Final Project: Developmental process (part 3)

Finally, Siew Ting did the coding for our comic and we have our prototype for class presentation!

Our story was understandable by most people which was great! An area of problem, which most groups had as well, was on the part of interactivity. It was not apparent when readers can actually interact with the panel. For example, when one reaches this scene:

It wasn't clear that the readers can hover the mouse over the two children to bring up the last panel. 

There were many other panels with a similar problem like this one. Some suggested to make the edges of the intractable object glow so that it serves as an indication that readers can interact with it. That is definitely a feasible idea we needed to look into for the final project.

We tried to add a yellow border around the interactable subjects in our final submission. Hopefully this will better prompt readers into clicking it. 

Our final project can be viewed through ivle.

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Final Project: Developmental process (part 2)

We needed to come up with a non-fictional part of the story and hence our group looked at creating an infograph for how to make a horror movie. The info graph consisted of 3 aspects, special effects, camera angles and how to handle accidents on set.

This infograph can be accessed when users click onto the computer screen as Father does his research. This will open a new window so it doesn't distract the reader from the main story.

The inspiration for this infograph? Scott McCloud!

Hope you see the resemblance! Our way of paying tribute man behind our modules' readings. This was actually inspired from Jing's comments that we didn't have to represent the non-fiction part in just words, but could follow how Scott McCloud provided information in the form of a comic narrative. Looks like we took it literally :)

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Final Project: Developmental process (part 1)

After 3 weeks of endless brainstorming, sketching, refining, chair-warming, oil-burning, we are finally done with our final project!

But first, I will need to recap our developmental process throughout the stages of planning for this comic. So lets go back in time, about 3 weeks ago..

Our group has in fact, came up with many variations of the gore story for Hansel and Gretel. At first we decided to stick to Siew Ting's story of having the Father planned for Hansel and Gretel's death by a robotic witch in order to claim insurance to relief poverty. However, under the pressure of trying to force our a moral for the story, we decided to change the plot into a investigative narrative. For this narrative, the children have grown up and decided to take over the witch's candy house and set up store there. However, there appears to be a case of serial murders happening which unfortunately, involved Hansel and Gretel.

Hansel and Gretel's candy store

But after presenting this plot to the class, everyone seemed to prefer the initial story of gore because it was more interesting for a story and less predictable. And so once again, there was a need to reinvent our story. Our final plot was bore out of snacking on...

Yes, Garrett Popcorn (2 packs of it to be exact) Sugar stimulates the mind :)

We decided to forgo the need for a blatant moral for the story because we didn't feel that it was necessary for the story to be interesting and engaging. Rather, we focussed on evoking emotions from the readers through our plot.

Hence, we finally worked out our plot for the Hansel and Gretel story, going back to the gore genre. 

In this story, Hansel and Gretel returned home safe. But Father still needed the money and decided to venture into creating gore movies to earn revenue after doing a research that revealed the profitability of gore movies. He engaged Hansel and Gretel to film the movie but alas, the children were lousy actors and the trailer of the movie received negative reviews. Father got really upset and the children, in attempt to not disappoint the father, decided to try acting again, this time...more REALISTICALLY.

When they mean realistically, they meant for REAL. So while the filming process was going on, the Father had no idea the children were truly getting hurt and was still under the impression that his children had suddenly developed acting chops! Father eventually got driven mad and was was sent to the mental hospital.

For this project, I was in charged of drawing as well as helping out with the coloring with Siew Ting. Siew Ting was our main coder and Jia Ying came up with an awesome trailer as a media to be added into our comic.

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Final Sketch 2: Examine single-framed, multi-path narrative (part 2)

The main idea behind this sketch was to figure out some technical aspect of making a single framed comic. Hence, I decided to use flash to execute this. I found a really basic tutorial from: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/319116
and hence, decided to use arrows to prompt the readers into clicking to go onto the next panel.

The use of flash is especially helpful here when it comes to the multi path approach. The use of arrow buttons indicates an obvious choice for the readers to choose which path to take.

 

Also, I find that due to the presence of multi-paths, readers might be interested in finding out what was the other ending that they have missed and would want an option to go back to find out. At the end of the comic, I have also included the option to either replay the entire comic again or to go back to the checkpoint where they will have the option of choosing the other path. This is very essential because many a times when I play flash games with alternate ending, I find it tedious to have to go back to the beginning to repeat the same plot till I reach the point where I get to choose. This is an important feature to bear in mind when constructing the final project.

