Illustration Visual Narrative | Task 3

Week 10 (03/06/2021) - Week 15 (11/07/2021)
Shamiella Baziella Binti Mohamad - 0333104
Bachelor of Mass Communication (Hons) Digital Media Production)

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LECTURES

Lecture 10:

Week 10 (03/06/2021) 

As for this week lecture, we were introduced on the comics transitions. Below are few of the transitions that can be incorporated in our comics.

Figure 1.0: Moment-to-Moment (03/06/2021)

Moment-to-Moment

- used to slow down and draw out action

- involve 1 character

Figure 1.1: Action-to-Action (03/06/2021)

Action-to-Action

- progression with actions

- typically focuses on significant events or movements from panel to panel / larger intervals of time between moments

Figure 1.3: Subject-to-Subject (03/06/2021)

Subject-to-Subject

- focusing on a different subject in the same scene

- ex: conversation in a restaurant

Figure1.4: Scene-to-Scene (03/06/2021)

Scene-to-Scene

- series of events happen in one location, and continuous period of time

- time and space are spanned

Figure 1.5: Aspect-toAspect (03/06/2021)

Aspect-to-Aspect

- introduce environment to reader

- takes on idea, mood, place

Figure 1.6: Non-Sequitur (03/06/2021)

Non-Sequitur

- no logic between panels 

- readers perceived their narrative

Figure 1.7: Symbolic (03/06/2021)

Symbolic

- deal with the unreal, the felt, and the imagined

- moving readers from an imagined, or recalled space to either another/real one

Figure 1.8: Rolling Transitions (03/06/2021)

Rolling Transitions

- capture a sense of movement through space

- images are melded and mixed together instead of having panel gutters as boarders as separate graphical elements

Week 11: *Consultation*

(10/06/2021)

Week 12 -14: *Self- Directed Mode*

(17/06/2021-24/06/2021)

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INSTRUCTIONS

TASK

Task 3: Final Project- Webtoon & Motion Comic

Week 10- Week 12

As for our final project, we were required to create and design a comic by portraying a feel good narrative ("slice of life").

Keynote:

- size: W800px X H1280px

- story must have 3 acts structure

- min 10-20 max panels

- coloured, b&w, shaded-render 

- publish to Webtoon and motion on Youtube

Figure 1.9: Internet Bestie Portfolio (18/06/2021)

To begin the task, I come up with 2 storylines and seek feedback from Ms Anis. I decided to go with storyline #1: Internet Bestie as it best depict the storyline clearly. 

Figure 2.0: Storyline  (03/06/2021)

After receiving feedbacks and confirmation from Ms Anis, I then looked up on Pinterest for some inspirations on my character design and layout design to enhance a better insight of my comic design as whole.

Figure 2.1: Inspirations on Pinterest (03/06/2021)

Then, I started sketching my character design and plan the layout/scene panels accordingly. Below are few of my sketches I've done before illustrating them.

Figure 2.2: Layout/Scene Panels Sketch (04/06/2021)

Figure 2.3: Character Design Sketch (04/06/2021)

Once I'm done sketching and get the gist of the rough sketches, I then started to illustrate them on AI. 

Figure 2.4:  Character Design Outline (05/06/2021)

Figure 2.5: Character Design Coloured (10/06/2021)

Figure 2.6: Storyboard Panels Outline (05/06/2021)

Figure 2.7: Storyboard Panels Coloured (10/06/2021)

 After I'm done with the illustration on the AI, I then incorporated the bubble speech on my comics to gain better understanding of the storyline for the readers. 

Figure 2.8: Comic Draft (13/06/2021)

After completing the comic draft, I then seek out feedback from Ms Anis before I proceed to animate the motion comic. Ms Anis suggested to reduce the size of the bubble speech as it block a few scenes. Hence, I did the adjustments on the bubble speech size. 

Week 13 - Week 14

Then, I begin to animation process on the motion comics. As I'm still clueless and struggling using After Effects, I look up on the tutorials given by Mr Kannan and refer to YouTube for tutorials. Also, big thanks to Hui Ying, for helping me out and guiding me on the animation progress. I realised that animating them takes a lot of time. Hence, this is the progress I've done so far. 

Keynote: 

- separate the layers in AI to animate them before exported them to After Effects

Figure 2.9: Animation Progress on After Effects (26/06/2021)

I then added the bubble speech on the motion comics. 

