For my senior project I will be
doing an exhibition that consists of a small three to five page comic book and
an animated adaptation of the story.
The point of this exhibition is to demonstrate the similarities and
differences between comics and animation. In order to demonstrate this, viewers will first read the
comic book and then view the animation.
Viewers should take note of their viewing experience, how was watching
the animation different than the reading the comic, how was it similar?
The reason I choose this project is
because animation makes up a great majority of my work, in fact I intend to
pursue a career after college. Over
this past summer, I started writing comic books again and discovered how
similar the media is to animation, as well as how it is different. Both comics and animation require sequential
drawing, as well as “camera” shots to creating a thrilling and engaging work. However unlike animation, in which only
one panel is displayed on screen at a time, comic work requires a whole
page. Each page contains more than
one panel, and therefore the viewer’s eye must be drawn around the page the in
order to follow them in the correct order. Most importantly, animation can go at a certain pace and
take periodic breaks. Where as a
comic must keep the viewer invested so that they keep turning the page to see
what happens next.
Both parts of this exhibition will
be done using computer software; yet will also feature a little hand drawing. Both
the comic and animation will be sketched out by hand, and then be sent to the
computer for final results. The
comic work will be done Manga Studios and the animation will be done in Anime
Studios. Backgrounds for the
animation will be done in Photoshop via Wacom tablet to give them a hand
painted look. Other editing for
the animation will be done with Final Cut Pro.
In terms of timing, it will be challenging
given how much drawing and vectorizing is required. However as of writing this proposal, three comic pages have
already been completed. These
three pages are guaranteed to be in the exhibit. By the end of September, I hope to have at least two
backgrounds and some vectored characters finished. Through the course of
October, I hope to have at least half of the animation finished and finish the
other half in November. By
December, I hope to just be making final edits. I also hope to bring a total of five pages to the exhibition,
yet I am not sure I will be able to complete them and animate them before the
deadline on top of everything else.
So I will start animating from panel one and work my way through the
last panel of page three. While
doing so I will work on pages four and five and if I feel there is enough time
to include them, I will.
In terms of equipment for the exhibition,
all that I will require is two small tables and an IMac, which could all fit
into a corner. The IMac will need
headphones and a nearby outlet. I
will personally work the play button on the IMac, as I do not want viewers
looking at the animation first. If
they do watch the animation first, they might not feel obligated to read the
comic and would therefore ruin the idea of reflecting on the two viewing
experiences.
There are two great risks with this
exhibition. One is simply getting
everything done on time, in which the best solution is to stick to the
schedule. The second is getting
the audience to think about what they are viewing. Most viewers might not think twice about the layout of a
comic, and even worse, with today’s media, most people prefer to “watch” as
opposed to “read.” However it is a
general risk that simply comes with the territory of showing of art and must be
faced regardless. I might be good
to make some decorations for the table to encourage them to take this exhibit
seriously.
