Foreword
First off, I would like to say that my blog on Assignment 4 was a mistake. I misread the brief. I read and thought I was only meant to write about the feedback I received- the audience feedback. I thought it was weird not to reflect on the whole project, but I wanted to follow the brief, and not to fail like I usually would. Of course it is now clear, I was meant to reflect on the whole project, start to finish. I am hoping to set that right here.Part 1: The Ideas
One was BugBoy, a comic about a boy in school, who can transform into a giant Dung Beetle and fight giant monsters that attack the city. This would of been a self aware story, and a poke at films like Godzilla. There would of been other transforming schoolchildren, but unalike our hero, they actually transform into something cool. One scene i thought of was during a monster attack, on of the monsters steps closely to the BugBoy's home, with his mother inside. She would be worried she was going to be stepped on, but was still watching the TV new report showing the monster almost stepping on her house. I thought all of this was funny, however I thought my second idea had more to offer.
Asia Man was my second idea and ended up being the one I ran with. It was about a wandering swordsman, with gigantic eyebrows that covered his eyes, that showed his journey to find his family, across a western/samurai movie world. I saw the similarities between Westerns and Samurai movies- often many classic westerns legally count as "Adaptions" of their older samurai movie counterparts. I really liked this idea, and I could actually draw the main character- my drawing ability is inconsistent and fluctuates at will. Luckily I was able to draw the main character quite well most of the time.
I started coming up with the basic plot at this point, seeing where this could go.
Part 2: The Research
At this point I was coming up with everything-story ideas, characters, the world, and I decided to research some history. I went through Japanese history, History of the Japanese and their three alphabets, Chinese history, History of Traditional Japanese Weaponry and some others of The Far East. However I could not cover all of Asia, and I can remember even less annoyingly. However I remember some things, such as the name of a few swords, and about these Ronin (A Samurai with no lord) who wore baskets on their head, and carried these large flutes, that they used as clubs.I drew everything as they came- I did not try to appeal to an audience or adhere to a style, because I knew that if I attempted to copy, all it would end up as would be me trying to achieve a perfect replica of what I hoped to copy. This would be destructive to the project. I just decided to do this my way, and see what audience is attracted to it, because if I set myself a certain target, I would be held back, and I cannot have that after my last project.
I also did research on character design, especially on the use of shapes and how they convey a feeling to a viewer.I also learnt about comic books and the importance of the panels and text bubble position. For example imagine a man swinging an axe angrily at the viewer. The picture on on the left, and his text bubble on the right of him. It reads "Why won't you just die already?!" as if yelling to some hero who is becoming frustrating during battle. This position shows the man swings the axe and then says the speech bubble. However switch things around and the meaning and presentation changes. Lets go with, the Axe man in the middle. To his left the speech bubble starts "...Why won't you..." then under his swinging arms a "..Just..." and to his right a "...DIE ALREADY?!" This shows that the man said "why won't you," as he got ready to swing, mid swing says "Just", probably putting lots of effort into his swing, unable to speak, and then as his axe swings and misses the target he yells "JUST DIE?!" This gives the audience a much better picture of what is going on with just a single picture and the position of text.
During this time I made a small survey which was about the audiences response to my work. Because my work takes so long there was nothing to show. So I did what I could that I knew I needed input on- the emotions. Asia Man's design was unconventional. The easiest way to read emotion is the eyes, and you can't see his. So his body was used to show his feelings-the lines i used, the thickness, etc, everything down to the small details was used to give off an emotion his eyes could not. The response to the emotions was overwhelmingly positive- an unexpected result. And so i changed nothing-why fix was is not broken after all?
Part 3: Production
At this point I had my ideas for all three of the main characters. Each character would echo the three central shapes of character design, the square, the circle, and the triangle. Asia Man was made up of mostly Squares- they give an aura of strength, determination, and the ability to be unmovable and grounded, even stubborn. Poppy is made of circles- they give off a soft, bouncy feeling, which perfectly matches her character. Round objects are safe, and have no hard edges. Her eyes are large and her ears make her seem large, even though she is short, which makes her the centre of attention, drawing the eye. Shooter was made up of triangles- this shows danger, speed, a sly nature, perhaps a trickster. On his head a large round had and round eyes, which show a friendliness.Production started strong, and I had high hopes however that was quick to change. I spent a week running through and making drafts of the first comic episode, and after hitting a wall, decided to try draw the first page. I spent a week on this page, and hated it. Everything was wrong and not good enough, but I was running out of time. I could not change anything, especially at the pace I was setting. And then I reached a realisation: I could not do this comic in time. And I had little time left. I could not draw anymore, don't know why, but I lost my ability, I sat for hours on end with nothing produced and decided that i was to work on everything but the drawings of the comic itself. In this latch ditch effort like I explained on my blog twice-once in my 3rd vlog, I made a really long prezzi full of everything I had written and had drawn.
I tested the prezzi on multiple devices, and set up a questionnaire for those who viewed it. I then made changes that were suggested and I was already of time. I hoped this would suffice. Even if my project did not hit the mark, i was hoping if I showed my work I could get something.
Part 4:Afterwords
Now long after the end date I have heard my prezzi does not work. I don't know why, it's nothing on my end in the Prezzi.it works for me. However the public version does not. I have no idea what to do, and i am worried it is too late, even if i fixed it, for it to matter now.Overall this project was unbelievably disapointing. I wished things went better, but things went awry, not just missing the mark, but missing the whole target completely. It had potential, but something went wrong. I am not sure what, but it is obvious.
The whole project was difficult, and it fit very unneatly into the brief. This made my job filling the brief difficult and shoehorned. There were many things i was unhappy with, that were not good enough for me, but i had no time to change it.
If I had to do it again, i don't know what i would do differently. Hopefully I would do it better.
