Illustration and Visual Narrative ✦Final Project✦

The final project of Illustration and Visual Narrative is a continuation of Project 3 in which a one page introductory comic is created based on the selected story. The story must be arranged in a visual sequence which properly conveys the message of the story. This is followed by the animation of at least one panel of the comic which is selected depending on the best timing in the story flow and transitions of visuals that strongly reflects the story narrative.

The challenges of this assignment are as followed:

Continue with the same story and design aesthetic from Project 2.
Work only from one paragraph of the story for the 1st page.

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✦INSTRUCTIONS✦

Figure 1: Assignment guidelines for Illustration and Visual Narrative.

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✦1.0 IDEA DEVELOPMENT✦

1.1 Design Research

Based on the story selected from Project 3, I have selected Act 2 to create the one page introductory comic. This is due to the fact that the main message that Edgar Alan Poe was trying to convey through the story of 'Ligeia' was drug addiction.

Figure 2.1: 3-Act Structure

In Act 2, the drug addiction of the narrator was revealed as he began spiraling down the side effects that came with the increased consumption of opium as a grieving mechanism caused by his wife's passing. The most prominent hallucination throughout the whole story was the part where he visualized wine droplets floating in the air. This was the first time the audience understood that the narrator was under the heavy influence of drugs. Hence, it served as a strong visual narrative that best captures the summary of the story, 'Ligeia'.

Other than that, I have researched on references to understand the techniques of comic paneling. I have observed the works by my favourite comic artists which are Angry Num and Aida Iro.

Figure 2.3: One page comic by Angry Num on Twitter.

Figure 2.4: One page from the comic 'Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun' by Aida Iro.

1.2 Ideation

Based on the Act 2 of my Digital Triptych, I have sketched out a simple comic page based on the part of the story. The one page comic features the narrator pouring a glass of wine for his current wife, Rowena. However, he started hallucinating due to the effects of drugs and visualize wine droplets floating around the room. The only thing he can do is stare at the strange scene with sorrow as he deeply misses his passed wife, Ligeia.

Figure 3.1: Sketch of one-page comic panel.

I have also drafted out a simple animation. I have decided to animate three of the panels to enhance the dynamic effect of the comic page.

Figure 3.2: Draft of animation for one-page comic.

This is followed by colour exploration. I blocked out a general colour palette for the comic page based on my digital triptych.

Figure 3.3: Colour exploration of one-page comic.

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✦DESIGN PROCESS✦

2.1 Digitalization

Based on the sketch created, I have started the digitalization process in Adobe Illustrator. First, I laid out the panels to be used as well as the thought boxes to insert the narrative. I have also created a small title frame at the top of the canvas to tell the story of Ligeia.

Figure 4.1: Digitalization progression #1.

Then, I started filling the comic panels with vector art using all the functions available in Adobe Illustrator. The most used functions and tools are:

Pen tool and Curve pen tool
Shape builder tool
Width tool
Gradient tool

Figure 4.2: Digitalization progression #2.

After the comic panels are drawn, I added smoke surrounding the canvas. This not only represents the smoke from the opium drugs that the main character was addicted to, but also to fill up the empty spaces of the canvas to give a more interesting visual experience.

Figure 4.3: Digitalization progression #3.

Finally, I added text into the thought bubbles. I have used the font ITC New Baskerville Std Roman as it gives the effect as though it is written in the diary of the narrator. The dialogues are as follows:

As I began taking more opium... my hallucinations become more ridiculous.
Such as this day when the illusions got worse... I miss you dearly, Ligeia.

2.2 Animation

After the digitalization process is completed, I moved onto the animation process. I drew out the animation frames in Adobe Illustrator in which each animated panel consist of 3 frames.

The first animated panel was the pouring wine scene which shows a flow of liquid and droplets dripping out from the goblet.

Figure 5.1: Animated panel #1.

The second animated panel features hair movement to show air flow as well as the craziness of the hallucination.

Figure 5.2: Animated panel #2.

The final animated panel shows the flow of curtains in the room which flutters as the wine droplets float in the air.

Figure 5.3: Animated panel #3.

Finally, I assembled the frames together in Adobe After Effects in which the animation is animated on sixes. The animation is then rendered and exported through Adobe Media Encoder.

Figure 5.4: Assembly of animation in Adobe After Effects.

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✦FINAL OUTCOME✦

Final compilation Google Slides here:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1vuc3HyyjRH9YniQclldAIFmFxeLWeB7_JzZp_ctvQOk/edit?usp=sharing

Figure 6.1: One page Visual Novel featuring Act 2 of 'Ligeia' - JPEG.

Figure 6.2: Outline view of One page Visual Novel featuring Act 2 of 'Ligeia'

Figure 6.3: One page Visual Novel featuring Act 2 of 'Ligeia' - PDF.

Figure 6.4: Animated One page Visual Novel featuring Act 2 of 'Ligeia' - GIF.

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✦REFLECTION✦

The final project was a struggle for me as the time provided to complete this assignment was the shortest while the workload is the most compared to all the previous assignments of this module.

The major issue throughout this assignment was that I have misunderstood the assignment guidelines and made the mistake of animating the digital triptych from Project 3 instead of proceeding on the animated comic page that was instructed in the Final Project guidelines. I was defeated as I noticed my mistake when the deadline was in two days. Fortunately, Mrs. Anis was kind enough to extend further the deadline for the Final Project as per my request in which I humbly apologize for the mistake. I regained my composure and tried my best to give a satisfying result for my final project.

The final product of the animated visual novel was satisfactory in which I am grateful for the knowledge and techniques taught by the lecturers throughout the 14 weeks of the semester. The experience in the utilization of Adobe Illustrator along with design creativity has been built up which allowed me to complete an entire artwork in a short period of time. Other than that, I have learnt about the techniques in visual story telling through this assignment as well as colour theory based on the mood and tone of each panel.

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✦Ariel Chin Bei Yi 0343651✦