Graphic Narrative Evaluation

Does your final product reflect your original intentions?

Originally when planning my story, I wrote on my mind map and my proposal that I would be creating around 10-15 pages for my book and managed to complete my book with 15 pages. The last page just being text as I had wanted.

The size of my pages was a good original decision and I chose to keep the measurements when in production as it fit well with my designs.

I decided to use Shape Warping and Rotoscope as my main production techniques for my children's book to create the look I wanted, which is what I planned to use originally. I wanted my characters to be simple, however I ended up making them slightly more realistic than I initially wanted to but they work well with the other components in the book, such as the forest backgrounds and the furniture in the house.

When creating my visual mind map/mood board, I had chosen 3 fonts in which I had decided to use in my book. During production I only used 2 of these, as one of the fonts didn’t fit as well with the design due to the large characters. The other fonts however were used for the title on the front cover and the general text throughout the book, as I had first planned.

I also stuck to my final script, although I did position it slightly differently than I intended so that it would fit better on the page.

As a whole I kept with my original plans, changing very little during the production process, as I had thought out my plans well and was almost able to create the look I thought about at the start of the project.

How well have you constructed your images?

My images all follow the same style throughout my book. To create them I used the Rotoscope tool, as well as Shape Warping to create each object and character.

As my audience is young children, I kept my images quite simple, but added texture and pattern to make the pages more interesting. For the leaf texture on the tree’s I used a specific paintbrush tool shaped like a leaf, but when creating textures on the floor and background I used colour range to pick out certain shapes of an image which had relatable textures, created a new layer and used colour range to deepen or lighten the colour.

I didn’t want to make my colours too bright as the story is not very happy throughout, so I toned many colours down, however when creating the candy house I used brighter colours as it is a very important part of the story.

When adding my text I made sure that the colour could be seen on every page, and that the text was placed in an area which made it easy for young children to read, along with a serif font to help guide the children when reading.

How well have you used text to anchor your images

When simplifying the original script to create my own, which would accompany my images in the book, I made sure that the language was simple and easy for a younger audience to understand as complex words would confuse them and take the enjoyment away from reading the book.

The text itself is one which I downloaded from Dafont.com. Although they had a large selection to choose from, I found that the text I chose was the most suitable as it is clear and easy to read. The font is a serif font, which will help to guide the readers eye along the text, enabling a younger child to follow the text more easily.

I used a white font as most of my images are fairly deep or dark colours, and compared to black it is much less confusing for the reader.

On each of the pages I made sure to place my text carefully over my images. I did this by placing texts where there were blank spaces on the page, such as grass, sky and so on. This made the text clearer and stopped any distraction from the background. This also meant that my images were clear to see and were not overlapped by text, which would have hidden main parts of objects or characters.

Is your product suitable for your audience?

When planning my children’s book, I wanted my audience to be 5-7 year olds. Books which usually fit this age group are called Early Reader Books, which focus on building the child’s reading skills. My book fits well into this category as there is a small amount of writing, which is enough to keep the child interested, but not so much that the child becomes bored and loses interest.

As I previously said in my proposal, my book is not gender focused and in no way sways towards a particular gender. One way I have done this is by using a story which uses two main characters, one of which is female, and the other is male. This helps to appeal to both male and female children. I have also used many different colours, and not stereotypical colours for either male or females.

I kept to my proposal and used English as my written language, as I originally planned to target my book at people in Britain, as well as other English speaking countries such as Ireland, America, Canada and Australia.

What do you like/dislike about the techniques you have used?

To create my pages I used various different tools in Photoshop. The main tools I used were the Rotoscope tool, and the Shape tool. The Rotoscope tool made it easy to draw around objects, to create your own shapes. I mostly used this tool when I was creating furniture, and the details of my characters such as their facial features, clothes, hands and shoes. It was easier and quicker to use this for more complex or detailed shapes. The Shape tool was more appropriate to create simple shapes and adjust them slightly, using the transform tool, using the warp and perspective tools and so on.

I enjoyed using these tools as I could use them fairly accurately to create the specific look I wanted.

