Unexpected Problems

Due to an unexpected error from installing a display driver, I will be unable to continue working from my home desktop. However I will be able to work on my laptop from home and from the university computers.

[UPDATED 28/11/15] Fortunately, I have found out that the problem that occurred has been fixed.

German Sea Raider Research and Development

To add a level of authenticity, I decided to look at a few sources to get an idea of the type of uniforms worn by German naval officers and sea men.

http://www.militaryfactory.com/smallarms/by-country.asp?Country=Germany

http://www.militaryfactory.com/imageviewer/sa/pic-detail.asp?smallarms_id=455&sCurrentPic=pic1

http://www.ww1medals.net/WW1%20IMPERIAL%20GERMAN%20NAVAL%20BADGES%202.html

http://german-navy.tripod.com/sms_paint-overview.htm

I was wanting the German soldiers to be wielding weapons that they would be using during that time period. Based on some images of German colonial uniforms, they were a contrast to the American navy blue uniform. Therefore I thought it would be ideal to use the light uniform which with the dark blue uniforms of the protagonist's affiliated faction.
The big problem in the short story is that the character has no name, no nationality, no definite character description. However, since this was H.P. Lovecraft's earliest work, it could be argued that it was aimed at the inhabitants of America.  Fortunately these details can actually help make him more identifiable to allow readers to project themselves onto him.

German Sea Raiders Mood Board

Here are a series of drawings I made to visualize the German raiders and their equipment.

German Sea Raiders Iterations

German Ship Iterations

German Weapons

The following images are screenshots of a boat I created in Maya.These will be used a s reference material when drawing teh boat in a particular perspective.

Supervisor For Next Semster: Briann Robinson

I just found out this evening that my supervisor for next semester will be Brian. This is good because I had him for last year's Creative Research module and I really got on well with him because I had such a interest in storytelling. In addition, I've always enjoyed talking to him. I had a brief meeting with him to discuss what I will be planning to do.

Dr Seuss Evaluation of Movie Adaptions and word/picture combination notes

Although I am not doing a video project, I did observe some adaptations of existing stories. Although, there are always changes in adaptations sometimes they are extended to fit their medium length. Examples of this are the adaptations of the Dr Seuss storybooks, Although there are full feature length films which had little connection to the originals stories, there were animations back during the 60s and 70s which were more connected the original stories. The reason for why was that the creator himself was involved in the writing for the Lorax TV special in 1974.

Nostalgia Critic:Cat in the Hat

Nostalgia Critic: The Lorax

Doug Walker of Channel Awesome (2014) discusses this approach in his satirical review of the 2012 movie adaptation of Dr Seuss’s The Lorax. He address certain elements about the original that the film adaptation fails to achieve” although there are some humorous elements in the film, it does lack the original spirit of the source material. He even agrees that adaptions are expected to have changes however he goes on to say that “it should be changes that make sense”. He backs this up with showing clips of the film where they make references to popular culture such as the theme of Mission Impossible. In another review about another Dr Seuss movie adaptation (2013), Doug Walker even addressed that the problem of popular culture references in movies can make them outdated. This makes sense if you return to a film or medium many years later. This information is beneficial to anyone who wishes to adapt a story while keeping true to its intent.

Word and Picture Combinations

Sometimes a mix of test and images can work well especially to emphasise a scene. McCloud (1994) addressed many examples of word and pictures combinations such as montage, interdependent and duo specific. In The Goon in Chinatown and the mystery of Mr. Wicker (Powell 2010), Goon is on the verge of leaving his thug lifestyle and is preparing to have a new life a new life with his lover. However she leaves him for unexplained reasons just as he planned to move on with his life with her. The scene building up to this is told with the speech bubbles. After she leaves and the Goon looks at himself in the mirror. Another thing that is quite effective is the gradual increase in size of the panels. They start out small and intimate to reflect the close conversation and the personal space between the two characters but over the pages they gradually increase in size until a single panels covers an entire page. The next few page are one paneled pages of the goon’s head shot showing him gradually and slowly breaking down. This scene is heart breaking and the visuals clearly convey that without any word of dialogue. This will be further analysed in a case study.

