Illustration & Visual Narrative | Task 4 - Animated Webcomic Cover and One-Page Comic for "The Monkey's Paw"

|| 7/11/24 – 29/11/24 (Week 7 – Week 10)

|| Tee Zi Tong, 0366165

|| Illustration & Visual Narrative

|| Task 3: Illustrated Typography Poster 

 

TABLE OF CONTENT 

1. INSTRUCTIONS

2. ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS 

3. LECTURER NOTES 

4.TASK PROGRESSION

5. FINAL WORK 

6. REFLECTION   

INSTRUCTIONS 

ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS 

Assignment Brief 

For this task students will draw an animated, web-ready comic cover and write a one-page comic, including at least three panels based on the short story ‘The Monkey’s Paw’ by W.W.Jacobs.

Select a specific passage from the text to interpret and translate into visuals: Link to story

Optimize and alter images, include texturing and adding an appropriate effect with Adobe Photoshop. Learn from the Sandman series cover designs done by Dave McKean to capture a dream like theme. Such an approach will tend to create some element of suspense and fear in people as they wait to know what the next event will be. Further ideas can be sought by trying out “surreal Adobe Illustrator designs”.

Webcomic Animation: Create the cover of a portrait orientation comic and one-scene comic using Google Slides and integrate animated GIFs into the comic.

Timeline

Week 11: A brief overview of the project; watching clips of stories and analyzing them using Google Slides as an animation tool.

Weeks 12–13: Lesson on direction in animation, how panels should be arranged, reviewing and critiques, working on our own.

Week 14: Final critique and final presentation of project showing expertise, creativeness and resourcefulness.

Assignment Requirements

• Comic Cover: Design a cover that represents your interpretation of The Monkey’s Paw, including an illustrated masthead created in Illustrator. You may use Photoshop to manipulate textures and images for a surreal effect inspired by Sandman covers or refer to “surrealistic adobe illustrator artwork”. Include subtle animations if desired to create a haunting atmosphere.
• One-Page Comic: Translate a selected part of the story into a single-page, animated webcomic with at least 3 panels animated using GIFs in Google Slides. Focus on panel-to-panel transitions (e.g., moment-to-moment, action-to-action, subject-to-subject) to maintain suspense and continuity.
• Format: Portrait orientation for phone or tablet display. Assemble all elements in Google Slides for presentation.

References and Inspirations 

• Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud for narrative transition techniques.
• Framed Ink by Marcos Mateu-Mestre for composition and depth principles.
• Dave McKean’s Sandman covers for visual style and mood inspiration, or vector based surrealistic artwork.

LECTURER NOTES 

Lecturer 6

1. Central Theme

The theme explains the underlying meaning, or main message of the story. It usually contains or reflects the attitude and opinion of the storyteller toward the particular topic or object. A story can include both primary and secondary themes:

• Primary Theme: An idea which is repeated in various forms throughout the whole text.
• Secondary Theme: An abstract concept – that is not stipulated or reinforced as heavily as the other concepts mentioned above.

2. Conflict

Conflict can be stated as the main dynamic of the storyline. It creates anticipation and expectation and it does all this besides driving the narrative forward.

3. Character

• Key Characters: Generally, best associates them with critical characters compared to the others whose actions and decisions define the existing narrative structures.
• Protagonist: The protagonist as a protagonist that seeks to overcome an obstacle or accomplish a task. It however must mobilise the audience’s pro-attitudes towards the hero – this does not have to be positive if it is not virtuous enough.
• Antagonist: The force or agent who acts against the protagonist, making it challenging for him or her to achieve aims or goals.

4. Three-Act Structure

• Introduction: Ware the reader provided with the setting in which the protagonist operates as the world within which they will be exploring. This act usually comes to an end when the principle conflict appears.
• Escalating Challenges: One following the other, each one harder than the other, each one leading to higher risk and tension.
• Climax: Obstacles is a term used in narrative structure to describe the climax of plot—a moment when the main character gets the biggest battle or a major plot twist.
• Conclusion: Stops the conflict, provides satisfaction since the protagonist maybe answers the challenge, learns from it or is vanquished by it meaning the end of the story.

TASK PROGRESSIONS 

References 

Concept Summary / Rational 

Comic Page 

This comic is a continuation of the story the Monkey’s Paw seen from the protagonist perspective where he is a picture of terror and fear. It starts with the hero slowly climbing a staircase in the half-illuminated house taking a barely lit torch as war paint hench coloring deep reds and imposing shadows. They panic and look worried only to be out of focus with other characters; the scene is filled with the supernatural theme or spirit associated with ghosts represented by scenes spinning around them. It gets intensified when there is a door, which has some figures around it and a sound: “Knock Knock,” which is associated with an evil in the room. The last scene of the protagonist is when the face full of terror is seen running down the stairs and trying to do this or that to avoid it. The mere fantastical imagery of the comic following McKean’s style accentuates the tension and the otherworldly atmosphere heavy on the protagonist meeting.

Comic Cover 

This comic cover for The Monkey’s Paw has simplicity and the look of horror that is needed for this story. The title of the film itself suggests fear and the font used to come up with the title Deliver is heavy and roughly traced. Predominating in the picture is a smiling figure with hooded face and piercing eyes the darkness around conjuring horror. The figure has a touch of the spectral, a hint of the Cursed Monkeys Paw, on the figure’s shoulder. The dark, shadowy interiors and scarcely any bright coloration used – deep reds and suchlike – give a sense of grimness to proceedings. Despite this, this cover is rather appropriate as it immediately establishes the overall mood of the story, suspense and suspense alone.

Chosen Text 

At the foot of the stairs the match went out, and he paused to strike another; and at the same moment a knock came so quiet and stealthy as to be scarcely audible, sounded on the front door.

