Digital Graphic Narrative

Development

Samuel Woodhouse

Shape Task

Evaluation

What did you like about your image?I think that the colours that I used in my images were accurate, and they made it clear that it was a clown fish in my photo. I believe that the basic shape of my fish was also pretty good.

What would you improve if you did it again?To improve my image I would focus on the detail in the face, I would improve the mouth and eyes to make them more fish like. The colours used in these features needs adjusting and the shapes need to be changed slightly. I would make sure that the stripes of the fish were more smooth on the edges, and I would also improve the image as a whole by adding a background.

Shape Task

Evaluation

What did you like about your image?In this image I really like the colours that I picked for my penguin. I think that they help to show what animal has actually been created. I believe that the shape of the head in my image is great and clearly represents a penguin. I also like how I did the claws, I think that the shape of them is very distinctive and they stand out clearly and look like claws. The penguin looks like a cartoon version, which is exactly what I was going for.

What would you improve if you did it again?To improve my shape task I would reduce the drop shadow on the penguins wings, as I think that they look separate to his body. Also I would improve the body shape of the penguin by making him slightly slimmer and changing the overall shape. Also, I would add a background to my image to give him an environment to be in.

Shape Task

Evaluation

What did you like about your image?In this image I really like the colours that I used. I think I picked the right shade of colour for each shape. I think that they help to show what animal I actually made. I believe that the shape of the head in my image is great and I like how the image is also symmetrical. I also like the spots, I think that they’re all shaped well and they help to give the impression that the animal is a leopard.

What would you improve if you did it again?To improve my shape task I would change the eye colour to something slightly brighter to make them stand out more clearly. I would also add in the whiskers of a leopard, as I missed them out in this. Also, I would add a better background to my image to give him an environment to be in, I believe that something like a jungle would be good.

Rotoscope

EvaluationWhat did you like about your image?There were many things that I really liked about this image. I believe that the detail of the photo was well captured by me and I think on a whole, the image looked professional. I was very impressed by how I created the background, as I used a gradient effect on two different shades of blue to recreate something similar to the original image. I think that it is clear that I have created Dexter Morgan as he clearly resembles the character.I liked the shape effects on the hair and I made the image look fairly cartoon-like, which was the look I was going for.

What would you improve if you did it again?If I re-did my image I would improve it by smoothing the edges of the face and features.Also I would add little bits of extra detail, such as facial tones.I would also slightly lighten the skin colour, as I think it’s a little bit too pink.

Rotoscope

Evaluation

What did you like about your image?I thought that this image was good. I was pleased with the shaping of the nose, and the gradient effect on the eyes.I also liked how the hair turned out, as I got the detail of the curls in the image.It is clear that my image is Rick and I liked the texture overlay that I used on the clothing. I also like the drop shadow that I used underneath his face.

What would you improve if you did it again?If I redid my image, I would make the image include the lighter side on the right side of his face, by using a gradient overlay.I would create a background to go behind the image to give it more depth, rather than just shapes blended together.

Improved Rotoscope - Rick Grimes

Narrative Environment

Evaluation

What did you like about your image?I really like the bed in this image. As the focal point of the entire image I’m pleased that it is rotoscoped well. I like the colours used and I think it looks fairly realistic. I like the different colour tones on each wall, I believe that it makes the lighting in the room look realistic. I’m also pleased with the texture that I used on the carpet, although it may be slightly too harsh.

What would you improve if you did it again?I would improve many things about this image. The wooden chair would be redone as I was not satisfied with the bottom half of it. Also, the green chair and stool aren’t great in my opinion. So I would re-do that. Not to mention that I was disappointed with the outcome of the window, as I think it looks flat.

Text Based

Evaluation

What did you like about your image?I liked the bottom ‘Samuel Woodhouse’ text, along with the ‘Hello’ text. I think that both of these are clear and they stand out. They are intriguing and bright, and are shaped in an aesthetically pleasing way.

What would you improve if you did it again?I would use a different background other than golden oreo’s for my writing for my name on the right. I would also experiment more with the shaping and fonts in order to find different ways to produce words.I would experiment with different colours when creating more words.I would warp my letters and try and make a very good product.

Comic Book (Abstract)

EvaluationWhat did you like about your image?The outline of Spider-man looks quite good, as it defines his whole structure well. Also, some buildings right at the bottom of the page look decent as they’re quite detailed. I like how the colour blue is used on his legs and lower body, it helps to give Spider-man more colour.

What would you improve if you did it again?I dislike how the whole image is basically a dull colour that’s not very nice to look at. As an abstract piece, the main colour should be more interesting.There isn’t enough red on Spider-man. The lower part of the body has the blue detail, however the upper part of the body is dull and needs the colour red more prominently to make him stand out from the background.Some of the buildings are too tall.

