Digital Graphic Narrative Planning

Use this booklet to help structure your planning and collate your planning documents.

Considerations:

There are lots of things to consider in this project. Fill out each section in detail to show you have thought about each one. You should imagine that this is a live project, so considerations like cost, quantity and codes of practice must be thought about in that context rather than just as a college project.

Costs: There isn't a ton of costs when it comes to creating a book, however they add up to quite a lot depending on

situations and choices along the way. The main costs are getting the book published, which can cost a lot of money depending on which publisher you want to go with, however this is a gamble, because if you go with a

bigger publisher then you have the chance of getting a lot more advertising and exposure, however by doing this you obviously have to invest a lot more money, which it is a choice on what to do for publishers. Another cost will come up when you are making a children's book is actually creating the physical copies of the book4

spend on the illustrator, however at the end of the day it comes down to how many books you sell, and if you don't sell any books, then creating a children's story book can end up being incredibly expensive.

Available resources: The available resources are pretty high, generally/always you will have a good computer with the ability to

connect to the internet with Photoshop bought and installed onto the system that you can use that has a high enough spec on the computer to actually work all of the programs well. Another resource that you will have if you are creating a children's book is access to the base material, this is the story of the book, and if the book

isn't new, you can use the internet to go look up different renditions of the same book, for example, I am doing the Three Little Pigs for my project and I go on google all the time to get inspiration from other peoples ideas

and creations to help me with my work, for things such as the sizes of the models, or just the world that they are standing in, but not only to help me, but also to make sure I wasn't copying them without knowing and

make sure I wasn't going to get hit with copyright claims as soon as I release the product to the public.

Quantity: Selling different quantities of products can have different effects on your over all percentages on the amount

of products that are made. For example making a small amount of actual products to be sold means that generally more people actually will want to buy your products, this is because by putting the words "Limited

edition" on you product, it makes people think that there are limited amounts of products being sold, and once they are all sold that is it, making the audience and market of your product want to go out and buy your product, not only because they want to buy and use the product, but also because of the return they could get

off of the product, by keeping it in good condition and selling it back to other people who want the product later on and make some money. Another way of selling a product is by making a pretty much unlimited source of

the product and then if anyone wants to buy the product then they can always know they can go out and buy it. This is good because generally by doing this it means it maximises profits by having a lot of products being sold. I think for my book I would want to go on the second of these two options and making lots of books

which allows the book to sell a lot of profit, this is also because limited edition selling generally only works with a brand that's already built, and people know their products are quality, which is not the case for mine.

Audience and Target Market: The audience I am trying to go for when creating these books is the children's market, the reason I am going

for this market is not only because I am making children's books, which are inherently designed for the children's market, but also because the children's market is huge, and while the recommended age range of my books is 4-9 year olds, really this book can be read by any child between the ages of 3-13, depending on

there skill in reading because everyone is different and some people just aren’t as good at reading as other people making the audience and target market very broad. For the gender audience, I don't really think my

book targets either gender, and really feel that at the end of the day either gender could go out and buy my book and be happy with it. However if I really had to pick a gender that would buy my book more it would be males, due to the swords at the end being a more stereotypically male thing and there not being any female

characters, I feel my book is more targeted towards males, however this wasn't done intentionally.

Quality Factors: The things that need to be done to make a children's book a quality product aren’t too extreme and generally it

is based in the quality of the illustrations in the book and the way the pictures are drawn, for example, if on each page of the book all the illustrations are really good, however the style of the drawings on each page is

completely different, this means the quality of the book is generally quite low, this is due to the i llustrator not having a clear idea of what he wants the book to look like, causing the books art style to change from page to page. This is bad as well because it doesn't keep consistent throughout the whole book. Another thing that

can contribute to the low quality of the book is if the paper that the book is printed on is cheap and thin, this is really bad for children's books in particular because children generally aren’t very careful with their

possessions, meaning things get easily broken, especially something as easy to break as a book, becomes even easier to break if you use cheap materials to make it. Another thing that can effect the quality of a book is obviously the writing, and while this may seem obvious, for kids books a lot of people concentrate so hard

on the illustrations that they forget about the story and it gets overlooked, this is not good as one of the big points of a book is the way that the storyline flows and makes sense, and one of the big things in a children's

illustrated story book is the way the story line goes from page to page and makes sense with the pictures on the page.

Codes of Practice: The publishers codes of practice cover a broad range of topics but it all boils down to keeping the integrity of

the original author and illustrator in tact and to make sure that they get the money they deserve when the book is published and sold and to make sure they are not being scammed or having their ideas stolen by the publishers. Having things in the codes such as "The contract should be clear about ownership of the

copyright" and "The publishing contract must be clear, unambiguous and comprehensive, and must be honoured in both the letter and the spirit." both are put into the codes to make sure that the original author and illustrator are both getting the credit they deserve for the work they have done, not only in financial sense, but

also in the way that they are getting the recognition for creating a good idea and capitalising on it.

Regulation: Regulation is the rules that go with creating books and selling them, and while my book follows all of these

rules, some children's books can, in a way, turn into toys and be effected by toy regulation as well. This happens when a book puts things into it such as pop out pages and textured surfaces, and it has to make

sure these things can't be used to injure the person reading the book, or playing with it because it is under the toy regulations and rules. Another thing it needs to make sure of is that the toy, or anything in the toy doesn't resemble anything inappropriate due to being marketed at children.

