Illustration and Visual Narrative - Project 3 - Webtoon & Motion Comic

Aishath Lene Abdulla Amir (0333185)
Illustration and Visual Narrative

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Project 3 - Webtoon & Motion Comic

Figure 1.0 - Webtoon and Motion Comic 

For this project we have to create a short comic with the premise of a feel good narrative of our own creation. We have to consider 3-act structures with interesting twists and plots. It can be wordless and presented only with illustrations, or it can be detailed with stories, filled with speeches and texts.

Week 10

The first step for us this week was to do some research. I wanted to do something that is relatable but at the same time, something that wouldn't happen to just anyone. I went on the Webtoon website to see what kind of story I can base my comic on. After a while of brainstorming, I made the decision to base a  story on something that happened to my friend. I thought the story seemed pretty chaotic enough as well as it had a happy ending. 

Story: 

There was once a girl named Insha. She can be described as a kind of person that is fun to hang around with. She is very chaotic, very loud, loving and smart. Insha is in university. This specific day is about one of the more chaotic events that had occurred in her life. She was studying that night for her exam the next day. She wasn't quite sure she was prepared enough so she stayed up pretty late that night preparing for her final biology exam. She stayed up until 2 in the morning then she went to bed after alarming the clock to 8AM. She was so tired that she could not hear the alarm ring until 15 minutes had passed. She woke up tired that morning feeling as if she had not slept at all. Then she realised she had her exam in less then an hour and rushed to the bathroom to get ready. 

After this she went to get a quick breakfast but she felt too nervous. So nervous that she could not even eat, though she was super hungry. This is during the pandemic which meant she had to have her exam at home. She was ready at the table for her exam on time. She thought to herself that she is prepared enough, she can easily do this. In the middle of her test, her stomach started rumbling because she was so hungry. After a little while her mum showed up with some snacks for her to eat.  She was so happy that for the rest of the exam she was relaxed. 

Later in the day after her exam was done, she texted her best friend to make plans to hang out later that night. She got an email on her phone from uni which she thought was really strange. She freaked out a little and then went and checked on her laptop to see what it said. The email mentions, the last essay question's answer was not submitted. Insha started panicking and thought of the worst case scenarios right away that made her cry and panic even more. With worrying about what to do she called her friend. She tried to calm Insha down, and told her to email them back to ask them about what she can do. Insha got off the phone and tried to write the email. But she was so scared of what they might say that she couldn't even write a proper email. She thought for a while about what she is gonna say, and suddenly she got another notification on her phone. She checked the email from uni which said that they apologise for the worrying situation. It seems that the I.T. department was able to locate her submission. She wasn't sure at this point if it was real. At this point was kind of annoyed but at the same time so relieved to get that email. She calmed down eventually and went to bed that night, feeling grateful that they got her submission. Her grade was the furthest thing she was worried about.

3 weeks later, she got the result from the test. She passed and got a really high grade. Insha was so happy with the result that she thought she deserved some ice cream for all the trouble she had to go through.

After Writing the story I went on the Webtoons website to kind of get an idea on how to illustrate my character, as well as read some from the slice - of - life genre. 

Figure 1.1 - Exploration - 05/06/2021

I made my character completely based on my friends personality. Character's name is Insha. She has a cute baby face. Her personality is funny and loud. At the same time, jumps to worst case scenario if something happens. 

Figure 1.2 - Character sketch - 05/06/2021

Week 11

After making the character sketch, I started on the panels. This was kind of a challenge as I am not used to tablet pens, though eventually I started getting the hang of it. For the panels I did some reserach on layouts of comics. 

Figure 1.3 - Panel Layout Research - 12/06/2021

Figure 1.4 - Panel Layout Research - 12/06/2021

Figure 1.5 - Panel Layout Research - 12/06/2021

Figure 1.6 - Panel Layout Research - 12/06/2021

Week 12

I found that there are many ways that I could go about the panels then I started the sketch and then outlined each art-board after the sketch and here are the results of that.For the text I looked up some fonts on dafont.com and I found a comic font named Canted Comic

Figure 1.7 - Canted Comic - 19/06/2021

Outline 

Figure 1.8 - Outline - 19/06/2021

Week 13
For this week my aim was to colour the panels. I wanted the panels to be kind of colourful but to a theme. I found this comic where I really liked the colour palette and I swatched it to use in my comic.

Figure 1.9 - Color inspiration - 20/06/2021

After the colouring portion of the comic. I was done with my graphic novel.

Final Graphic Novel

Figure 1.10 - Final Graphic Novel - 20/06/2021

The last step for the graphic novel was to upload the final result to webtoons.com
Here is the link to my comic -->https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/almost-relatable-/list?title_no=660090

Week 14 - 15
After the comic was done, the next step was to start the final part of this project which is the animation process. This was a bit difficult for me, as I didn't consider the process of animation when I made the comic. Obviously, it didn't turn out perfect, though I tried my best to give my motion comic a flow. The most challenging part for me was because of how I drew out the panels every single part of the motion comic wasn't even. I took the animation process to After Effects first and adjusted the key frames, Then on Premiere Pro I added effects as the final touches to my motion comic. After this, I uploaded the final animation on Youtube.

Final Motion Comic

Figure 1.11 - Motion Comic - 06/07/2021

Youtube Link --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U-q5UUf384&ab_channel=LeneAmir

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Feedback

Week 10 :No specific feedback.

Week 11 :No specific feedback.

Week 12 :Ms. Anis gave me some feed back for my panel arrangement on how I can improve them to make it flow more naturally.

Week 13: No specific feedback

Week 14: No specific feedback
Week 15: Asked Ms. Anis about some questions I had for the animation.

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Reflection

Looking back now, if I had another chance, there are many things I would change about my comic. I appreciate the amount of effort I was able to put into this especially at the very beginning. I should've been more careful when creating the panels of the comic, as it could have turned out much better as an end result. Though, am not completely disappointed. Something that I love about this comic, is that this is based on one of my best-est friends in life. It has kind of made me want to continue with the series for Almost Relatable. Maybe I might take up on this one day. I honestly really enjoyed this process. It was a bit frustrating at times. There is so much that I have learned doing this project as well. Such as learning how to use a tablet for drawing.  Which was really rough at the beginning, took me a really long time to even complete one art-board. Another thing is using Premiere Pro for the first time. Overall, I would say that this was a very long process, tough I enjoyed it as much. And I learned enough to be more confident if I attempt to make another comic, or even maybe continue with this series.