VISUAL NARRATIVE AND ILLUSTRATION - FINAL PROJECT

VISUAL NARRATIVE AND ILLUSTRATION - FINAL PROJECT

4/6/2018 -  4/7/2018 week 11 - Week 15

Ng Shu Zhi (0327158)

Visual Narrative and Illustration -Final Project - Front & Back and Back & Forth

LECTURE
Week 11: We were given the lecture on more digital colouring techniques and we were to practice on using our mixer brush.

Week 12: We began our work for our Final webcomic outcome

WORK

Here is the link to the Final webcomic outcome

Breaking down the story

I was asked to add a bit more to the prologue with a reason behind him being thrown into the dungeon. The story goes as Daedalus helps the princess run away and the king gets mad so the throws Daedalus into the dungeon tower so I had drawn some thumbnails just to show a brief idea of what will happen but then I had changed the composition while drawing these digitally to make the story more interesting.

As I was doing a webcomic, the tutor suggested we also use panels in the comic or it would become boring if one were to look at the same scene again and again in the composition with no change.
3rd page. The princess is pleading for him to give her the map so she can flee to save her lover who is trapped in the labrynith.
The two transitions between


Storyboarding - thumbnails

This is the beginning where Daedalus betrays the king and is thrown into the dungeon.

This contains 2 parts where Daedalus gets the idea of flying through the sky to escape the tower and him building the wings. When thrown into the tower dungeon he had noticed 2 birds flying outside, thus giving him the idea to use flying as a means of escaping. At the bottom I had made a concept idea of how the wings worked so I could create a process of how it would be made in the comic.

Here I made one of the important factors when Daedalus tells his son about the wings and its restrictions from flying too close to the sun and the sea then they set off to escape the tower. Then comes the climax and the falling action where Icarus wanted to play a fool and fly towards the sun but as he flew closer to the sun, his wings melted and he fell into the sea.

Style inspiration

As for the style of the comics to be in, I wanted to go for a Tim Burton art style  because it can give a unique twist to the story telling for greek mythology. Greek mythology doesn’t actually have very happy endings in the end so I think maybe this style could be an unteresting twist to the usual was it’s portrayed. Usually portrayed in realistic human art or cartoony or flat/art deco styles for people to see its light hearted but greek mythology is actually very twisted.

Page Composition
I've changed the composition in the final pages to give a more dramatic feel to the story.

1st page with a aspect to aspect transition to show the Kingdom this story will be held in.

2nd page. Then I wanted a smooth transition between the logo seen on the building to be the same logo in the throne room but the last panel has a difference in colour to signify that it had become night time but I didn't want to have a odd transition to the moon.

3rd page and it's transitions. With the 3rd page I had begun to show more transitions with this showing the reasoning to why the princess wanted to flee. She pleaded Deadalus for the map to the Labrynith so she can go save her lover who was thrown into the Labrynith to die by the Minotaur. So Daedalus gives her the map and she went off on her way.

4th page. Not being careful, Daedalus and the Princess didn't notice someone was eavesdropping on them and notifies the king of Daedalus's betrayal. I didn't want to add more panels of the snitch going to the king's room to tell him so I just had a panel where his feet are moving so the people know he's going to make his move since they already know his intentions.

 5th page and transition. The next morning the king explodes at Daedalus and commands to have him taken away.

6th page. They get taken away by the guards.

7th page. As for this page i wanted to play around the with door opening and closing so the animation in the final had tap points between the door being opened and closing to make it a bit more immersive for the audience as if they're controlling the door. Then Daedalus gets up and goes to the window.

8th page. Daedalus peeking outside to see the tower surrounded by guards.

9th page. Thus making him lose all hope of escape until he notices 2 birds flying outside and he gets the idea to escape the tower by flight then tells his son.

10th page. We have Daedalus creating the wings while his son plays a fool in the background. I've discussed whether it would've been better to have a progress shot of Daedalus working on the wings and as time goes, he ages or to only have a shot of the progress of the wings as they're being made and it was better to show the wings being made.

11th page and transition. Daedalus is done with the wings and standing proudly basking in the light of his creation. I got this idea from an old painting about knowledge and light being shined from the book.

12th page. Daedalus warning is son about the restrictions of the wings not being able to fly towards the sun or the sea then they take flight.

13th page. I wanted to use a scene to scene transition to show their progress of flying through the sky.

14th page and transition. Icarus disobeys his father and flies towards the sun but when his father had noticed his son's actions, it was too late. thus the dramatic reaching out to him in the transition. 

15th page and transition. The progress of Icarus flying towards the sun to build more anticipation to the famous moment of the story. The transition is of him being so fixated on the sun, it's the only thing he can see that he doesn't realise what is happening to his wings as they melt off.

16th page and transition. The final page shows Icarus falling from the sky after his wings had all melted off and the ending I was advised to so something more symbolic to show his death instead of having an image of him falling into the sea. The I've also included 1 bird flying instead of 2 like in the rest of the comic to show the symbolism that there's only Daedalus and his son is gone.

 REFLECTION
Experience: I was excited for this final assignment as we could make an interactive webcomic which is always something I love because I like getting people involved in whatever I make to have it feel more immersive. Storyboarding was a bit tricky as this story involves a lot of history leading up to this one story so it was hard to make the prologue as short as possible. With a long story also brings, a lot of drawing which caused quite some problems and anxiety with my hand getting very sore. It was thought very exciting to be able to create these compositions with the lighting to provoke a certain emotion.

Observation: Making an interactive webcomic can immerse the readers more with tap points and animation. This also will lessen the amount of drawings as animation and effects can help with transitions better.

Findings: Firstly I found that thumbnails are very important in creating a good flow to the story, they also help give the layout to 1 page and you can check the layout of them thumbnails to have a clearer vision of the final outcome and they are crucial as they can be changed very easily and quickly. Composition in a comic is also important and sometimes putting something outside of the box of a panel can make something more interesting like the final page where I used the panels to give a rhythm of Icarus falling to the sea without having to draw more fully coloured panels with characters drawn in them.