Illustration & Visual Narrative Project II & III: Decisive Moment + Digital Triptych
31/10/2023 - 08/12/2023 : Week 6 - Week 11
Tristan Vaughan Sleep - 0365120
Typography / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Task II: Editorial Illustration
PARTICIPATED LECTURES:
WEEK 6: Introduction into Project II - Decisive Moment
Week Six would mark the end of Project I - “The Vormator Challenge” as the cohort would be briefed about the new & upcoming Project II - Decisive Moment Editorial Spread. In essence, students would need to produce a minimalist, Art-Deco Styled Editorial (with animated elements) which should be around the concept of an Urban Legend. It is also important to consider that this Project would need to be completed in a two week time-frame.
Decisive Moment: Editorial Spread
For this project, students are to imagine and develop a stylised poster around the narrative's decisive moment (the Climax). In a narrative, the decisive moment is defined as the main turning point when the protagonists are forced into acting to confront the antagonists. Often characterised by Character development & self-discovery.
When Designing the layout of the poster, Students would need to consider the best methods to adapt their Urban legend into a single animated piece - presenting it in a more minimalistic style. Additionally, we would need to look at the arrangement of the image such as looking at photographic rules like the Rule of Thirds (RoTs) or which elements to relegate to the foreground, centre or Background.
Finally, the students would also need to look more into the visual impact of the Editorial Piece. As presented by the lecturer, the cohort is expected to emulate the style of “Art-Deco,” a popular art-style reminiscent of works produced during the 1920s-1930s. The style mainly consists of a minimalistic + geometric style which uses graphic filters such as gradients and grain which produces a visually appealing poster. Although this is a broad overlook of the style, our lecturer recommended that we should look more into the style ourselves. It is also recommended that students begin looking into the development of colour palettes which can further impact the look of the final outcome.
Building upon the cohort’s discussion of the assignment from the previous week, our lecturer decided to further explain the requirements as well as further instruct us for the best results. In essence, this week would be an extended introduction to the ‘Decisive Moment Assignment.’
Decisive Moment: Defining Limitations + Assignment details
Previously, students were expected to begin researching more into the idea of urban legends as we would be expected to choose one and make the decisive piece around. However, the main problem came from a series of students getting confused and struggling with the limitations of ‘urban legends.’ In their definitions, ‘Urban Legends’ are similar to traditional myths however, these ones are often defined by being based around a modern day idea and/or setting.
With this clarification made, the cohort was expected to continue working on the assignment by sketching out some rough compositions for the Decisive Moment. Additionally, students should be open to the idea of introducing text into the piece in order to imitate the style of ‘Editorial Spreads’ although this may not be a final requirement. Regardless, it was mentioned by the lecturer that students would need to consider the composition of their works, using techniques used in photography and illustrations. This would include techniques such as the ‘Rule of Thirds’ and ‘Fore/mid/background compositions.’
Mr Zamri was also sure to suggest additional materials that students should go and collect in order to help them should the student face any issues when designing their compositions. One of the more useful resources provided by the lecturer was “Framed Ink:” a book focusing around composition in film - written and illustrated by Marcos Mateu-Mestre. This book would prove useful to students as it would provide examples of shot types & framing.
WEEK 8: Decisive Moment - Digitalisation of Designs
To further develop this assignment, this week would see the cohort take their chosen designs and begin converting them into a digital format which would later be developed into a short animation. However, before students would be able to begin working, Mr Zamri thought it important to teach students how to implement additional detail such as texturing + gradients which would help recreate the “Art-Deco Style.”
Decisive Moment: Digital design & detail
As mentioned, Mr Zamri would provide a short demonstration for the students on an effective way to introduce grain-like detail commonly found within the “Art-Deco Style.” In order to achieve this style, students would learn how to use Adobe Illustrator’s features such as effects & clipping masks. In essence, students are able to recreate the style by creating a duplicate of the shape they wish to put the grain on (using command + F.) Once the shape has been duplicated, students will need to create a clipping mask using the layering setting. After creating clipping shapes, Students need to use the “effects tab” and select + stylise the grain which produces an effect similar to the iconic style.
To further ensure that students may understand the process, the lecturer was also sure to include a demo file for students to download and test themselves on how to apply the effect using Adobe Illustrator. Other than this demonstration, this would conclude this week’s lecture.