Comic Book (Abstract Improvement)

Comic Book (Middle)

EvaluationWhat did you like about your image?I like this image, as Spider-Man himself is fairly detailed and he doesn’t have a cartoon outline, which gives him a mysterious touch, as his edges are very sharp. The background is fairly abstract, but I think that this works great as a faint red colour is used which brightens the image and this gives an impression that New York is Spider-man’s city, as Spider-man’s man colour is red, so it almost looks as if the whole of the city supports him.

What would you improve if you did it again?If I was to improve this, I would attempt at adding more detail to the building that Spider-Man is holding on to. I would do this by doing a separate threshold for this building. I would also attempt to brighten up his legs, as it’s too dark and needs a little more blue.

Comic Book (Realistic)

EvaluationWhat did you like about your image?I am very pleased with this image. It looks very 3D and realistic. Spider-Man’s suit is prominent and stands out in the foreground over everything else in the image, as the rest of the city is fairly clear, but not too clear, this makes the viewer focus mainly on Spider-Man himself. The detail of the pattern on Spider-Man’s suit is clear, this looks great. You can faintly see the pole that he is holding on to, which makes the viewer know it’s there, but it’s not clear enough to take the viewers attention away from Spider-Man, this is very good. I like how the image slowly fades out as the buildings get further back.

What would you improve if you did it again?If i was to do this again I would attempt at adding a little bit more detail to the sky, and the tallest building as they look slightly too abstract. On the tallest building the colour is grey and dull. I would change it to a colour more similar to the other buildings.

Photo Story

EvaluationWhat did you like about your image?I like the photographs that I took for my Photostory. I think they’re all clear images and the story on a whole is interesting and easy to follow. The images all have good exposure, the first image has a nice effect on it and the last image is edited well, so that the viewer can clearly see the magical world that the main character has just opened a door into.

What would you improve if you did it again?I would add good effects to each image, to give them more of a cartoon and comic book effect.I would also change the colour of the background from brown as I think it is a fairly dull and boring colour and my story is an exciting one, so therefore it should have a vibrant, bright colour in the background.

Illustration

Evaluation

What did you like about your image?In this image I like the thick stroke around the whole image, this helps to make all of the detail clear. I like the use of the sun in the top right corner as it adds more detail to the image.

What would you improve if you did it again?I would add colour to my image, as well as straightening up the lines. I would put an outline around the bush of the tree as well, as it kind of just looks like a tree trunk. I would add much more detail to the grass, as it looks too plain and it could be anything, gravel, sand etc. Therefore it needs detail, so that it is clear that the ground is grass.

Movie Scene

EvaluationWhat did you like about your image?I was very pleased with this image. I think I used the empty space well to create somewhere for my text to go in. I like how the name of the film is faint, yet it still sits in front of the sun. I also like how you can see the helicopters in the background of the image. I was pleased with my helicopters that I rotoscoped and I am also impressed by the vegetation at the bottom of my image, as I think I rotoscoped them well and they’re clear and have a good outline.

What would you improve if you did it again?If I was doing this again, I would improve it by changing the font and the stroke of the font. I don’t really like my text. I created a good space to put my text, however I don’t think that I fit the text in there very well. To my, the writing looks too squashed together.

Initial Ideas

Mood board of inspiration

Idea’s for Jack’s brother. Typical good boy. Carries around a book. Smart. Inspiration to young kids. Blue eyes, Brown hair, opposite to Jack. Does what he’s told.

Inspiration for Jack. Blonde hair, blue eyes, looks good, but acts foolish really. Doesn’t know what’s good for him. Eventually becomes overweight with no social skills, which leads to a sad and lonely life.

Inspiration for different angles of the Beanstalk and different ways of creating how it looks. A more cartoon way (left), and a more realistic way (right)

My inspiration for the danger sign. Very clear message.

Different ways in which I can represent technology and how it is used.

JackMy idea is to create a modernized ‘Jack’, so in order to do this, I will keep the basic’s of blonde hair and blue eyes, skinny young teenager. Yet I will change his clothes in order to make him seem more current. I may change the hat that he sometimes wears to either a beanie or a cap. He may also wear a shirt or a hoodie now, along with jeans. I am basing this character too look like real life actor Jack Gleeson.

Sir Alan SaltSir Alan Salt is the main antagonist in my book. He is based off of the intimidating Sir Alan Sugar. He’s a billionaire who owns a incredible amount of money and in my book Jack ends up stealing from him.

