Illustration and Visual Narrative - FINAL PROJECT (Digital Comic)
Glen Owen / 0354952
Illustration and Visual Narrative / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Taylor's University
LECTURES
Week 14
The last week for this module, as usual Mr. Hafiz and Ms. Anis opens the final consultation via offline which is in class.
Week 13
In this week, there is no classes but Mr. Hafiz opens an online tutorial session for us to join and also told us to show our progress on our comic.
Week 12
From this week our classes has been moved to 10AM - 12AM instead of 8AM - 12AM. Feedbacks were given to us by our lecturer.
Week 11
We started making our first page comic in this week and also got feedbacks for our comic cover
Week 10
In this week we were asked to present our storyboard and our comic cover and received some feedbacks.
Week 9
In this week we are tasked to make a story board and given some lectures.
Week 8
Independent Learning Week
Week 7
In this week we were given some exercises and also an introduction on our final project
Week 6
In this week we are supposed to submit our Honor Competition, but due to some error majority of the students can't submit it. Ms. Anis came up with another solution which is submit via Google Drive. We were also given a task in this week which is lighting task (Chiaroscuro Exercise).
INSTRUCTION
- Exercises
1. Exercise: Chiaroscuro
This exercise train us on how to do lighting effect in Illustrator. We were given a picture of a pear and 2 man and we need to trace and light it manually.
Fig 1.1 Pear picture
Fig 1.2 Picture of 2 man
As for the 2 man, we were only asked to trace the one that is on the right side.
Fig 1.3 Man lighting (Week 6)
Fig 1.4 Pear lighting
- Digital Comic Progress
My first plan to make this comic is that I wanted to make a comic that has some fantasy theme on it. I have scripted the storyline long ago and have waited for this moment to make my storyline into a real comic. At first Ms. Anis said in order to make a comic, we need to make a 3 act story structure first. So here's mine. My reference for my comic is something like Jojo's Bizzare Adventure but combined with some fantasy theme.
Fig 2.1 "Tengoku no Gal" Story Structure
- Cover Page
After we were done with writing the plot, now is our time to make the comic cover. Ms. Anis said that make it interesting so I tried my best and this is the progress.
Fig 3.1 Comic cover sketch
I was planning to make something like how manga cover are, but Ms. Anis said that there should be atleast some English title somewhere so I added it. As for the dragon in the sketch I replaced it with a dragon egg instead.
Fig 3.2 Coloring character in Adobe Illustrator
To be honest, drawing and coloring in Adobe Illustrator sucks. The fact that I have no experience drawing on my laptop makes it worse. So in Fig 2.3 I basically trace my sketch in Illustrator.
Fig 3.3 First Cover
After getting some feedbacks for Ms. Anis, she said that the background and the title color doesn't help so I changed it later on. I also need to polish some stuff in this cover and so I did. Ms. Anis also told me to use English title instead of Japanese.
Fig 3.4 Final Outcome after revision
Actually I am quite surprised by myself. This comic cover looks really good in my eyes already but I don't think my audience would like it. But alas the cover is done and now is to make the first page panel of the comic.
- First Page Comic
My first attempt on making the first page is by making a battle scene that is happening years before the girl journey's started. So here is my first sketch on doing the first page.
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Fig 4.1 Sketch #1 of First Page Comic (Plan A)
After hearing some words from my classmates and Ms. Anis, I have decided to like improvise my first sketch (Fig 4.2) into a landscape mode instead of portrait and make more panel.
Fig 4.2 Improved Sketch #1
After showing this to Ms. Anis, she said that this panel idea is really cool and good. The only problem is that it's too complex to be made in Adobe Illustrator within 4 weeks. After some thoughts, I think that Ms. Anis is right, so I decided to scrap this idea and think of a new one that can atleast make my first page look really interesting. Here is my second attempt on making my first page comic.
Fig 4.3 Sketch #2 (Plan B)
In this sketch (Fig 4.3) the story started after 10 years of the battle from Fig 4.1. In this sketch, an explorer was commissioned to do an expedition to an unknown island which is located at the place where the battle at Fig 4.1 occured. The explorer objective is to find some discoveries in this eeriee island but surprised that he found and ancient dragon egg. This dragon egg is the egg that the dragon from Fig 4.1 left.
After showing this idea to Mr. Hafiz, he suggested instead of making the place panel in a square make it in landscape instead like how a movie in cinema introduce a place. After hearing that, I started to do some visual research on landscape artwork. I also improvised the sketch in here and here is the final result of brainstorming.
Fig 4.4 Finalized Sketch
As for the finalized sketch Mr. Hafiz has approved it so it's time for me to trace this in Adobe Illustrator which means that it's time to suffer since I am not experienced in drawing on Illustrator. Although I am inexperienced I tried my best coloring this and here is the progress.
Fig 4.5 Coloring half of the page
Fig 4.6 Coloring full page
Just in case I forgot to explain, the spike that is near the egg in Fig 4.6 and Fig 3.4 is inspired by one of my old work that I did for my digital triptych for the HONOR competition.
Fig 4.7 Rebirth of Wyetta (My digital triptych for the HONOR competition, the inspiration of the spike near the egg in Fig 4.6 and Fig 3.4)
Enough of explanation, I gave some textbox in my page just like how a comic should be. I also used some blending mode so it looks more appealing and eye-catching.
Fig 4.8 First page comic with textbox
Now that the comic is done, it's time to animate some stuff in each panel. In this case I decided to just animate the rock falling in panel 3, and the onomatopoiea in the last panel. As for the animation, I animate it in Photoshop.
Fig 4.9 Animating frame progress
Fig 4.10 Final Comic Animation
FINAL SUBMISSION
Fig 5.1 "Gal of Heaven" First Page Comic Final Submission
Fig 5.2 "Gal of Heaven" First Page Comic Animation Final Submission
Fig 5.3 "Gal of Heaven" Comic Cover Final Submission
Fig 5.4 Final Project Final Submission PDF Form
REFLECTION
Doing this project is a breathtaking task for me. The fact that getting criticized for several time makes me almost going insane. Although I face so much obstacle, I managed to get this task done. From the very first place I am really motivated when the final project is creating a comic. I have anticipated this, thus I have the passion to make it. I realized that I am really need to get used on drawing on Illustrator therefore I'll try my best for the future semester to get used drawing on Illustrator and other softwares. Overall, this project has developed my skill on paneling comics and I appreciate that because I know that will be helpful for my future goal.
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