ILLUSTRATION & VISUAL NARRATIVE - TASK 4

05/11/24 - 05/12/24 ( Week 11 - Week 14 )
Carren Yeliandi / 0376990
Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media - Illustration & Visual Narrative - Taylor's University
Task 4

Table of Content

1. Lectures

2. Instructions

3. Reflection

Lectures

Week 11

In an online meeting using teams, Mr.Hafiz was explaining the assignments to be done for this task which was to make a comic using a surrealistic style in illustrator and then animate it in photoshop.

Week 12

There was an online lecture regarding transitions basing the topic on Scott McCloud's Comic Transitions. Here we learned the difference between 5 type of transitions that we could use which was moment-moment, Action-Action, Subject-Subject, Scene-Scene and Aspect-Aspect.

Week 13

This week is a face to face feedback session so there was no lectures.

Week 14

This week, there was supposed to be a lecture meeting on tracing however due to our request, it was changed to be a recorded session that was shared in google classroom instead.

Instructions

TASK 4 - WEBCOMICS

We were given a short novel to read and then make into a comic. I chose part 1 of the novel which mostly contains some background story and explanation about the main topic of this novel which is the monkey paw.

This part is mostly family friendly and chill so I would need to make it colorful to not make it look too ominous and scary.

I searched for some references which then would help me make my sketches. I also need to account which transitions will I use between panels.

Fig. 1 Sketch and progression board (05/01/25)

Fig. 2 Reference board (05/01/25)

After feedback, I decided to proceed using the revised sketch (the middle one on the top part of the sketch board).

I first made the scanned sketch into a template and dimmed it to about 30%.

Fig.3 Making the sketch into a template (29/11/24)

I then proceeded to trace the panels using a rectangle tool.

Fig.4 Making the panels (29/11/24)

I then proceeded to make the trees using a line tool. I had decided to make the trees curvy so I did so using a curvature tool.

Fig. 5 Making the trees using pen tool (29/11/24)

Fig. 6 Adjusting the trees using curvature tool (29/11/24)

I then proceeded to make the campfire using the pen tool and curvature tool , I was stuck on this part (specifically the fire) for a bit but managed to make one using some references to help me.

Fig. 7 The process of making the campfire (29/11/24)

I then proceeded to make some of the easier part first before moving on to the people which I considered to be the hardest part of them all.

I traced most of the tables that are shown on the panels except for panel 1 which contains a different view and needed some more references so I decided to do so later.

Fig. 8 Making the tables using pen tool (29/11/24)

I had some difficulties during the making of the chairs so I decided to find a picture online and traced them using pen tool before fixing them using curvature tool.

Fig. 9 Chairs references (29/11/24)

Fig. 10 Traced chair (29/11/24)

I then copy pasted them as needed and used transform -> reflect for the chairs on the other side.

Fig. 11 Finished chairs on panel 3 (29/11/24)

I had also make the chairs from panel 4.

Fig. 12 Making the chairs on panel 4 (29/11/24)

I had decided midway during the process to make the lines thinner, which I did and in my opinion it looks better. Though after the change I did need to fix some parts of the illustration but it was not hard to do.

Fig. 13 The before and after of changing the thickness of the brush on the pen tool (29/11/24)

After that, to make everything easier I decided to develop the sketch panels and then scanned them before tracing them in illustrator.

Fig. 14 Developed panels (30/12/24)

Fig. 15 Finished traced panel 2 (Monkey Paw) (30/12/24)

Fig.16 Finished Panel 6 & 7 (Fate) (30/11/24)

Fig. 17 Finished Panel 5 (Old Fakir) (30/12/24)

Fig. 18 Finished Comic Panels (30/12/24)

After I was finished, I rested for a day and when I look at it again, I felt that it was too messy so I decided to revised it and make it a little bit more cleaner.

Fig.19 Revised Comic Panels (30/12/24)

I thought of making the cover first before coloring it but decided to finish the comic panel first before moving on to the next one. I first filled every background panels with some colors (mostly using gradients to give it more depth/ more interesting).

Fig. 20 Background colored in (05/01/25)

I then proceeded to color each panels one by one. I did the lady that's crying and screaming from panel 7 and the monkey paw in panel 2 first as well as the other small parts such as the table and the chairs.

For the monkey paw I just use a gradient and then colored in the details on the top part of the paw using the brush tool. Meanwhile for the lady, I gave her 3 layers of colors for each part.

Fig. 21 Colored in Monkey Paw, Screaming Lady and other small parts (05/01/25)

Fig. 22 Screaming lady coloring process (05/01/25)

Fig. 23 Screaming lady close up (05/01/25)

However after I finished panel 7 I realized that doing it like this would take too long so I decided to color in the rest first before moving on to the details.

In the middle of the coloring the rest of the panels, I have come to a realization that I've made the location wrong, so I improvised an made it a striped wallpaper instead of trees and the campfire became a fireplace.

Fig. 24 Fixed location background (05/01/25)

Fig. 25 Adding lights coming out of the fire in panel 3 (05/01/25)

After I fixed that, I continued to color the panels again.

Fig. 26 Colored in character in each panels (05/01/25)

After I finished them, I begin giving them shadows in every panels using a darker version of the base colors. Some of them I use a brush to do so while the others I did it using pen tool and filled in the shape using a gradient from the dark color to the base color to give it a more softer shadow rather than a harsh shadow.

Fig. 27 Adding shadow using the brush tool (05/01/25)

Fig. 28 Adding shadow using the pen tool and gradients (05/01/25)

Fig. 29 Finished panels with added shadows (05/01/25)

After some feedbacks from my friends, I decided to make panel 3 and 5 more darker by using a darker and muted color for the background in panel 3 and switching the gradient color in panel 5 before then giving it a vignette using a gradient.

