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IVN - Final Project

03/07/2024 - 26/07/2024 | Week 11 - Week 14

Koh Sher Wei | 0353816

Illustration & Visual Narrative | Bachelor of Design In Creative Media | Taylor's University


List of Contents:

Comic Cover and Animated One Page Intro:
For our final project, students are required to pick one story from the list of Edgar Ellan Poe's creations. We need to come up with a one-page motion comic intro and cover page that summarises the story that we've chosen. The animated scope required for this project are; parallax, secondary action and animated background. 

The short-story I chose: The Tell-Tale Heart

I find this short story interesting and simple to digest as compared to the rest of Ellan Poe's writings. It's also a story that creates the perfect opportunity for readers to dissect and understand. 

To provide a summary for this short story; In the beginning, the narrator speaks about an old man who resides with him as a housemate. He expresses his repulsion towards the old man's "raven" eyes, and how he desires to rid of it. Throughout his plan to kill the man, he constantly repeats the fact that he is not a madman, as a madman would not have the mind for his organised schemes. In the end, he does end up murdering and hiding the body of the old man. However, his guilty-conscious catches on to him and he inevitably confesses to his crime. 

Below is the detailed action of the emphasised scene for my motion comic.

The confrontation (Act 02): 
Rising Action: 
- The narrator details his meticulous planning and stalking of the old man over several nights. 
- He finds it difficult to proceed as the old man stays asleep.
- One night, the old man wakes in fear from the narrator's accidental sounds. 
- The narrator shines the lantern he was holding and is triggered by the old man's raven eye.

Climax: 
- He finally approaches the old man and chokes him to death until he stops hearing the constant sound of the old man's heartbeat. 
- He dismembers the lifeless body and hides the parts under 3 planks of floorboard, then moves the bed above the planks.

References: 


These are a few comic strips I found on pinterest that I used for reference. I took the composition, layout, and colour scheme into consideration.

Comic Cover Page 
Process:
Sketch

Breakdown of composition in AI

Essentially, my idea was to put an emphasis on how the narrator constantly tried to sneak into the old man's room at night with a lantern in his hand. The way I did this, was to extract photos online (pinterest) of elements I wanted to include. I traced the images using the pen and curvature tool and adjusted the colours however I deem fit. There are also a few different brush textures applied to make the composition have a bit more of a vintage/uncanny vibe.

Initially, I also wanted to include the narrator looking evil but felt that it would have been too crowded and overwhelming for the cover page, so I opted to just leave the it simple.

Outcome:
Final Comic Cover Page


Comic Strip 
Process: 

Sketches of comic strip layout

 

Comic Strip layout digitised in AI

As you can see, I initially came up with these two layouts for the comic strip but it just felt off. In the left layout, I figured out that I wouldn't be able to utilise any of the panels that were more horizontally spaced, as it wouldn't fit the details I had in mind. So instead, I came up with the layout on the right, but once I completed the panels I realised it was too dark and crowded. It wasn't appealing and didn't showcase the storyline well enough.


Layout and colour exploration

So instead, I re-arranged the panels, added highlights and created more negative space to emphasise the focus on the narrator's figure. I toned down the background colours  to add more depth and contrast with the smaller panels. 



Breakdown of layers in AI

Final Comic Strip composition

Animated One-Page Intro: 

Frames used for the animation in AI

Frames imported into PS for animation

Basically, I chose a few elements I wanted to animate, which was the moon, the lighting, the lantern fire and the writings. I changed a little bit of the composition each time in every frame to replicate the moment that the Old Man is woken up by the bright light from the narrator's lantern.
Final One-Page Intro Animation


Reflection
Overall, this was a very stressful and challenging project. I like this final project gave us the opportunity to use, improve and put our newly learned Illustrator skills to use, while allowing us to get creative. However, as someone who progresses really slow and barely does any sort of illustration work, it was so so difficult to illustrate my ideas into a visual image, much less make it animated. It was somehow enjoyable though because it really gave me a chance to try out different tools and further experiment with Illustrator as compared to the other 2 tasks.

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