Illustration and Visual Narrative: Task 3 and Final Project

21/10/2021 - 05/12/2021 (Week 09 - Week 15)
Alicia Teng Yi Ling / 0345159 / BDCM
Illustration and Visual Narrative 
Task 3 / Final Project

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Lectures

 

Week 9 / How to make comics

Comic is all about telling stories visually. Before the pictures comes the story idea. One way to get an idea for a story is to extract from experience and these type of stories are often what the audience likes the most as they can relate to it. If you’re clueless, try starting out with a random word and build the idea from there. After that, creating a mind map can help to organize the ideas and also would help in creating the concept from it.

Fig 1.1 How to Make a Comic
https://marekbennett.com/2016/10/11/comics-terms/

Week 10 / Transitions 

Types of panel transitions

Moment-to-moment 

• Done by having multiple frames showing a sequence of a movement. Can be used when visualizing change of time, flow of time or action of the character. Most commonly used in comics

Action-to-action 

• Similar to moment-to-moment but with more action in each panels

Subject-to-subject

• Involves 2 or 3 characters. The subject changes in each panel to show how the story is pass on between characters

Scene-to-scene 

• Showcases a series of events from one location to another in one continuous time

Aspect-to-aspect

• Focusing on showing key details to jump between location or different scene

Symbolic 

• Showing the passage of time or how the story evolves by using symbolism to transition between story panels

Rolling Transition 

• Similar to aspect-to-aspect but with the absence of gutters and panels. Utilizes subject-to-subject or aspect-to-aspect to transition the story 

Non Sequitur 

• Telling the story with abstract visuals. This type of transition is not common outside of surreal abstract or gag comics. Readers are often left to interpret the comic panels themselves 
• In the end, there are no rules, as long as the readers know how the story flows. It isn’t necessary to include all kinds of panel transitions when creating a comic, choose the most suitable types that suits the style of your comic  

Motion lines & Onomatopoeia 

• Onomatopoeia is a term that refers to words and letter mixtures that are used to describe a specific sound. These kind of words can be visualized more precisely by using different fonts, sizes, styles or by tweaking the typography of the words 
• Motion lines are lines that are drawn in a way to indicate a sense of motion. Multiple straight lines can be drawn in a cluster to indicate a fast motion moving forward, spiral lines can be used to indicate dizziness, zig zag lines can be used to indicated sound waves or a kind of energy and so on. It can also be used to indicate water, smoke or an impact of a hit 

Gutters

• Gutters are the blank space between panels, they are used to show how the story flows and changes with time. For example in Fig 1.4, the gutters fills up the story happening between the two panels, giving it a sense of time moving and it leaves the reader to interpret what happens between the two panels 
• Sometimes, a gutter-crossing transition can be used to highlight an important scene taking place and draws reader's attention and involvement to it 

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Instructions

Task 03: Web Toon & Motion Comic

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Graphic Novel

 

Idea development 

Story plot (3 acts structure)

 

I decided I wanted to do more of a psychological horror rather than a supernatural one even if it appears as a regular monster/ghost story at first. I brainstormed a few ideas but they always had the underlying plot that the main character is not seeing things as they really are. They have some sort of delusion or filter over their eyes, and they replace the horrible, negative things and emotions in their life with ones of normalcy. 

Story plot (25/10/2021)

1- Setup

A five year old girl named Lily is haunted by a shadowy monster that follows her everywhere, every day. It's intentions are unknown and she is terrified of it. It's hollow, blank stare and murky figure stand in the corner of her vision constantly, lurking a small distance away. She does her best to ignore it and carry on with her life and go to daycare. Every day, she greets her mother in the living room, she never responds and seems to be looking elsewhere, and her father in the basement, he is a fashion designer and collects mannequins.

2- Rising action

Later, She plays alone in the sandpit at daycare with the monster standing ominously in front of her, closer than ever. Feeling nervous and afraid, she decides to leave and try to return to the nursery building. She looks back and sees that the monster is gone but upon turning back around, she sees it directly in front of her face. It is bending down and smiling widely in a horrifying manner. Terrified, she runs away not looking where she is going and slams head first into a metal pole. She gets hurt and bleeds from her forehead and nose. She is sent home early by a daycare helper because of her injuries.

3- Conflict and resolution 

She arrives home and the living room is empty. Light spews from the slightly ajar basement door and there are thumping sounds. She quietly goes down but stops in shock at what she sees. She feels a line snap in her head and it clears the filter over her eyes. The mannequins her father collects are dead human bodies and he hurts her mother every day when she is gone. She realises the real monster is her father. Her mother notices her and whispers at her to run. This is the first time she has ever spoken to Lily. As she turns to escape, her father notices her and rushes to grab her. The monster shields her and the story ends.

