Graphic Narrative Evaluation

Does your final product reflect your original intentions?

When I created the book I used my flat plans as a template to get the main parts of the scene done so that I can then add the detail later on this meant that I already knew what I needed to have in the scene before production. Furthermore in the flat plan I planned where the text would go which meant I could paste it straight into where I wanted it to go.

How well have you constructed your images?

I created the characters by using photos and then rotoscoping them which meant that you can understand what car it is even though it is not done in a realistic way. With the sky I used a gradient from blue to a darker blue then with the paint tool in white and a brush that fades out to create the clouds.For the pyramids I used a sand texture which was quite useful as it meant they had more texture rather than a Large area of a solid colour which will not be interesting especially for a child.

How well have you used text to anchor your images

When creating the graphics I made sure that the text will be clear and easily seen to make it easy for the younger audience to read and understand what is going on. When there is speech from a character I placed the text over the character which is speaking so it is clear for where the speech is coming from.

Is your product suitable for your audience?

I think that my book does appeal to the audience which is young kids and adults with car background as the graphics are simple shapes which are easier for children to understand especially at a younger age. The cars also look a lot like their realistic photos which means they a appealing to the parents rather than extremely cartoon versions which may not be as appealing.

What do you like/dislike about the techniques you have used?

When creating the characters I used the following tools- Polygonal Lasso Tool to create the parts of the car and then the lights I used the Ellipse Tool and then I warped the shape if the circle was not a perfect circle. I then coloured the parts with a colour gradient normally using the colours from the image and then adding a stroke to help make the parts stand out from each other. The main problem I have with the techniques is that it does take a while to do which was the main reason why the book was not complete by the deadline.

What do you like/dislike about how your final product looks?

I like the look of the characters/cars throughout the book however a problem is that there is quite a lot of white space around then where there is nothing happening. If I was going to improve the pages I would make sure that the pages do not look empty and have enough content in them to make the page look complete.

Why did you include the content you used?

The font or the story is Arial and the reason for this is that it is clear to read as the audience for the book is young age so if the font was more complicated e.g close tracking it would make it harder to pick out each letter.

To give the characters the effect of movement I copied the layer and added a motion blur to the character and then decreased the opacity of the duplicate layer to make the are easily seen rather than a green blur which can be unclear on what it is for children.

For the sand in the scenes as well as the tarmac I used a san texture to add texture to the sand to make it more realistic rather than a yellow shape so I copied the texture layer a few times so that I can make the sand grain size smaller like it would be in real life. And I did the opposite to give the tarmac texture of cracks and pieces.

What signs, symbols or codes have your used in your work?

For the colours of Barry I used blue and orange, this decision was made at first due to the colours of the photo being that however the orange can represent speed as most cars which are orange are normally for sports cars.

What representations can be found in your work?

Due to my characters being cars there is no real representation of age however it can be shown by the size of cars as well as maybe the year the car came out. There can be a sense of race and group and even religions but only in the way of having three of the same cars being together in a scene. There is a sense of gender due to there being a female car that is pink which is the colour people mainly associate with females and you can tell the gender by the names and the small red car can be female depending on if you think Robin is a male or female name.

What style have you employed in your products?

I chose to rotoscope my book as I knew it would be a good way for children to understand what is going on due to the simple shapes as other things such as cartoons will be of a similar look. Rotoscoping also saved me time as I did not have to go out and take photos but instead I can use pre-existing photos especially when I have no pyramids near by.

What were the strengths and weaknesses of the pre-production and planning

The planning helped me to know what to do when I started production which saved me time during production as I knew what was going into the scene as well as where the text will go in relation to where the characters and graphics are going. Doing research on existing books allowed me to see what graphics they use as well as the size of the books and that is how I decided do the book 28-20cm so that it s more landscape like most TV screens are do that the scene has lots of space to include content and the size was good as there is nothing much in height needed but there is more stuff going across the page as if I used a tall book the characters will be squished together. I did not finish the book however each page had been done to some extent and this was due to having to create characters which took longer than first initially thought. If I were to do this again I would complete a page at a time rather than going between each page adding bits to them which meant that only around 60% of the book was complete.

Historical and cultural context

My book follows the basic narrative of the Tortoise and the Hare however I have changed the characters as well as the story to some extent from animals to vehicles and the car gets stuck rather than being very arrogant and waiting for the other car to catch up.