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

29.5.2022 - 10.7.2022 (Week 9 - Week 15)
Tan Yi-Tyng (0353327)
Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Illustration and Visual Narrative
Project 3: Webtoon
Final Project: Motion Comic

QUICK LINKS

Task 1 – Vormator Challenge

Task 2 – Decisive Moment

Task 3 & Final Project – Webtoon and Motion Comic

Final Compilation

LECTURES

Storytelling basic

Central Theme

The theme is what the story is really about. It’s the main idea or underlying meaning. Often, it’s the storyteller’s personal opinion on the subject matter. A story may have both a major theme and minor themes.

Major Theme: An idea that is intertwined and repeated throughout the whole narrative.

Minor Theme: An idea that appears more subtly, and doesn’t necessarily repeat.

Conflict

The conflict is what drives the story. It’s what creates tension and builds suspense, which are the elements that make a story interesting. If there’s no conflict, not only will the audience not care but there also won’t be any compelling story to tell. Conflict is what engages an audience. It’s what keeps them white-knuckled, at the edge of their seats, waiting impatiently to see if the protagonists will overcome their obstacle.

Characters

A story usually includes a number of characters, each with a different role or purpose. Regardless of how many characters a story has, however, there is almost always a protagonist and antagonist.

Central Characters: These characters are vital to the development of the story. The plot revolves around them.

Protagonist: is the main character of a story. He or she has a clear goal to accomplish or a conflict to overcome. Although protagonists don’t always need to be admirable, they must command an emotional involvement from the audience.

Antagonist: oppose protagonists, standing between them and their ultimate goals. The antagonist can be presented in the form of any person, place, thing, or situation that represents a tremendous obstacle to the protagonist.

3-Acts Structure

1. Setup: The world in which the protagonist exists prior to the journey. The setup usually ends with the conflict being revealed.

2. Rising Tension: The series of obstacles the protagonist must overcome. Each obstacle is usually more difficult and with higher stakes than the previous one.

3. Conflict: The point of highest tension, and the major decisive turning point for the protagonist.

4. Resolution: The conflict’s conclusion, it's optional. This is where the protagonist finally overcomes the conflict, learns to accept it, or is ultimately defeated by it. Regardless, this is where the journey ends.

Fig 1.1 - 3-Acts Structure Chart

Transitions

Moment-to-moment

Moment-to-Moment transition is the constraint along with page and panel form, that most denes storyboarding from comics or sequential art. Within the course of the media, they are used to map there can be cuts that embody any one of the other six transition classes listed here. But the storyboard itself is a strictly Moment-to- Moment depiction of another form of media.

Fig 1.2 - Moment-to-moment Transition

Action-to-action

Typically focuses on significant events or movement from panel to panel, and over larger intervals of time between moments.

Fig 1.3 - Action-to-action Transition

Subject-to-subject

A cut between two related moments, but focusing on a different subject in the same scene. Think conversation in a restaurant, or a shift of focus onto another actor in the scene.

Fig 1.4 - Subject-to subject Transition

Scene-to-scene

A Scene is a series of events that happen in one location and a continuous period of time. A change of location or significant jump in time between panels is considered the end of a scene and the start of a new one.

Fig 1.5 - Scene-to-scene Transition

Aspect-to-aspect

It can be an interesting way to jump around a scene, taking in key details or letting the characters focus wonder. It’s also a good way to introduce their environment to a reader, though the player's eyes perhaps or inviting them to wander away from the players a bit.

Fig 1.6 - Aspect-to-aspect Transition

Symbolic

Symbolic transitions deal with the unreal, the felt, and the imagined. Moving the readers from an imagined or recalled space to either another or a real one.

Fig 1.7 - Symbolic Transition

Rolling Transition

The idea is that instead of having panel gutters or borders as separate graphical elements at all, the images are melded and mixed together. Overlapping and interlacing. Folding is how I nd I think of it often. Breaking down many of the traditional functions of comics panels, and working instead to fold space on the page.

As the reader’s eye travels over the contour of one gure, it finds itself on the other side in a separate ‘moment’ or ‘aspect’ or ‘space’ of the scene, giving a ‘Rolling’ sense of movement through space and time in the story, rather than the traditional isolation of one moment and aspect, to another in paneled comics design.

Fig 1.8 - Rolling Transition

Non Sequitur

Provides no logical connection between panels. These are not common at all, outside of surreal abstract or gag comics. In part because we’re likely to infer some kind of meaning even when none was planned, and that leads them to be perceived by readers more like Aspect to Aspect transitions. The most enlightening thing to learn about them is how resilient the desire in readers is to perceive a narrative between juxtaposed moments or things.

Fig 1.9 - Non-Sequitur

INSTRUCTIONS

For this project 3, we are assigned to come up with an unforgettable fight scene-themed comic.