Another couple of tools I found useful were the paintbrush, and the specific brushes you could use, as well as the colour range tool. The paintbrush has many different brush types including leaf and grass shapes, which helped me to create slightly more natural images. The colour range came in useful when creating the backgrounds such as floors and sky, as it would pick a tone which you could then form another layer with to adjust it to the colour you want. These tools are very good to create texture with, as you can choose how much texture and pattern you want within your images.

Colour Overlay came in very useful to help me select colour’s for my pages. Using this alongside the Hue and Saturation tool meant that I could select colours, but reduce or increase the hue, saturation, and lightness of the image. Just selecting a colour means that the right look may not be achieved, where as looking at different levels allowed me to keep my images the same style all the way through.

I also used the Stroke tool. By using this tool I was able to make certain characters or objects stand out more in front of the background as it created a small black border around the chosen object, adding definition to that object.

The Layers tool came in very useful in creating and altering different sections of images as it allowed me to make changes to small parts of images and objects. It also enabled me to place objects at different distances to make the story more realistic.

Lastly, when selecting colours, or drawing around objects, I found that the Opacity tool came in very useful. It allowed me to alter the opacity of objects so that I could see behind them. For example, when creating my trees, I created the shapes with an image behind, decreased the opacity, and then warped my images to fit the correct shape.

What do you like/dislike about how your final product looks?

I like that my children’s book is a recreation of Hansel and Gretel which is different from many other versions. I wanted to create my own style of the book which was unique. Many versions of the book are illustrated, and are made with a very traditional, realistic style, where as I like that my book is made completely digitally, and is much more modern and cartoon-like, fitting with the children of today.

Another aspect of my book which I like is the contrast of both simple and detailed components. This makes the book more interesting for the audience, and making the book slightly more realistic without making it look too realistic.

I dislike the witch character, as I do not feel as if she fits as well with the other characters, however she is an individual character who is supposed to be different to others.

I do not like the mother and father characters positions sat down, as it was very difficult to manipulate their bodies to the way I wanted.

Why did you include the content you used?

I tried to stick with the original story as much as possible when creating my book, however I did not look at other Hansel and Gretel books as I wanted to create my own version without influence from the other books, therefore starting from scratch. In the house scenes, I just used simple furniture which could be found in any household which did not have large amounts of money. I also kept the images of people simple, without distinct features in order to avoid offending any particular culture or race etc. In terms of the forest scenes, I just chose a simple background which could be used multiple times, but in different ways. The image which stands out in my book the most is the candy house. I wanted this particular image to stand out from other parts of the book as it is the most important part of the book.

I included the font on the same pages as the images as I felt that the book would work better this way. If I had created the pages separately with the writing, the book would be 30 pages long. This would be a fairly large book for young children, it seemed much more practical to condense the writing and the images on the same pages.

To make my pages seem less flat, I tried to create depth where possible. The main example of this was the forest backgrounds. I put trees at different levels, in order to show distance between them. I also added some background texture, to make it look as If there were trees even further in the distance, suggesting the forest is very big. Another way I created depth was with my character positioning. On my third page I placed the characters to look as if they were behind one another walking through the forest. When Hansel and Gretel get lost, I silhouette them slightly in the background, making them seem far away from where they should be. Lastly, when they reach the house I positioned the characters, again silhouetted slightly, at the very front of the page, only seeing their top halves so that it looks as thought the reader is looking over their shoulder towards the house.

What signs, symbols or codes have your used in your work? What representations can be found

in your work?When creating my book, I chose to make my forest dark when the children were first being sent away to symbolise the unhappiness of the characters. As well as this I also created a dark forest for the night time, and a lighter forest to show the day time. Later on in the book, I made the forest bright to symbolise the happiness of being free and returning home. On the first page, I showed an empty plate on the table to represent the families lack of wealth. I also did this using the characters clothing, which was simple and very casual-looking. When creating my characters and objects within the book, I have kept them simple and cartoon-looking, as many children’s books are made this way to be more interesting for the children reading.As a villain, or bad character I have used a witch. Witches are symbols of evil and magic, and are often found in fairytales. A witch has always been used in Hansel and Gretel, and is a vital part of the story. At the end of the book, I created a roast chicken to place on the table to show the families new wealth compared to the beginning where they had nothing. The story follows the usual code of a happy ending as it a children’s book.