The Killing Joke: The Ambiguous Ending

In Kevin Smith’s Podcast, Fatman on Batman (2013), Grant Morrison appears as a special guest and he provides his own interpretation of the ending of Batman: The Killing Joke (1988). In the Killing Joke, written by Allan Moore, the ending of the comics features the Joker telling Batman a joke about two inmates escaping an asylum. Joker laughs at the punchline and the Batman begins laughing as well, they continue to laugh as we hear police sirens appearing the laughing stops but the police sirens continue. Grant Morrison says that the comic was made to be “The ultimate Batman story” and that the ending was intentionally meant to be unclear so that people were uncertain that it was actually the ending. The thing about that ending according to the podcast, it is discovered that the Batman kills the Joker which is why the comic was called the Killing Joke. What is effective is how subtle the evidence but it was so vague it became left for interpretation. It’s because of this ambiguity that the reader is encouraged to come up with their own thoughts about the comic and its story and to provide his or her other interpretation of what the ending means.

Reference

Channel Awesome. 2014. Nostalgia Critic: The Lorax. [video] Available at: http://channelawesome.com/nostalgia-critic-the-lorax/ [Accessed 22 Sep. 2015].

Channel Awesome. 2013. Nostalgia Critic: The Cat in the Hat. [online]. Available at: http://channelawesome.com/nostalgia-critic-the-cat-in-the-hat/ [Accessed 11 Nov. 2015].

McCloud, S. 1994. Understanding Comics. New York: HarperPerennial.

Moore, A. 1988. Batman The Killing Joke. London: Titans Books.

Powell, E. 2010. The Goon in Chinatown and the mystery of Mr Wicker. Milwaukie, Or.: Dark Horse Books, pp.79-88.

The Definitive Batman Resource: Legions of Gotham. 2013. Grant Morrison on The Killing Joke Ending Fatman on Batman Podcast. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OPUsWxYz2U [Accessed 6 Nov. 2015].

Case Study: The Goon in Chinatown and the Mystery of Mr. Wicker.

Case Study 1: The Goon in Chinatown and the Mystery of Mr. Wicker

The Goon is a comedy, horror and violent comic series where the main character is a goon who works for a gangster who fights off against supernatural enemies such as the undead, ghouls and vampires. It takes place in a fictional depression-era American town and it merges genres like horror and noir quite well.

Words and Picture Combinations

Although the comic’s narrative includes dialogue, there are occasions where there were scenes where the story was told through the visuals.
The story was compelling and the characters were really interesting and it felt like a nice spin on the noir genre. The comic had a strong visual style inspired by noir films such as the sepia toned elements which mirrored the black and white visual style and cinematography of those particular films. While the comic series has focus on comedy, this issue takes more of a serious tone as it focuses on an important turning point for the goon's character. Throughout the comics prior to this issue, there is a reference to "Chinatown". Apparently it was a time when the goon could have had a better life. He is reunited by his lover Isabella who works for Xiang Yao. She comes to the goon for help and they spend a lot of time together. While the goon drifts out of touch with his old life, he leaves his friends and hopes to start a new life with his lover. However things fall apart as his lover leaves him for an unknown reason.
The scene that follows shows Goon looking at himself in a mirror and the next few pages is a sequence of him having an emotional and mental breakdown. It starts with a dull face but as the pages go along he begins to show more and more expressions and exaggeration. When I read this, I found this to be very effective as the sequence took up all the pages and it marked a key point in the Goon's life. It is a very heart-breaking sequence as he was very certain that with Isabella at his side, he would have a future free of crime ahead of him. It was a powerful scene because his face and gestures helped express what was going on with his head. As he breaks down, his confidence is damaged severely.
This sequence is told in a flashback. Visually this can be indicated by the way the panels are laid out and the main character has not received his trademark scar which he has in the story that is occurring during the present.
Powell felt that he did a good job as he said “I put my heart and soul into this book". (Dooley 2007). This is evident based on the content and the heart-breaking story which helps explain why the Goon is the way he is.
In figure 1, there is a montage of the Goon and Isabella spending time together while Frankie, the Goons best friend has to defend the streets himself. The first panel shows the silhouette of the goon and Isabella on a Chinese themed balcony with Chinese styled buildings in the back. There is a romantic atmosphere with the silhouettes of blossom flowing across the panel. There is also an arch which helps frame the moment. Although the background is not so detailed the silhouettes are strong and you understand that they are in love.