The matches fell from his hand and spilled in the passage. He stood motionless, his breath suspended until the knock was repeated. Then he turned and fled swiftly back to his room and closed the door behind him. A third knock sounded through the house.

Sketches 

Transactions - scene to scene 

Story Analysis (Week 11)

During Week 11, I started reading The Monkey’s Paw and determined the specific elements of suspense and eerie feeling. After much consideration, I chose the following excerpt as the focal point for my comic:

‘At the foot of the stairs the match went out, and he paused to strike another; and at the same moment a knock came so quiet and stealthy as to be scarcely audible, sounded on the front door.

The matches fell from his hand and spilled in the passage. He stood motionless, his breath suspended until the knock was repeated. Then he turned and fled swiftly back to his room and closed the door behind him. A third knock sounded through the house.”

I was fascinated with this passage for it captures the climax of tension as well as the growing specter of fear in the plot well. This is because the use of imagery where the match having been put out, the speculative but creepy knock and finally the hero’s petrification generates a concrete description. The scene also gives a hint at what is to happen next which is good for visual storytelling and the chance to use light, shadow and outlandish framing for tension.

In this excerpt my objective was to create this sense that the protagonist is slowly developing a fear and feeling helpless. In this scene I tried to capture the suspense of the situation – dark light, shadows, and concentrating on his swift actions. I used this passage as the basis for my comic; therefore, enabling me to illustrate the comic’s narrative in an array of tension and supernatural aspects.

Sketches (Week 12)

For Week 12, I began drawing out the general plan of my comic from the focused excerpt in The Monkey’s Paw. This was to be achieved by the use of Silhouettes close up, heavy blacks and shadows to build suspense and fear as will be seen in the next page. The scene starts with the main character taking a staircase in a step-by-step way, with only a match to light up the room at that a very low brightness. I drew the thin and dark some stairs to express the loneliness and defenseless of this character.

When the door creaked open gently for the first time in the second panel, I depicted his reaction. Wide open eyes and rigidbody prevent any movements leaving the impression of a typical look of a boy who is petrified. I positioned futuristic, ethereal figures moving in the background to symbolize the mystical component, and to create some tension.

The third panel has the door with the shadows and texture incorporated with it and a mere whisper of “Knock, knock.” This is followed by the climax of the sequence. What I did was I extended sharp angles around the panel so that they may enhance the conflict visually.

Last, the protagonist is shown escaping upstairs, and he looks very frightened. The focus now becomes more mechanical and turns to the individual’s hopeless fleeing as the third knock is heard all across the house.

Digitization in Adobe Illustrator (Week 13)

For Week 13, I moved from the outline stage to the digitization phase using the adobe illustrator. I designed the whole comic page and all components from scratch using the Pen Tool and made sure everything was vector so it could be scaled up or down when needed. In order to make the slang and the atmosphere of the tale as gloomy as possible I used gradients very much especially while depicting the backgrounds.

While creating the font “Knock, knock,” I wanted it to have more natural and unfamiliar touch, that is why I wrote it with my hand. Literally, for the comic cover, I decided on the font that is Chiller Regular due to its sharp look which is all jagged and therefore best suits the comic’s overall picture that is rather creepy and ominous.

This phase helped to define the elements of the scene, to try with the light and with the composition, to work in accordance with the initial idea of making the video look suspenseful and surreal.

Animation (Week 14)

In Week 14, I started animating the comic to make it come alien and make the viewers more filled with suspense looks on the scene. In order to deliberately work through the art direction, I decided to include small yet important movements that change pace during intensifying action scenes.

First, I animated the torch and made flames flickering and shining to produce the sensation that it is indeed a real torch with a light in a very dark place. It added a further layer of pressure and how I felt helped to steer the viewers’ attention. 

After this, I designed the movement of the board on the door where I enabled a slight, creepy vigorous knock to portray the supernatural knocking. In addition to this, I added a distortion to the “Knock, knock” text by applying simple jitter and vibration to give it the sound it needs and increase the horror effect.

Last but not least, to convey the desperation of the protagonist leaving the house I animated the movement of his arms illustrating him running up the staircase. These movements make the film more persistent and engaging the viewer to his rising fear as the knocks intensify.

By means of these animations, I tried to make the viewer feel fear and be as close as possible to the protagonist’s experience in The Monkey’s Paw, which is awe-filled and suspenseful. 

FINAL WORKS

Comic Page (PNG)

Comic Cover (PNG)

Page (GIF)

REFLECTIONS 

Experience

I we consider this project to be one of the most challenging assignments of the semester, however the result looks quite satisfactory. It took a lot of time and work since all the elements needed to be built from vectors using Adobe Illustrator. Still there are many challenges that I can mention I am glad that there is consistent feedback that was given to us every week by the instructor which gave me a lot of improvement in my work. In the course of this project, I discovered tools I did not use in this project, and I also discovered how to animate and make GIFs. This assignment incorporated all the skills ad techniques we have used from the onset of the IVN module. I encountered severities for example, forgetting to structure my layers correctly, which resulted in some minor difficulties. I was able to finish animating because of a popular tactic were animating each frame from scratch on different artboards was the most difficult to accomplish.

Observations and Findings

In the process of creating a comic it is important to ensure that composition and continuity are strong. The reader’s perception of the continuity of the story should be smooth and this amongst other factors can only be achieved if logic is followed between the panels. First of all, there were more panels put into one section belonging to a single type of text part, and that confused the audience because of the change of the topic. When those presentations were shortened and the number of panels was decreased, the general flow increased drastically. That is why I found out that no panel can be complex with no clear transition between them so that the reader’s eye flows more to the storyline.