One problem of using flash though, is that some devices will not be able to view this comic. Given that in today's' age where many owns smart phones, flash may not be the best technology used. However, I still feel that this is an interesting platform to experiment on and I am still pleased with how it turned out.

Comparing this method of comic representation to the mad scientist approach, I am more in favor of this one. This is more direct and not confusing for readers to navigate around the comic. Also, I don't always feel contrived to fit the narrative of the comic into the format of representation and can better express my story that way.

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Final Sketch 2: Examine single-framed, multi-path narrative (part 1)

For this part of the project, we were to explore the possibility of representing the comic in a single framed panel. The story needs to be multi path and another added challenge is to include a non-fictional part to the story.

From the tutorial class, we realize that the genre of horror was most popular with the class. Many of them liked the idea of of a horror story. Hence, our group decided to explore more on the genre of horror and gore.

Personally, horror and gore was never a particular favorite genre of mine. I always find them too morbid for my taste. However, since my group were looking into this genre, I immediately thought of the ever popular Happy Tree Friends. The show, though contains gore, is not as disgusting as the gore we see in films because the cartoon has a childish appearance. I thought this degree of gore was more acceptable for me and decided I wanted to do gore that was vivid to the mind but not visually. Thus for sketch 2, I decided that though the nature was gore, the artwork should still be kept cute to minimize disgust.

In this sketch, I decided to make a parody of the youtube videos by Blendtec. The videos are part of a viral marketing campaign, 'Will It Blend?' In the videos, Tom Dickson, Blendtec's founder will blend various unusual items to show off the power of the blender, including roses, marbles, credit cards and even an iPad (heartbreaks :( ) Heres a link to the youtube channel if anyone is interested:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Blendtec?ob=0

In my story, Gretel was unsuccessful in getting rid of the witch. The two children tried to make an escape and readers will get the choice of choosing whether the witch should go after Hansel of Gretel. Yes, Hansel is rolly in this story because he was the only one getting fed by the witch.

If one chooses the story of Gretel, the witch will recapture her and attempts to blend her in the blender, as part of her weekly vlog show to showcase her blender (aptly named Bluntec) to fellow witch audiences. 

I thought this was a good chance of including the non-fiction part into the story as well. I did a research on what makes a good blender from this website: 

http://ezinearticles.com/?What-Makes-a-Good-Blender?&id=3133383

The four main features to look out for in a blender are: 

The Blender Motor, the Jug, the Blender Blades and the Blender Drive System.

Thus, I've included these during the witch 'vlog show' as the non-fiction element. 

Yes, I realize this is more funny than gory, but I'm just not the gore kinda person! Haha. To conclude Gretel's story, I included a panel that mimics how the 'Will It Blend' videos ends.

On the other hand, if readers choose the story of Hansel, there will not be any non-fictional part and simply a story. The witch dies in this story though.

Hansel was too fat to fit into the blender.

The blender explodes and Hansel pops out, unhurt.

The blender blade however, cuts into the witch's face.

The witch dies from over-bleeding and Hansel is saved. 

I must say this probably isn't the least bit gory (I should have added more bloodshed). The full version can only be found in ivle, sadly. I will be reflecting on this type of comic representation in my next post! :)

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Final Sketch 1: Mad Scientist Approach (part 2)

Okay. Let's start from where we left off in the last post.

I got the inspiration for my story from Toy Story 3 (I love my cartoons). In Toy Story, a toy bear got left at the playground after its owner fell asleep and her parents brought her home without realizing they had left her toy bear behind. The toy bear eventually found its way home but later found out that its owner had replaced it with an identical bear.

I followed a similar plot in my story, that is, Hansel and Gretel ran home after the ordeal with the witch and saw their Father with a baby in his arms and presumed that they have been replaced.

Following how Scott McCloud presents his comic, I've also used connecting lines between frames to guide the readers eyes in following the sequence of the comic. Besides the use of connecting lines, I've also used the artwork itself to lead the readers eyes from one panel to the other. This is to break the monotone of simply using lines to connect panels. Many a times, I try not to constrain the artwork to the boundaries of the panel but to use the panels creatively to contain the artwork. 