I also added some light reflections in panel 4 to make it look more realistic as there is a campfire on the side.

Fig. 30 Adding lighting and vignette (05/01/25)

Fig. 31 Finished comic (05/01/25)

When the comic was finished, I went on to do the cover. I took a photo of my hand as reference and then traced them in ibis paint before transferring the finished image on illustrator and traced them using pen tool and then fix them with curvature tool.

Fig. 32 Hand reference 1 (05/01/25)

Fig. 33 Hand reference 2 (05/01/25)

Fig. 34 Traced hand sketch in ibispaint (05/01/25)

Fig. 35 Traced hand in illustrator (05/01/25)

I decided to add some blood dripping down into the hand to symbolize the consequences of those who uses the monkey paw.

Fig. 36 Blood drip progress 1 (05/01/25)

Fig. 37 Blood drip progress 2 (05/01/25)

I went on to pick some color reference as to not be as overwhelming as the comic as the comic has a quite bold colors. I then just colored them in using those. I also added another blood drip but using a darker red and lowered the opacity slightly.

I then chose 'Blood Crow' as my title font and a simple font (DIN Condensed Bold for the writer and the sub-title) for the others to not overwhelm the title as it needs to be the most eye-catching part and then I used warp -> upper arc to give it some shape and make it look more interesting.

I also added the word 'WISH' in the background as a reference to part 3 of the story where Mrs.White was telling Mr.White to wish using the monkey paw, I used a grey color and then lowered the opacity then arrange it on the empty space around the hand.

Fig. 38 Warped title and colored in cover (05/01/25)

I then added some shadows on the monkey paw to make it look more interesting.

Fig. 39 Added shadows on the monkey paw (05/01/25)

I was given some feedback from my friends and family that the title is a little hard to read and I should make it a little wider so that it looks more readable so I change the font from 'blood crow condensed' to 'blood crow expanded' and then I changed the sub-title font into 'minion variable concept bold'.

I also decided to add another layer of shadow or gradient but this time to add some dynamic of colors I used a blue color and lowered the opacity to not make it too overwhelming.

Fig. 40 Added blue shadow on the hand and revised title + sub-title (05/01/25)

Fig. 41 Finished Cover (05/01/25)

After I finished with that, I decided to try to animate the comic in after effects using the basic animation (opacity, scales, etc) but that didn't really worked out.

Fig. 42 Animating the comic in AE (05/01/25)

Fig. 43 AE Animation results (05/01/25)

So I went to illustrator and just moved them around a little using direct selection tool or even a lasso selection tool before saving them as a png and then transferring each png into photoshop using script -> stack into layers.

Fig. 44 Animating in photoshop 1 (05/01/25)

I animated panel 1 and 3 smoke to move around, panel 2 the monkey paw moving/twitching a little, panel 3 having the fire flickering, panel 4 '...' text to seems like it's trembling slightly to symbolize the sergeant feeling about the monkey paw.

I also animated panel 5 to have the light behind the fakir flickering with the vignette also flickering along with the light. Panel 6 just have the people on the string moving and panel 7 with the tears of blood dripping down.

Fig. 45 Comic layers to be animated (05/01/25)

Fig. 46 Animating in photoshop 2 (05/01/25)

I then put them on 0,1s but it was a little too slow so I did 0,2s instead.

Fig. 47 Comic Animation results (05/01/25)

After that I did the same with the cover. I didn't want to do too much so I only did 3 slides. I animated the blood dripping down and the monkey paw scratching the hand.

Fig. 48 Cover layer to be animated (05/01/25)

Fig. 49 Animating cover in photoshop (05/01/25)

Fig. 50 Cover animation results (05/01/25)

FINAL TASK 4 COMPILATION

Fig. 51 TASK 4 CONCEPT BOARD (05/01/25)

Fig. 52 TASK 4 TRANSITIONS BOARD (05/01/25)

Fig. 53 TASK 4 FINAL COVER PNG (05/01/25)

Fig. 54 TASK 4 FINAL COMIC PNG (05/01/25)

Fig. 55 TASK 4 FINAL COVER GIF (05/01/25)

Fig. 56 TASK 4 FINAL COMIC GIF (05/01/25)

Reflections

This task was as hard as I expected as there was some trial and error while trying to do certain stuff like animating it or coloring it but I manage to find a solution in the end either by trying it out myself or searching for solutions in the internet. I think the hardest part was definitely during the sketching of the comics as I wanted it to express as many story as it can while just it being as few panels as I can. The longest part was definitely the coloring process as it has so many layers to make it look more interesting and not too flat.

The animating part is not as hard as I thought though moving it around is a bit confusing as I was animating quite a lot of the panels, I thought it would fail but I was surprised as it actually looked good. I started quite a bit later than others as I had a hard time thinking of how to sketch the comic, I didn't want to change the part that I chose as I felt that it was the most interesting part for me. I was extremely worried that it will backfire on me but thankfully I manage to do it and finish it on time despite starting later than the others.

This task really is testing my skills using the pen tool and curvature tool , I was starting to be tired of using them and tried out the brush tool and blob brush tool which I admit was helpful to do something quickly but in the end I chose to use the pen tool instead to do most of the task after around 2/3 of the process as it was somehow a lot quicker and easier and also tidier compared to using brush tool.

Overall this was an extraordinary experience, bad or good ? it's around the middle but there was not really any task where I didn't experience anything bad happening so it's fine and I'm quite satisfied with the result too. Though doing the e-port is somehow more easier and more taxing than doing the task itself but I think that's more of a me problem so I don't really have anything else to complain about.

Carren Yeliandi (0376990)

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