Illustration & Visual Narrative || Project 2

Illustration & Visual Narrative 

Week 5 (24th September 2021) - Week 7(8th October 2021)

Jodiann Yeoh Chooi Kit 0352238

Illustration & Visual Narrative || Project 2

Lectures

Ms Noranis went through a recap of what was touched on in previous classes(Lecture slides from week 3-5). 

Ms Jennifer then started off her demonstration on "Decisive Moment" poster with a few quotes relating to simplicity of the design. For example "Often Less is More", and "Simplicity is the Ultimate Sophistication", both which I agree on and is evident in the tasks main focus, which is creating a minimalistic poster. She gave examples of creative compositions which are designed to be straightforward and does not require much detail. 

Screen grabs of Ms. Jennifer's demonstration progression

Fig 1. Start of demonstration 

Fig 1.1 End result of demonstration 

The demonstration was done on Adobe Illustrator on the famous horror series, IT. It captures the moment we all are familiar with in an effective manner.

Instructions

Backstory and relevance to sketch/draft

Fig 2. The Wendigo

The Wendigo is different to the ravenstag is it exclusively represents Hannibal in Will's mind. The Wendigo is a story with origins in Northern America that talks about a shapeshifting man-eater with hooves and horns.

Firstly, the wendigo eats human flesh which is obviously representative of Hannibal, similarly the shapeshifting properties of the wendigo (which in the story would allow the Wendigo to take human form) is also something that Hannibal does/is capable of doing. The Wendigo is a neat embodiment of Hannibal Lecter and it's Will's subconcious screaming at him that Hannibal kills people and is not what he seems etc (in reference to season 1 ep 12).

Basically the Wendigo is similar to the ravenstag in that it's the representation we get as viewers of Will's subconcious telling him something is up and is just a mythical beast that shares a lot of similarities with Hannibal.

Fig 2.1 Reference used for sketch 

Fig 2.2 Finished sketch

The antlers growing from Will’s back represents Hannibal’s corrupting influence.

The Ravenstag has connotations with the devil therefore evil. Whether it's an actual person or just a feeling Will gets, it appears as a manifestation of one of Will's hunches. It can guide him toward the evil, or clue him in to something important.

So the stag in general is heavily internalised in Will. Antlers, stags and hunting were very important things in Garret Jacob Hobbes' life, and Will assumed this man's persona and became this person with similar mannerisms and thoughts.

Basically the stag is Will's subconscious mind tuning into the motives and psychological state of a serial killer.

To put it short, the reason why antlers were going from the back of Will was because he had orchestrated a murder(through manipulation whereby he coerced someone to perform the murder for him) out of curiosity. His famous line is "This is my design", after imagining himself in the situation of the murderer, and in this case, he was actually the murderer. He then said "I am becoming", which is an indirect statement of how he is evolving to resemble the stag which he feared so much and is representative of Hannibal's doings and personality. So he is becoming Hannibal.

Digitisation of sketch on illustrator 

Fig 2.3 Background colour 1

Fig 2.4 Background colour 2

Fig 2.5 Background colour 3

The different background colour exploration

Fig 2.3's background colour blended too much with the horns. Fig 2.4's colour blended too much with the moon. Fig 2.5's colour made it look like the Japanese flag which is a no go and was too bright to the eyes.

I replaced the fluorescent light with a blood red moon because much of the murders which are taken place in nature/ the surrounding forest area. I chose to do a "pop art" style as opposed to the detailed strokes like my sketch because illustrator is not meant for that and I had to simplify it. 

Fig 2.6 The digitisation done in illustrator alone

Fig 2.7 Background colour which I ended up picking

I had to take into account the visibility of both the antlers and its white highlights when animating to ensure its not blended into the background. For example, if its black, the antlers growth would not be noticeable. If its a light maroon, it would blend in with the red circle and the animation of the blood dripping cannot be seen and would look too messy. If it was white, it would be too overpowering to the eyes and would be too much empty space. Thus why I ended up settled for this one as I know that all these aspects would be considered and it looked good. I added a bright hue radiating from the red moon to make it stand out more and to ensure it was distinguished from the background. This was done by using the shape tool and creating a circle then applying gaussian blur effect to have it blend out that way.

Inspiration of font/ typeface 

Fig 2.8 Font reference 1

Fig 2.9 Font reference 2

I took inspiration from "Hannibal Rising", the titles colour. Also, from the second images font type.

What will be added into the animation

Fig 3. The Minnesota Shrike murder from the series

Hannibal says that he "Finds life is most beautiful on the threshold to death." which I think is an artistically sinister yet intriguing way to view ones life and how he associates something so scary with something positive. This reflects his psychotic personality.

Blood will drip down from backdrop to symbolise this specific murder by Hannibal called "The Minnesota Shrike".

Research done to achieve resemblance of movement/ growth of the blood and antlers branching out individually.

Fig 3.1 Antler growth reference from Google

To ensure the branching out motion of the antlers is as realistic as possible as if it were actually extruding from a stag.

Fig 3.2 Blood visual research from google for animation

Fig 3.3 Blood natural motion/ movement research(GIF from Google)

Gifs of blood dripping down a surface to observe and imitate its texture and how it flows down the wall. Whats needed to be taken into consideration is the speed and how it will affect the blood from the very top. eg. it will become thinner on the top as more blood flows down the wall.

Animation process

Fig 4. Use of artboards in Illustrator

Fig 4.1 Close up of some artboards

The digital work is duplicated and each edited & tweaked individually. Tools that were commonly used are the Pen tool, curvature tool etc.

The artboards were then saved and exported to Photoshop where each artboard is compiled to create a single cohesive animation.

Fig 4.2 Compiling frames to animation in Photoshop

As shown in the screen grab above, each frame is placed in the timeline and the frames duration is set. I made a total of 23 frames and made it loop "forever" like a GIF. I made the first & last frame 3 seconds to enable viewers to see the start and end result. Everything else in between the 1st and last frame was set to 0.1 seconds each frame. I then exported and "saved for web"(gif), 800 X 600 pixels as instructed. 

Fig 5. Initial Final Animation/ GIF of Decisive Moment Poster

The advise I got from my lecturers were to make the blood stop half way rather than the full length, full feedback is specified in the feedback section.

Fig 5.1 Edit of Final Animation/ GIF of Decisive Moment Poster after feedback.

I made the blood stop halfway as per requested by the lecturers. I'd say it definitely looks better than before. This was done by removing the last 3 frames. I think it looks cleaner less overpowering. 

Feedback 

Week 6 (2/10/2021)

They said that my decisive moment sketch was very detailed, which I then responded that I went a little overboard with the sketching. I acknowledged and explained that I will be doing the digitisation on illustrator, which will end up being more simple and not as detailed as the sketch which they understood. They said that they liked my idea and that its an interesting series especially since its related to "Silence of the Lambs". 

They then asked what it is I will animate in from the sketch which I then explained will be the antlers and possibly blood. They said it will be challenging and hard to animate but regardless a good idea and would work if done well.

Week 7 (8/10/2021)

They said that my digitisation of the sketch is very good. When I showed them my animation, they stated that they were impressed by how I did it because it hasn't been taught yet in class. They also said that I did a really great job on this task. However, they did ask me to make the blood drip halfway in the background rather than the full length of the background which I then proceeded to correct.

Reflection

Week 7 (8/10/2021)

I enjoyed this project in particular. I'd say that I have a new found love for animation and I'm looking forward to more projects like this. I have developed knowledge on minimising the details that I tend to put into my work and its true that "less is more", and that in-depth research of natural occurrences in the real world is crucial in making a visually stimulating and appealing animation.