For example in the first figure, panels are used as pathway for which Hansel and Gretel run on. I thought it'll be more interesting that way. Aside from the interesting factor, I wanted to show that the run home was a long journey. One way to show this would have been to make a long panoramic panel to show the length of time. However, an effect of a long horizontal panel could also show how time is slowed down and I thought this is not accurate of what I'm trying to portray. While the run home is a long one, time has not slowed down. In fact, time has sped up because the children were running, eager to get home. Hence I thought of using multiple panels as the path for them to run on. Many panels indicate a stretch of time because traditionally, 4 panels could have been used to illustrate many things but here, it all only shows one event: the children running. However, we also see the children skipping panels when they run, indicating the speed of which they are running. Though I'm not sure if this works to what I intended for, it's an attempt nonetheless. :)

In the second figure, the panels becomes the glass windows. Hansel got angry at the prospect of Father replacing them with a new child that he threw a stone through the house windows. Hence, I showed the panel breaking like how a window would break when a stone is thrown through it. This is how I tried to show a moment-moment transition though I personally feel that it is difficult to use the mad scientist approach to show a moment-moment transition properly because of the need to scroll through the panels. Moment-moment transitions are meant to be fast paced but due to the reliance on readers to scroll through the panels, the transition might lose its significance.

In conclusion, though it is interesting how the mad scientist approach brings about new forms of representation of comics, I personally do not prefer this sort of representation. The need to scroll through the webpage greatly inconvenient the transitions between panels. Also, very often, I find myself having to intentionally organize the story to fit the nature of mad scientist approach. As a result, I feel that it is a very contrived method. Of course, this is a personal insight. It could very well be a lack of skill on my part. :/

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Final Sketch 1: Mad Scientist Approach (part 1)

So we finally got to work on the final project! I have an awesome group for this project with Siew Ting and Jia Ying. The theme for this project is pretty awesome as well. Jing wanted us to do a comic that is an extension of the ending of fairytales. I only have love for the subject. Fairytales have always an important part of my life since young and I'm pretty much obsessed over the different interpretations of fairytales by motion pictures, having watched all disney movies countless times, and the actual story itself. Reinventing fairytales is not a new concept. There have been so many shows and fan fiction that have looked into alternate endings for fairytales. Even currently, I've been chasing a Tv serial that is based off fairytales.

The show is called 'Once Upon a Time' (Wikipedia) and I would recommend everyone to catch it. The remake of the stories are really quite interesting and they sticked very closely to the characteristics of the fairytales. 

And yet for some reason, it was so difficult for me to come up with an extended ending for fairytales. It isn't the same as reinventing the fairytales because the premise is already fixed. This project is more open-ended and it could go anywhere. 

Our group, after analyzing many fairytales, decided on the story of Hansel and Gretel. Here's a brief summary of the story:

Hansel and Gretel lived together with their woodcutter Father and Stepmother. The family was very poor and it was very hard for Father to feed everyone. Stepmother then instigated Father to get rid of the children so they would have less mouths to feed. Father, although reluctant, had little choice and agreed to do so. The first time Father led the two children to the woods, hoping that they'll lose their way home. But Hansel was smart and had left trails of pebbles to mark the path and hence, got home safe. When stepmother learned about this, she locked up the two children and only gave them crumbs of bread before attempting to get them lost in the forest again. This time, Hansel used bread crumbs to mark the path but unfortunately, birds ate up the crumbs. So Hansel and Gretel continued on the path only to find themselves face to face with a gingerbread house. Famished, they intruded the house and ate whatever the could get their hands on, only to later realize the house was owned by an evil witch. The witch caged up Hansel and fed only him in order to fatten him up so she could eat him while poor Gretel was left to do chores for the witch. The witch had bad eyesight, so she would often feel Hansel's arm through the cage to find out if Hansel was fat enough for consumption. Hansel, being smart, always put out a bone to trick the witch into believing that he was still as skinny as a bone. Later, the witch got impatient and decided to eat Hansel regardless and instructed Gretel to open the oven. Gretel feigned naivety and asked the witch to first demonstrate how to open the oven. When the witch leaned towards the open oven, Gretel pushed the witch down and the witch thus, died. Hansel and Gretel then ran back home to their father. Their stepmother, in the story, died a mysterious death. 

This story isn't the most well-loved unfortunately, for its quite a depressing tale to tell children with all this negative image. We thought it'll still make a rather interesting plot to base our extended ending on.

For the first assignment, we had to come up with a comic using the mad scientist approach as described by Scott McCloud. Web comics have this advantage of limitless borders and hence we needed to try to maximize this potential in our comic. Our group decided to explore varied possible endings based on the type of genre. We had horror, comedy and drama. I took on drama while SiewTing did horror and Jiaying worked on comedy.

