Illustration & Visual Narrative - Final Project: Animated 1 Page visual novel

28/6/2023 - 14/7/2023 (Week 13 - Week 15)
Katelyn Tan Kye Ling (0354148)
Bachelor Of Design In Creative Media (Illustration & Visual Narrative)
Final Project: Animated 1 Page visual novel

---

LECTURES

WEEK 13 - Lecture 13 (28/6/2023)

This week Ms. Anis briefed us and introduced us to our final project that was recorded as well.

Fig. 1.1 Final Project Briefing (28/6/2023)

WEEK 14 - Lecture 14 (5/7/2023)

Class was self-directed.

Fig. 1.2 Evidence of No Class (5/7/2023)

---

INSTRUCTION

For this final project, we were supposed to continue from the previous project (Project 3 - Digital Triptych) based on our selected to create a ONE PAGE introduction of our visual novel or comic to our readers with at least ONE ANIMATED PANEL.

The challenges are:

1. Continue with the same story and design aesthetics from Project 2

2. Work only from one paragraph of the story for the 1st page.

1. Sketch:

Fig. 2.1 Sketch (4/7/2023)

2. One Page Visual Novel Progress:

In this page, I first introduced what Egaeus is like and the relationship and feelings between him and Berenice. Since this is a horror story, the vibes are dull and dark. So I put a low opacity black layer on top of each frame to make the colours seem more dull, this also helps to make all the frames the same vibe.

First Frame:

In the first frame, I showed Egaeus' house. I tried to portray it as gloomy and dull.

Fig. 3.1House (4-5/7/2023)

Fig. 3.2 Moon, Clouds & Trees (5-6/7/2023)

Second Frame:

In Frame 2, I introduced Berenice and show that Berenice is the only bright thing in Egaeus' life.

Fig. 3.3 Window + Background + Wall decoration (6-7/7/2023)

Fig. 3.4 Men + Table (8/7/2023)

Third Frame:

Fig. 3.5 Clouds + Background + Hill (8/7/2023)

Fig. 3.6 Girl + Men (9/10/2023)

Fig. 3.7 Added outer glow to girl (10/7/2023)

Fourth Frame:

Here is shows that Berenice caught a fatal disease. 

Fig. 3.8 Window + Sick Girl (10/7/2023)

Fig. 3.9 Background (10/7/2023)

FINAL 1 PAGE VISUAL NOVEL:

Fig. 3.10 Final 1 Page Visual Novel - Outline (10/7/2023)

Fig. 3.11 Final 1 Page Visual Novel (10/7/2023)

3. Animation

For the animation part, I used the After Effects app. I decided to animate a few things in the visual novel. I animated the clouds in frame #1, the clock in frame #2 and lastly the curtains in frame #4

Clouds Animation:

I used CC Slant for the clouds.

Fig. 4.1 Animation Progress (11/7/2023)

Clock Animation:

I used Rotation for the clock and made it a loop.

Fig. 4.2 Animation Progress (11/7/2023)

Curtain Animation:

I used puppet warp for the curtains.

Fig. 4.3 Animation Progress (11/7/2023)

Fig. 4.4 Animation Progress (11/7/2023)

Fig. 4.5 Animation (11/7/2023)

---

REFLECTION

Experience

I personally really enjoyed this assignment. I felt so much more familiar with the Adobe app that it made things much smoother for more, though sometimes the app was really laggy, I worked with it. And since it was the first time creating a comic, things felt very new to me. Out of all the assignments I believe this assignment took the most time and effort. Each frame takes much effort to design and see if each element fits into each frame, there are quite a few details therefore each frame took lots of time. Nevertheless, I did work my way through the entire assignment and found it rather interesting. 

Observation

I observed that each frame cannot have too many elements. Too many, it makes the frame look messy, too little, the frame will look too simple. I also noticed how picking colours are important. Example, I wanted to pick a white chair for frame #3, however that colour would not suit the novel as the whole story has a dark theme. In addition to that, the house has a very dull and old vibe, so having a bright colour wouldnt fit. I also learnt that in animations, pick and plan properly which animation you're going to animate and put those in separate layers, if not things would get messy and you might end up like me (redo-ing many times).

Findings

I now find comic books much more admirable. I think often times many people look down on comic books and call it "children's book". I now totally see it a different way, I now look at it as art. I appreciate comics so much now as the artist took lots of time and effort to design each page. Our project only required a 1 page visual novel, but imagine 1 whole book! I find myself also looking at details of comic books and see how the artist designs certain things.