Figure 1. Goon Pages 50, 51 and 52 (Powell 2011)

The use of symbols represented here are some props such as the candle and wineglass. These are used to help suggest that this is a romantic dinner between the two lovers. In panel 2 on page 51, Frankie is hiding behind a crate as two gangster approach wielding guns, unaware of Frankie's location. Although they are equally spaced out, Frankie’s outnumbered by the two gangsters. Here I can see while the panel is balanced, if the goon was there this would be an even fight. However without him in the picture we can see how much Frankie needs the Goons assistance. In page 52, we see Isabella and the Goon smiling which is something he does not do very often. Meanwhile three of the panels consist of Frankie trying to fight Goon’s enemies by himself. We see the self determination on his face as he drives and shoots at the same time. We get the impression of this through the context of him trying to hold onto the territory that he and the Goon own. In panels 2 and 3 we get a moment transition (McCloud 1994) as Frankie gets punched by some gangster. This is suggested through the visual establishment of the gangsters shown in the previous page. The panels in this montage share no borders but some have a faded out white borders that makes the sequence more nostalgic and fragmented though memories. This is appropriate because these visual occur during a flashback. Furthermore the montage of the Goon having romantic moments with Isabella works really well in contrast to Frankie's moments of action. These moments show how much that the Goon is needed and that Frankie needs his friend to watch his back like they used to.

Panels

Although the use of words can help emphasise moments, some cases such as the Goon, do not work.
The way the panels are arranged in this sequence are effective. In the comic it starts off like a normal comic would have where the panels are juxtaposition to each other. After Isabella leaves, the panels get bigger until the scene where the Goon breaks down. The reader sees the Goons reflection in his perspective. Some of the flashback comic panels have no borders similar to the panels that occur in the present (Dawe 2014).

Colours
The colours used in this comic's flashback sequences are very minimal, washed out and sepia toned. (PublishersWeekly.com 2007)

Figure 2. Goon page 79 (Powell 2011)

 Figure 3. Goon page 80 (Powell 2011)

Goon’s posture is now in a lower position to show that he has no control of what is happening here.

Lighting

Figure 4. Goon page 81 (Powell 2011)

The composition in the above comic page is effective as there is a strong contrast with the light. The way shadows cast over half of the Goons face is reminiscent to the lighting effects in the noir genre but it also suggests that the character is undergoing emotional stress. Here the Goon appears stable after Isabelle leaves, assuming that he has handled it well. His body language appears stable as he has both hands on the armrests of the chair and is sitting upright. In the second panel the door's framework acts as a frame surrounding the main focus. The negative space in panel 2 allows for a strong contrast and for Goon to act as a focal point on the panel.

Figure 5. Goon page 82 (Powell 2011)

The next page takes place in his bathroom. There are a few props to suggest this. The transition is momentarily and shifts close to Goon which then leads onto the next page.

Body language

The following five panels are portraits of the goon's face which fill the page. The first panel shows the goon just staring at the mirror which in turn we see the reflection. The white border helps the Goons silhouette stand out and the grayscale shading helps contrasts well with the browning sepia toned background. Furthermore the emphasis of the facial expression is not only a breakdown of himself, he also realises that he is unable to move on. Although Isabella's reasoning for leaving him is vague but to him he's convinced that no woman would ever fall in love with him again (Dawe 2014).