And here I present, my mad scientist Hansel and Gretel story! I don't think you can see it clearly here, but the final copy will be uploaded on ivle.

This is terrible drawing really but since we're not graded on that, I decided to spend more energy on organizing the panels. I will elaborate more on sketch 1 in my next post because this one is getting a little too lengthy for my taste. : /

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CE4: Practicing Text-Image relationships

For this class exercise, we utilized a practice sheet by C Hill to practice text-image relationships.

1. Complementary

The words and images will combine to illustrate a story that neither is able to accomplish on its own.

2. Contrasting
Text and image convey different ideas. This is usually used to suggest sarcasm.

3. Redundant

Both image and text say basically the same thing. Text here is usually used to illustrate a blatant point.

 4. Unrelated
Text and image are not connected  and are usually of poetic associations.

Also in tutorial, Jing gave us an impromptu task of drawing up a short comic strip. This was based of the poem of Jack and Jill. The main purpose was to see how we organized our panel layouts. Here's mine:

I think I didn't do so well on the panelling especially for the last three panels. Jack and Jill were suppose to roll down the hill and horizontal panels stretching across the page aren't exactly the best format. Jing suggested using vertical panels instead, which I have to agree, might have been better. This all means we have to plan strategically when we organize our panels and the need to consider the best format to represent the story.

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CE3: Examining the time and space continuum between motion comics and printed comics

For class exercise 3, we were required to identify the main differences between motion and printed comics as well as classify its strengths and weakness according to time and space continuum. 

The main differences between motion comic and printed comic

Printed comics are on tangible publication while motion comics are in the form of multimedia. Hence, printed comics are cheaper to produce while it will definitely cost more to produce motion comics. Motion comics are usually based off the printed comics but most are loosely based.

Next, we'll discuss the strengths and limitations of motion comic and printed comic in the aspect of time and space.

The strengths and limitations of motion comic and printed comic

Strengths

Printed Comic

• Not constrained to time, readers can reread the comic 

Motion Comic

• Multi modalities, includes visual and sound to engage multiple senses
• Flow of story controlled by directors, viewers don't need to determine the order of narrative
• Flow of story not interrupted by space limitations as frames are continuous

Weakness

Printed Comic

• Limited only to visuals
• Relies on the ability of readers to determine the flow of the narrative. Comic artist needs to be able to guide the readers eyes throughout the panels otherwise readers may end up lost. 
• Art confined within the limits of the publication, the flipping of pages may result in discontinuity of reading

Motion Comic

• Not repeat-friendly. Viewers can repeat the story, but it is a hassle to rewind and find out which part they want the story to continue from
• Multimodalities can be an advantage or disadvantage, it could interrupt an audience viewing of the narrative

Reflections

While both forms has its own benefits and disadvantages, I believe that motion comics is definitely gaining its foothold in the comic industry. As people get increasingly busier, little have time to spare to glance over pages and pages of comic. The comic industry faces a shrinking audience and its existing fan base grows increasingly older. Hence I feel that motion comics can help to recapture new readers who are more enticed by the new medium. But again, motion comics cost a lot to produce. So unless this new form of comic is able to capture enough fans to make a strong enough business to sustain its costs, such a medium of comic should still be viewed with some degree of skepticism.

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Assignment 2

In assignment 2, we get to come up with a comic strip! It was really taxing to accomplish but really fun at the same time! The theme of it being 'slice of life' and we got to pay attention to layout, the use of panel to panel transition, the time space continuum and the integration of image and text. 

So here's my work. Titled: The Train Ride Home

Comments by the class are:

• Confusion of train stations, need for labeling
• Train announcement text to be shifted lower into frame 5 to avoid confusion

I meant for this comic to be relatable to a Singaporean audience. It is definitely what train commuters have to go through everyday. I chose not to do it from an international perspective even though they probably also have the trouble of their trains leaving before they get to it. This is because I feel that given the construction of the jurong east platform where the distance to the next train is relatively short and one can see it in sight, the inability to catch up to the train before it leaves makes it even more agonizing then suppose, foreign train platforms where people change trains by going up and down escalators. I wanted local readers to be able to feel that pinch because this is closer to the heart. :)

Of course this isn't done yet, there's still a 250 - 300 word reflection to be done! I'll get that written up soon and update this post! Cheerio! 