Copyright: The copyright issues with writing a book and illustrating it is the way the pictures look and it's very easy for

something you to create to look like, or resemble another image that someone else has drawn before you and put into a different book that they have created, or have just drawn and you have seen before. You need to be very careful with this and make sure that if you do use a picture or scenery as a base to your image to make

the image that ends up being created by you drastically different from the picture you used as a base in the first place. This is very important due to how easy it is to sue someone over copyright, and how dangerous it

is to actually get sued in the first place. Another thing you have to do before you start making a children's book if you are not creating an original idea for the story is get permission to use the story that you are actually going to use in your children's book. Some stories don't have anyone that owns them and are free to use by

anyone, however others aren’t and you must get permission from whoever owns the idea of the story to use it in your book and especially to make money off of the story.

Ethical Issues: The big ethical issues with creating a children's is making sure the book is appropriate to children and doesn't

harm them or teach them bad concepts, which seems simple, but even small things can be misinterpreted by children and parents will not be happy with this happening, and if it does happen it can be very bad for your

books, even, in extreme circumstances having all of your books pulled from the shelves and all that have been sold having to be handed in, and their money refunded, due to the book being inappropriate ethically to children, which would obviously ruin your business. because of this you really have to be careful with the

things that you put in your children's book, things like death, drugs, gambling, mature language and mature behaviour. If any of these things are found in your book, this can be very bad for your business, so I should try

and avoid it in the first place. There is nothing like this in my book however, meaning that I should be fine in the ethical sense when it comes to my book.

Resources:

A successful project relies on good planning. Considering all the resources you will need for a project and then assessing which

you already have and which you need will help ensure you are ready to start your project. If there is a resource you don’t currently have, then consider how you are going to get it before you go in to production.

Resource: Do you have it? What do you need to do to get it?

Computer Yes

Photoshop Yes

Camera (for original pictures of scenery which I can rotoscope) No

I would either hire out or borrow a camera from a friend or I could buy one. Another option is using a phone camera, however the quality wouldn't be as good.

Printer Yes

internet Yes

inspiration No

Using the internet to gather ideas and look at other peoples

work, without stealing it, you would slowly gather ideas and it would all come together to build your book.

fonts No

Go online and download fonts that aren’t copyright and

explicitly say you can use them to make money with the font.

Production Schedule:

Delivering your project on time is vital. In order to do this, you need a solid plan of action. This will help you divide up your work in

to manageable chunks to be tackled one at a time. It will also allow you to plan which tasks need to be done in which order. It will also allow you to track your progress each day. If you are falling behind, you will need to modify the way you work. If you work faster than expected, you can clearly see what the next steps you need to take are.

Each session is a half day of college.

Session 1:

Start page 2

Do the background first; get the wolf done in a separate file to allow changing of the limbs and the way

he is standing.

Create the background, and then place the pigs into the picture as well as the wolf, making sure to follow up the flat plans.

Finish page two by putting in the text in the correct font.

Session 2:

Start page 3

Create the house and place the pig into the image, moving the limbs correctly.

Finish page three by putting in the text in the correct font.

Session 3:

Start page 4

Put the wolf into the image, and place the pig inside the house, looking out of the window.

Place the text bubbles and put the text into them.

Finish the page four by putting the text into the image in the correct font

Session 4:

Start page 5

Break the house to bits and place a tree in the image with the pig running past it and into the forrest.

Place the text bubbles into the image

Finish the page remembering to but the text into the text box.

Session 5:

Start page 6

Create a house out of sticks and place the second pig into the image.

Finish the page with Placing the text into the text box.

Session 6:

Start page 7

Put the first pig into the image, pulling the second pig into the house

Put in the speech bubbles with the appropriate text.

Put the text into the text box to finish off the page.

Session 7:

Start page 8

Put the wolf into the picture, and have the house flying away from the breath of the wolf.

Put the two pigs running into the forest.

Make sure to put in the text box at the top telling the story to finish the page.

Session 8:

Start page 9

Place the premade swords and pigs into the image, moving them to where they need to be in the image.

Create the castle in the background and place the speech bubbles into the image.

Place the text box in and make sure the font is correct.

Session 9:

Start page 10 Place the swords into the pig’s hands and position them in the image as they are chasing the wolf out of town.

Place the speech bubble in the image.

Place the text box into the image, and make sure it is in a part of the image that is not covering anything

important.

Session 10:

Start page 11

Place the pigs into the image, looking happy and with their swords out of their hands and in the ground.

Place the text box in and finish the scene.

Health and safety:

Your health and safety and that of those around you is very important. Just like in industry, an accident could prevent you from

working. Whilst we don’t work in a highly dangerous environment, there are still risks. Some are short term, such as trips and spillages whilst others, such as long term damage to eyesight or back problems, may affect you much later in life.

Consider the risks based on the activities you will be undertaking during the project. Explain how you could prevent them from happening.

Ensure you reference appropriate pieces of legislation, design to protect people at work.

Health and Safety Issue How can you prevent it?

Back problems from sitting from too long

Take regular and constant short breaks and make sure to

stand up and straighten out your back

Eye strain from staring at the computer

Take time away from anything that you have to

concentrate on, maybe take a nap to refresh yourself and your eyes.

hand problems in the long run from too much typing (RSI)

Take constant breaks away from the computer and try not to spend too much time on it in your leisure time as

well as your work time.

Leg problems from sitting for too long stand up and walk around, making sure

Getting too tired from too much work

Make sure to keep a constant sleep schedule and the

sleep that you do get is good sleep.