Below is a link to a Google document containing my planning for the panels as well as a small explanation for what the monster is.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSWsBgwCYzoAa1F3kcq2n4CBdA6iE68kOn9c3LycLDclZ7qqPLoQdUgtINsPVt3FHa4mRH6_bwef8wQ/pub 

Comic Visuals (Panels and Illustrations)

Character Designs

My main character is a five year old girl named Lily. I decided to illustrate her with white hair to contrast strongly against her antagonist, the monster (who is a shadowy figure). I was inspired by the girl in a Japanese manga named "Siúil, a Rún" which is why they both have the light toned hair and a cute round face. I also similarly put Lily in a long white dress with short sleeves and a chest pocket because I believe that this is something children or toddlers may wear often.

Fig 2.1 Lily (Main Character) Character Design (05/11/2021)

The monster is a tall, thin, and mysterious figure who is quite literally shrouded in darkness and shadows. It has a smoky aura and blank white circular eyes most of the time. I wanted to illustrate it in a manner where it is ominous and it's emotions are undecipherable so that when it does portray emotion (smiling), it seems terrifying and out of place. 

Fig 2.2 Monster Character Design (05/11/2021)

Fig 2.3 Lily's Mother (25/11/2021)

Fig 2.4 Lily's Father (25/11/2021)

I designed Lily's mother to have a physical resemblance to her with the same white hair and black coloured eyes whereas her father is also a mysterious figure with most of his face shrouded in shadows, much like the monster.

Symbolism

Red Chrysanthemums

I chose to use red chrysanthemums to symbolize blood instead of depicting it directly and because of the 'filter' on Lily's eyes as well. I also liked the fact that these flowers mean 'love' which is the direct opposite of what they symbolize in the comic so it was like a touch of irony.

Fig 2.5 Red Chrysanthemums (03/11/2021)
https://www.syngentaflowers-us.com/product/flower/70024086

Orange Mock Flowers

At first I was going to use orange mock flowers instead of red chrysanthemums because they mean 'deceit' and one of the main themes of this comic is delusion and lies. Plus, I thought they would match well with Lily.

Fig 2.6 Orange Mock Flowers (03/11/2021)
https://www.highcountrygardens.com/perennial-plants/shrubs/mock-orange-cheyenne-philadelphus

Mannequins

Fig 2.7 Mannequins (15/11/2021)

I decided to portray the dead bodies as mannequins initially as Lily's father works in the fashion industry so it would make sense that he could easily attain these. Also because personally I think blank face mannequins have an eerie effect when they're propped up and in dark places so they could add to the horror effect.

Comic Panel Sketches

My sketches are very rough but I made them so that I can easily see the placement of characters and their poses, panels and how the comic will look overall.

Fig 3.1 Sketches of Pages and Layouts (22/11/2021)

Digitizing Final Panels

There are updates and changes from the sketch to final comic.

•  Panel 5
• The mannequins body poses were updated as I decided that the newer positions looked more eerie
• Panel 19
• I decided to put her full face rather than a close up of the eyes so that I could display her entire shocked expression
• Panel 20
• I removed the first box and made the snapped line stretch across the entire panel for a more dynamic visual
• Panel 22
• Instead of the same mannequin poses, I put close ups of the dead bodies to showcase their hollow, beaten faces and to further emphasize the horror element of the comic

Brushes I used:

• Smooth pressure brush (for main drawing)
• Charcoal brush (for monster texture)
• Cross hatching brush (for background texture)
• Smoke brush (for monster particle effect)

Fig 4.1 Panel 12 Digitization (28/11/2021)

As per the example above, the sketches and the final drawings of the comic are similar but visually are quite different. This is due to the fact that I made the sketches quickly with a brief and general idea of how I'd like to display that page and in what position and approach but the final work is polished and has more detail (jagged chalk brush instead of smooth) and a lot more linework. I also decided to add more text throughout the comic in order to make some scene settings easier to understand.

Fig 4.2 Example of Cross Hatching Background Effect (28/11/2021)

I decided to place a border of cross hatching to create a dark shadowy effect in the comic scenery and environment but also to add visual texture and detail so it would not look too flat.

Creating the Web Toon Thumbnails

Fig 5.1 Web Toon Title Page Vertical Thumbnail (03/12/2021)

Fig 5.2 Web Toon Title Page Square Thumbnail (03/12/2021)

Fig 5.3  Episode Thumbnail (03/12/2021)

For the thumbnails, I decided to make Lily and/or the Monster the main focus in which they interact with each other. I then named my Web Toon "Red Lily" as the main character's name is Lily and the flowers are red and a focal point of the comic. 

