1. LECTURES
Week 11 (Online Lecture):
Today (May 12, 2024), in an online lecture, Mr. Hafiz outlined our final project: web comics and published some references and examples in Google Classroom to guide our project.
Fig.1.1.1 Transitions
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| Fig.1.1.2 Comics by Scott McCloud |
Framed Ink by Marcos Mateu-Mestre: Link
Surrealistic Artwork by Dave McKean;s Sandman: Link
Week 12 (Online Lecture):
Today (December 12, 2024), in an online lecture, Mr. Hafiz introduced us to the transition of webcomics and the key points to pay attention to when drawing panels.
Week 13 (Lecture 13):
Today (18/12/2024), face-to-face tutorials in class.
3. WEBCOMIC - COMIC COVER
3.1 Introduction & Story Analysis
Link to the short story "The Monkey's Paw"
Introduction
The Monkey Claw is W W. A short story created by Jacobs reveals the greed of a family and the consequences of their confrontation with fate through tense plot and eerie atmosphere. The main plot of the story revolves around the White family, consisting of husband White, wife White, and their son Herbert. One day, Mr. White's old friend Sergeant Morris visited with a seemingly ordinary monkey paw and warned them that this paw had a mysterious power that could grant three wishes. However, Mr. White disregarded the warning and made a wish for 200 yuan with this monkey paw, ultimately leading to a series of tragic consequences. The novel explores the unforeseeable consequences of our actions and the inevitable conflict between humanity and fate by showcasing the infinite greed and human desires. Through the continuous reversal of the plot, "Monkey Claw" warns people not to easily touch the natural order and emphasizes the profound theme that humans are powerless to resist fate.
Story Analysis
Fig.3.1.1 Selected Part / (Week 12, 9/12/2024)
The part I chose to create comics for is the ending of the novel. After Mrs. White forced Mr. White to make a wish for his son to come back to life, there was a knock on the door downstairs, so Mrs. White wanted to open the door to the house. Mr. White realized that the knocking sound behind the door was not his original son, but a monster brought by a monkey paw wish. Therefore, he quickly searched for the monkey paw and made a third wish before the door opened. In the end, when the door opened, there was nothing outside.
This story is the end of the novel, and it is also full of suspense and tension. I want to express the terrifying and tense feeling through the actions and behaviors of the protagonist Mr. White, and create a contrast with the emptiness after opening the door at the end.
Scene Breakdown
Panel 1
Scene Description: Mr. White did not stop his wife and felt very anxious when he heard her calling and knocking on the door
Dialogue: "The bolt，" ，"Come down. I can't reach it."
Panel 2
Scene Description: Mr. White's panicked and helpless facial close-up
Panel 3
Scene Description: Mr. White discovered the monkey's paw
Panel 4
Scene Description: There was a loud knocking outside the door, and Mrs. White was about to unlock the bolt
Panel 5
Scene Description: Mrs. White unlocked the door and faintly revealed the monster's figure through the crack
Panel 6
Scene Description: Mr. White hurriedly made his third wish to the monkey's paw.
Panel 7
Scene Description: The door was opened, but there was only an empty road and streetlights outside.
3.2 Rationale
Fig.3.1.2 Rationale (Week 13, 18/12/2024)
3.3 SKETCHES
Fig.3.3.1 Sketches of comic cover / (Week 12, 9/12/2024)
DescriptionMonkey Claw is the core of the entire story and also the title of the novel, so when designing the cover, I enlarged it a lot and occupied most of the entire screen. I designed the posture of the monkey's paw to cover the feeling below, in order to express the control of fate over humanity, and also represent the difficulty for humans to escape their desires and the danger of desires. Monkey claws appeared from the shadows. The other mission sergeants in the picture, Mr. White and his wife, could only helplessly stare at the monkey's paw on the ground.
3.4 PROGRESS
I first took a photo of my own hand with a camera to imitate the appearance of the monkey's paw in my sketch.
Fig.3.4.1 Progression #1 - (Week 12, 11/12/2024)
I uploaded the photo to Adobe Illustrator and then used the Image Trace feature to obtain the following black and white photos.
ig.3.4.2 Progression #2 - (Week 12, 11/12/2024)
I used scissors tools to break down and reassemble the previous hand images, and then used pathfinder to combine different shapes together.
Afterwards, I placed the sketch layer under the current layer and reduced the transparency of the current layer. Using the pen tool, I drew characters，money bag, candles and tombstones according to the sketch.
