Class Exercise 1: Defining Sequential Art

What is Sequential Art?
In my opinion, sequential art is something that's really minimal most of the times, meaningful, and narrative.

I feel that it is minimal because everything that the creator wants to put forth has to be constructed within the small panels. Each panel must be carefully created in order to create meaning. For instance, creators have to decide which parts of the scene to include, which area to focus, etc within the small panel size in order to get maximum meaning out of it. Since the panels restrict what can be shown by the creator in each panel, I see it as something that's minimal, yet at the same time, meaningful.

Making meaning out of the least information available.

Next, it must be narrative as well in order for readers to create an understanding of the piece of art. What I mean by narrative is that different readers can decode the pictures (without text) differently, as long as it makes some sense to them. All sequential art should be able to make some sense, be meaningful yet showing minimum information most of the time.

However, after reading Scott McCloud's text, I believe that my understanding of "sequential art" is still not wholesome enough. He brought in issues like visual, time, space, aesthetic concerns, etc etc. There are really too many interesting ways to define "sequential art" but ultimately, it is still open to greater debates according to Scott McCloud, which I agree. :))
Here's a random example of a sequential art of MY definition:
-minimal (no words, no detailed background, etc)
-meaningful (able to make some meaning and create some kind of story out of it)
-narrative (it tells a story, from first panel to the last)

(http://www.chocolatemalta.com/images/pokeypocket_1.jpg)

Reflection

Sequential art definitely does not seem as easy as it sounds. I believe many theories and concepts come into play when crafting a comic. It is definitely not just taking out a pencil and paper and start drawing. Effective methods of story-telling come into play. What kind of art, how the art should be created, etc etc affects the whole process as well. Definitely aroused my interest in this module. :)

Class Exercise 2: Panel-to-Panel Transitions

This lecture introduces 5 different types of panel-to-panel transitions in comic art, and each of them serves different purposes and effects. I will attempt to select suitable panels from Scott McCloud's comic and add some panels whenever necessary to illustrate the definition of each transition.

1. Moment-to-Moment

This type of transition requires very little closure and the stages progress very slowly. Almost like a step by step illustration of consecutive moving stages.

After our small group discussion in class, we thought that the 5 panels above illustrate moment-to-moment transition because the panels require very little closure. We all could understand that the guy enters the car, closes the door, starts engine, and drives. It doesn't require much interpretation and imagination on the readers side.

2. Action-to-Action

According to the definition, this transition features a single subject in distinct action-to-action progressions. It is almost like little actions from panel to panel. I perceive this as those kind of "moving comic" we draw on the corners of our books in the past. For instance, drawing a stick man walking, using each page as a panel, and once all the drawings are done, we flip the pages quickly so that we could see the stick man move. Remember???? Hahaha. It was rather fun.

But that thought made me question about comic. Does that form of drawing count as comic as well?? Hmmm...

Anyway, these 5 panels show action-to-action transition because we can see how the person searches for the keys and slowly bringing the key out from the bag. The small action progresses from panel to panel.

3. Subject-to-Subject
A large part of readers' involvement is required in order to decipher and interpret what the panels mean. It usually stays within a scene or an idea but in order to render these transitions meaningful, readers must be able to interpret and understand the transitions.

Panel 5 would not be meaningful unless readers read panel 3 and 4, and have some kind of understanding that the beer resulted in an accident, which caused his death in panel 5. In my opinion, I could have simply used just three panels to illustrate the whole idea - panel 1, 3 and 5. It would be sufficient in bringing out the idea that drink-driving killed him, however, it might require a higher level of readers' involvement with lesser number of panels.

4. Scene-to-Scene
Definition of such transitions mentions that deductive reasoning is usually required in reading and understanding such transitions, which transport readers across significant distances of time and space. In other words, from my understanding, different panels could show different scenes, subject, actions, etc, but readers should be able to understand that all these took place at the same time. otherwise, one panel could be talking about the present but the next panel could show a scene that took place years back, or years after.

Panels 4 and 5 illustrate the scene-to-scene transition clearly. It is still at the same place except that it has changed time. And sometimes, the change in time can be conveyed by texts, just like the words "THE NEXT DAY". Such transition does not have the restriction of time and space across panels.

5. Aspect-to-Aspect
From what I understood, aspect-to-aspect transitions normally show different aspects of a same idea/place/mood. For instance, in an amusement park, the first panel could show the rollercoasters, second panel could show the food stalls, third could show children queuing and having fun. Something like that.

