TASK
Webcomic
The final task of this module was to create a webcomic out of any selected
parts of the story,
"The Monkey's Paw"
by W. W. Jacobs. The webcomic has to consist of a cover and at least 3
panels, which will also be animated. For my webcomic, I chose the start of
part III, which is as follows:
It was about a week after, that the old man, waking suddenly in the night, stretched out his hand and found himself alone. The room was in darkness, and the sound of subdued weeping came from the window. He raised himself in bed and listened.
"Come back," he said tenderly. "You will be cold.""It is colder for my son," said the old woman, and wept afresh.
The sounds of her sobs died away on his ears. The bed was warm, and his eyes heavy with sleep. He dozed fitfully, and then slept until a sudden wild cry from his wife awoke him with a start.
Afterwards, I looked for some references that can help me draw more anatomically correct figures, and so that I can better visualize the direction I will be taking in my comic.
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| Fig 2.1 References / Week 11 (10/12/24) |
To start making the comic, I started sketching the idea I had. The comic starts with some juxtaposition panels – The house with windows open, Mr. White waking up, and Mr. White looking for Mrs. White. It then continues with panels with different angles showing the both of them having a conversation, and transitioning into the grave Herbert is buried in. After a pause, Mrs. White screams, while showing that she has gone insane over the loss of her son. It then continues to the monkey’s paw, glowing in the dark, indicating that it is their only solution.
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| Fig 2.2 Webcomic Sketches / Week 11 (10/12/24) |
I also drew some thumbnail sketches for the cover. The first one shows the monkey’s paw rip through the cover, revealing Herbert who is already buried. The second cover is the monkey's paw itself with light shining from the palm. The third one takes a different direction as it looks like a hieroglyph-like drawing of a man blessing/cursing the paw. After a quick discussion, I decided to go with the first cover to further develop.
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Fig 2.3 Webcomic Cover Thumbnail Sketches / Week 11 (10/12/24) |
Following the sketch, I traced it in Illustrator using the pen tool. The lines are mostly the same size, but details are using much thinner strokes. Afterwards, I started filling in the outlines with the pen tool, applying multiple gradients with different opacities, and layering each of them to get the shading I want. On some of the shapes, I also applied the gaussian blur effect so that it's even more blended with the surroundings. Lastly, I added more gradients on the multiply blending mode to make stronger shadows on certain panels.
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| Fig 2.4 Layering Example in Panel 2 / Week 13 (24/12/24) |
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| Fig 2.5 Digitization / Week 13 (24/12/24) |
For the cover, I used a similar process for the head below by layering multiple gradients together. For the other elements, I made the dirt using the roughen effect, hair with the pen tool, and the ripped page using the pen tool and the shape builder tool. I also applied more gradients to create a sense of depth.
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| Fig 2.6 Cover Components / Week 13 (24/12/24) |
After compiling everything, I found out that stretching the claw would make it look better. In a way, it has a more dramatic quality to it, which I ended up going forward with.
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| Fig 2.7 Before & After Stretching / Week 13 (24/12/24) |
To add color in the comic, I went into Photoshop to add a gradient map on the comic. Also, to prepare for the animation, I cleaned and separated the layers into ones I want to be animated and ones I want to leave static.
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| Fig 2.8 Adding Gradient Map / Week 13 (24/12/24) |
I decided to work on the animation in After Effects because I will be able to review the movement better. For most of the animations, I just changed the position, rotation, and opacity of the layers. I changed the position of the eyes in panel 2, and moved Mr. White's hands and the monkey's paw in panels 3, 5, 9, as well. I also changed the opacity for the light to pulse behind the paw.
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| Fig 2.9 Keyframes / Week 14 (31/12/24) |
In panels 1, 2, 4, and 6, I used the puppet pin tool to animate the leaves, Mr. White's face, Mrs. White's hair, and the curtains. I did this by placing pins on points I want to move while placing supporting pins in areas I don't want to move.
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| Fig 2.10 Puppet Pin Keyframes / Week 14 (31/12/24) |
For panels 8, and 9, I used the turbulent displace effect to create the trippy effect in the text, background, and eyes. I did this by changing the evolution value which distorts the shapes. As for the text, I changed the random seed instead so that the movements are more intense.
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| Fig 2.11 Turbulent Displace Keyframes / Week 14 (31/12/24) |
For the cover animation, I added in a white solid and used a mask to cover the specific points in each frames. I started by doing the start and ending frames and cleaned up the in-betweens afterwards. I also slightly increased the scale of the face when it is revealed, and increased the opacity of the shadows when the page just got torn off.
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| Fig 2.12 Keyframes / Week 14 (31/12/24) |
Final Results
Fig 2.13 Final Webcomic - PDF / Week 15 (05/01/25)
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| Fig 2.14 Final Webcomic Cover - GIF / Week 15 (05/01/25) |
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Fig 2.15 Final Webcomic - GIF / Week 15 (05/01/25) |
REFLECTIONS
This task was the longest one so far and rightfully so. Using Illustrator to make something that's usually hand drawn was not easy and it took a long time to make the characters look realistic. But I'm super proud of what I was able to achieve because I'm able to achieve a semi-realistic look, especially with the shading in Illustrator.