ILLUSTRATION AND VISUAL NARRATIVE - PROJECT 3 : DIGITAL TRIPTYCH & ANIMATED COMIC

09/06/2023 - 07/07/2023 (Week 10 - Week 14)

Agnes Fadhyllah  / 0360503

Illustration & Visual Narrative/ Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media

Project 3 | Digital Triptych & Animated Comic

INSTRUCTIONS

Project 3 - Digital Triptych 

Lectures

We were taught about storytelling basics which include: 

Central theme 

• The central theme of a literary work is a universally acknowledged message, idea, or lesson. a story may have a major theme and a minor theme. 

1. Major theme: an idea the writer keeps on repeating in their work, portraying it as the most significant idea
   
   
2. Minor theme: The minor theme is the idea that appears briefly in the story.

Conflict

• a literary device characterized by a struggle between two opposing forces. Conflict provides crucial tension in any story and is used to drive the narrative forward.

Characters

• A character is a person, animal, being, creature, or thing in a story. Writers use characters to perform the actions and speak dialogue, moving the story along a plot line. Characters usually will have a Protagonist and an Antagonist. 
  

1. Central Characters: the character representing the audience's position in a story. the central character acts as the focus of the audience's emotional attachment to the story
   
   
2. Protagonist: the main character in a story, and the person that the story is usually written about. The writer usually develops the plot around the protagonist, for instance with some problem that needs solving.
   
   
3. Antagonist: this is a person that opposes or fights against another character (usually the protagonist).

Three-acts of structure

Fig.1.0 Three Act of Structure

• The three act structure is a narrative model that divides stories into three parts — Act One, Act Two, and Act Three, or rather be setup, rising tension & conflict and resolution 
  

1. Setup: the introduction in a plot of an element that will be useful to the story only later, when the payoff comes
   
   
2. Rising Tension : Rising action in literature refers to all the events that happen in a story on the way to the climax. The rising action pushes the plot along, building tension to keep us invested in the story as it moves forward
   
   
3. Conflict: conflict is the clash of opposing forces with a character's own pursuit of a goal
   
   
4. Resolution: the conclusion of the story by the resolving of conflicts between characters

Visual Research

In this assignment, we are instructed to choose a story from Stories by Edgar Allan Poe, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Black Cat, and more (poestories.com), and was instructed to make a storytelling basic of the story that we chose. the story that i chose is The black cat.

The challenges that we will be facing are : 

1. We have to only choose the story from the website
2. We are not allowed to make our own story or use other stories
3. Visuals are displayed in a series of three
4. Include short non-spoiler text for each act

Fig.1.1 Examples of Triptych

Idea Exploration and Description

1. Creepy and Eerie

in my head i wanna make a creepy and eerie vibe for my triptych because the story is pretty much in a dark and gloom setting, so i was just thinking of going with a simple style. 

2. Dark themed

cause i wanna make sure it looks creepy and eerie i wanna make sure to use alot of red and black, and maybe add some white and orange as a highlight. 

Moodboard :

Fig.1.2 Moodboard (Cr. Pinterest)

Short Narrative

Act 1 - Setup

• The narrator introduces himself and tells that he will pass away the following day in the first act. He continues to tell his tale in order to shed light on his deeds and the circumstances that resulted in his approaching demise. The narrator introduces himself by stating his passion for animals and his friendly demeanour, especially towards his pets. He tells the story of his upbringing, his marriage, and his growing alcoholism. He states that Pluto, a black cat, is his favourite pet and emphasises how much he loves it. The narrator's personality and his relationship with animals are established through this action, which also foreshadows the gloomy future events.

Act 2 - Conflict

• The second act of the story depicts the narrator's spiral into madness as his actions take a sinister turn. As the narrator's drinking habit worsens, violent anger fits become more frequent. The narrator gouges out one of Pluto's eyes one night in a fit of intoxicated rage, and the once-loved cat starts to fear him. As the narrator continues to mistreat the cat, it eventually dies when he hangs it from a tree. Only one wall of the narrator's home survives the fire that occurs that same night, and it bears an imprint of a huge, monstrous cat. As the narrator's mental health deteriorates, the wall comes to serve as a chilling reminder of his guilt.

Act 3 - Resolution

• In the third act, driven by remorse and paranoia, the narrator adopts a new cat resembling Pluto with a gallows-like mark. As his paranoia grows, he accidentally kills his wife while trying to harm the cat. He hides her body, believing he won't be discovered. However, the cat's meowing leads to his arrest, and the hidden corpse is uncovered. The act reveals the cat's presence in the wall, exposing the narrator's descent into madness and his ultimate downfall. The third act serves as the climax, emphasizing the narrator's guilt and final failure.

Summary 

• The terrifying story of a man's fall into madness and the atrocities he does is told in The Black Cat. Once a nice and compassionate person, the narrator is now overtaken by drunkenness and a violent nature. He takes in Pluto, a black cat, but in a fit of wrath, he blinds Pluto and then murders it. He eventually adopts a second black cat that eerily resembles Pluto because he is plagued by remorse. He grows more and more infatuated with the cat as his mental state deteriorates, which causes him to brutally assault his wife. He accidentally confesses to his crime by touching the wall, where the body is hidden, as the police are conducting their investigation. The story dives deeply into issues of guilt, emotional upheaval, and the fallibility of a troubled mind.

Final Outcome : 

Fig.1.3 The Black Cat (Joined)

Fig.1.4 Beginning

Fig.1.5 Madness

Fig.1.6 Reckoning

Fig.1.6 Triptych Outline preview.

Description : 

• I find the result really satisfying even though i was confused at first on what to draw, at least it turn out just like how i expected, even though i wasnt really satisfied with the third panel i feel like i could improve it more but i was running out of time. but at least i feel like the triptych actually portrayed the summary of the story. 

Project 3 - Animated Comic

Visual Research

In this assignment, we were instructed on making the comic out of the story of the triptych we made on project 3

The challenges that we will be facing are : 

1. We have to continue with the same story and design aesthetics from Project 3
2. Work only from one paragraph of the story for the 1st page.

Fig.2.0 Comic Reference

Idea Exploration and Description

1. Simple Comic

i want to make sure this comic is simple and doesn't have alot of words or any dialog, i would like to make sure the reader understands the story without needing to read the word and just understand the story with just a visual.

Moodboard :

Fig.2.1 Moodboard (Cr. Google)

Final Outcome : 

Fig.2.2 The Black Cat Comic (JPG)

Fig.2.3 The Black Cat Comic (GIF)

Fig.2.4 Comic Outline preview.

Description : 

• Assignment was pretty much rushed so it wasnt the best outcome but i tried what i could do at least, it wasnt perfect but ill make sure to make a better one in the future

Reflection

• this assignment was a really fun assignment, at first, it was an assignment that i really anticipated the most because i love making illustrations, but after knowing we have to only draw from the story of Edgar Allan Poe i was kind of conflicted because its not something i wanted to draw in the first place, in this assignment there were alot of issues with my time management and also for the comic it was really rushed due to me having stuffs back home in my country so i can barely do much, it was a pretty rushed project, hopefully i can do better next time. overall, its a fun project honestly, the experience of making comic and animating it is really nice, hopefully i can apply it next time to my own artworks.