All the panels showed the conditions of the road but in different aspects. First panel shows that the car is moving on the road and it tells us the setting of the scene (the road). Second, it gives us the idea that the road is congested. Third, it shows that the car moves out from the traffic and decided to take a shorter route. And lastly, the car moves along the road (NOTE THAT SCENE IS STILL ON THE ROAD) except that it is a non-congested road now. This shows different aspects of the road conditions while the guy drives.

6. Non-Sequitor
These are usually transitions that offer no logical connections from panel to panel. Scenes, moods, ideas just change randomly from panel to panel.

The above are randomly taken from the comic to show the non-sequitor transition whereby all the panels have no link to each other.
However, somehow I think that if readers are imaginative enough, they might still be able to make something out from non-sequitor transitions. It's really up to how the audience interpret sometimes. :)

Reflection
There are so many different types of panel-to-panel transitions and I thought sometimes they can be confusing because I believe that these 5 types of transitions are not mutually exclusive all the times. Sometimes, what seemed to be an aspect-to-aspect transition could be seen as scene-to-scene as well.

In my opinion, art is always very subjective and so is the definition of the panel-to-panel transitions. :)

Class Exercise 3: Motion VS Printed Comics

During our group discussion in class, we compared the differences between motion and printed comics according to our very general understanding of motion and printed comics. Especially for myself, I wasn't really a fan of comics (in any forms) and thus, the input I provided during the discussion was really based on what we learnt in class and my prior understanding and imagination of how a motion could differ from a printed.

However, I went online to search for ONE comic that has both versions so I could better compare. And I found....

ASTONISHING X-MEN: GIFTED #1

I read through a short part of the comic book (borrowed from a friend) and watched the video of that same part and below would be my response to the discussion questions after experiencing both forms of the same comic.

1. What are the main differences between motion comics and printed comics?
The main differences I found would be the inclusion of sounds, and also, the speed of "reading" through the comic.

Firstly, sounds are able to be included in motion comics. Of course, some might argue that sounds can be included in printed comics as well but it would only be in the form of texts. Therefore, I believe that printed comics rely solely on images and texts to tell their stories while motion comics have wider range of media to tell their stories. For example, the use of sounds, consecutively changing colours, consistently moving images, etc.

Next, the speed of reading a printed comic is definitely slower than "reading" a motion one. One has to read the words one by one and interpret the background slowly when reading a comic book. However, in motion comics, with the sound effects and clear graphics, one can easily recognize the setting of the story, and speed is rather consistent since the texts are being "read" for the audience.  Therefore, I thought that this might be one of the major differences that we can see between printed comic and a motion comic.

2. What are the strengths and limitations in each of them?
- Strengths in Printed
I feel that there is greater reader involvement and control in printed comics as readers would need to constantly interpret and follow through the panels in the correct sequence; and all these require understanding and decoding on the readers side. And this might be the reason why some people are addicted to reading comics, probably because the find the sense of thrill and excitement as they slowly discover the story by themselves and they can control how fast or slow they want the story to progress.

- Limitations in Printed
The impact of the story might not be as strong as the motion comics because without the sound effects and the instantaneous flow of images (for example, from a scene, zooming in to a character's facial expression immediately), the impact might have been greatly reduced. Just like what was mentioned in previous lectures, the gutter between panels convey some sense of time lag, which might result in a drop in impact if instantaneous jump from panel to panel can create a stronger impact.

- Strengths in Motion
Motion, like mentioned above, would be able to create a greater impact on the viewers because of its sound effects and instantaneous movements of the scenes and characters. For instance, while watching the motion comic of X-Men, I realised that it was scarier when Wolverine appeared and started fighting as compared to the book version. Thus I believe that the incorporation of sounds and other effects made motion comics more impactful.

- Limitations in Motion
I don't really see any major limitation of motion comics in terms of conveying the story to audience. However, my concern is that motion might lie in the grey area between a comic and an animation, which might result in it being not here nor there. And since the pleasure of reading a comic is (I assume) derived from the movement from one panel to another, slowly divulging the ending of the story, such motion comics might not be welcomed by hard core comic lovers. I'm not too sure about this but this is what I can imagine. :)

Reflection
Generally, I enjoyed watching motion comic more than reading because well, we have enough readings in school ya? Haha. And also because I do not like to decipher the texts and slowly reading from panel to panel. Living in such a fast-paced society, I feel that reading comic books feels abit too slow for me as the story progression is constantly delayed - by reading the texts, looking at the background and images, flipping of the book, etc. This might be one of the major reasons why I prefer motion comics to printed ones since motions gives me the speed I want and I do not have decipher the images and texts myself. The comic will do it for me in this case. ::)))

Link to video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O490WDOoiuM
Book: borrowed from a friend

Class Exercise 4: Text-Image Relationships

In this class exercise, we got to practise some text-image relationships by inserting different texts into the same image and see how different texts can have different effects and meanings for the readers.

