IVN Project 1: Decisive Moment (Poster)
23.09.21 - 21.10.21 (Week 5 - Week 9)
Chai Yi Xuan / 0346645 / B'
Creative Media
Illustration & Visual Narrative
Task 2 / Decisive Moment: Poster
LECTURES
Week 7 (3-Act Structure)
To create a story, one must establish a theme. It often comes from the storyteller's personal opinion on the matter.
Major theme: An idea that repeats and is the core of the story
Minor theme: An idea that is subtle/in the background and doesn't necessarily repeat
For every story there must be a conflict. It creates tension and suspense, which drives the plot forward. It gives an audience something to guess, to keep them on their toes. Without conflict, the story lacks depth and the audience loses interest.
A story must have characters. The central characters, main cast if you will, play a part in the development of the story. There two main archetype of characters are: protagonists & antagonists.
Protagonists are the typical main characters of the story. The story tends to revolve around them, and they always have a goal or a conflict to overcome. A good protagonist is a character that the audience want to root for or can sympathize with.
Meanwhile, antagonists are your main villains. They are characters that stand in the way of the protagonists, and create major conflicts in the story. Sometimes, they can even take form as a place, thing or situation.
 |
| Figure 1.1: Traditional 3-act structure chart |
The 3-Act Structure has three components:
- Setup
- Establishing world settings in the story, prior or where the protagonist starts their journey. The conflict usually reveals at this point of time.
- Rising tension
- Obstacles the protagonist has to face to achieve their goal. Each obstacles get harder and the stakes get higher as the story progresses.
- Conflict
- The highest tension point in the story. It is the turning point of the story, which makes the narrative turn for the better, or worse. After the conflict comes the conclusion, where the protagonist achieves their goal, reach an understanding or becomes defeated. Ultimately, the journey ends there.
Week 9 (Transitions)
Comics are created through a passion to tell a story. These story ideas, however, need to come from somewhere. The most common and effective story ideas come from life experiences— as these experience are the most grounded and relatable, where readers can easily empathize with the morals/characters of the story.
How to come up with story ideas:
- Brainstorming
- Find an idea/concept that appeals to you and list it down. It is better to create a story from what you enjoy/experience.
- Mindmap
- Discuss the most important topic/focus of the story. Use the 4 Wives 1 Husband (What, Where, When, Who, How) method to fill in the blanks of the story. It helps in creating the concept and ensure that there are no 'plot holes'.
- Mental library
- To come up with a good story, it is best to have a reference/inspiration. Practices such as: watching a movie, playing new games, reading comics/mangas/webtoons, listening to various genre of music, and trying a new dish may stimulate your brain and spark a brand new idea for your story.
It is important not to stress about getting That Perfect IdeaTM , as the more you lament over it, the more you will stray from your objective. To execute your idea, start with simple keywords that determine the settings of your story. Some examples are: running around the store, causing orderly chaos with a friend, etc. A story that people can relate to will win over the audience.
Transitions in comics are important as they indicate a change of position, action and settings. There are multiple ways of creating transitions:
- Moment-to-Moment
- One of the most common transitions in comics. This transition depicts changes in between one to two seconds, to draw out a certain moment in the story. Overusing this transition may lead to a dull and boring comic.
- Action-to-Action
- Another common transition in comics. A more 'active' version of moment-to-moment transition, this technique is used in action-packed moments to capture what is happening without drawing out an action. It focuses more on significant events.
- Subject-to-Subject
- A transition that switches between characters. This is
commonly used when there are two or more characters in the same setting having conversations
- Scene-to-Scene
- A transition used while many events are happening in the same setting for a continuous set of time. A change or jump in time/location is considered a scene ending and a start of a new one.
- Aspect-to-Aspect
- A transition that switches the point of view of the readers. It jumps around the scene, showing the settings of the place and its details.
- Symbolic
- Less of a transition, and more of a visualised symbolism. Usually used in flashbacks and inner monologue, symbolic transitions shows the unreal, the felt and the imagined.
- Rolling Transition
- Arguably one of the hardest transition to master. Rolling transitions utilizes the images and meld them together in one big page instead using panels. It produces a dynamic and fluid kind of feeling when read. It can be confusing, but if mastered, it helps break the metronomic, paneled storytelling.
- Non Sequitur
- A rarely used transition outside of surreal abstract and gag comics. Non sequitur appears to be as if random scenes are slapped right next to each other, and do not relate to each other. However, readers desire to make sense amongst the confusion, and therefore try their best to create a sort of narrative in a juxtaposed situation. This leads to multiple interpretations, varying from what the readers see and what they think it means.
INSTRUCTIONS
To-Do List:
 |
| Figure 1.1: Little Nightmares 2, promotional poster |
When this assignment was briefed, I immediately thought of a "recently" released game called 'Little Nightmare 2', a puzzle-platformer horror game. I immediately knew where the decisive moment was(which can't be clarified due to spoilers), so I decided to use that scene for my poster.
 |
| Figure 1.2: Poster sketch #1 |
 |
| Figure 1.3: Poster sketch #2, alternative |
 |
| Figure 1.4: Poster sketch #3 |
I had another idea for the poster, which is shown in Sketch #3. However, despite being one of the decisive moments in the game, it wasn't as impactful as the first concept. Therefore, I stuck with Sketch #1 for my poster.
Once I was done with the sketch, I moved onto Illustrator to digitize it.
 |
| Figure 1.5: Poster prototype |
Feedback was given to this prototype, and I made some changes accordingly.
 |
| Figure 1.6: Decisive moment poster |
After finishing the poster, I moved onto animating the poster through Adobe Photoshop. It was rather easy to understand, but very tasking to do. I had to animate quite a few elements to ensure that things look natural, yet I finished the animation. I felt like there can be more improvement to the smoothness of the animation, but I felt pretty proud of what I've done.
Final Outcome
 |
| Figure 1.7: Digitized poster animated as a looping GIF |
FEEDBACK
Week 6
All ideas fulfill the requirements of minimalistic, and no spoiler-ish contents in the posters. Sketch #1 and #3 have potential. Find a way to insert the title and tagline without ruining the harmony of the poster.
Week 7
The colours of the posters are good, and positioning of title and tagline is okay. Change the font to something else, adjust the size of the words as they are too large.
Week 9
Animation of the poster is good. There is a good understanding of how animated lighting works. The overall movement is okay.
REFLECTIONS
Experience
This assignment in a way, helped me analyse important events of storytelling. I had to determine a decisive moment in a game/film/story, which was crucial for the assignment. I also had to learn how to translate that moment into a poster without giving away too much information, which would spoil the contents. Personally, I think my choice of game gave me an easier chance to do so, because of how that specific scene can be interpreted as something normal although it was a turning point for the game.
Overall, I think it was great experience. I felt like I was foreshadowing a story without giving away too much context, and animating it just makes the poster a whole lot more lively.
Observations
I observed that there can be multiple decisive moments in the story. There are mostly plot twists, revelations and goals. Decisive moments are what drive the plot forward, and in my opinion, are essential for a good story telling.
I noticed that a minimalistic design can convey a message, and sometimes more effective than a detailed one. One thing to keep in mind is that it should make sense, as in all necessary information must be in the design, and leave out any meticulous details.
Findings
Comments
Post a Comment