Illustration and Visual Narrative/ Task 3 & Final Project Webtoon & Motion Comic

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Leong Jia En (0348366)

Creative Media Design

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Assignment Brief//
Final Project Webtoon & Motion Comic


Part A: Webtoon

The Battle of Fruit Love

3 acts structure

Act 1- Setup

Once upon a time, there were two fruit lovers, Watermelon and Avocado, living happily in the kitchen. Every day they are inseparable in the kitchen and play happily. Due to Avocado’s attractive appearance, thin waist, and round buttocks, Avocado always attracts many suitors.

Act 2- Conflict

One day, Durian was brought home by the hostess and moved into the kitchen. He has a hard, thorny shell, and a terrifying aura. He fell in love with Avocado at first sight and decided to pursue it. Because of that, Durian challenges Watermelon, and the winner of the fight can win Avocado. Because of that too, Watermelon and Durian started to fight fiercely. The contest's rules are that they can only attack with their hands or kitchen props, and it is forbidden to use the body to attack the opponent for fairness. The nimble Watermelon and the hard-shelled Durian have been deadlocked for a long time. After a long stalemate, Durian attacked Watermelon heavily with his body, violating the rules of the game, causing Watermelon to fall on the table and Watermelon juice to splash everywhere.

Act 3- Resolution

Until finally, Durian was about to give Watermelon the final blow, but he stepped on the Watermelon juice and unfortunately slipped from the table and fell to the ground. He realized his mistake and voluntarily conceded defeat. Watermelon wins the contest and hugs Avocado happily. In the end, the hostess sees the mess in the kitchen and throws a tantrum, making Watermelon and Avocado look startled and nervous.


Visual Research

Before digitalizing my comic, I researched body gestures of food fights and facial expressions which play a vital role in helping the audience understand the mood and situation of a scene. Moving on, I studied comic compositions and layouts. I observed the techniques and art styles that the artists have used in their fighting comics. The position, size, and direction of the panels, the types of text, and illustration effects ( sound effects and background effects) all contribute to the mood of the comic. The consideration of angle and shot can also generate suitable perspective and storytelling. In addition, I also keep in mind the fore, middle, and background as well as one to three-point perspectives to create striking compositions. 

Fighting Food


Text


Angle and Shot

Fighting Comics

Idea Exploration

In the process of designing the characters, I also set their own unique personalities, appearance features, and expressions to make the characters more vivid and distinctive.

Characters

Character 1

Watermelon

Physical Traits: Triangle, Juicy, Green panties 

Personality: Nimble, Brave, Persist


Character 2

Durian

Physical Traits: Hardshell, Sharp thorn, Strong smell

Personality: Competitive, Cunning, Scheming


Character 3

Avocado

Physical Traits: Slim waist, Curvy hips, Big eyes 

Personality: Gentle, Timid, Caring


Character 4

Orange

Physical Traits: Round

Personality: Introverted, Dutiful


Character 5

Banana

Physical Traits: Slim, Tall

Personality: Anthomaniac, Outspoken


Facial Expression

Watermelon

Durian

Avocado



Story and Panels Plan (script)

After that, I started scripting the story based on a 3-act structure, including storyline, character dialogue, special effects, transition, and angle and shot to keep the flow of the story and meet the requirement of at least 60 panels.




Final Design Outcome


Webtoon: 

Thumbnail




Animating on After Effects

At the beginning of the process,  I imported my AI file into AE and it looked blurry. I turned the picture to 100% and adjusted the file size, but still can't solve the problem. Later, I tried to reinstall AI and copied my AI file, and the picture became clear.



Before processing After Effects, I combined my work into multiple layers on AI.  I organized and named them accordingly to ensure a smoother process of animating each layer in AE.




To differentiate the different panels, I have carefully grouped them with different colors so that I can be more easily edited. I put their positions on different keyframes to make sure the elements move smoothly and there are no noticeable kinks in the paths.


The screenshot below shows how I set the panning camera from top to bottom by adjusting the position.



I also used position functions to animate moving objects such as egg, characters, and kitchen utensils.



Also, I used the scale functions to create a dramatic feel, such as characters, text for sound effects, etc.


I applied a fade effect to create motion trails, including the scene of bubbles appearing, characters running, etc.


I also found the wiggle effect more convenient than I manually adjusted the position, hence I utilised it in some animated objects.




Final motion comic 






Reflection


At the beginning of the module, because of my incompetence in using Adobe applications and my lack of confidence in drawing, I felt pressured and worried about not being able to complete satisfactory work. However, as we headed into the semester, Mr. Hafiz increasingly taught us the techniques of using Adobe Illustrator. The design concepts and principles taught in lectures by Ms. Noranis are also very useful and interesting. 


Although we only have 3 main projects in this module, each requires a lot of time and effort as they required skillful expertise and techniques. These requirements prompted me to conduct comprehensive learning and practicing, which greatly improved my skills with Adobe applications and my understanding of creating interesting narrative stories. For example, in vormator challenge, we have learned the basic drawing techniques by using the pen tool to draw vormator shapes and create appealing character designs. In decisive movement, we have accumulated more in-depth techniques such as gradient, clipping mask, blob paint as well as generating GIF through Photoshop to design a minimalist poster. In the final project, we gained experience from planning a story (3 acts structure), visualizing (comic transitions) to developing it into a comic. Through the AI ​​skills I learned in the past and self-learning Adobe after effects, I successfully completed the motion comic and uploaded my comic to webtoon. During this period, although it is challenging for me as a newcomer to comics, I am very happy to take this opportunity to complete a meaningful short comic and further improve my Adobe skills. Many thanks to our lecturers, Ms. Noranis and Mr. Hafiz, for their enthusiasm and patient teaching, which allowed me to successfully complete this module. These techniques will be very useful for me in digital design and creative storytelling in the future.


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