Digital Graphic Narrative

Development

Nicole Tunningley

Shape Task

Shape Task 2

Evaluation

What did you like about your images?Sloth- I like the variation of colour on my animal and the gradient on the body as it gives the animal what seems like a shadow from underneath it which is what would occur naturally making my image in some sense seem more realistic then if I weren’t to have one. I also like that I have kept to the same sort of colour palette with my animal and then varied it when I came to the background so that it wouldn’t blend in, to prevent this I also added the blur so that it seemed less sharp.Owl- With this image I like the detailing seen from the original image with the colour range feature on the owl and the stump beneath as it makes the image seem more realistic and true to the animal, I like this setting as if I didn’t use colour range for those details it would look unrealistic and it would be difficult and time-consuming.

What would you improve if you did it again?Sloth- I would improve detailing on areas such as the tree branch as though I know it is patched due to variation in shade on the tree and moss that was growing on it, anyone else viewing it may not know this. I would also probably blur and colour the background with smaller shapes so that it looks more realistic to the background that was actually present.Owl- If I were to do this image again I would maybe have more of a contrast on the body of the owl or add a gradient to show shading because realistically the owl would not have such a blocky one coloured body like it unfortunately does in my image, also I would attempt to add more detailing to the stump in which the owl is sitting on as it differs to much in colour to seem correct.

Rotoscope

Evaluation

What did you like about your image?I like the variations of shading on the skin and in the hair as in a minimalist way it kind of looks quite realistic and how certain shapes resemble features in the image such as lines on the face or creases in the clothes.I like also that I have acknowledged from which sections of the actual shot where the artificial studio light is being emitted from so that I can pay close attention to which section will be highlighted (areas on the right) and which sections are shaded and/or shadowed (areas on the left).

What would you improve if you did it again?If I were to do this image again I might find better techniques in which I might do the facial hair with because I didn’t think that doing it in block with the polygonal lasso would look as good for such as minimal amount of hair. The tools I could use for this would be colour range.I feel that I could improve on this image if I go more in depth with the detail of some of the features on the image such as the pattern on his suit or the textured look of the shirt that he is wearing and even the hair on his head could be more defined so that each individual light and dark section stand out

Text Based

Evaluation

What did you like about your image?I like that each font looks different from the original and the others through the fact that I experimented with the different techniques such as gradient overlay, colour overlay, texturing, inner/outer shadowing and even adding shapes such as the snowflake to the font and imprinting it onto the text

What would you improve if you did it again?If I were to do this work again I would maybe be a bit more adventurous with the effects that I used on my font as each one still look quite familiar to the first, I could possible bring the letter closer together for a more claustrophobic look or I could space them out to look completely different.Also, the second and third font look to similar in the sense that the only difference between them is that the third image has a shadow on it raising upwards and the second one does not.

Comic Book

Comic Book 2

Comic Book 3

Evaluation

What did you like about your images?I like how each image has it’s own artistic style, for example my first image is the most realistic as the detailing achieved by the threshold adjustment shows all the smaller shaded features of the image such as the face of the character, this image I prefer over the second as it looks almost painted and artistic. My second image on the other hand is in the section between abstract and realistic as I wanted to portray some sort of scale of realism and abstractness between the three, I like this image as it has less detailing in the background but still quite a large amount on the face the filter gallery cut out ensured more of a softer look for the subject in the image which is why it appears less sharp than the first. Finally, I like how abstract my last image is, for this I set the filter gallery setting quite high so that it seems more blocky and less realistic which I thought suited the scene the most, there is a lower threshold in this image but just enough so you can make out the characters face. Overall, I like the simplicity of my third image and the realistic detailing of my first.

What would you improve if you did it again?If I were to do this set of images again I would maybe make the second image seem less realistic with the threshold settings and a tad more blended with the cut out filter section as I believe it looks too much like my first image, in a sense that the subject closer to the shot is more detailed than the background, also I think that the image would be more appealing if it was the subject of artistic features such as more sharpness that comes with the abstract look of the cut out effect in the filter gallery of Photoshop.

Photography

Photography

Evaluation

What did you like about your image?I like that my images are suitable for my target audience and that they aren’t cluttered because if they were it would remove a lot of the scene, I might be able to fix this if it were to occur by only rotoscoping the main subjects of the image such as the tree in the first image along with the grass, hedge and sky and the path in the second image in which I could make a character to walk up it.I chose this area for my images as it is quite rural in the sense that it has things like trees, grass and other vegetation in it that would be seen in the places most popular children books are based in. This is because they are quite old and technology wouldn’t have existed so you wouldn’t see cars in the background or modern architecture, which is why I attempted to cut it out.