Figure 6. Goon page 83 (Powell 2011)

Figure 7. Goon page 84 (Powell 2011)

Here he begins to show sadness as his eyes begin to become watery. His hand covers his mouth and he’s trying to hide his expression and true thoughts of what’s happened. The wrinkle on his head begin to appear more clearly. It looks like he's trying his best to keep himself under control but he's showing weakness.

Figure 8. Goon Page 85 (Powell 2011)

This panel continues his gradual breakdown. This time his left hand reinforces the right hand as he tries to keep himself emotionally under control.

Figure 9. Goon Page 86 (Powell 2010)

His two hands now rest on his temple the fingers close together showing that there is some attempts to keep himself under control. His eyes have grown smaller and his tears are now halfway down his face.

Figure 10. Goon Page 87 (Powell 2010)

In this page of this sequence, the Goons body language and gestures illustrate his frustration and the peak of his breakdown. The hands are outstretched and clutching his face desperately causing several wrinkles in his skin. Tears are now dripping down his face in multiple streams. The eyes have gotten smaller and this emphasize the expression. Dark rings are present around Goon's eyes this helps focus on his eyes. The exaggerated facial expression adds to the thought that are flowing through his head at this moment, his mouth is wider and nearly open and you can nearly see his individual teeth. Closure allows us to perceive as if it were an animated sequence.

Background

The background has lost its colour and has darkened to emphasis that he has descended into darkness where he believes there is no return. His hair is now quite mess and unkept. The best thing about this scene is that words are not necessary for this sequence. What is more important is that it was statement that the goon will never be happy. Overall, you feel very sympathetic for the Goon in this sequence and this makes it a tragic moment in the comic's series. The background lacks in detail but it allows for the reader to focus on Goon's face. The sequence takes place in the bathroom and as these rooms are a place of privacy and secrecy this is an appropriate place for him to express how he is feeling visually.

In Conclusion, The flashback visual style is appealing and the transition of bordered to border less panels in figure 1, helped reflect this. The visual language of the expression and hand gestures helped convey Goons's emotional breakdown. The panel layouts helped make the scene stand out.

Reference

Dawe, I. 2014. Comic Con Discoveries Part 1: The Goon and The Guns of Shadow Valley. [online] Sequart Organization. Available at: http://sequart.org/magazine/48739/comic-con-discoveries-part-1-the-goon-and-the-guns-of-shadow-valley/ [Accessed 17 Jan. 2016].

Dooley, C. 2007. Eric Powell’s Legacy Continues With ‘The Goon: Chinatown’. [online] Comics Alliance. Available at: http://comicsalliance.com/eric-powell-s-legacy-continues-with-the-goon-chinatown/ [Accessed 17 Jan. 2016].

Mahmoud, M. and Robinson, P. 2011. Interpreting hand-over-face gestures. 1st ed. [ebook] Cambridge: University of Cambridge. Available at: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mmam3/pub/ACII2011-Doctoral-2011.pdf [Accessed 29 Mar. 2016].

Mateu-Mestre, M. 2010. Framed Ink: Drawing and composition for visual storytellers. Culver City: Design Studio Press.

McCloud, S. (1994). Understanding comics. New York: HarperPerennial.Sims, C. 2011. The 13 Greatest Hits (and Stabbings, and Gunshots...) of THE GOON. [online] Comics Alliance. Available at: http://comicsalliance.com/the-goon-comic-best/ [Accessed 14 Feb. 2016].

Powell, E. and Stewart, D. 2010. The Goon in Chinatown and the mystery of Mr. Wicker. Milwaukie, Or.: Dark Horse Books.