Figure 3.0: Motion Comic (29/06/2021)

I did added a few transitions on the motion comics as it will direct the readers from scene to scene. Here is the outcome on the motion comic. 

Figure 3.1: Motion Comic- Transition (03/07/2021)

FINAL SUBMISSION

After finalising the comic, I then publish the comic to Webtoon and decided to upload the 1st version of the video on Youtube. 

Figure 3.2: Final Comic - "Internet Bestie" (03/07/2021)

Figure 3.3 : Webtoon - "Internet Bestie"

Figure 3.4: "Internet Bestie" Motion Comic (03/07/2021)

and that concludes the Final Task!

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FEEDBACKS

Week 10:

General Feedback: Incorporate the transitions in our comics, make sure the comic make sense in terms of readability, use visual metaphors to highlight moments, consider design aspect (character design, colour scheme and etc)

Specific Feedback: No specific feedback

Week 11: *Consultation*

General Feedback: No general feedback

Specific Feedback: No specific feedback

Week 12-14: *Self-Directed Mode*

General Feedback: No general feedback

Specific Feedback (W13): Seek feedback from Ms Anis in regards of my comic through WhatsApp before I begin to animate my motion comics. Ms Anis commented on my comics as I should reduce the size of the bubble speech as it distracts and block a few scenes. Hence, I did amendments based on Ms Anis feedbacks. 

Specific Feedback (W14): After I'm done and satisfied with the outcome of the motion comics, I then seek feedbacks from Mr Kannan. Mr Kannan told me it was nicely done and I can proceed to submit them. 

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REFLECTION

Week 10:

• Experience: It takes me quite a while to come up with the storyline. Hence, I incorporate the story due to the current situation (COVID-19), I wanted to depict the story closely as how we are communicating nowadays through screen (virtual calls). 

• Observation: I look up on Pinterest for inspirations and I've came across a lot of different narrative and illustrative comic styles. Therefore, it has helps me in ideating progress for the comic. 

• Findings: I realised there's a lot of comics that are nicely done and it encouraged me to do better at least.

Week 11: 

• Experience: I enjoyed sketching and illustrating as I finally get to design my own character and my narrative. 

• Observation: Took me a few days to complete the illustration where I incorporate all of the previous lessons and tutorials I've learnt throughout the semester in my comic design to enhance a better insight of the comic.

• Findings: Although I am struggling in the beginning and procrastinate all the time, but with time and help/guidance from Ms Anis and Mr Kannan as well as my peers, I did managed to get the hang of it and complete the illustration. 

Week 12-14:

• Experience: It's the end of the FINAL task !!! I'm very glad and proud of myself that I've made this far!!! It was a generally enjoyable experience, although I faced some difficulties and found myself struggling on the task. I'm so thankful for Ms Anis and Mr Kannan for being extremely patience and for setting the environment (class) where we weren't only allowed to succeed but also to gain better understanding of this module by analysing from different perception in which we can view anything as well as, constantly provide feedbacks for me to improve better week by week. And not forget to mention, my peers whom I keep going back and forth to seek for feedbacks and comments. 

• Observation: As for this final task, this assignment undoubtedly takes a lot of time among all of the other tasks. It takes a WHOLE lot of time, especially in animating the motion comics as I had never use After Effects before. Nevertheless, I'd say that I'm satisfied with all my works that I've worked on throughout the whole semester with a lot of efforts, seeking feedbacks here and there, work back and forth to keep refining my works and a lot of ranting and breaking down >.< I believed I'll never reach perfection because there's always room for improvement, yet to get along the way to perfection, I'll learn to get better. I managed to keep going on without giving up and I'm proud of myself from day 1 of taking this module, I gain a lot! 

• Findings: Animating the motion comic was REALLY HARD at first, as I didn't know how to animate them through AE. I'd like to thank Hui Ying for sharing a few tips on doing it :') and helping me out when I faced problems animating my motion comic on AE. It takes a lot of time for me to get used to AE, and using AE for the 1st time was pretty annoying where I need to do the motion all over again for multiple times as I encountered a few mistakes and problems. However, I'd say I'm partly unsatisfied with the outcome as I forgot to add the white background on AI before I imported the artboard layer to AE. Hence, my video background were black instead of white. Nonetheless, I'm very happy of the final outcome, it wasn't easy but definitely worth it.