What would you improve if you did it again?If I were to take the images again I would maybe take images with more variation in the scene, though normal fairytales are quite old fashioned and set in what seems to be medieval times this might prove difficult to photograph in the area I took these photos as this landscape is quite modern.

Illustration

Evaluation

What did you like about your image?I like that the colors used stay true to what the original subject looks like and I also like how I used the black pencil to outline the edges so that they look less blunt and soft and more sharp so you can see the difference between each of the sections

What would you improve if you did it again?If I were to do this image again I would pay more attention to the coloring of the larger sections as the pencil did not quite cover it completely in a sense that you can see some gaps between the color strokes of the subject in areas such as the body and the head.

I would also rethink the way I presented it considering that I exposed this image by taking a photograph of it, the image would have probably would have been seen better if I had scanned it but I will take this into consideration for future reference

Initial Ideas

Character appearance:I have chosen these images to give me inspiration for my chosen story as I believe they all resemble it well, I can see a variation of techniques which I may consider using such as drawn, digital art and some look painted. I wanted my characters to appear soft and kind looking. I want the shoemaker and his wife to be old yet pleasant in appearance and the elves on the other hand to look childish, mischievous and joyful in appearance to link them to the reader. I want to have an equal number of male and females so there is gender variation and finally I have noticed that in the original version of this story that the elves do not actually wear clothes because the shoemaker presents them with some to alleviate them from their duty but to make this suitable for children I will have to make it so that they do.

Location appearance:I want my illustrations for the story to seem historically accurate to the time in which it was based, also the story is set in the shoemaker’s home it is said in the story that the shoemaker was a poor man so when making the house setting I would have to consider this frequently.

Font appearance:Out of all the fonts I have presented here, I am certain that I prefer the third font down because it suits the childish manner I want for my book appearance with all the curves and the circled flicks but also it isn’t at all difficult to read, my least favorite out of these is the second font down this is because it seems eroded and is in all capital letters which I do not think is good for a child of my target age

ProposalDimensions

10-12, 8x8 inch pages

Story OverviewMy story is about a poor shoemaker who gave his last made pair of shoes to a needy woman, which left him with only enough leather to make one pair of shoes. The next morning the shoemaker woke up to see that the shoes had been made and they were better than any he had ever done, a woman came in and bought the shoes giving the shoemaker enough money to buy more material for two pairs of shoes and he stayed up that night to see who it was that were making the shoes. Two tiny elves came into his shop, a boy and a girl and he sat up that night with his wife watching them make the shoes, this went on for many nights so that now the shoemaker had enough money and knowledge on shoemaking for him and his wife to live off. So, to thank the elves for all they had done he and his wife decided to make them some clothes and shoes out of the scrap material he had. He left the clothes out for them and when they saw them the elves knew that the shoemaker was giving them these gifts, the elves gladly put on the clothes and shoes and left and everyone lived happily ever after.

Export Format

PDF

Advantages: quick and easy to construct and can be viewed on many PC/Mac platforms

Disadvantages: this type of file can prove difficult to open on any other web page

Deadline

20th March

Audience

Typically I am targeting at young English speaking children maybe in places such as the UK, America, Canada and Australia. Due to the fact that I have edited the story so that there is a fair amount of females and males in it and that the story itself is not gender specific I have come to the conclusion that it is a unisex book, my illustrations also will not be based at a specific gender adding then to the idea that it is not aimed at just boys or girls but both. I would also say that due to my story being a folktale that it is not just aimed at one class but for all, internationally.Demographically speaking, this book may be one that is read either by the child as a learning book at school or a nursery depending on the age, as a hobby or to the child by a parent/adult as a bedtime story.

Production Methods

The methods I will use to create my pages will consist of rotoscoping and shaping my illustrations on a Photoshop document at the right dimension size for my pages. I will do this because I want my images to seem bright and simplistic for the target audience I therefore don’t want to use too many complex methods to create them. I may be able to add small yet significant details to the image such as shadowing, lighting and shading to make it seem slightly more realistic yet still cartoon-like. I will be careful with how I use my rotoscoping as I do not want to get a pre-existing image from the internet, download it and take credit for that so I shall use the tool lightly and I will use shaping alone for my characters and background mainly.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Feedback Summary

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Storyboards

Storyboards

Storyboards

Original Script

Original Script goes here with link to where it came from

Original Script

Original Script goes here with link to where it came from

Final Script

Final script goes here.

Digital Flat Plans