Semester 2 Mid Semester Break 29-31/08/16 Monday-Wednesday

I am nearly finished with my comic! There are still around 6-7 pages to go, after I have done those I can go back and fix things and make sure I have everything I need for the APP.

I am currently up to page 60 of my comic.

Here are the WIPs updates.

Beginning drawing rough base sketches for page 55. 

Cleaning up the lines for page 56. This path is where Nelly chooses to force herself through the branches. She uses the secateurs she got from Natalie. I will come back and create another alternative ending should the reader choose the other option. But that one would lead to a dead end.

 Animating on a separate document with key frames.

 

Setting the frames in the timeline of Photoshop.

Adding some speech bubbles.

 

Completed animation

 Continuing animation for the rest of p56.

Adding the final touches.

Completed p56.

 WIP of page 57.

 Completed p57. This is another path readers are able to choose for themselves. The reader will advance forward if they choose B.; but will be sent to the beginning of the comic if they choose A.

Adding some small animations for page 58.

Completed p58.

 Rough planning sketches for page 59.

 Finished line work of p59.

 Moving on to page 60. I usually draw the lines down first before adding any animation.

In After Effects I used the Colour Key to delete the background of the firefly animation. I then positioned it and made sure the scale was appropriate.

For this particular panel I added the 3D layer effect in AE. This adds to the atmosphere and gives the animation a depth of field. 

Completed p60, the latest page.

Semester 2 Week 6 22-26/08/16 Monday-Friday

The semester break is next week, and I am currently up to page 54 of my comic. I have been stretching out the story a bit to get the most out of the narrative and character development, as well as the narrative objects in the comic. So I might end up with 70+ pages.

I also handed in an exegesis draft on Wednesday. I mostly copied and pasted writing from the contextual review and methodology. The new writing I added was all my WIP, the issues I had with my character designs and the story, as well as a bunch of my drawings and screenshots of what and how I did my project. Pretty much like how I update this blog except with more words in hopes of it making me sound more intelligent.

Anyway, some updates while I was gone.

Still shot from page 51

Animation test for p51.

Completed animation.

WIPs for page 52. I usually have the animation followed by some still images of the comic so the readers can take a break from the real time action. 

WIPs for page 53. I used After Effects for the animation in one of the panels.

An animated panel from page 53. This was done with Photoshop.

Cleaning up the lines for page 54.

The completed page 54 with the options at the end where the reader can choose their own path. I may have waited too long for these choices to come in, so I am going to add in an extra one earlier on.

Semester 2 Week 5 18-19/08/16 Thursday-Friday

Animating with rough base lines for page 46.

This is panel 1 of page 46. I have animated the monster butterfly separately from the other panels.

Now I am adding the animated butterfly back to the whole page.

Completed page.

Animated panel from page 47. I know these monsters don't look as scary as I would I like them to be, but I guess it works a bit, since their appearance border lines hilarity and creepiness. I think that as long as Nelly seems genuinely afraid of them, it would work; readers will be able to identify with her fear.

Last panel of page 47; Nelly is spotted by the monster.

Finished page.

Panel 1 from page 48.

Panel 2 of page 48.

Page 49 remains all static. I have considered adding animation to the first panel, but here it makes more sense to have everything static. It is sort of like a break from the previous action from the last few pages.

WIP of page 50, the latest page. I draw the animation planning in bright colours so I can differentiate between the frames easily. 

This is what the rough animation looks like. I am not trying to make the animation perfect, it works here as if to say that the creatures of the imaginary world don't move as naturally as the ones from the real world. There will always be something a bit off about them.

Completed page 50.

Semester 2 Week 5 15-17/08/16 Monday-Wednesday

I am keeping on schedule with my progress and have been completing 2 pages a day for the past few weeks now. There have been some changes to the narrative as I go along.

I felt like it made more sense for the butterfly to transform once Nelly catches it, instead of waiting until she brings it back to the roses. So the story itself does not change much, I just shifted the events around a bit. 

WIP of page 44.

Completed GIF of page 44.

Drawing and animating for page 45.

Animation test for p45. 

Finished p45.

Drawing rough base lines for p46.

Beginning to animate.

Last completed page (p46).