IVN Task 4

4/12/2024 - 3/1/2025 (Week 11 - Week 15)

Lim Yeng San (0366316)

Illustration and Visual Narrative / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylors University

Task 4

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Lectures

2. Instructions

3. Process Work

• Story analysis
• Sketches
• Digitization
• Animation
• Final Outcome

4. Reflection

1. LECTURES

Week 11

We were briefed on task 4.

Week 12

We started sketching our webcomic and cover

Week 13

We digitized our webcomic and cover

Week 14

We animated our webcomics

Week 15

We submitted our project

2. INSTRUCTIONS

Fig 2.1: The module information for IVN

3. PROCESS WORK

a) Story analysis

For this task, we had to interpret the story, The Monkey's Paw, by W.W. Jacobs, into an animated webcomic and create a cover for it.

The Monkey's Paw Summary

When given a mysterious monkey's paw that is said to be able to grant wishes, an old couple thoughtlessly wish for money not knowing of the consequences of making that wish. After receiving the news of their son's demise, they receive the money in tears. Out of desperation and grief, the wife begs the husband to use the monkey's paw to wish for their son to be alive again. The husband does so and soon sees a figure at the door. Fearing the consequences of using the monkey's paw again, the husband retracts his decision. The door then opens to an empty porch.

I decided to use this portion of the story.

Fig 3.1: The portion of the story that I drew

b) Sketches

I went with simple compostion for the webcomic.

Fig 3.2: The sketch for the webcomic

For some of the panels, I reffered to Scott McCloud's transitions.

Fig 3.3, 3.4 and 3.5: The transitions used from Scott Mcloud's transitions

I also referred to Framed Ink for the composition.

Fig 3.6: The composition used for the webcomic

This is how I planned the reading path to be.

Fig 3.7: The reading pathway

I sketched the character designs for each of the characters.

Fig 3.8: The character designs for the father, mother and the son

For the cover I wanted to show the monkey's paw in its entirety.

Fig 3.9: The sketch for the cover

I also referred to Framed Ink for the composition.

Fig 3.10: The composition used for the cover

c) Digitization 

I got to working on the webcomic in Adobe Illustrator. I started by mapping out the panels then traced over my pencil sketch. I used simple blocks to map out the objects in each panel then slowly added more and more details over time.

Fig 3.11: The webcomic without text

Once I was done with the panels, I added in the text.

Fig 3.12: The webcomic with speech bubbles

For the sound effects, I used the pen tool to draw them to give more emphasis to them visually.

Fig 3.13: The completed webcomic

For the cover, I used the same method as the webcomic and mapped out each object and slowly built detail over time.

Fig 3.14: The cover without text

I typed out some of the text in the Montserrat font and drew the title with the pen tool.

Fig 3.15: The completed cover

d) Animation

Once I was done with the webcomic and the animation frames, I imported the file into Adobe Photoshop for the animation process. I decided to animate 3 panels from the webcomic, the piano, the dad holding the monkey's paw and the son putting the monkey's paw on the table.

Fig 3.16; 3.17 and 3.18: The panels to be animated

For the 1st animation, I animated the piano keys being pushed down. I also made the text come down to make the effect clearer.

Fig 3.19, 3.20, 3.21, 3.22 and 3.23: The animation frames for the 1st animation

For the 2nd animation, I animated the fingers of the monkey's paw and the dad's fingers moving.

Fig 3.24, 3.25, 3.26, 3.27 and 3.28: The animation frames for the 2nd animation

For the third animation, I animated the son putting the monkey's paw on a table.

Fig 3.29, 3.30, 3.31, 3.32 and 3.33: The animation frames for the third animation

When I was done, I set the timing for all of the frames and exported the animation into a GIF.

Fig 3.34: The timing for the frames in the webcomic animation

For the cover animation, I animated the monkey's paw fingers twitching.

Fig 3.35, 3.36, 3.37, 3.38 and 3.39: The animation frames for the cover animation

Once I was done, I set the timing for the animation.

Fig 3.40: The timing for the cover animation

e) Final outcome

Fig 3.41: The webcomic cover

Fig 3.42: The webcomic cover animation

Fig 3.43: The webcomic

Fig 3.44: The webcomic animation

Link to webcomic and cover animation frames: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/18PB6MIoXyocsooLri8V22EKKPHHziNCjGPGuWagApdA/edit?usp=sharing

4. REFLECTION

This assignment was a huge challenge. Executing everything from the panels to the animation was hard but I managed to pull through and complete it. The most difficult part of the task was definitely drawing everything with the pen tool on Adobe Illustrator. It took a long time to get everything right especially with the finer details. The animation part was relatively simple though and produced a nice product. Overall, I'm happy with how the cover and webcomic turned out.