PublishersWeekly.com, 2007. Fiction Book Review: The Goon: Chinatown and the Mystery of Mr. Wicker by Eric Powell, Author, Eric Powell, Illustrator . Dark Horse $19.95 (128p) ISBN 978-1-59307-833-1. [online] Available at: http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-59307-833-1 [Accessed 17 Jan. 2016].

Week 11 - Meeting with Simone and Alex Graham

My meeting with Simone has been cancelled due to her unavailability. However I have managed to send her my essay and I will hopefully receive feedback from her on Tuesday evening.

On the friday, Alex Graham came into Abertay to discuss what it is like to create realistic 3D work. Based on what she showed us, she specialized in 3D environments for AAA games. She gave us interesting feedback and I got the opportunity  to ask her to review my portfolio. She liked my 2D work of the antagonist character I made for a third year module. She suggested that I could provide further evidence on its function and purpose. However she did like my development process for the character. Here I took the 2D work I made in semester 1 and used it as reference material when making the 3D version of the character. Alex suggested that I could try the high poly to low poly approach.
In her talk, She discussed how she tackled the visual test that the Chinese room had given her as part of her interview process. She began researching what looked like authentic props from a certain era based on the brief, she also considered how it was used and what type of person used it in a way to suggest storytelling.

While most of her advice was aimed at those students who focused on 3D, it was interesting to see the tips she had given such as using bevel effects to remove the jagged edges on models you see in AAA games.

The following are links to research material related to visual storytelling.

• http://www.researchgate.net/publication/220366670_Enhancing_the_Accessibility_for_All_of_Digital_Comic_Books
• http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1055&context=englishdiss
• http://screencrush.com/comics-changing-movie-adaptations/
• http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk/project/7850EFB1-F20B-4E5A-A695-3DA2BB229C99
• http://samples.sainsburysebooks.co.uk/9781136884740_sample_862021.pdf
• https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=S3oH_VdH3BcC&pg=PA135&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false
• http://dsq-sds.org/article/view/1067/1255

I managed  to speak to Simone the next day on the Wednesday afternoon talk about the comments she gave me. Her guidance was helpful.

Research Notes

Here are some notes I took about a series of essays about H.P.Lovecraft.

Donald r. Burleson ,on Lovecraft's theme touching the glass

http://www.graphics.com/article-old/writing-visual-thinkers-narrative-structures

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=e-aWWTZeergC&pg=PA61&lpg=PA61&dq=comics+simplify+complex+stories&source=bl&ots=agWevNnkr9&sig=irh3b-80dGQIJtW3Iuo4e2WnUJQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CEAQ6AEwBWoVChMImp31mfWcyQIVBEYPCh2JQQN-#v=onepage&q=comics%20simplify%20complex%20stories&f=false

http://www.slideshare.net/DanielaMolnar/narrative-image-the-how-and-why-of-visual-storytelling

http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1009&context=sane

He wrote a large variety of stories for magazines through his lifetime, some of which include The Call of Cthulhu (1928), The Shadow Out of Time (1936), The Dunwich Horror (1929) and Dagon (1917). However this sub-genre shares similar themes related to cosmic horror. 
The term Lovecraftian Horror was used “as a catch-all for those tales of Cosmic Horror that parallel the Cthulhu Mythos” (Rawlik, 2013) since they shared similarities. 
Some films and games have also been inspired by the works of Lovecraft. Call of Cthulu: Dark Corners of the Earth (2005) and Dagon (2001) both retold the story “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” (1936) despite bearing different titles.

For example, Ian Edington’s comic adaptation of H.G Well’s War of the Worlds (2006) showed a visual depiction of how the Martians, the fighting machine and the setting were represented while following the novel’s story.

“Wordless picture books allow readers to construct diverse interpretations.” This can be positive the reader , but it can also distance them from the original intention of the work.