To prevent lagging caused by too many graphics, I use PathFinder to combine each completed graphic into one.
ig.3.4.3Progression #3 - (Week 12, 11/12/2024)
In order to imitate the style of Framed Ink, I decided to use black to represent all the colors of the shadows, so I filled all the graphics with black
ig.3.4.4 Progression #4 - (Week 12, 11/12/2024)
Similar to the previous steps, I lowered the transparency of the layer and drew borders based on the sketch.
ig.3.4.5 Progression #5 - (Week 12, 11/12/2024)
Fill the border with black and combine it with the previously completed part.
ig.3.4.6 Progression #6 - (Week 12, 11/12/2024)
I created a new layer and placed it at the bottom of all the layers. Use a rectangular tool to cover the entire canvas and select a solid color fill as the background for the entire cover.I use rectangular tool to create some small bars with yellow and red fill, and add them on the candles shapes.
ig.3.4.7 Progression #7 - (Week 12, 11/12/2024)
Draw new title letters based on the sketch.
But because I found that the title composition of the sketch was not very good, I was more free to express myself in this part, and it was not completely consistent with the sketch.
At the end, I fill the title with dark red.
For the part of writer's name, I choose to use an existed font.
ig.3.4.8 Progression #8 - (Week 12, 11/12/2024)
3.5 FINAL OUTCOME
Fig.3.5.1 Final Outcome - Comic Cover / (Week 13, 18/12/2024)
4. WEBCOMIC - ONE-PAGE COMIC
4.1 Rationale
Fig.4.1.1 Rationale / (Week 11, 6/12/2024)
4.2 SKETCHES
Fig.4.2.1 Rough sketch of one-page comic / (Week 12, 9/12/2024)
I first drew sketches for each panel, and tried to use different perspective angles and panel sizes for each sketch to enrich the diversity and rhythm of the image.
Because the novel section I have chosen does not have many dialogues, each panel must express very clearly in order to better guide readers. For that, I used a lot of close ups on the expressions and key actions of key characters.
4.3 PROGRESS
Draw the overall shape based on the sketch first
| Fig.4.3.1 Progression #1 - Panel / (Week 12, 11/12/2024) |
| Fig.4.3.2 Progression #2 - Panel / (Week 12, 11/12/2024) |
| Fig.4.3.3 Progression #3 - Panel / (Week 12, 11/12/2024) |
| Fig.4.3.4 Progression #4 - Panel / (Week 12, 11/12/2024) |
| Fig.4.3.5 Progression #5 - Panel / (Week 12, 11/12/2024) |
| Fig.4.3.6 Progression #6 - Panel / (Week 12, 11/12/2024) |
| Fig.4.3.7 Progression #7 - Panel / (Week 12, 11/12/2024) |
| Fig.4.3.8 Progression #8 - Panel / (Week 12, 11/12/2024) |
5. ANIMATED WEBCOMIC
5.1 Progress in Photoshop Frame Animation
I am not familiar with GIF production, so I exported my wabcomic as a PS file in Adobe Illustrator and then imported it into PS for production.
I have found that not every graphic in AI can be edited in Photoshop. Since I have never created panels separately, I can only do animation production for all panels at once.
Fig.5.1.1 Progression #1 (Week 13, 22/12/2024)
After designing all the keyframes, I adjusted the speed of each keyframe to reduce the animation speed in the GIF, making the entire GIF more coordinated and easy to watch.
Fig.5.1.2 Progression #2 (Week 13, 22/12/2024)
5.2 FINAL OUTCOME
Fig.5.2.1 Final Outcome - One-Paged Comic - GIF / (Week 13, 22/12/2024)
REFLECTIONS
Experience:
As the final project of this semester, the design and production of webcomic is much more difficult than previous assignments. We not only use the knowledge we have learned before to create comics and covers, but also need to use Photoshop to create GIFs, which has never been done before.
Due to a lack of experience, the overall production process is very unsmooth. We need to read the short story first and then choose the segments for manga adaptation, which requires careful consideration because we need to ensure that a complete piece of content can be fully displayed on one page of the manga, and we need to think about how many panels there are on one page of the manga and which text content they correspond to. Although we have learned a lot about storyboarding and comics, we lack practical experience, so the results often deviate from our imagination when we actually make them.
Moving work from AI to PS is also very difficult, and we haven't received sufficient tutorials and exercises about this step. Many vector graphics and layers that can be controlled in AI are difficult to manipulate in Photoshop.
Using AI to create hand drawn comics is very complex, and this is the biggest lesson I learned this time. When designing comics or other projects, it is important to recognize one's own limitations and the gap between imagination and reality.
Observation:
Through this project, I found that we need more practice and constantly learn and refer to others' works in our daily lives. For example, when reading comics, I have never paid attention to fonts and dialogue boxes, but these are all issues that I will face in the process of creating them myself.
The overall texture of comics is very difficult to grasp. There are many ways to create a unique texture, such as using 3D effects or adding filters in Photoshop, but the key is to make the picture coordinated.
Findings:
Finally, I found that Adobe Illustrator is a great software for drawing graphics to create standardized illustrations. To better master and operate it for creation, it requires a good understanding of graphic concepts and unexpected painting techniques, which I do not possess and need to learn.
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