***Update: Reflections

There is a moment-moment transition from the second to the third panel. It sets the time span for the scene. Moment-moment transition indicates a slow movement to give a feeling of the mundane as the feet move across the platform to the train. An action-action transition is in panel 6 to 7 to indicate an increase in pace as the protagonist runs. This is to influence the reader to be able to relate to her feeling of panic.

In my layout, long horizontal panels are used to depict not the physical time span but the time tensions within the protagonist. For example, in the panel where the protagonist sees that the opposite train has arrived, one would imagine that she begins to get anxious and wishes that she could alight right away so she can catch the train. At that moment, time seems to go on forever and so I have used a longer panel to depict the agonizing feeling. Framing of panels are done selectively to give a claustrophobic feeling as the protagonist goes through various scenarios of being pushed for time. Some panels are deliberately left frameless to give a sense of liberation. When the protagonist gets a chance to make a dash for her train, a frameless panel gives a limitless feeling that she has hope of making it, but later transits to a framed panel when alas, she still does not make it to the train in time.

Sound effects are also used in the comic to depict both the background sounds and verbal speeches. Sound and image relationship is interdependent. For example, in the forth panel, the protagonist is not optimistic about going home early and this is further reinforced with the image of a crowded train that delays her time. Sound effects in the form of onomatopoeia are used to depict sounds of the moving train and of feet running. They are often used together with speed lines to give life to the moving object to transfer that image to the reader’s mind vividly. Text speech bubbles also vary to convey the tone of the dialogue for example, using sharp-ended speech bubbles in panel 5 and 7 to project a feeling of angst in the subject’s thoughts. 

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Assignment 1

I realised I have not been updating my blog recently! Here's an update on my first assignment and later on on my 2nd assignment. I will probably update on the class exercises later.

Our first assignment was to use 5 panels to tell a visual story. Here's mine:

Revenge of the Cans

I hope the story is still understandable! It is basically about a person drinking from a can and tossing it away and the other can 'buddies' witness the atrocity. The cans got mad and went to take revenge on the person, eventually causing the person to fall to death.

I've gotten this story as an inspiration of a photo I found on deviantart.com by ~msgonzalez

I've gotten quite a bit of critique from the class:

• The table used should be opaque
• Need for more cans to give a threatening aura
• Placing some cans on the steps of the stairs to give a sense of 'chase' 
• Frame 3 to focus on can

Looks like I'm going to have to get more cans for the reshoot! :)

***Update

I finally go round to redoing this assignment. I replaced the beers with coke though. There was no way I was going to purchase large quantities of beer! Also, coke cans are red, so I thought it'll be good to signify rage as well.

I have decided to use color flash technique this time round, hopefully to bring more attention to the cans. Also to emphasis some figure and ground. 

I hope the story is clear. Yes, cans don't attack people, but I hope artistic license applies here! :)

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CE2: Apply Panel to Panel Transitions

 

For class exercise 2, we needed to apply the 6 different types of panel to panel transition on a comic strip by Scott McCloud. Our group chose the 5 panels highlighted in red to tell the story.

1-->2 :  Subject-Subject
2-->3 :  Moment-Moment
3-->4 :  Action-Action
4-->5 :  Scene-Scene

Having a headache now thinking of a concept for the first tutorial. It's visual storytelling using 5 frames. This is identical to one of the assignments I did in NM2208 and I had a pretty rough time with that. Think I've pretty much expired my brainstorming capacity that time and I'm running out of ideas for this time!

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CE1: Defining Sequential Art

So we had our first NM3228 lecture today and we were introduced to what sequential art is. 

Prior to the lesson and the readings, I conceptualized sequential art as frames of images in an order, like storyboards! Turns out, something closer to the idea of sequential art is comics though many other forms could be counted as sequential art as well. 

So with so many ways of defining sequential art, the class got into groups to come up with definitions based on some images provided by Jing. Basically, my group felt that it has to be in an orderly sequence in which removal of any part of the sequence would result in the story not making any sense. There should also have a recurring detail in the sequence that could prompt viewers to relate and link a story together. And of course, it has to be narrative. 

So this, 

is considered sequential art to us. And this,

isn't, because we could remove any one body in there and it still makes sense. And there isn't exactly a story either, more like a development.

Then again, the other groups had other ways to defining it. A group had mention that a orderly sequence wasn't necessary as long as we can still figure out the story.

I guess its not going to be possible to give a really clear, undebatable definition of sequential art but that's just as well. If it's definable, it wouldn't really be considered art now would it? :)

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