11/7/2024 - 25/7/2024 / Week 12 - Week 14
Tay Yue Chern / 0373215
Illustration and Visual Narrative / Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Final Project: Comic cover and Animated One Page intro
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. LECTURES
2. INSTRUCTIONS
3. PROCESS WORK
- SKETCHES
- COMIC DIGITISATION
- ANIMATION
- COMIC COVER PAGE
4. REFLECTIONS
1. LECTURES
Week 12 - 3 Act Structures and Transitions
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| Fig 1.1 Traditional Three Acts Structure |
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| Fig 1.2 Story Telling by Transitions |
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| Fig 1.3 Gestalt Law of Closure |
Scott McLoud’s transitions
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| Fig 1.4 Moment to Moment |
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| Fig 1.5 Action to Action |
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| Fig 1.6 Subject to Subject |
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| Fig 1.7 Scene to Scene |
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Fig 1.8 Aspect to Aspect
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Week 13
No lecture
Week 14
No lecture
2. INSTRUCTIONS
3. PROCESS WORK
A motion comic (or animated comic) is a form of animation combining elements of print comic books and animation. Individual panels are expanded into a full shot while sound effects, voice acting, and animation are added to the original artwork. (wikipedia)
You are to select a story from the short stories of Edgar Allan Poe and you are to create:
1. Comic Cover Page
2. Animated One Page Intro
Animated scope:
1. Parallax (to create depth)
2. Secondary Action
3. Animated Background
1. Sketches
After going through most of the stories provided, there are a few that I am particularly interested in and would like to illustrate:
- The Black Cat
- The Man of the Crowd
- The Tell-Tale Heart
- William Wilson
I started by researching the styles I wanted to try for the comic.
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| Fig 3.1.1 References |
I was very interested in illustrating the last part of the story, The Tell-Tale Heart, as well as the first climax of the story, The Black Cat. I created rough sketches for both to see which one turns out better in the end.
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| Fig 3.1.2 Sketch #1 The Tell-Tale Heart |
In my sketch, the main character becomes overwhelmed by guilt and paranoia, leading to his confession. He hears a growing noise, which he believes to be the beating heart of the man he killed, hidden beneath the floorboards. Unable to bear the sound, he yells out, "Villains! I admit the deed! It is the beating of his hideous heart!" This moment captures his intense psychological collapse.
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| Fig 3.1.3 Sketch #2 The Black Cat |
This part of the story is about a man who, overwhelmed with guilt, hangs a cat from a tree. Later, after a fire destroys his home, he finds a new black cat with a white patch on its chest, similar to the one he killed. This cat appears as a ghostly reminder of his wrongdoing. Through this sketch, I aim to highlight the man's deep guilt and fear, emphasising how his past actions come back to haunt him.
In the end, I decided to proceed with refining sketch #2 as I think it's more suitable for a one-page intro format as sketch #1 might need a longer layout to effectively tell the story.
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| Fig 3.1.4 Refining Sketch #2 |
2. Comic Digitisation
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| Fig 3.2.1 Adobe Illustrator in iPad |
It was my first time using illustrator for comic and character drawing, so it took me a while to get used to it, as I often rely on the different types of brushes in Procreate to create the effects I want.
I initially tried using Adobe Illustrator on the iPad to digitise the comic, thinking it would be easier with an Apple Pencil. However, the results were stiff and unnatural, so I decided to continue working on it with my laptop.
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| Fig 3.2.2 Storyboard Design |
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| Fig 3.2.3 Line art created with the pencil tool |
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| Fig 3.2.4 Colouring |
I imported my sketch into Illustrator and started drawing the comic.
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| Fig 3.2.5 Black Cat References |
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| Fig 3.2.6 Initial outcome |
After finishing this, Mr Hafiz suggested exploring better font options for the text and considering how to illustrate it, similar to our approach in the last assignment (the music album cover).
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| Fig 3.2.7 Experimenting with different fonts |
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Fig 3.2.8 Final Comic - JPEG
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Fig 3.2.9 Final Comic - PDF
3. Animation
For the animation, I plan to animate the cat in the bottom panel and perhaps the background in the top panels. I initially tried using Adobe After Effects to animate the cat's body to illustrate the feeling of wind blowing. However, since I wasn't very familiar with After Effects at that time and was unsatisfied with the results, I decided to use Photoshop for frame-by-frame animation instead.
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| Fig 3.3.1 Working process in After Effects |
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| Fig 3.3.2 Working process in Illustrator |
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| Fig 3.3.3 Working process in Photoshop |
Since my animation wasn't very complex or heavy, I decided to combine everything into a single file instead of working on each panel separately and then assembling them in slides.
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| Fig 3.3.4 Final Animated One Page Intro - GIF |
Fig 3.3.5 Final Animated One Page Intro - GIF
4. Comic Cover Page
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| Fig 3.4.1 Working process |
My idea for the cover page is to use a black background with simple line art to illustrate two black cats. One cat, standing right-side up, represents the new black cat that appeared after the fire. The other cat is upside down, with one eye gouged out by the main character, and its upside-down position signifies its ultimate fate of being hanged from a tree.
I felt that the entire design looked too 'balanced', so I decided to enlarge the cat (the one standing right-side up) and redesign the title.
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| Fig 3.4.2 Refining the design |
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Fig 3.4.3 Final Comic Cover - JPEG
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Fig 3.4.4 Final Comic Cover - PDF
4. REFLECTIONSOverall, I would say it was a pretty interesting experience. I liked the concept of this assignment and the freedom we had to choose the story we wanted to create a comic for, decide which specific parts to illustrate, and determine the suitable style. Although I am not very good with thriller and eerie styles, and these were the main vibes of the stories we were given, I struggled and kind of felt scared while researching these art styles (many of the references were way too frightening to include in my research mood board). Interestingly, my final result turned out quite calm and simple, but it still conveys what I wanted to express from the story.
It was also my first time using Illustrator for drawing, and it didn't work well for me. I found it challenging to draw naturally with Illustrator, and sometimes my drawings felt weird and unnatural, which was quite frustrating. Despite this, I am glad that I was able to complete everything before the deadline and am satisfied with the outcome. It was still a fun project to work on.
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