1. Redundant Relationship
This is usually the most straightforward relationship because the text and image speak about the same thing/idea.

For instance, the text I filled in is in line with what the picture is showing, that the lady is taking up her space! Perhaps I could have written "These two people are taking up my space!" instead, to show accurately what the picture is implying. That might be a clearer display of the redundant relationship between my text and the image.

2. Contrasting Relationship
The contrasting relationship usually conveys the opposites - the image says this but the text says something that is totally of a different meaning, which is usually contrasting with the image. I understand this as a "sarcastic" relationship whereby image and text speak different minds.

The text I filled in sort of expressed the frustration the girl is feeling in a sarcastic way. The word "enjoy" actually meant that the girl is not enjoying and we can understand this sarcasm by looking at the girl's expression. With the illustration of her disgusted expression and the text, we can easily understand the contrasting relationship between the text and the image. If without the image, readers will not be able to grasp the sarcastic tone in this example.

3. Complementary Relationship

For complementary text-image relationship, the text complements the image and vice versa. It is sort of like a further elaboration for the picture using text. For example, if a picture shows that a girl is smiling widely, the text can further elaborate her happiness by writing "I am so happy I feel like I'm flying into the skies!".

I decided to include this text because I thought that it further elaborates how uneasy the girl is feeling. She feels so uneasy that she starts feeling dizzy! Thus, this shows a complementary relationship between the text and the image.

4. Unrelated Relationship

Unrelated relationship refers to how the text and image disconnects with each other. In other words, the text is of no relevance to the image and from what I understood, the text in such relationship are often trying to show stream of consciousness of the character, or some famous quotes and sayings from someone famous but is not shown in any ways in the pictures.

I thought with a sudden inclusion of the famous phrase from Shakespeare kind of shows the irrelevancy between the text and the picture.

However, upon further considerations, the phrase could have a very very weak link with the picture because the girl is reading a book. If a reader thought that the girl was thinking about what she have read from the book, will that be considered an unrelated relationship as well? Well, in my opinion, perhaps I would still call it an unrelated relationship, except that it is a rather weak relationship since it is not explicit enough for readers to understand and link the text with the book immediately since the focus of this picture is on the two adults taking up the little girl's space.

Reflection

Like the quiz done in class, people view and define the relationships differently. The relationship is determined by how viewers interpret the text and the image. They can be quite confusing at times and not everyone will agree with a standard and universal definition. What's more important is that viewers interpret the image and text well in order to define their relationships accordingly. As long as they make sense, I think it is fine and should be accepted! What do you think? :)

Assignment 1: Tell a visual story in 5 photos

This assignment got us started with the module by exploring different ways of telling a story within 5 photos. It is similar to that of a comic except that this time, it is not hand drawn and no text should be involved in the story-telling.

Initially, my story was "COLD HARD TRUTH".

Panel 1: Receives a message from the Boyfriend, asking for a breakup.
Panel 2: Shows her dejection.
Panel 3: Girl replies, asking for a meetup.
Panel 4: Shows the guy texting someone happily.
Panel 5: Turns out that he is texting another guy named John that they can be together already!

Moral: The Boyfriend was actually a gay who fell in love with another guy.

It was during tutorial that I realised that my story works with TEXT! Really didn't cross my mind that I was using text though I clearly remembered the criteria of having NO TEXT.

Because my project was done wrongly, many comments were mainly on how I could change the presentation of this theme.

1. My tutorial mates suggested that I could have other ways of presenting the idea. E.g. Have a panel whereby the boyfriend hangs out with the girlfriend and John and have the boyfriend holds John's hand at the back when having dinner together. 

My take: I agree! I believe my story line has many different ways of presenting and there is definitely a way that uses just purely images and no text. However, I believe when working with humans, their acting skills play important role. Their expressions and body languages can tell alot as well. After much thought, I decided that I want to work with inanimate objects instead. 

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UPDATE

I decided to change my topic and redo the whole assignment. Then, I came across with this cute emotional liquid papers and I thought they would make good main characters in my new story - WHEN KARMA STRIKES.

Panel 1: Hand approaching liquid paper. Liquid paper (Purple) felt scared.
Panel 2: Hand opens liquid paper.
Panel 3: Purple sees its liquid being squeezed out and felt helpless.
Panel 4: Pink approached and laughed at Purple for being squeezed till out of shape.
Panel 5: Hand then reaches out to Pink. Both Pink and Purple were shocked.

