Character animation with Photoshop files

To create the illusion of a 3D turning head in the beginning scene, I used numerous masks and squashed the X-axis on various layers to make it seems my flat layers were dimensional.

Putting it together

After finalizing the short piece, I handed it to Chaski to put a song and sound FX. We stitched our scenes together and overlaid them to transition smoother.

Lessons learned

• Have a solid storyboard as well as style board (versus moodboard)
• Make each scene a composition and each have the same settings
• Be open to changing the storyboard - not everything ever goes as planned, for the better!

Refining storyboard

Before starting the After Effects project file and continuing with collecting assets, Chaski and I wanted to ground our storyline. We abridged some of the background information and added a dream sequence to emphasize the disturbing experience.

Collecting assets

We continued to collect assets and turn them black and white. We want to bring more power to the expression of the characters, so we are keeping our line expression and characters colorful.

Translating style frames to After Effects

We started with our styleframes - creating our assets in Photoshop and laying them out in Illustrator. I worked on beginning scene of introducing my family and Chaski is working on the next scene of the trippy dream sequence.

I experimented with textured backgrounds - and will be animating the texture in a subtle manner to give feelings of anxiety. I started with laying on my assets and doing the standard animations without easing and character animation.

Next Steps

• Stitch together first two scenes (Intro and dream sequence/build up)
• In-depth character animation
• Style frame + animate climax and resolution
• Record audio, both voice and sound effects

Initial Exposure to Comics

Torrenting animes and new manga chapters at the age of 7 was my first exposure to comics. I first started the anime Naruto - then when the episodes were still coming in, I moved onto the manga. I loved comparing the anime to the comics, and how my mind created their own action scenes the original animation didn't display.

I grew a fascination for anime/animation/cartoons, comics not so much for some reason. Prior to ITP, I was an animation/motion designer for a medical education/technology company, creating storyboards for educational videos for medical professionals. I realized my job was creating a form of "comic".

Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art

Comics = "Juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer."

What's challenging about comics is that everything is conveyed with such few images, and it trusts the reader to fill in the "gutter" in the way the creator wanted them to. Yet everyone has their own unique, created experience with reading comics, I think it takes much talent to keep having the reader engaged.

Shen Comix used to be one of my favorite Instagrams 5 years ago, told short stories with just 4 panels. Many about relatable life and popular culture:

This also goes for instructional diagrams, which I never thought of as a comic until this reading. During my job storyboarding, there was much back-and-forth with the animator, head designer, and I making sure certain iconography, illustrations, and motions were understood the same way for everyone. Emphasizing universality with simplicity is extremely powerful for both art and design.

Importance of storytelling

"All media of communication are a by-product of our sad inability to communicate directly from mind to mind - all problems in human history stem from this inability."

This is a large part to my interest for ITP as I want to strengthen my storytelling skills through interactive art, design, and performance. I believe communication is one of the largest problems, and to help build the bridge through storytelling from both the screen and off-the-screen to the audience is something that can always be unfolded. As our media attention span shortens as time goes on, comics are as relevant as ever without many realizing. ~invisible art~

I wanted to visualize a story I have verbally told countless times, a spooky ghost story of a first interaction with my grandmother and I. The feeling of fear and confusion is the goal for communication to the audience.

Storyboard

My storyboard introduces the background, tells about my physical interaction, then leaves the audience with an open hanger.

I used Storyboarder to create the foundation for my story. The interface was super easy to understand and use. My Wacom tablet didn't respond too well to the program and for some reason my microphone could not pair with the program either so I had to use Voice Memos on my Macbook and import them individually to pair with the boards.

Moodboard

My caveats are illustration, so I wanted to hone in on collage and personality with line expression. I leaned towards more muted colors to give a more serious, darker tone.

Characters and assets

For the first character I crated myself with all the layers.

For the environment, Chaski started collecting frames, cutout furniture and collage text assets.