Illustration & Visual Narrative TASK 4: FINAL PROJECT

 TASK 4: FINAL PROJECT

5 June 2024- 26 July 2024

FANGYAOYUE(0372006)

Illustration and Visual Narrative | Bachelor of Design in Creative Media | Taylor's University

Task 4: Comic cover and Animated One Page intro

Animated scope:

1. Parallax (to create depth)

2. Secondary Action

3. Animated Background

1. Comic Cover Page

2. Animated One Page Intro

LECTURES

Week 11:

1. Central theme

This week, we need to determine the theme and art style, and choose a story we like from the links sent by Mr.Hafiz. I have roughly reviewed these stories, mainly European horror stories, many novel themes, which is what I want, and I have already had several alternative stories in my mind. Finally, I decide to choose this story to be 《buried》 alive.

Idea Development

For the final project, we need to select a story from the short stories or poems of Edgar Allan Poe. We need to create: Own comic,Apply three act structure in the comic cover. At least 3 panels for the comic.

To view the story click on the link:https://poestories.com/stories.php

Here are the stories I chose:

"The Premature Burial" (1850) About being buried alive

In the year 1810, a case of living inhumation happened in France, attended with circumstances which go far to warrant the assertion that truth is, indeed, stranger than fiction. The heroine of the story was a Mademoiselle Victorine Lafourcade, a young girl of illustrious family, of wealth, and of great personal beauty. Among her numerous suitors was Julien Bossuet, a poor litterateur, or journalist of Paris. His talents and general amiability had recommended him to the notice of the heiress, by whom he seems to have been truly beloved; but her pride of birth decided her, finally, to reject him, and to wed a Monsieur Renelle, a banker and a diplomatist of some eminence. After marriage, however, this gentleman neglected, and, perhaps, even more positively ill-treated her. Having passed with him some wretched years, she died, -- at least her condition so closely resembled death as to deceive every one who saw her. She was buried -- not in a vault, but in an ordinary grave in the village of her nativity. Filled with despair, and still inflamed by the memory of a profound attachment, the lover journeys from the capital to the remote province in which the village lies, with the romantic purpose of disinterring the corpse, and possessing himself of its luxuriant tresses. He reaches the grave. At midnight he unearths the coffin, opens it, and is in the act of detaching the hair, when he is arrested by the unclosing of the beloved eyes. In fact, the lady had been buried alive. Vitality had not altogether departed, and she was aroused by the caresses of her lover from the lethargy which had been mistaken for death. He bore her frantically to his lodgings in the village. He employed certain powerful restoratives suggested by no little medical learning. In fine, she revived. She recognized her preserver. She remained with him until, by slow degrees, she fully recovered her original health. Her woman's heart was not adamant, and this last lesson of love sufficed to soften it. She bestowed it upon Bossuet. She returned no more.

Fig.1.1 Story chapter

Fig.1.2 story

These are some elemennt I want to include:

1 The setting is in medieval Europe Paris, France, so I can add elements of the Paris Tower or the Seine River.

2 The heroine of the article is a noble family, I need to add beautiful clothes and jewelry to support her noble.

3 The site of a live burial is definitely a cemetery, the elements of a cemetery, coffins, crows, candles, weeds, tombstones, fences, old trees, worn roads, flowers.

4 I think we can put together a collage of four or five sections, the first one giving the background of the story, the second one giving the atmosphere and connecting the third one, the third one giving the heroine, and the fourth one giving the climax.

Reference

My art style references are from 3 artists: 

I consulted comics by artists from three countries, Chinese, Japanese and American, and the sequences of these comics all gave people a strong impact.

Fig.1.3 Reference comic 1

Fig.1.4 Reference comic 2

Fig.1.5 Reference comic 3

I see that good comics don't confine the characters to a box, they are more about integrating the characters into the background, so I also choose to use this format.

Sketch

Comic Cover Page：

Fig.1.6 Sketch

Digitisation (Comic Cover Page)

Fig.1.7 Cover 

Cover analysis and introduction：

The main object in the cover is a skeleton, but if you look closely, the skeleton is wrapped with a layer of meat, which not all people can see, which shows that the heroine is not really dead, but was buried alive, she married a person she does not love, and his husband buried him alive here. Roses appear many times in the picture, the bright colors can attract the reader, there are fewer heavy colors in the picture, so I have two red roses instead of white roses.

Animated One Page Intro：

Fig.1.8 Determine layout

Fig.1.9 Production process sketch shape

Fig.1.10 Production process Complete line draft

Fig.1.11 Production process Colored protagonist

Fig.1.12 Production process Background coloring

Fig.1.13 Production process Complete comic

Comic analysis and introduction：

First of all, the first cartoon, the blue sky background is the Paris city, the woman head is the Paris tower, the weather is very good, the blue sky and white clouds have a strong contrast with the cemetery after, creating a sense of contrast.

The second account of the background crows, old trees, cemetery, the same as the third background, but the heroine's head is still related to the first picture, the left side of the picture is darker, the right SLATE slightly emits some light, and the falling rose petals are related to the cover. The tombstone on the right creates some scary atmosphere.

The fourth chapter is a coffin, but the details of the coffin can also be seen that the heroine is a noble, red roses and white roses on the coffin, there are some jewelry, white candles on the side plus the decoration on the coffin, which can echo the above picture.

Final cover

Fig.1.14 Final cover

Final comic

Fig.1.15 Final comic

Final comic（GIF）

Fig.1.16 Final comic（GIF）

Reflection

The semester has come to an end, and I have learned a lot of design knowledge in Mr.Hafiz's class. Every time, I would struggle for a long time in the subject matter given by the teacher, because everything from the Pokemon card to the album cover to the cartoon at the end is very interesting, and I always do my homework to the best. Each assignment is a novel subject, and I hope to learn more from Mr.Hafiz in the future. Thanks to the teacher for pointing out my problems and giving me suggestions every week, I will continue to use the software and tools learned in class in the future study.