Jack’s dogSimple More ComplexJack’s dog will be a dog

that has bright blue eyes. The designs on the left are more simple, and that’s how I imagine my images turning out. To achieve this I might create a cartoon version of real dogs, like the two real ones to the right.

Money/GoldI want my money to come out very clear. I want to include sacks of money in my book, just like the ones on this page.

Skyscraper and Lift Layout

I plan for my skyscraper to look very tall like the real images I found, yet to look like the cartoon versions that I found. The inside of the lift in my book should be very similar to these two designs and I will base it off of these.

FontI plan on using a large Serif font, as these fonts are usually used in childrens books as they’re fairly easily to read. The letters will be fairly spaced out, so children can see them clearly and each line will have a bit of space between it. On each page there won’t be much writing, however there will just be enough for the child to read without getting bored.

Examples

Style

I plan for my book to have a cartoon layout. The characters should all look similar as I plan to use the skill of rotoscoping and I plan to use to the shape tool in order to create characters, objects, and environments. Both of these techniques make a similar looking end product.In my book there won’t be much writing used, as the pictures should be fairly descriptive and detailed.

ProposalDimensionsMy childrens book will be about 8 pages long. The size of each page will be 25cm x 25.5cm

Story OverviewJack is a poor boy living in a cheap flat with his Mother. He is walking in the streets of London with his dog, and decides to do a trade for the key with a hooded figure. He trades his doge as it has bright blue ' magical looking ' eyes. The man agrees to give Jack his dog back if he brings back 2 million pounds. Then they'll split it in half. Jack gets given a VIP key to a huge Skyscraper owned by the famous Billionaire Lord Alan Salt. The key was owned by a hooded dark figure. The largest skyscraper towers above the others, Jack goes up to it. Opens it up and goes up the huge lift, to the top floor where all the money is kept. When he reaches the top the room is filled with cash and gold bars. Jack fills a sack with the coins. Lord Alan Salt walks in. He is angry when he sees the money is gone, and Jack is hiding behind a chair/wall. Jack runs past Alan Salt and goes down the lift. Alan Salt can't catch him and he escapes the building with the money. Eventually Jack gets his money and his dog back. The moral of the story is to make the most of opportunities that people offer you.

Export FormatI will export my book as a JPEG.

Advantages: The images are compressed, which keeps the file size low. JPEG’s are also easily accessible.Disadvantages: Because the images are compressed you lose layers. The image quality is also reduced.

Deadline15th January 2015

Audience

My childrens book should appeal to young children between the ages of 3 and 7. It’s a book that will be easy to read and understand, yet the child will feel great excitement as my book’s plot is risky and interesting. It should definitely appeal to lower class children, as Jack is a poor boy who lives in the city with his mum, and it should appeal to both genders, however probably more young boys, as the main character himself is a young boy.

Production Methods

To create my childrens book I am going to use the software Adobe Photoshop. The reason for this is that Photoshop can be used to create great images as it’s one of the best pieces of software available to me. The program itself has many tools that I can use to create images and I can use these tools to do techniques such as rotoscoping and putting filters on photos in order to give them a good effect. I can use shape tools, the clone stamp tool, the brush tool and the polygon lasso tool in order to help me.

What are the strengths of the proposal? What areas of the proposal need further work?

The modernizing of jack and the bean stalk idea is a interesting idea and the whole idea is well thought out with the stalk being a large skyscraper

Maybe a different file format way be a good idea, as JPEGs compress meaning loss in quality,

What are the strengths of the idea generation? What areas of idea generation could have been further developed?

There are many ideas that you have thought of and they are very detailed on how everything is going to work and what you are going to do, you put a lot of thought into you plan.

What are the strengths of the proposal? What areas of the proposal need further work?

The idea to set the story in the modern day makes the story more interesting without over complicating it, the thought process behind his is well shown in the proposal

Perhaps provide a few more examples of why you have chosen to use a jpeg export format

What are the strengths of the idea generation? What areas of idea generation could have been further developed?

There is extra description of the images provided and examples of each aspect e.g. each character setting, and font

Slightly more information on the second mind map would be useful such as font types sizes and placement etc.

What are the strengths of the proposal? What areas of the proposal need further work?

The modernisation of the characters along with the story, gives the book a good twist and excite that children a long with the parents which h are reading it to them as the would of probably remember the story from when the were young and are interested to see what you have made different.

I feel you could change you file format, as multiple saving would reduce the quality of the file.

What are the strengths of the idea generation? What areas of idea generation could have been further developed?

I feel that you have produce a detail proposal which gives myself a clear imagination of what you are going to produce I cant wait to see the finish piece

Feedback SummarySum up your feedback.I am very glad with my feedback, as the majority of it was positive. Most people found my idea very interesting and thought it would be a great book when completed.I was also glad to find out that I have a few improvements on how I can improve my work.