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/exploring-wordless-picture-books

Although they can be very descriptive, comics may have difficulty communicating the narrative especially translated are in another language that one may not understand. Therefore it should be just as important for a comic to understand how to tell a story with or without dialogue, especially if the reader’s native language is not represented in the narrative, understanding is hindered.

Semester 1: Front Cover and Main Comic Thumbnails

Dagon Adaptation Front Cover Mood Board

To begin with, made some quick front cover iterations to explore what elements that the front cover should include. Some iterations were minimum whereas others were just aspects of locations.

Dagon Front Cover Ideas

I really liked this thumbnail I made of Father Dagon under the waves of the ocean while a ship passes over it and using the idea of depth and scale contrast to highlight an eerie effect to suggest that something of this size lurks within the depths of the sea. After all the seafloor still remains unexplored. I was inspired by his piece to develop this idea for the Dagon story. 

http://shadow-net.deviantart.com/art/Cthulhu-93988981

This is a photograph that I took on my train trip from Dundee one night. I found its composition and lighting to be inspirational for the front cover as a thumbnail idea. My plan for the next semester is that I will be using these thumbnails as a starting point. I will also make amendments and iterations based on them for the final comic pages. Once I have achieved this stage, I will consider to add additional detail unless I become restricted by time constraints. At one point, he photo itself was considered as the front cover.

Progress 

As my project is focusing on how visuals can tell a story. I decided to begin production on s. I used the original source materials as the "Screenplay" for the story as it helped build enough ground for me to begin  developing ideas. I also considered how some of the environments was described in the book. These designs that are shown in the following thumbnails will not the final designs. Furthermore, I have not fully developed the main character and the monolith.

Comic Thumbnails

Page 1

Page 2 Version 1

Page 2 Version 2

Page 3

Page 4

Page 5

Page 6

Page 7

Page 8

Page 9

Page 10

Page 11

Page 12

Page 13

Page 14

Page 15

Page 16

Page 17

Page 18

Page 19

As a means of improving clarity of the thumbnails, these will be reiterated based on feedback from my peers.

Reference

Front cover Mood board Accessed on the 5th of November

http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_small/0/787/478350-132511_20080605061330_large.jpg
http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--Cp_1oujN--/18m5hnv1c94zjjpg.jpg
https://beastrabban.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/tintin-dunwich-horror.jpg
http://i2.cdnds.net/11/46/618_comics_infestation_2.jpg
https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/projects/32369/photo-original.jpg?v=1397762907&w=1536&h=1152&fit=crop&auto=format&q=92&s=fe543d482c504665d8dfca2ae159b7a8
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WA-NQoDnN2I/UhvDS5DuNcI/AAAAAAAAXpI/4mAToGn97MQ/s1600/affiche.jpg
http://images.bigcartel.com/bigcartel/product_images/156294316/max_h-300+max_w-300/dagon.jpg
https://d2a2wjuuf1c30f.cloudfront.net/product_photos/14151070/1COVER_DAGON_original.jpg
http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/lovecraft/images/c/ca/Dagon_Cover.PNG/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/330?cb=20111127235415
http://orig15.deviantart.net/a6f9/f/2013/033/6/0/hpl_s_dagon__for_beginning_readers____cover_by_drfaustusau-d5tkk2h.png

Skochev, N. 2008. Cthulhu. [image] Available at: http://shadow-net.deviantart.com/art/Cthulhu-93988981 [Accessed 16 Nov. 2015].

Father Dagon Colour Iterations

During my exploration the Dagon creature, I decided to look into some various colours schemes that would fit its appearance. Since it was a creature of the ocean, I aimed to give it a colour scheme which featured a cool colour palette.

Grayscale and Scale Comparison

Various Colour Scheme Iterations

I considered the idea of using an inverted effect to suggest that this creature was not native of this world. In the end, I have chosen that I will go for a more suitable colour scheme which follows the colour scheme of blue, red and yellow. I have decided to include and overall blue and glow to amplify its appearance in the comic.