Moral: Pink laughed at Purple and karma strikes eventually. She's going to be squeezed dry soon too!

Firstly, I took effort in the angle of the photos. For example, Panel 1 was taken from top down to portray a vulnerable image of Purple and a scary and big hand approaching. Panel 3 focuses on the liquid being squeezed out and the expression on Purple's face. Panel 4 focuses on Pink and blurs Purple because the main idea in this photo is to show how Pink laughs and gloats over Purple's misfortune.

Secondly, I always go for some kind of twist in my stories. The failed Assignment 1 above had a twist too (the boyfriend turns out to be gay). This edited version had a twist as well when Pink laughed happily in one panel and karma strikes her in the next panel.

Thirdly, the photos were edited in photoshop for their brightness, contrast and saturation. Initially I intended to change Pink into black and white because karma fell on her! She must be feeling upset and down when the hand approaches, hence b&w might be a good effect to express Pink's emotions. However, since Pink's expression changes in the last panel, I thought by changing Pink to b&w might make it unrecognizable for the viewer. Thus, I did not change the colours eventually. Also, I added eyes for both Purple and Pink in the last panel since they had a change in emotions. =)

I adopted Scott McCloud's scene-to scene transition for this assignment to show how the karma is bestowed on Pink. Viewers had to interpret by themselves and render the last panel meaningful as they follow through the first 4 panels. It is designed such that viewers will go "oh shit" in their heads when they realised Pink will be taken away and receive the same treatment as Purple. Haha.

Reflection
I learnt some photoshop skills from this assignment and coming up with a suitable and interesting theme took me some time indeed. Especially when the first attempt failed big time. But it was fun and I understood the phrase "A picture speaks a thousand words". One picture tells one thousand words, 5 pictures tell one story. More importantly, pictures in a correct sequence create meanings for the viewers, even though I do agree that the meanings formed by the readers could be very subjective.

Assignment 2: Slice of Life

In this assignment, we were told to produce a comic with inspirations from our daily lives. I've thought for super long and finally decided on this topic which occurs to me almost everyday (haha) - THE DIET CYCLE.

I was complaining about how much weight I've gained recently and then my friend told me that I've always been complaining about this but I just kept eating fattening food whenever I feel like it. And then I thought that this is really a slice of my life and also for many other girls' lives I believe. Thus, I decided to try producing a comic regarding dieting which is relevant to me and many others such that when others (those who have the same issue as me) would read my comic and go, "Ahhhhh. That's exactly what happens to me every now and then too..." :)

Some comments and suggestions were rather useful for my comic and I appreciate the class for all the good comments and insights!! They are as follow:

1. It might be better if I was able to arrange my panels in a way such that it really forms a cycle, linking the last panel back to the first. So some suggested that I could place the panels in circular form but I thought it might waste a lot of space on the small piece of A4 paper and that a bigger paper might be required. Thus, not very feasible. However, someone else suggested that I could actually add another panel after the last one which is exactly the same as the very first panel. Readers would then be able to link up the whole cycle better.

My take: Yup! I agree that arranging them in a way that portrays the idea of a "cycle" is a more effective portrayal of my idea. And I really liked the suggestion about using the first panel as the last panel again to show how the cycle repeats itself. Therefore, I will be editing my comic accordingly. :))

2. For panels 4-6, some classmates actually suggested that I could remove the "M" from the picture as it is obvious that I chose to have some fast food. However, someone suggested that I could even have panel 4 with the KFC sign, panel 5 with "M" and panel 6 with "Pizzahut" to exaggerate the irony between wanting to go on diet and munching on such unhealthy and fattening food. 

My take: I thought the exaggeration was a great idea because it helps to create a more exaggerated effect and create more contrast and irony between the first panel and these 3 panels (4 to 6). Also, as Jing mentioned, comic does not have to be realistic, thus, I will be changing my panels 4 to 6 to include logos/signs of different fast food restaurants! :))

 3. Panels 9-12 show a sequence of how the character makes her own home-cooked food, which is supposed to be a healthy meal but eventually turns out to be an unhealthy chicken drumstick meal. Friends commented that panel 11 and 12 seem to be repetitive and unnecessary. After some thought, someone gave a really brilliant idea that I could swap panel 10 and 11 to easily resolve this problem! Then the sequence would be opening fridge to look for food -> chose chicken drumsticks and brought out of the fridge->fry it->place on table and prepare to eat.

My take: I thought it was really brilliant and I am definitely going to accept this idea and make changes accordingly to my comic. :)

So that's about all the comments I will be taking in and making changes to. It was really a great critique session and I appreciate all comments given to make my comic a better one! Wait for my update after I edit my comic before I post an update entry at the bottom of this entry soon! :D


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UPDATE


This is the final product of Assignment 2.