In Hansel and Gretel, children are shown to be less important as they are forced to leave when the family cannot look after them. The representation of social classes only shows the poorer family, as there is no representation of richer people. My work shows the children as being intelligent by leaving objects on the ground so that they can find their way home. Although at the same time, they are also shown as being naïve when they see a house made out of sweets and a stranger gives them a place to stay they do not question anything, which results in their capture. There are no particular races or religions referenced or represented in my book in any way.

What style have you employed in your products?

As I mentioned previously, I wanted my book to be unique to others, so I have not used similar styles.

I created more cartoon-like characters so that the book would be more interesting to a younger audience. They have fairly realistic features and clothing, but not so much so that they look illustrated.

The most realistic part of my book is the forest floor and background. By using texture, different tones and depth I was able to create a more real looking background which is still appealing to the younger audience and is easily identifiable as a forest floor and background.

I also created a fairly realistic house scene when the children are at home with their parents, however when I created the candy house I made sure it was unrealistic and imaginary-looking to emphasise the unlikely event of finding a house made of sweets.

What were the strengths and weaknesses of the pre-production and planning

When beginning to plan my children’s book I looked at a couple of different story ideas in a mind map, noting key points which I could expand on in a later planning stage. This helped me to plan the basics of my book.

I then went on to research children’s books which are already printed. I looked at the style and design of the images and text, and later on looked at book sizes. I did this by creating a Children’s Book Research PowerPoint as well as a mood board. This helped me to visualize my own style and get a general idea of how I would style my own book to make it unique.

I then went on to create my proposal, in which I included the size of my book- so that I could design my pages to the appropriate size, as well as including the number of pages I was aiming to create. I mentioned the export format I would be using, and gave a story overview after looking at original scripts so that I had a basic outline of the story to work from.

After this I explained the production methods I would be using to create my images, as well as mentioning the website which I would be downloading my fonts from so that I knew my resources and the techniques which would be best suited for both my outcome and my own abilities in production.

Also in my proposal I talked about my target audience so that when it came to production I would be able to consider the appropriate content for that audience. As well as this I included my deadline, so that I could manage my time in production.

The things I found most useful in my planning stages were the storyboards and digital flat plans I created. This is because it gave me the chance to begin the composition of my pages. I was able to create simple images with the script I had created from an original script, giving me an idea of how the book would look.

Lastly I created a planning booklet to ensure that I was following regulations, and everything in terms of costs, codes of practice and so on was in order. Included in my planning booklet was my list of resources, a risk assessment and my plan of action for each session to help me manage my time efficiently.

Unfortunately, I did not stick to my schedule for each session as I found creating my characters took a lot longer than expected which meant that I fell behind quite a lot. However, when my characters were created I picked up the pace much more quickly and my pages were made in less time, but with the same quality of work. I did not anticipate that they would take so long to create when I first planned my production schedule, but luckily managed to create my book in time for the deadline.

Historical and cultural contextI wanted my book to be unique to other Hansel and

Gretel books which have already be produced across the world. Many of the books, as well as the majority of different children’s books are hand illustrated. Some are very simple without much detail at all and will outline everything with thick black lines and will use very bright colours, where as some are very detailed but only fill parts of the page.

The Grimm’s fairytale, originally made in Germany, has been re-created into multiple films and television programmes. The majority of these have been played by real characters, and have not been animated.

In 2013 a new Hansel and Gretel film was made, however it was dramatically changed to fit the styles of today. Hansel and Gretel are fully grown adults who hunt witches. The witches are still evil and steal children. The story reveals information about Hansel and Gretel's parents and why they were left in the woods as children. The action-packed film is for a much older audience, and not younger children like the fairytale was made for. Instead it is made for teenagers and adults with an almost completely new story.