Illustration & Visual Narrative - Task 4 Final - Webcomic "The Monkey's Paw"

5/12/2024 - 5/1/2025 (Week 10-Week 14)

PAN RUINING (0378138)

Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media/Taylor's University

Illustration and Visual Narrative

Task 4: 40% Final Assignment Brief: Animated Webcomic Cover and One-Page Comic for "The Monkey's Paw"

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INFORMATION

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TASK

-Task 4: Animated Webcomic Cover and One-Page Comic for "The Monkey's Paw"

Assignment Requirements:

·Comic Cover: Design a cover that represents your interpretation of The Monkey’s Paw, including an illustrated masthead created in Illustrator. You may use Photoshop to manipulate textures and images for a surreal effect inspired by Sandman covers or refer to “surrealistic adobe illustrator artwork”. Include subtle animations if desired to create a haunting atmosphere.

·One-Page Comic: Translate a selected part of the story into a single-page, animated webcomic with at least 3 panels animated using GIFs in Google Slides. Focus on panel-to-panel transitions (e.g., moment-to-moment, action-to-action, subject-to-subject) to maintain suspense and continuity.

·Format: Portrait orientation for phone or tablet display. Assemble all elements in Google Slides for presentation.

References and Inspiration:

·Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud for narrative transition techniques.

·Framed Ink by Marcos Mateu-Mestre for composition and depth principles.

·Dave McKean’s Sandman covers for visual style and mood inspiration or vector based surrealistic artwork.

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Inspiration:

Fig 1.1.1 Inspiration

Chosen text:

Fig 1.1.2 Chosen text

Sketch:

Fig 1.1.3 One-Page Comic Sketch

Fig 1.1.4 Comic Cover Sketch

Concept board:

Fig 1.1.4 Concept board

Cover production process:

I started by using the Pen Tool in Illustrator to create all the elements.

 

Fig 1.1.5 

Next, I used gradient colors to create the background and blend it more seamlessly with the moon.

Fig 1.1.6

Then I chose a font that looks quite spooky. And I also added a bat in front of the title to enhance the sense of depth.

Fig 1.1.7

I felt the background was too plain, so I added some texture and applied a Gaussian blur to the moon.

Fig 1.1.8

Fig 1.1.9

After that, Mr. Fauzi Yusoff told me that the castle on the cover didn't really show the story, so I re-read the story and changed the castle to a house with horror elements

Fig 1.1.10

Final cover:

Fig 1.1.11 Final cover

Comic production progress:

First, I used the Pen Tool in Illustrator to draw the outlines of the storyboard and elements for the entire page.

Fig 1.2.1

Then, I colored the comic.

Fig 1.2.2

Fig 1.2.3

While creating the GIF, I created 11 artboards in Illustrator and made frame-by-frame adjustments to the details of the three storyboards.

Fig 1.2.4

After that, I imported all the artboards into Photoshop to create the GIF and set the time for each frame to 0.2 seconds.

Fig 1.2.5

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Final Work:

Fig 2.1.1 Cover (PNG)

Fig 2.1.2 Comic Page (PNG)

Fig 2.1.3 Comic Animation

 Fig 2.1.4 Cover (PDF)

                                         Fig 2.1.5 Comic Animation (PDF)

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REFLECTION

Experience:

This project was time-consuming and complex, and there were countless times I felt like giving up. Selecting the scenes for the comic page alone took a lot of time and thought. Then came sketching, importing into Illustrator, using the Pen Tool to outline, and finally coloring—all of which required a lot of time and effort. However, through this task, I gained a deeper understanding of the tools in Illustrator and Photoshop and improved my skills. This final project has been extremely beneficial to me.

Observations & Findings:

During the process of creating the comic, I found that continuity is crucial. Each frame can only have slight changes to ensure that, when turned into a GIF, it appears smooth and consistent.