Firstly, I've changed to a landscape orientation because I thought it allows better portrayal of the idea of cycle.

Secondly, I arranged the panels in a circular form whereby the last panel links back to the first panel to show that it is a CYCLE. I also added the text "woke up in the morning" in the first panel because if there's no text, the link would be a little disjointed and abrupt. Also, the title is drawn in such a way that each alphabet is arrow-like. It kind of leads readers the direction of the comic and also even tell them where the "start" of the comic is since the letter "d" starts just beside the first panel.

Thirdly, I removed the letter "M" in panels 4-6 and included sound texts instead. And previously, I mentioned that I will be changing each panel 4, 5 and 6 to fastfood from different restaurants. However, I decided against it because the purpose of panel 3 is to show that there are a few choices the character has in mind and the next 3 panels are intended to show her decision. Since it is a diet plan, the deciding process is important because I want to show that despite saying that she want to go on diet, all she thinks is fastfood and even after thinking, she still chose the unhealthy food. And this is why I decided to just use Macdonald's food (burger, fries and drink) in panels 4-6.

And tadah! This is the final product that is going to be submitted and exhibited in Random Blends!! YAY! :D

Reflection

This assignment is indeed very very interesting! I loved the part whereby we could draw using pencil and paper! I feel that in today's era, many things are done using the computer and we've lost touch on how we could use pencil and paper to create wonderful and beautiful stuffs. This assignment gave me a chance to pick up my drawing tools again (I attended weekly art lessons in the past for many years! stopped at the age of 14 though. how sad!). I had fun drawing and colouring and writing! I got to admit the decision to colour or not gave me quite a headache because I thought comic should be returned back to its black and white format and sometimes, black and white presents a story better than when it is with colours. Hence, I opted for black and white! :D

Technology and the variety of tools and colours etc etc gave us more room for creativity but sometimes, I really prefer the original, pure and traditional way of things. :)

Final Project - Sketch 1

My story is on "Sleeping Beauty". Here is a link to the original story (Disney version): http://www.fpx.de/fp/Disney/Tales/SleepingBeauty.html

After some discussions, our group decided to change the ending to this:
Sleeping Beauty (SB) couldn't wake up despite being kissed by the prince. Prince decided to kiss a few more times to try and wake her up. And SB's lips swelled!! Prince panicked and rushed her to the nearest hospital and he saw one Korean hospital some distance away.
When he reached he realised that everything's in Korean! Even the doctors could not speak nor understand English. Prince tried using body language to communicate with the doctors, asking them to save SB and cure her lips. Doctors signalled okay and off they went for operation. When operation is done, doctors pushed a mummified SB out of the operating theatre happily and Prince was happy too! He pushed SB in front of a mirror and helped her remove the bandages all over her body. And then...

SB had a gender change instead!

That was the gist of our story. In this sketch, the focus is on the paneling on a webpage. I made use of the endless space of a webpage (the ability to scroll without limit) and paneled my comic in a down and right movement. This is the link to my sketch 1 (file:///C:/Users/AdminNUS/AppData/Local/Temp/Rar$EX56.296/Sketch%201/Sketch%201%20Assignment.html) but I am not sure if you can open with other computers. If not, I've submitted in IVLE. :)

Below are some of the comments gathered after the critique session:

1. One classmate felt rather uncomfortable because my comic seems to move constantly towards the right, without moving leftwards. She mentioned that it gave her an unbalanced feeling of the whole webpage.

My take: I felt that it might be just a personal preference thing because out of the class, only one person responded this way. And also, I don't intend to change this because I thought moving right constantly gave a sense of time and movement. For instance in panel 10, the panel was extended twice as long to show the movement of the prince running from the forest to the hospital with the next panel (in the hospital) continuing right at the end of this long panel. See picture below.

So as readers scroll to the left, it helps them form a mental picture of the prince moving towards the hospital as well. The continuum of time and space is considered here.

Similarly for panel 16, the panel is extended to show a sense of time and space. The long panel helps separate the space between the outside and the inside of the operating theatre and again, as the readers scroll to the left, they would feel a sense of time, that time has passed. And then immediately, the next panel shows the doctors coming out, signalling end of operation. See picture below.

Thus, I don't intend to change the direction of my comic because it might affect the effect that I want the readers to experience from scrolling from right to left every now and then. :)

2. Many liked the idea of what I've explained above about the time and space continuum in my comic.

My take: I love it too! I really felt that time was passing as I read the whole comic. :)) Really interesting characteristic of extending a panel and extend time and space at the same time. :)

3. Jing was concerned about the feasibility and the actuality of a gender change surgery. She thought that to be realistic, a gender change wouldn't happen over just one surgery. 