Motion Comic Animation

I honestly bit off more than I can chew by trying to fit twenty-six pages of comic into one After Effects file but it worked out in the end. I practiced using the interface in other modules so I'm quite comfortable with how it works but I learnt so many new things during this project. One of which being that I can shorten music/sound effects directly in the timeline so that is super helpful and time efficient. Below are screenshots of my work in Adobe After Effects.

Fig 6.1 Beginning of the timeline with panels, music and title cards (04/12/2021)

Fig 6.2 Example of how I displayed panels differently from the comic (04/12/2021)

Fig 6.3 Second example of different panel display (04/12/2021)

Fig 6.4 Example of how I use the Puppet Position Pin Tool (04/12/2021)

My favourite tool to use was the Puppet Position Pin Tool because it can create parallax effects where the characters look like they are moving and/or breathing as well as subtle changes in emotion and finally it can also create subtle wavy motion effects in the background of some panels. I also used opacity, position and scale keyframes quite a lot with moving things around and making transitions smoother. For the rapid blinking effect, I inputted a 'wiggle' expression using the opacity keyframe, it's quite fast which is why I put a photosensitivity warning.

Draft Motion Comic Animation

Fig 6.5 First Draft of Comic Animation (04/12/2021)

The final animation has more sound effects and I cut the time to 2:45 because there were fifteen seconds of emptiness at the end of this draft.

Final Project Outcome

Fig 7.1 Final Web Toon Comic: "Red Lily" - PDF (05/12/2021)

Web Toon Title Page: https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/red-lily/list?title_no=710907 

Web Toon First Episode: https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/red-lily/hidden-messages-/viewer?title_no=710907&episode_no=1

Fig 7.2 Final Web Toon Motion Comic Animation: "Red Lily" - PDF (05/12/2021)

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Feedback

Week 11 (11/11/2021)

•  At the sandpit, pick up and run immediately - Hasten the part where she breaks reality. 
• Show a clear difference between act 1 (clear, bright and happy) and 3 (dark, scary and scratchy)
• Very nice flow to the story
• Cute character sheets
• Yes, it is horror theme, Ms. Anis considers it to be “disturbing” 

04/12/2021

• Good work on the flow and visuals, drawings are nice too
• You may proceed to motion comic progress now.

05/12/2021

• It's good! Nice work on the pacing and tone effect on some panels, the music fits nicely too.

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Reflection

Experience

Overall, this project was both extremely enjoyable and tiring. Along with my other module assignments, it was quite taxing to draw out and animate an entire comic especially because I decided to do twenty-six pages but eventually I realised that it was quite therapeutic to sit down at the end of the day and just draw. I decided to do a scene-to-scene panel style for the animation and some of  the framing is quite different in comparison to the Web Toon but I believe these changes make the animation more visually dynamic. I am very proud of the finished comic and motion comic. On another note, I love the horror genre despite being very scared of it so this was fun trying to create my own idea of something terrifying or like Miss Anis said, disturbing. After seeing it all completed, all the pain and lack of sleep felt super worth it.  

Another thing I enjoyed was searching for music and sound effects for the animation. I found all of them on YouTube and converted them into mp3s. However, I got scared a lot from the music but it was worth it because Miss Jennifer said that the music fits nicely so I am very happy with that. 

Observations

The puppet position pin tool is very good at animating characters and other visual elements but you have to be careful not to over distort the images you are manipulating. Another thing I observed was that every one of my classmate's had a different approach and art styles in their comics and they were all so fun to read which showed me that I didn't have to be so uptight with my ideal Web Toon style and should just draw what I like and feel is best.

Findings 

I found that planning is key in order to create a cohesive and well designed comic. I realised later on that because I had a solid idea on what I wanted to portray and what kind of story I wanted to depict, I was able to create exact panels without having to redo most things at a later time because I was happy with what I created initially. Also that trying to fit twenty-six pages of comic into one after effect animation is very tiring and time consuming due to me trying not to overlay layers and make sure transitions and music timing is perfect.

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Music & Sound Effects used in the motion comic

1. Beginning Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOZROoCG6_4&t=10s
2. Second Music Soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ewQiU3q5jM&t=21s
3. Walking down stairs sound effect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gSybexdGDQ
4. Father tapping her forehead sound effect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fa7bUDEHrN4
5. Door creaking open sound effect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4pQwCHNkEc
6. School kids playground ambience background sound effect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UydZd954-tM&t=20s
7. Suspense music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSvHGtqStSM&t=3s
8. Scary monster close up music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e96B2z0OIaI
9. Head hitting metal pole sound effect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHcQgFquD7k
10. Scissors snip sound effect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuyU-e0rUV4
11. Rope straining sound effect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nw1r3A2BIHQ
12. Rope snapping sound effect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ_o9fdScQ4
13. Father running sound effect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VRXW-LhbrA