Project 3 requirements:

Must be published at webtoons.com
Story must have 3-acts structure
At least 60 panels
Illustrations (stick man drawing is not an illustration) can either be coloured or greyscale or screentone shaded render.
Content must be PG-13 and SAFE FOR WORK
Required visual file and resolutions (JPG only)
Comic panel (webtoon format) - W800 pxl x H1280 pxl
Main Thumbnail size : W436 X H436 pxl
Episode Thumbnail size : W160 X H151 pxl

Then, based on the webtoon we created in Task 3, we need to animate the visuals according to sequences and flow of the story. Consider timing and transitions of the visuals that strongly reflect the

narrative through characters, panels, particle effects, texts etc.

Final Project requirements:

Can consider using parallax or limited animation on movements and background using After Effects.
Upload the video into YouTube (set as unlisted)
Video format (h.264, 25fps)
YouTube resolution and aspect ratio 720p
Minimum 1 min to Maximum 3 mins

PROJECT 3: WEBTOON

Upon receiving this assignment, I was not sure how to start with this project as I seldom read comic or webtoon, so I took some time to read some amazing works on Webtoon to gain inspiration and did some research on how comics were made. Below are some of the work that I found very interesting to read.

Fig2.0 - All of Us Are Dead by Joo Dong-geun. Webtoon

Fig2.1 - Screenshot of some scenes

Fig 2.2 - Horang's Nightmare by Horang. Webtoon

Fig2.3 - Screenshot of some scenes

1. Storyline (3 Act Structure)

To start, I first wrote down the flow of the story using the 3 Act Structure that we learned in order to ensure that every scene starts and ends with a clear direction. I wanted to create something like a horror kind of style but also in the way of looking funny at the same time. When the story reached the stage of Act 3 Resolution, I came up with an interesting idea of creating an emotional happy ending.

Act 1 - Setup

Once upon a time, there was a boy who was alone at home because his parents went on a business trip. Despite this, he makes the best of this situation. Without the control of his mom and dad, he finally earns the freedom. He knew that this was the only chance for him to do whatever he pleased, especially when he was not normally allowed to do it. So today, he was in his bedroom reading a series of books about ghost stories that he has been wanting to read for a long time. Although he is a very timid boy who is even get scared by sudden lightning, but he is an obsessive reader of ghost stories. Hence, even until midnight, he still could not stop himself from reading those ghost stories book.

Act 2 - Conflict

Suddenly, he heard the sound of a television playing movie in the living room, making him wonder that he was the only one in this house, how the TV was turned on? With his curiosity, he went to the living room but found no one there. Then he turned off the TV and prepared to go back to his room. However, the TV was turned on again. Because of that, he took a lot of effort to finally turn off the TV. What he didn't expect was that a tobacco pipe was suddenly floating in front of his eyes. This makes him confirm his conjecture that in front of him was a ghost. His hair started to stand on end, and his leg shook as he was frightened by the ghost. Because of that too, he found the crucifix (cross) that was placed in his house, he held it and facing to the ghost to protect himself. However, unlike what he would typically see in a comic book, it turns out that this method does not work at all in defending the ghost.

Act 3 - Resolution

Until finally, he decided to summon up his courage not to retreat and bravely fight against the ghost. He fights tooth and nail with the ghost and tries to get back the tobacco pipe. In this tug-of-war, the originally neat living room instantly becomes a mess. The boy finally grabs the tobacco pipe, but the impact of force causes him to knock into a cabinet at his back, leading to the photo frame falling from the cabinet. When he also fell to the ground, he noticed the broken photo frame that had fallen beside him. It's a photo of him, and his deceased grandfather taking it together. Inside of the photo showed his grandfather using his favourite tobacco pipe, which is exactly the same as the one they had fought for. He then realized that the ghost was his grandfather who loved him the most and everything that just happened was about what his grandpa used to do when living with them. Such as, grandpa often loves to sit on that sofa, enjoying watching tv and smoking his favourite tobacco pipe. When he thought back again on how he had treated his grandfather just now, he felt so guilty and couldn't hold back his tears. He accepted and understood that his grandfather was back here to be with him. At last, he and his grandfather sit together and watch the television happily.

2. Visual Research

After getting a clear direction of the content for my comic, I decided to look at other references too and delve right into Webtoon, Pinterest, etc. I first went on to have looked more at how people arrange their panels and transition. Next, I also do some research, including study on poses with different angles, proportion drawing, face expression, colour schemes etc. Since my comic is a semi silent comic, only using onomatopoeia, I searched for some suitable typefaces.

Fig3.1 - Comic panels and transition reference

Fig3.2 - Comic scene references

Fig3.3 - Character references

Fig3.4 -Poses and Face Expression reference

Fig3.5 - Downloaded fonts from Dafont.com

3. Story Details

Title: An Unforgettable night
Message: What we see in story books or movies is not necessarily real, just like "ghost" is no worse an offender than most ghost movies. They are not vicious and scary as we thought.
Place setting: House (bedroom and living room)

4. Character Design

Main Character: Charlie (the boy)

Details: 13 year old

Personality: Curious, Playful, Dreamer, Grumpy, Timid

Fig4.1 - Sketches of "Charlie" in different view

5. Sketches

Sketches are done digitally on iPad (ProCreate App).