My take: We decided to go with something that is not realistic because from Assignment 2, I learnt that realistic is not a main component in comic. Also, because our story is built upon a FAIRY TALE, I thought the ending should still contain some kind of fiction and exaggeration to create a better impression and impact on the readers. Thus, unless realistic story line becomes a criteria for our final project, I don't think we will be changing it. But yup, we will still be including the non-fiction part as requested, probably at the surgery part. We were thinking about including facts about a gender change and how different parts will be changed, etc. Not really done with the details but we will most likely include the non-fiction part here. :)

That's all about the comments I've gathered from my tutorial mates. I won't be making any changes because I like the presentation now as it fits my idea of time, space continuum and it explored the possibility of unlimited scrolling on a webpage as compared to the paper form.

Even though Dreamweaver is a hassle, but it feels great when you see your hard work on a webpage! COOL! :D


Reflection
The project is indeed my first time coming into contact with mad scientist approach. I realised that it's actually not that easy because the placement of the panels have to make sense not only to you but also to the general audience! Appealing to the mass audience is important since the comic is created for the general public and not just for ourselves. This was one major lesson I learnt in tutorial during the critique session.

However, I do believe that while you are catering to the mass audience, it is important to retain one's style and the meaning of the story. These are what makes one stands out from the rest of the works. :)

Final Project - Sketch 2

Sketch 2 requires us to adopt a single-framed, multipath approach for our comic.

For the critique session in tutorial, I actually missed out the multipath part and just went ahead with a single-framed approach. Nonetheless, what I prepared was something like a slideshow that users can click and shuffle through the panels, creating a single-framed comic.

The above was what I presented in class. Because of technical incapabilities, I went online to search for various single-frame codes before plonking in my images. Among all the many many codes that I found, I eventually chose this because I liked the little panels shown at the bottom. I thought allowing users the ability to navigate through different parts of the story.

However, there were quite a number of critiques for my work:

1. First and foremost, the multipath was missing from the presentation and was pointed out by Jing and peers.

My take: Would definitely edit the whole sketch to make it a single-frame, multipath comic. Some peers suggested that I could simply include different htmls for different paths, which might be the easiest and most effective approach for a dreamweaver un-saavy person like me. :( I took their advice and created a brand sketch 2 eventually (to be updated below).

2.  The panels have to be looked through one by one before the shuffling takes place. If not, it would result in an ultra slow-motion of the shuffling action.

My take: I wasn't aware of this at all before the tutorial! My solution to this would be to change the whole thing because the lagging when shuffling among panels is just not acceptable as it reduces effectiveness and readers' interest when such things happen. I eventually remove the whole layout and changed into a new style of presentation. (Not using the slideshow code anymore)

3.  The panels before and after the selected panel are very distracting. Meaning the peek of the previous and the next panels are very distracting .

My take: Yup, I kind of agree with that. Especially when all the panels are white. I also thought that since it's a single-frame, the showing of the previous and the next panels might not be fulfilling the "SINGLE-frame" part well enough. Hence, I will definitely be changing the whole layout and codes to fulfill the single-frame and the multipath requirements. 

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UPDATE



I re-did everything and managed to code without using external source codes! Claps! :D

I did a simple single-frame comic and readers navigate by clicking on the image itself. When clicked, the image changes to the next panel (which links to another html page). This is for the single-frame requirement part.

As for the multipath part, since my story has different endings, I used the approach for the part whereby readers had to decide between going for surgery or not.

Buttons for "reject surgery" and "go for surgery" are created. By clicking on "reject surgery", readers will be led to a path which gives an ending of the princess waking up with lips still swollen. At this particular panel, a button "go for surgery" is placed at the end so that readers can always make a new decision to explore a new path.

When clicked on go for surgery, readers will be brought to this panel. Further decision needs to be made - for Sleeping Beauty to go through a gender change surgery or a failed lip construction surgery (thicker lips).

A gender change selection would lead readers to an eventual male Sleeping Beauty at the end of this path. Similarly, other decisions can be made by clicking on any button at the end. 

The thicker lips path would end off with this panel. Of course, readers can choose the "reject surgery" path as well if that was not explored previously.

By changing the whole format for Sketch 2, I managed to fulfill both single-frame (click to move to next panel) and multipath (through the use of buttons) requirements. The buttons are carefully thought out to be placed on the ending of each path so that readers can easily navigate through the paths they have not explored. Also, through this tutorial, I learnt how to use adobe fireworks to create buttons and how to link the buttons to different htmls. 