Which parts of your feedback do you agree with and why?I agree with my feedback that states that I need add more examples of why I chose to export with a JPEG. I also agree with the parts that say that I can improve my second mind maps, and that I can add more details to it.

Which parts of your feedback do you disagree with and why?

I disagree with the feedback that says I shouldn’t use a JPEG, as I would only be exporting it using this format, I would be saving it constantly as a PSD.

Original Script

Once upon a time there lived a poor widow and her son Jack. One day, Jack’s mother told him to sell their only cow. Jack went to the market and on the way he met a man who wanted to buy his cow. Jack asked, “What will you give me in return for my cow?” The man answered, “I will give you five magic beans!” Jack took the magic beans and gave the man the cow. But when he reached home, Jack’s mother was very angry. She said, “You fool! He took away your cow and gave you some beans!” She threw the beans out of the window. Jack was very sad and went to sleep without dinner.The next day, when Jack woke up in the morning and looked out of the window, he saw that a huge beanstalk had grown from his magic beans! He climbed up the beanstalk and reached a kingdom in the sky. There lived a giant and his wife. Jack went inside the house and found the giant’s wife in the kitchen. Jack said, “Could you please give me something to eat? I am so hungry!” The kind wife gave him bread and some milk.While he was eating, the giant came home. The giant was very big and looked very fearsome. Jack was terrified and went and hid inside. The giant cried, “Fee-fifo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman. Be he alive, or be he dead, I’ll grind his bones to make my bread!” The wife said, “There is no boy in here!” So, the giant ate his food and then went to his room. He took out his sacks of gold coins, counted them and kept them aside. Then he went to sleep. In the night, Jack crept out of his hiding place, took one sack of gold coins and climbed down the beanstalk. At home, he gave the coins to his mother. His mother was very happy and they lived well for sometime.

Original Script

Jack climbed the beanstalk and went to the giant’s house again. Once again, Jack asked the giant’s wife for food, but while he was eating the giant returned. Jack leapt up in fright and went and hid under the bed. The giant cried, “Fee-fifo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman. Be he alive, or be he dead, I’ll grind his bones to make my bread!” The wife said, “There is no boy in here!” The giant ate his food and went to his room. There, he took out a hen. He shouted, “Lay!” and the hen laid a golden egg. When the giant fell asleep, Jack took the hen and climbed down the beanstalk. Jack’s mother was very happy with him.After some days, Jack once again climbed the beanstalk and went to the giant’s castle. For the third time, Jack met the giant’s wife and asked for some food. Once again, the giant’s wife gave him bread and milk. But while Jack was eating, the giant came home. “Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman. Be he alive, or be he dead, I’ll grind his bones to make my bread!” cried the giant. “Don’t be silly! There is no boy in here!” said his wife.The giant had a magical harp that could play beautiful songs. While the giant slept, Jack took the harp and was about to leave. Suddenly, the magic harp cried, “Help master! A boy is stealing me!” The giant woke up and saw Jack with the harp. Furious, he ran after Jack. But Jack was too fast for him. He ran down the beanstalk and reached home. The giant followed him down. Jack quickly ran inside his house and fetched an axe. He began to chop the beanstalk. The giant fell and died.Jack and his mother were now very rich and they lived happily ever after.

http://shortstoriesshort.com/story/jack-and-the-beanstalk/

Final Script

One day, there was a young boy named Jack. He lived with his widow mother, and his dog in a tiny flat in London. His dog, Scruff, had the brightest, shiniest eyes and the scruffiest, roughest fur.

It was a sunny day and Jack was walking around the streets with Scruff, when suddenly Scruff sniffs out a key on the floor ‘ sniff sniff’ (on the photo)

The key has ‘ property of Alan Salt ‘ on it. The key would lead to the biggest skyscraper in London, Sir Alan Salt’s Skyscraper. The key would lead to millions of pounds, as Alan Salt is rich.

Jack and Scruff walk towards the largest skyscraper and stands beneath it, looking up at it.

Jack puts the key in the hole of the door and opens it up. (close up shot)

Jack and Scruff go up the lift in the large skyscraper.

He gets to the top and there’s a lot of gold and coins there. (Three shots on one page)Sack of money, gold coin piles, Jack collecting it.

Sir Alan Salt appears and says ‘fi,fi,fo,thumb…’ ( sees the dog footprints) and finds jack and Scruff.

Jack and Scruff run away, into the lift and out the front entrance.

They make it out of the skyscraper and become rich.

Digital Flat Plans