IVN Project 2: Webtoon & Motion Comic
21.10.21 - 5.12.21 (Week 9 - Week 15)
Chai Yi Xuan / 0346645 / B'
Creative Media
Illustration & Visual Narrative
Task 3 / Webtoon & Motion Comic
LECTURES
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:
I created two story ideas using the 3-act structure(taught in a previous lecture).
One day, a woman moves into a quiet neighbourhood. Everybody minded their own business, except for a guy next door who keeps staring at her through his window. The woman ignores him as she goes about her business.
Every time she works about in her house, she notices the guy photographing her activities, and at one point had trespassed her house— though left when he realised he was found.
One evening, the creepy guy was looking through a series of polaroid, when he heard a knock on his door. He opened it to find the woman. Frightened, he tried to run away— only to trip. The woman approached with a smile and killed the man. The polaroid was scattered on the floor, showing the woman performing suspicious activities that indicate that she is a cannibal.
Story idea 2: Dear Cat
There was lady living outside of the village who owns a black cat. The villagers never visited her, and when she goes out, everyone avoids her. The lady was fine with it, as long as she had the cat with her. One night, a few braver villagers confronted the lady, telling her to get rid of the cat. The lady was upset and asked them to leave. When they insisted, a scary flicker of shadow appeared behind the lady, scaring the villagers away.
One day, a mage came to the village. The villagers plead to the mage to help get rid of the cat, saying that people have gone missing due to it. The mage accepted and went to confront the lady. At first, the mage asked the lady politely to remove the cat— but it only stressed the lady out. Then, the cat looked at the mage, before shadows started consuming the lady. She turned into a shadow monster with cat-like eyes. Then, the monster lunged at the mage. The mage prepared an attack to counter the monster, causing a flash of light.
The next day, the mage came back to the village. The villagers thanked him for saving them. As they flocked away, the mage smiled, possessing the same cat-like eyes as the monster last night.
After receiving feedback Ms Anis and Ms Jennifer, I made my choice and chose the first story idea.
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| Figure 1.1: Main cast - Marie |
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| Figure 1.2: Main cast - Winston |
Before diving into the story, I made sure to design my characters. I drew a rough draft for their design before selecting the features I want for my characters. I made sure to simplify their designs so it would be easier to work with the details in Adobe Illustrator.
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| Figure 1.3: Character sheet for webtoon |
The my general style for the comic would be something of flat(VERY minimal shades) and simple(less detailed). I have drawn inspiration from the animated music video "The Wolf" by SIAMÉS and a horror puzzle game Vincent: Secret of the Myers for the art style. I think they both have a very clean and nice look to them, not too heavy-detailed nor complicated for me to draw in Illustrator.
After deciding my general look for the webtoon, I drafted out the comic in Clip Studio Paint.
Figure 1.4: Draft for webtoon
Once done, I moved to Adobe Illustrator and digitized the comic. I choose to stick to a monochromatic palette because, 1. it's a go-to palette for many horror comics and 2. it becomes easier to create a contrast when I add a small splash of colour in the comic.
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| Figure 1.5: Webtoon pg 1 |
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| Figure 1.6: Webtoon pg 2 |
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| Figure 1.7: Webtoon pg 3 |
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| Figure 1.8: Webtoon pg 4 |
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| Figure 1.9: Webtoon pg 5 |
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| Figure 1.10: Webtoon pg 6 |
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| Figure 1.11: Webtoon pg 7 |
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| Figure 1.12: Webtoon pg 8 |
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| Figure 1.13: Webtoon pg 9 |
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| Figure 1.14: Webtoon pg 10 |
Once the comic is done, I uploaded it to Webtoon (Link to webtoon comic). Then, I proceed to the final part of the project, which is to animate the webtoon.
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| Figure 1.15: Animating in Adobe After Effects |
I uploaded the finished product onto YouTube (Link to YouTube video).
Figure 1.16: Motion comic uploaded to YouTube
FEEDBACK
Week 10
Both story ideas are good, but the first one has more potential. Proceed to create the webtoon with the first story line.
REFLECTIONS
Experience
When we were first given the theme(horror), I was a little uneasy. I do
not do well with(nor like) horror, and having an assignment that
challenged that left me feeling a little lost. I do, however, enjoy writing stories so I took it as a challenge to broaden my horizons. Surprisingly, it wasn't that hard to come up with a horror story— maybe my bias against the horror genre was the real challenge here.
Designing the characters were fun, and so was drafting the comic. Taking it to digitize in Adobe Illustrator was sadly a pain as I found out quickly that the background is the real horror in this whole ordeal. The good news is that I found a more efficient way to work in Illustrator, at least. After Effects also quickly became a suffering of mine, having to navigate in a program I never used before was a huge hassle. In the end, I spent more time figuring out things than actually animating the motion comic.
Overall,
I think it was an amazing, though torturous, experience. Aside from all the time and energy spent on making the comic, it feels rewarding to create something for the public to enjoy. It certainly made up for the pain I went through to create it.
Observations
I observed that transitions play a huge role in storytelling. It shows continuity in comics and makes sure that the story flows naturally. Depending on the situation, certain transitions would be more appropriate. I have learned how to utilise multiple transitions in my comic, making my story flow as natural as possible.
Findings
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