It was a TOUGH but fruitful experience exploring the tools and softwares. Phew! :))

Reflection

The technical part was crazy but I learnt that we could actually find codes online for whatever effect we want and then just edit accordingly to what we want! Woo! That's something I didn't know in the past. I thought codes have to self written. Haha. So it was really fruitful for me! :D

Final Project - Developmental Process (Sleeping Beauty)

The final group project was really draining all of us out. Nonetheless, here's the developmental process for the project!

BRAINSTORMING FOR OUR STORY

Initially we had the idea of using the fairytale 'Three Little Pigs' and alter the ending such that the wolf catapults himself into the chimney of the third pig's house (adapted from the game 'Angry Birds') and then have the three pigs all ready and prepared to play pranks on the wolf by setting up lots of traps in the house (inspired by the movie 'Home Alone'). Another idea was to have the wolf catapults into a wrong house (over shoots himself) and to enter a house that is of modern era. And have the family either keeps him as pet or slaughter him up. Then we thought of including the storyline of 'Little Red Riding Hood' as well to have the wolf disguising as the grandmother of the three pigs.

Eventually, we thought that these ideas were not as fresh and exciting because they were mainly inspired and adapted. Also, because 'Three Little Pigs' seemed a little too mainstream and might be too common. Thus, we decided to change our story by the second/third discussion to 'Sleeping Beauty'. Some ideas for the altered ending were firstly, to have the princess not wake up upon the prince's kiss. Then we thought we could have the prince kissing her continuously till her lips swelled (at the same time, we could ass interactivity at this part to get the audience to click on the image to make them kiss), and then carry her to the nearby hospital, which should be a Korean hospital. We wanted to make it a Korean hospital because we wanted to let Sleeping Beauty undergo cosmetic surgery to get her lips treated. We thought of ending our story with a wrong operation, which led to a gender change surgery instead. The wrong surgery was due to the miscommunication between the prince and the princess.

1. Some peers pointed out that our story is too fictional and doesn't make much sense, especially when Sleeping Beauty was in the forest and suddenly she was brought to a NEARBY Korean hospital. The jump in country makes no sense. 

Our take: Our group decided that, ya, it was indeed quite abrupt, hence, we tweaked our storyline a bit. We decided to let the princess wake up and then fly to Korea for cosmetic surgery. With the travelling, the change in country starts to make more sense.

2. Gender change to be completed within one operation sounds very fake too.

Our take: I do agree that it sounded fake, but since we have the "real" part (which is the infograph) incorporated into our story already, we thought the story could be a little fake here to explore more creative and humorous and unexpected ending. Also, I believe that since it is supposed to be an extension from a fairytale, I believe by fairytale, we wouldn't expect something realistic ya? Which is why we kept the gender change idea. However, we removed it eventually due to time constraints plus the fact that it has more conflicting opinions about this ending. Nonetheless, it was a great idea that if given much time, I believe it would have been an added value to our story.

CONFIRMED STORY
So, our confirmed story (as included in our design document) goes like this, briefly:

Sleeping Beauty (SB) sleeps on and there came a prince with thick lips, who fell in love with her.
He then starts kissing her to try and wake her up, which he successfully did.
But because of his thick lips, SB enjoys the kissing so much that she pretended to be asleep still, so that she could get more kisses.
The continual kissing got her lips swollen and the prince was disgusted by it and he left. (Breaks off to 2 paths here)

Path 1: Prince's path
Left SB and left her room. Ponders deeply about his action and his love for the princess. Eventually realizes that he really loved the princess and should look beyond her looks. Therefore, he returns to find SB missing already! He looked at the computer and found out that she went to Korea for cosmetic surgery! He rushed to the airport immediately but her flight has already left. All he could do was to wait and look around for her.

Path 2: Sleeping Beauty's path
After prince left, SB woke up and was shocked to see her swollen lips! She immediately went to search online for help and found out that Korea has the best cosmetic surgery and she flew there immediately to get her lips treated. When she reached there, she realised that she could not communicate with the Korean doctors as they do not understand English! So she has to make a decision. (Breaks into another 2 paths)

Decision path 1: Reject surgery and fly back
SB decided not to go for the surgery since she could not communicate with the doctors and she doesn't want to risk doing the surgery. So she flew back and she met the prince in the airport! Then, they got together and lived happily ever after. :)

Decision path 2: Go ahead with the surgery
Assuming that the doctors understood her, she went ahead with the surgery which gave her even fuller and thicker lips (since most people visit cosmetic surgeons for a fuller lips). In this part, a new path branches out to lead readers to our infograph which contained information about various types of lip surgery. This path then ends off with SB with thick lips and viewers can choose to re-visit other paths and options again.