WEEK 9: Decisive Moment - Animating the finalised piece
As previously mentioned in the last week, this week would see the cohort working to implement minor animations into their finalised digital pieces. It is important to note that ‘minor animations,’ refers to secondary animation as noted by the lecturer. For this week’s assignment, the students' work is left rather open as there is no one method for animating a piece.
Although, it is possible for students to not be fully confident in animation; therefore, It would recommend that students refer to the teachings of a lecturer in another module. This way, students do have a source should they need additional help - students were also encouraged to go to the additional live lesson should they need extra support. For this lesson, I would choose to go with the animation style provided by my typography module: animation using frame-by-frame animation which is condensed into a gif Format using Adobe Photoshop. In essence, I would need to alter the final piece every frame and put it together to create the illusion of animation. Another potential way to animate would be Adobe After-Effects.
Visual & Urban Research:
The Chosen Narrative: Mile-Post 72
‘Mile-Post 72’ is a very localised ghost Urban-Legend - originating in the Grasberg Mining site, West-papua Indonesia. The legend centres around an eight-mile stretch of dead-road (with no lights or signal) in which miners & operators are instructed to use the horns in their vehicles once every mile. Failure to do so is said to cause ghostly figures to descend onto the car and will appear in places such as the passenger or back-seats of the vehicle - causing the driver to lose control and crash in a horrific manner.
It is important to note that another detail of the narrative is that the driver is normally tired and isolated, potentially suggesting this urban legend to stem from cultural beliefs mixed with delusions. Therefore, the task of using the horn keeps the driver alert during the most dangerous stretch of road. Finally, another interesting note is that due to cultural fear of ghostly figures as well as a reach of corporate power, workers are heavily discouraged to spread such stories - hence its very localised status.
With this in mind, the scene I decided to choose for this project would be the hypothetical confrontation between the driver and the ghostly figures - just moments before something bad is about to occur. The main difficulty I faced in this depiction is the framing of the shot in the car and where the actors could be. For experimentation purposes, I made two example editorial spreads: one in which the main antagonist ghost was in the backseat and another in the passenger seat. This way I could experiment more with the framing and the more effective way to draw the audience’s attention.
“Sketches for testing framing”
Additionally, as advised by the lecturer; it was recommended that we should ask a source such as ChatGPT if it could produce written instructions for a composition which we would need to interpret. Upon asking the language model (being thorough with my questioning), it responded with a similarly described image to the second image and was useful in suggesting iconography, colour palettes and spacing. With my design somewhat chosen, I would be able to begin researching more into the “Art-Deco Style” and could begin working on a digital version of the sketch.
Visual Research
Before beginning this assignment, I first wanted to look a bit more into the stylisation of “Art-Deco” and to look for the best examples of what has been achieved in this style. For the majority of my research, I mainly looked on image sites such as Pinterest to collect and develop a mood board of sorts to have a visual library I could later reference when working. In my research, I was able to determine that the “Art-Deco Style” is iconic for its rendering of buildings and people in a simplistic, geometric style - often with gradients of noise around light source or lit figures. In most cases, I found it interesting that shadows were often rendered with no detail - exclusively one colour with no noise which would be something I would want to incorporate.
“Collection of images referenced for “Art-Deco””
Additionally, when searching through the “Art-Deco” style; I came across an artist who works within the style and mainly produces works of geometric people. I thought this might be something worth investigating as I may need some reference when it comes to designing modern people in the 1920s style of “Art-Deco.” Regardless, with my research phase complete, I would now be able to begin working on the digital recreation of the second sketch.
“Collection of images Produced by ‘Tommy Parker’”
For the first version, I mainly wanted to experiment with framing/space as well as looking into colour palettes. As advised by the lecturer, it would be rather important for us to consider the framing of the piece - using methods such as the ‘Rule of Thirds’ and ‘Fore/mid/background compositions’ to better structure and organise elements in a more appealing manner. Mr Zamri also provided the cohort with additional materials including the use of the “Framed Ink” written by Marcos Mateu-Mestre: a book which stresses the importance of framing while providing useful examples + reasoning.
"Framed Ink: written by Marcos Mateu-Mestre"
With these materials, I wanted to frame my piece using the “Rule of Thirds” to define a rough layout of the piece. I would place the two main figures (the Ghost + Driver) on the main intersections: the driver being on the top right while the ghost remains in the bottom left - as a method to show opposition between the two. Additionally, the ghost hands reaching out from behind the seat were supposed to reach out to the top-left intersection which would frame all the ghosts on the left frame - further suggesting that the ghost woman is intruding into the driver’s space.
