Graphic Narrative Evaluation

Does your final product reflect your original intentions?

When I created the book I used my flat plans, when creating them I placed the main characters in the scene so that I could then work around them when I create the graphics, as a template to get the main parts of the scene done, which helped me save time rather than trying to work out where everything had to go later on, 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 and then edit it to fit the scene. For example, I switch pages 9 and 10 around to show the character approaching the finish line as I thought it would make more sense for them to be on the approach to the line. I also altered the last page due to not having enough time to create more characters/angles of them so I used previous characters for that.

How well have you constructed your images?

For my characters I would use a pre-existing photo of the angle of the car I would like, I would then open it up onto Photoshop and use the polygonal lasso tool on each main section of the car to create a ‘layer via copy’ and then use a gradient of two colours of the car to give the car slightly more depth. I then added a stroke of around 4 for most parts to highlight each section as well as to make the car stand out from the background. Finally I then added a radial gradient circle to the head lights to create the effect of eyes. For the backgrounds I would use a blue gradient from a slightly dark to light blue and then I found a sand texture which I would mask onto a yellow shape then lower the opacity so it gave the sand more texture rather than solid yellow.Using pre-existing images sometimes was hard as it caused there to be shadows so I would not be able to follow the curves of the car leaving odd bits which may not look right e.g. the tires proved hard to create due to the tarmac being similar colours to the rubber. So if I would do it again I would have used my own images so that I can get all of the correct angles as well as make sure the car was easy to draw around.

Example

Dark areas such as under the car were hard to trace.

For motion I duplicated the character than applied a motion blur and then played with the opacity so that it fitted the scene.

I created the sign flat the used the liquify filter to give the look of wind and then used the perspective warp to create the angle.

I also used the sand photo on a larger scale to create a tarmac effect.

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. I also had to make sure there was enough space around the text to make it stand out as well as allow it to be a large style for children to read. I also I had to make sure the text was contrasting to whatever it was on so white text on black and black one white. I did not want to have a separate page for the text as it would cause the scene to not have white space as well as the text page will be empty or more time spent on it to make sure there was something on it. Furthermore children would rather look at the main image rather than at copy and the page with graphics being next to it so they may not pay attention.

Is your product suitable for your audience?

In my proposal I said I wanted to the book to appeal to children as well as their parents. I achieved this by making sure that the colours were eye-catching and interesting for children to look at; and I made sure that there was not much text to make it not daunting for young children as well as easier to read due to it being a large font and a clear font. I also made it appeal to their parents as I made it include a wide range of cars and a some what interesting story for them. I also advertised it for ABC1 and I have done this as it will be affordable and I have included a wide range of cars from ‘cheap’ to people who’ll need to be wealthy.

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.I could have used no gradient but I chose to as it gives the car more depth as if the light was above the car the middle will be lighter than the front so I chose to do this for all of the characters.

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. I would do this by maybe adding planes into the background and maybe plants so that the world does not look empty and flat. The main part of my book that I do not like is this page (5) as I feel like the sand should show more dimension as well as the road that just stops. So if I were to do it again I would focus on this page and make the sand and road more together. However, the car graphic in my opinion turned out the best as it was one of the last ones I made so I knew what I was doing. But the right tire is part of the shadow which is the only problem so without the background it will no be complete which was down to the picture being hard to trace due to the shadows.

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. I also had it in size 28 so that it was easy to see and read.

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 sand 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 on the image I used however the orange can represent speed as most cars which are orange are normally sports cars as well as the shade of blue. For Lenny I chose to use green as that is the colour which the real life cars were painted and the black as my car (which I the same as Lenny) is green and black. The green could also mean neutral due to him not taking any sides in the conflict sense. Furthermore the colours for the vehicles contrasts the environment which is a key factor so that they stand out and are colourful for the children to be engaged in the book.I chose the location as it allowed me to have the problem of a sand dune as it allows the Land Rover to climb over where as the Bugatti would be stuck like it would be in real life.

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. I have used a wide range of age and types of cars so that the parents or even grandparents can see a car that they saw or see rather than all modern cars so there is a variety for people to look at.

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. When doing my book research I also found that they were mostly a rotoscoped style of what they are trying to present in a cartoon way, which is why I chose to rotoscope rather than realistic drawings. And it is also quicker/easier to recreate something in abstract rather than a copy.

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. To my knowledge there are not many car books like this so it makes mine more unique as well as desirable as it hasn’t been done before much.Also most modern children books are now in a rotoscope style so people who do not want to have a radical change in books will be ok with this one as it will fit in with the others. There are also very few car books in this style for children so it creates a wider type of book for people to read as well as look at.