DIFFICULTIES MET WHEN CREATING THE PROTOTYPE
The whole process of the prototype was really............... hard.

Firstly, our group decided that the drawings should be of a standardized style, hence, Kai En was in charge of churning out ALL the images. He was busy with school work as well and the images took a long time, which was very taxing for him. Nonetheless, the pictures came out MARVELOUS and I thought we really had him to thank!

Next, using dreamweaver drove all of us crazy. With none of us having any computing background, we were truly at a disadvantage. We had great ideas but executing them was hard.

Initially, we used this single-framed approach to present our story. However, we thought that the arrows were ugly and we did not know how to change it. There were also problems with scrolling up. For some unknown reasons, we could not get the thing to scroll back up. Also, for the sake of better presentation of our multipaths, we decided to change our presentation style to a scrolling, mad scientist approach. That would avoid all those unsolvable problems as well.

This is our final product with mad scientist scrolling approach. Though problems regarding returning to previous panels were solved, there were many alignment problems. 

We've used tables on dreamweaver to create the whole html, however, arranging the pictures which were of different sizes (some were longer, some were bigger, etc) within the tables was crazy! There were gaps for some pictures (circled in red on the right picture) but none in some (left picture). After spending one whole afternoon trying to resolve this problem, we still couldn't!! Very demoralizing! Eventually, we could only do our best to align them as best as we could so as not to affect readibility. Couldn't really find out the real problem and solve it. 

Also, the image size was a concern as well! 

The image on the left was the initial prototype. As you can see, the panel took up most of the screen and the different paths couldn't be seen clearly. Comparing to the one on the right, our final prototype, the paths are clearly seen on the screen and the image size is comfortable to eye. Standardizing the size of the images all over again was a tedious job as well.

The above 2 gif images were used to generate interactivity as well. We wanted to allow viewers to click endlessly to make them kiss in picture on the left, and to remove the bandage for picture on the right. Because we couldn't find the code for actual click-to-play, we had to make do with gif images. Our solution was to place a static image that is clickable, and on click, it changes to the gif image. It works as well! Interactivity remains and effect was what we wanted.

We wanted to allow readers to fly the plane themselves by mousing over and lead the plane to the next path. However, the code crashed on the day of submission and hence, I created a gif plane image as a back up. Just in case the code still doesn't work. 

Eventually, my group mate managed to fix it and it worked again! YAY! :D couldn't place the link here so just show a screenshot! Viewers can move the mouse along the trajectory drawn out and then it will lead the plane to Korea. :D

PROBLEMS WITH DESIGN DOCUMENTATION

Design documentation was fine but we just felt that there were too much overlaps between different parts. Like when we talk about interactivity, we mentioned some tools and codes used as well, so in that sense, the last part on "Tools" became very repetitive. So yup, that's the only problem we had. Other than that, it was fine. :)

WORKING WITH MY GROUP

I am very glad I get to work with Jie Ying, Kai En and Heng Wee for this project because even though we had no background in coding and scripting, everyone was really helpful and very positive as we try all means to search for solutions or alternatives. Everyone contributed equally and yup, it was really great working with all of them! :D

Reflection

This project was truly a little beyond our abilities but I'm really glad we overcame it, as a group. Sometimes when it's not possible to solve something, approaching your friends for help might guide you to the light instantaneously. Though it was a tough process going through all the dreamweaver, fireworks, illustrator and photoshop, I learnt many many things that were not taught in class. For example, I learnt how to create an gif image through this project, how to grab codes from online sources and substitute the images with what we have and also to manipulate the codes and make it work our way. It was not easy deciphering and interpreting the foreign language (the scripts) but I'm sure we all learnt some stuff along the way. And I thought these skills are indeed useful as compared to learning theories. Haha. Just voicing out my opinions ya! :)

Also, even though I found the researching part a little redundant (because we are a research university), I did learn some stuff along the way too. E.g. how a lip surgery works and its costs, how to make sure you have a perfect face abiding the golden ratio and the rule of symmetry, etc. You can download the mask and overlay it with your face to see how much your face fits the golden ratio! :D

Other than that, I learnt that sometimes, we just have to make use of what we have and create things around it. For example, the gif images were used to generate interactivity now even though we didn't plan to use gif at all initially. It was kind of cheating but as long as it still works the way we wanted and it is effective, it is good. :)

Overall, it was a great experience though really stressful. Am really grateful for the extension of deadline. If not, we would definitely have been so dead. Haha. 

Thanks for the wonderful module! :D