Final Senior Project Proposal

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.