Illustration and Visual Narrative - Task 1: Lectures & Exercises

|| 28th April - 2nd July(Week 2 - Week 11)

|| Kek Han Shin (0352571) Bachelor of Computer Science
|| Illustration and Visual Narrative
|| Task 1: Lectures & Exercises (20%)

Lectures compilation

⬛Week 1

Mr Hafiz briefed us on the requirements and objectives of this course.

This module aims to introduce the students to the process of creating visual concepts from ideas and pictorial communication to an audience in the form of illustrations.

In the end, students can understand the history of visual communication, and illustration skills

Marks breakdown:

60% Continuous Assessment

Task 1: Exercises 20%

Task 2: Composition Continuous 20%

Task 3: Sequential Art Continuous 20%

40% Final Assessment

Task 4: Final Project & Portfolio Final 40%

Briefing slides:

Module information booklet:

⬛Week 2

Bezier Game

This class is to ensure we familiarize ourselves to the fundamental tool of Illustrator: the Pen tool!

To begin with, Mr. Hafiz introduced us to The Bezier Game

The exercise is short and sweet and I started to get a gist of how it works, practice makes perfect I guess🤷🏼‍♀️

Also, we are introduced to our very first project: Vormeter Challenge

⬛Week 3

Character design basics

3 principles of character designing

ICONIC
you can immediately recognize them even in silhouette form
SIMPLICITY

allows viewers to digest and understand the purpose immediately
UNIQUE

not only it should be simple, it must strike to be memorized by viewers

Character design principles

🎨Shapes

A character is basically constituted of silhouette shape, this also contributes to depicting the characteristics and nature

Shapes of characters

🎨Colour
Colour paints characters to determine heroes and villains, their emotions and impressions, etc

Blue symbolizes authority, while red represents rebels

🎨Emphasis, contrast

Good contrast create memorable emphasized element

🎨Harmony

Characters should complement each other which helps in shaping the narrative itself

Different color combined to form a harmonious combination

🎨Expressions, poses

Behaviours and quirk shows personalities easily

⬛Week 4

Chiaroscuro

💡the use of light and dark to create an illusion of depth and emphasis on the 2d surface

Still Life with Fruit (Caravaggio, 1601)

Purpose of Chiaroscuro:

increase the dramatic tension of the scene

Houseki No Kuni (Haruko Ichikawa, 2020)

create sensational effect

Batman (Bob Kane & Bill Finger)

attract attention
tasteful composition

Positive & Negative space

⚪positive space

refers to a subject matter of interest in a visual

⚫negative space

refers to the filled space that surrounds the subject matter

⬛Week 5

Composition is the most fundamental but also extremely important in producing a visually pleasing design.

Composition Visual Rules

📸Visual Narrative

The composition should complement your subject focus and reflect the narrative.

Violet Evergarden, Episode 10(Kyoto Animation, 2018)

📸Visual Flow

Determining the path of the viewer's eye

Demon Slayer (UFOTABLE, 2020)

📸Visual Balance

Parasite (Boong Joon Ho, 2019)

📸Visual hierarchy

The way of how subject matters is focused can have huge effects on the composition the artists make

Types of shots

There are 6 types of shots, with different angles and placement of the object/character, a totally different narrative can be established even with the same scenic setup.

⬛Week 7

Perspective

4 types of perspective

Perspectives provide the ability to present two-dimensional surfaces to give a sense of height, width, depth and position - representing three-dimensional objects

Four types of perspectives

One point perspective
entails objects emerging from a single point on the horizon

Taken from 21-draw (2016)

Two-point perspective
place 2 points on the horizon and establish overlapping perspective lines fanning out

Taken from 21-draw (2016)

Three-point perspective
two-point perspective but adding one another vanishing point high above or below the horizon
useful to achieve a sense of drama and scale


Taken from 21-draw (2016)

Isometric view
using isometric grids to create detailed concepts of individual buildings

Taken from 21-draw (2016)

Utilizing perspective well can provide your design with a complex and enigmatic composition, creating an uncertain relationship between the view and figures depicted

3 types of planes

Foreground
✍🏼arrange the subject of matter here
✍🏼using size differences and color contrast
Middle Ground
✍🏼using size differences and light/shadow contrast
Background
✍🏼using shapes

Design flow

good arrangement gives the design a sense of movement and rhythm
leading the viewer's eye throughout the layout

⬛Week 12

Storytelling basis

📔central theme

- what the story is about

- main idea/underlying meaning

- major theme/ minor theme

📔conflict

- creating tension and building suspense

- what engages the audience

📔characters

- including central characters, protagonist, antagonist

Three-Acts Structure

setup
rising tension
conflict

Transitions from Scott McLoud's transitions

🎦moment to moment

🎦action to action

🎦subject to subject

🎦scene to scene

🎦aspect to expect

Point of View

Point of view is to tell the story from a specific character's point of view, emphasizing on thread of the story

Lab 2: Chiaroscuro

For the pear challenge, the main tools to exercise on is pencil tool, path finder, color invert and knife tool

Using slicing tool

Clipping mask

The second exercise:

The main tools to be used are divide and shape builder, Mr Hafiz taught us to construct the chiaroscuro effect using the slicing tool

Using pen tool to outline

Also, we can make the design more interesting by applying texture and masking, we have to remember to make the pen paths into compound paths to avoid problems when using clipping mask