"Early Frame Ideas + Colour Palette Test"
For the colour palette, I chose to colour a majority of the scene with darker warm colours to make the subjects more visible - hence why I chose to colour them using bright vivid colours. Furthermore, I wanted to colour the driver using warmer colours and the ghost with cooler colour to create contrast between the two. The eyes of the ghost however were chosen to be amber, as per the original story and because I wanted them to be the most striking feature - something viewers will focus on and remember.
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“First Version of the Urban Legend Editorial”
Overall, alright with the way this first assignment came out - I’m not too confident with the way some of the characters and background look and would need to be something worth changing when working with the piece in future. One part that I am rather pleased with was the application of text to recreate the look of an editorial - a feature recommended by the lecturer. Interestingly enough, the text also helped to make the piece feel more full as the top-left corner had too much negative space which looked incorrect.
Redesign + “Animation” process
Continuing forward with previous works, the cohort was expected to continue working on the assignment by introducing secondary animation into the final piece - making it a more lively project. As I had previously mentioned, I was not too happy with how the first version looked and I would need to redesign elements of the piece before beginning animation. Furthermore, I can clearly design parts which could be easily manipulated to make the animate portion of the assignment easier.
When looking into redesigning the piece, I first decided to look back towards the original design as well as look into the instructions provided by the ChatGPT AI model for potential guidance. The only thing that proved to be an interesting point was the implementation of a background element being the mill facility. I thought this could be an interesting inclusion to sell the illusion of a moving vehicle. Additionally, I looked into changing the background (sky) of the piece which did not look the greatest. Building upon what the AI model expressed; it would be useful to decorate the sky to make the piece feel less flat. Other than these changes, I worked on remodelling the driver and the hands of the ghosts to better suit the frame-by-frame animation style I would be using (as learnt in an adjacent module.)
“Second Version of the Urban Legend Editorial”
Rationale: Being inspired by the works of Donna Agajanian's, the creative style of 1930s "Art Deco" & a urban legend - local to my childhood home, "" is a creative spread which I had created to artistically display the irrational fear of driving alone through the mountain range. When it comes to the design of the piece, I wanted to make the moment feel more surreal - having the sky being an un-natural pink and purple which can feel like being lost in space. I deliberately chose to keep the colour palette simple - a majority of elements were chosen to be in cool colours with an exception for the driver and the ghost's eyes. This was done as a way for the audience to visually notice a difference and thus, have their eyes drawn to them. Additionally, when working on the framing of this piece, I was sure to position the heads' of our main characters on the marks suggested by the Rule of Thirds - not only for audiences but also in such a way in which we can see visual contrast between the two beings.
Finally for the Urban Legend itself, I had mainly chosen this one as it was the one I had the most information about & was the one which stuck with me the most. Living in a very serious Mining Town, it would be rare to hear any stories about the Super-Natural - a good work ethic in its own right but, there was something about the stretch of road between Mile-post 68 until mile-post 72. It always fascinated me how people from all diverse backgrounds & cultures would believe the legend of ghosts abducting drivers or causing them to fatally crash. Or, is there a possibility this place is a trick of the mind - driving for too long in the dark, pareidolia & exhaustion? Regardless of its authenticity & origin; the mile-post 72 Urban Legend brought a diverse community together in only a way a good campfire story could. Drive safely.
Developing Animation
Before beginning the ‘Animation phase’ of the assignment, I decided to limit the amount of frames I was able to use for the animation - exceeding no more than 24-frames. The choice to use 24-frames was mainly inspired by traditional animation but also due to the fact that it could be divided to create short loops within the animation. Case in point, I decided to animate things in the foreground using an animation loop of 4-frames, the midground (the hills + tunnels) with 8 frames and the background with 24-frames. To further simplify this process, I created duplicate shapes of each moving piece and would move them to match the desired frame and repeat until the animation was complete (a process more clearly visualised below.)
“Main animating scheme”
Overall, I am quite happy with how this new design came out; it was something closer to the original design and proved to be interesting to animate. I’m quite happy with how the editorial spread version came out and surprised that my lengthy animating scheme worked out rather well. Regardless, with the animation complete, this marks the conclusion of this portion of the assignment.
