Illustration and Visual Narrative - Final Project: Animated Visual Novel

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01/07/2023 - 14/07/2023 / Week 13 - Week 15

Joey Lok Wai San / 0350857

Illustration and Visual Narrative / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media  Final Project: Animated Visual Novel



LECTURES

All lectures completed in Week 13

INSTRUCTIONS

FINAL PROJECT: ANIMATED VISUAL NOVEL

Continuing from Project 3, based on the selected story, we have to create a one-page introduction of our visual novel with at least one animated panel. The story must be arranged in visual sequences that make sense and are easily understood. We should consider the choice of panel arrangements and transitions and determine as well which panel(s) will be best visualized as animation.
1. Chosen Act I chose to focus on Act 1 of my digital triptych and worked from this paragraph of the story, which basically sums up most of the action in the act.
Fig. 1.1 Digital Triptych (Act 1 - The "Vulture's Eye"), Week 14
"Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded --with what caution --with what foresight --with what dissimulation I went to work! I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him. And every night, about midnight, I turned the latch of his door and opened it --oh so gently! And then, when I had made an opening sufficient for my head, I put in a dark lantern, all closed, closed, so that no light shone out, and then I thrust in my head. Oh, you would have laughed to see how cunningly I thrust it in! I moved it slowly --very, very slowly, so that I might not disturb the old man's sleep. It took me an hour to place my whole head within the opening so far that I could see him as he lay upon his bed. Ha! --would a madman have been so wise as this? And then, when my head was well in the room, I undid the lantern cautiously --oh, so cautiously --cautiously (for the hinges creaked) --I undid it just so much that a single thin ray fell upon the vulture eye. And this I did for seven long nights --every night just at midnight --but I found the eye always closed; and so it was impossible to do the work; for it was not the old man who vexed me, but his Evil Eye. And every morning, when the day broke, I went boldly into the chamber, and spoke courageously to him, calling him by name in a hearty tone, and inquiring how he has passed the night. So you see he would have been a very profound old man, indeed, to suspect that every night, just at twelve, I looked in upon him while he slept." - The Tell-Tale Heart

2. Research Before sketching or planning out my comic, I did some research on comic layouts. The information gathered is from https://www.clipstudio.net/how-to-draw/archives/160963

When creating a layout for the page, it is important to think about     - What are the beginning and endpoints of the page?     - What needs to happen between those two points to tell the progress?     - How many steps will tell that progression?     - What needs to be included in each step?     - How do I expect the reader to move from one panel to the next? Panels (Types of Panels, Space Between Panels, Panel Styles) There are different panel types that can be used effectively, such as close-ups, distant shots, silhouettes, and action shots. A “zoom-in” can create excitement or tension when telling a story, and a silhouette shot gives an opportunity for drama The space between panels, known as the gutter, allows the reader to absorb one panel before moving to the next. Traditionally a gutter is always the same width to give a smooth transition from panel to panel. Panels can be used to tell the story simply through their shape and lines, e.g. different styles of borders show a character's state of being or even represent a shift in time. Transitions in Comics There are many transitions in comics, but I am choosing to focus on the following three because they match the storyline more. https://makingcomics.spiltink.org/transitions/#:~:text=Action%2Dto%2DAction%3A&text=Really%20it's%20more%20or%20less,intervals%20of%20time%20between%20moments. Moment-to-Moment: A blink or two between seconds of a film, it can be used to slow down and draw out the action Action-to-Action: Less finely sliced version of Moment-to-Moment, and focuses on significant events or movement from panel to panel, and over larger intervals of time between moments. Camera angles change to best suit the action depicted. Scene-to-Scene: A series of events that happen in one location, and continuous period of time. A change of location or significant jump in time between panels is considered the end of a scene and the start of a new one. 3. Planning and Sketching To start the process, I first wrote down the main actions that take place and planned out the actions of each panel.

Fig. 1.2 Main Actions and Panel Planning, Week 14

I summarized the paragraph/act by choosing the key moments. When sketching out my panels, I only chose those with the most action because eight panels would make the page look too crowded (and I also got lazy to draw eight panels).

Fig. 1.3 Rough Sketches and Comic Layout, Week 14
Fig. 1.4 Rough Sketches and Comic Layout, Week 14
4. Digitization and Animation Writing this at 1am, please excuse me. I've become quite delirious doing the comic at this point, thus there aren't many progress pictures since I forgot to take a screengrab of them.
Fig. 2.1 Digitizing Comic, Week 15
 
Fig. 2.2 Digitizing Comic, Week 15

I made a series of frames in Illustrator, before exporting my work into Adobe Photoshop for animation. However, I realized I made too few frames, which caused the animation to look sped up and rough.

Fig. 2.3 First Attempt at Animation, Week 15
I proceeded to redo my frame-by-frame animation in Adobe Illustrator. In my first attempt, I only used four frames. This time around, I made sure each movement was slow, and each move had one frame. I exported the frames into Photoshop for animation and adjusted the delay setting.
Fig. 2.4 Frame-by-Frame in Adobe Illustrator, Week 15 Fig. 2.5 Animation in Adobe Photoshop, Week 15
Fig. 2.6 Animation Timeline, Week 15
Final Animated Visual Novel Google Slides Link of Visual Novel Compilation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1dWXZloq46DC_-IsSBrlcV8jKBiCJ48KbfvdlZJ69f_Y/edit?usp=sharing
Fig. 2.7 Final Visual Novel - JPEG, Week 15
Fig. 2.8 Final Animated Visual Novel - GIF, Week 15
Fig. 2.9 Visual Novel Outline View in Adobe Illustrator, Week 15

FEEDBACK

WEEK 15

The style is good. Look into comic panel transitions, there's a good reference by Scott McCloud called understanding comics: https://thesequentialpress.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/transitions/


REFLECTION

Experience

My experience with the Final Project was not the best. It was great to be able to adapt a story into a comic and learn a new style of art that I had no experience it whatsoever. I learned a lot about the different panel styles that make a comic page look more visually interesting. However, the project felt very last minute, with it being given out on the second last week of the semester. It was like being thrown into the deep end right at the end of the semester and watching us drown. 


Observations

From this project, I observed that time management is extremely crucial. This project had such a short timeline, with the heaviest workload compared to the other assignments in this module. I was honestly quite over this project, module and semester, so I planned out my time evenly and just finished it. I also observed I have gotten quite used to using Adobe Illustrator, and have not struggled using it nearly as much as the first project.

Findings 

I found that animating requires an enormous amount of patience especially because it can get incredibly tedious to modify each movement and ensure it loops. It is not an easy process to simply create and plan out a good comic, and I have much more respect for people who create visual narratives.

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