night, Leo still sleeps with the toilet's light on. Suddenly, he heard something when he is sleeping, but when he opened his eyes, there is nothing, so he thought it was a dream again. After that, he heard something again! But there is still nothing when he looks around his room. Then suddenly! A sound comes from behind when Leo turned around he saw a black shadow holding a knife towards him......
     

    My inspiration for this story is actually my experience. When I was sleeping, I saw a black shadow walks towards me and lean over to my ear and said something. It was a short dream but it is quite realistic like I can really feel him lean over closely.
    Sketches
    I did some rough sketches to plan the panels before doing it in Illustrator.

    Fig 2.1, Panel planning (7/11/2021)


    Fig 2.2, Sketches (7/11/2021)

    After that, I proceed to digitize it in Illustrator. I did my characters using brush and using Live Paint Bucket to fill in the colours.


    Fig 2.3, Characters  (15/11/2021)


    Fig 2.4, Digitizing (22/11/2021)

    And I need some colour scheme for my story in night time, so I found these colours for my night scene.

    Fig 2.5, Color palette (22/11/2021)

    Fig 2.6, day time and night time colours compare (22/11/2021)


    Fig 2.7, rearrange panels in Illustrator (22/11/2021)

    After working in Illustrator, then I proceed to Adobe After Effects to animate them. It is the part that I spent the most time on it. It did not turned out well like I expected. But I did some research online to make it better. After I finished making them, some of the panels are still moving fast, so I search on youtube to find a solution for it.

    Fig 2.8, Animateing in After Effects (4/12/2021)

    I tried using the effect for some words in there, and it is fun to try using it and adjust them.

    Fig 2.9, Animating in After Effects (4/12/2021)


    Then, I added some sound effects in Adobe Premiere Pro.

    Fig 2.10, Adding sound effects in Adobe Premiere Pro (4/12/2021)

    I added sound effects like car driving past, people whispering, and owl hooting sounds. 

    Fig 2.11, Adding sound effects in Adobe Premiere Pro (4/12/2021)


    Final Outcome


    Fig 2.12, PDF file (4/12/2021)

    Fig 2.13, Motion comic (4/12/2021)

    Motion Comic: https://youtu.be/6UWQxGY0dTY


    REFLECTION

    It is a very fun task to do, but it also requires a lot of time and skills too. I spent a lot of time on this task, because I'm not familiar with After Effect and Adobe Premiere Pro, but also thanks to this task, I learned lots of technique while using them. After seeing others work, it does really me feel that I'm really not good at it, I admitted it and it make me felt stressed, but it also a motivation to make me wanted to do it better like others. In this task, the most fun part is adding sound effects to it, it is really fun to search on the internet for different sound effects.








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