“Final version of the Animation Urban Legend”
Development of Triptych Design
Continuing on with this assignment, our lecturer has expanded the scope of the project - introducing a new concept for our design, Triptych Organisation. In essence, Triptychs are older forms of continual images consisting of three panels. Each is traditionally arranged one after another (with the centre panel being the climactic turning point.) To further express the idea of a ‘Decisive Moment,’ Mr. Zamri demonstrated a logical breakdown using a theory developed by Scott McCloud's PHD Novel - “Understanding Comics”.
“Cover of Understanding Comics”
According to Scott McCloud’s theory presented in their novel, “Understanding Comics;” Comics or any form of medium with sequential images are defined by the “transitions” between each panel. It is because of these types of transitions that individuals are capable of understanding implied motion or narrative progression without seeing extensive change such as the film-media or the real-world. In a way, Scott McCloud’s theory suggests that these “transitions” are their own type of universal language (easily understood by readers) and important to know & use when designing comics or panelled mediums.
In the novel, these are the types of “transitions” and their definitions:
Moment to Moment: Type of Transition which requires “little Closure” (McCloud) due to this type of transition where either small events are taking place such as coughing, sneezing or the exchange of little information such as a short conversation.
Action to Action: Type of Transition which often displays a figure or subject performing a specific action. These panels employ the use of the audience's creativity as these panels stay within the same scene, showing key moments in the motion.
Subject to Subject: Type of Transition which is described as panels which remain within a scene and provide an idea that the audience must give additional meaning to. Often used in off-screen events where the audience must think about what happened.
Scene to Scene: Type of Transition which displays a series of different scenes back to back in order to provide perspective to the reader. Despite this, all scenes can be deduced as being related to one another or relating to the narrative.
Aspect to Aspect: Type of Transition which momentarily freezes a moment in time and shows different perspectives of the same event. Often found in action scenes to sell the power of an impact.
Non Sequitur: Type of Transition in which the panels are unrelated and happen in no defined order. Often used when showing another party in the narrative.
“Visual Examples of types of Transitions”
Moving on with these theories in hand, I decided to begin sketching some ideas for panels which I could place before & after the previous week’s work. It would be in this exploration that I would remember the Second sketch I had originally produced in the previous section of the assignment as it was already presented in the style of a comic. Although for this assignment, I would need to adapt the panels as I would only be allowed to use three.
In order to reuse my previous sketch, I would need to cut-out the bumper panels seen in between each scene as they are exclusively used to provide minute details (not required in order to tell the urban legend.) However, this would present a few interesting challenges such as conveying the appearance of a near-head car collision in three panels. To resolve this, I included minor uses of text and colour changes to last week’s image to infer an oncoming car.
“Original sketch referenced”
Before beginning to reproduce the first & final panels in Adobe Illustrator, I needed to take a step back and consider the Transition of my Triptych by using SM Theory. Due to the nature of this assignment, it only makes sense that the panel be arranged in an Action to Action Transition.
When deciding to design the final Triptych, I wanted to experiment with a few additional ideas to potentially add to the viewing experience - looking at elements of the scenes such as the colour and cinematography. When referring to the scenes’ cinematography, I wanted to experiment with Diagonal reading - constantly moving our main subject (the Driver) from the most left of the scene , to most right by the end. In the first panel, the driver starts on the left, middle panel shows both the driver and ghost on the borders of the centre alignment while the final panel shows the driver’s car being on the right. Additionally, I added a small detail where the first and Final panels are not centred and are slightly more left (first panel) or more right (final panel) on the page. Although a creative idea, I feel that it didn’t fully work as I also implemented the ‘out the panel look’ where certain elements stick outside the borders - distorting the framing.
Another idea I thought would be an interesting inclusion was the creative use of colour palettes between works however, I do believe I could probably do better seeing the limitations of this assignment. In essence, I wanted to give the colour palette some meaning to the rest of the piece: having the calming drive be represented in blue, the fearful appearance of a ghost as an alarming red and the final panel being a neutral mix of purpled, showing that scene has relaxed but the presence of the ghost has not. It is in writing this that I realised that I could have done better in explaining this in a visual sense as the only way I see people recognising this is through explaining it to them.
“Final Triptych design”
Although I am happy with this assignment being completed, I am not too happy with the final appearance of this piece. Personally I feel that I could have done better when it came to the designs, I was ultimately drained at this point of the assignment due to me battling with a dehumanising illness. Regardless, I am still proud that I was able to put out this piece and look forward to moving creative ventures in the future.
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