Fig5.1 - Process of sketching on Procreate

Fig5.2 - Process of sketching on Procreate

Fig5.3 - Complete panel sketches (JPG)

Fig5.4 - Complete panel sketches (PDF)

6. Digitization

At first, I exported all the sketches from Procreate, placed them in Adobe Illustrator, and recreated the lines using pen tools. However, I felt like digitizing the sketches on my computer was way too difficult and too slow, especially using my mouse as I have no drawing tablet connected to the computer. So, I decided to draw them on my iPad Illustrator app. Although the workspace is slightly different from the version on the computer, it took me some time to familiarize the tools and workspace. Mainly, I used the pencil tool to draw the outline and then coloured with the help of gradient fill.

Fig 6.1 - Digitize on Adobe Illustrator

Fig 6.2 - Digitize on Adobe Illustrator Ipad

For the colouring part, I first picked the colour palette from Adobe Colour and also from the existing picture. Then, I saved the colour palette in my Adobe Library, which is really helpful for me to colour the artwork in Ipad and computer at the same time.

Fig 6.3 - Searching colour palette by typing keyword

Fig 6.4 - Extract the colour from photo references

Fig 6.5 - Colouring process in Laptop (Adobe colour library on right side)

Fig 6.6 - Colouring process in iPad (Adobe colour library on left side)

Lastly, I made some improvements by adding some text effects and also polished the details.

Fig6.7 - Final touch up for all panels

Then, I placed every page in different AI files in order to make the animation process more effective. I grouped and joined the elements before placing them in AE to make the animation process faster.

Fig 6.4 - Comic Pages

Here is the result in JPG and PDF. Total: 22 Pages (61 panels)

Fig6.5 - Complete Panel (JPG)

Fig6.6 - Comic Final Outcome (PDF)

7. Publishing On Webtoon

Before I upload them on Webtoon, I follow the given instruction to create the thumbnail.

-Main webtoon thumbnail 1080 x1080 px

-Webtoon episode thumbnail 160 x151px

-Webtoon vertical thumbnail 1080 x 1920 px

Below is the process of creating the thumbnails.

Fig7.1 - Process of creating thumbnail in Adobe Illustrator

Fig7.2 - Main webtoon thumbnail 1080 x1080px

Fig7.3 - Webtoon episode thumbnail 160 x151px

Fig7.4 - Webtoon vertical thumbnail 1080 x 1920px

Last but not least, I upload them on webtoon. Here is the progress.

Fig7.5 - Process of uploading the webtoon

Fig7.6 - Process of uploading the webtoon

Fig7.7 - Webtoon Upload

Webtoon Link: https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/an-unforgettable-night/list?title_no=788489

FINAL PROJECT: MOTION COMIC

When the still version of the comic was done, I moved on to create the motion comic. I first started with After Effects. Surprisingly, the process of animating the comic was smoother than I thought. I managed to apply the skills that I learned in other module by adding transitions for each panel and the outcome looked great.

Fig8.1 - Import the file in After Effect

Fig8.2 - Add keyframe

Fig8.3 - Apply ease ease on the keyframe to make it look more smoothly

Fig8.4 - Adjust the ease graph

Fig8.5 - Layer Panel

Fig8.5 - Export the video in Adobe Media Encoder

I searched up a bunch of sound effects and background music from YouTube, which suits the theme to put it in the motion comic later.

Fig8.8 - Searching bgm and sound effects from YouTube

Fig8.9 - Download the YouTube video using YTMP3

When everything in AE was done, I exported the video and moved to Adobe Premiere Pro to add the background music and several sound effects to bring the ambience and feeling more alive.

Fig8.10 - Adding bgm and sound effects in Adobe Premiere Pro

Fig8.11 - Export the video in Adobe Premiere Pro

Fig8.12 - Final Motion Comic

FINAL SUBMISSION

Fig9.1 - Final Webtoon PDF version

Fig9.2 - Webtoon Main Page

Fig9.3 - Final Motion Comic on Youtube

Webtoon Link: https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/an-unforgettable-night/list?title_no=788489

YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/GtrPBcN_g_I

Google Drive Link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1gBsbjFi8NNbOdTknR7hEQHXQ61px0tw_?usp=sharing

REFLECTION

I think this is the most challenging task of the whole semester. From the conception to the final animation presentation, each one is training me different skills and knowledge. Every link, from conceiving a story to drawing a draft, then to continuous changes later until satisfactory typesetting, then to practice in ai. In this process, there are many different ideas and presentation ways in my mind, which test my logical thinking and creativity, and also my painting skills. The scene of each picture reflects the expression of the characters, and it is necessary to think about how to express it in the least language, so that readers can read the story with their eyes. This is also the part of the whole task where I spend the most time. There is the process of turning webtoon into motion comic. This is also a great test of my organizational ability and creativity. How to make the still picture lively and interesting, and how to connect it to make the story not dull. This process is very interesting. I really enjoy this step of making animation and adding sound effects, which instantly makes my webtoon better and more advanced.

TAN YI-TYNG (0353327)