Digital Graphic Narrative Planning

Use this booklet to help structure your planning and collate your planning documents.

Considerations:

There are lots of things to consider in this project. Fill out each section in detail to show you have thought about each one. You should imagine that this is a live project, so considerations like cost, quantity and codes of practice must be thought about in that context rather than just as a college project.

Costs:I don’t really have to worry about any costs of my product. This is because all my work is done on computer. If this was a big project however of would have had to take into consideration the cost of materials and work force and so forth.

Available resources: To create my book I will need access to a Computer, Photoshop, dafont, and the internet. If it came to a full scale production of my children’s book I would have to consider things like factory costs, material expenses, workforce and general running costs, but fortunately this children’s book is only going to be computer based.

Quantity:I wont be making any real books as this project is virtually all computer based. However if it was real I would probably sell it in the high thousands as it is a generic story and it is open to everyone. Depending on how it sells, if it does well I might produce more and send them out across the UK and maybe even the globe.

Audience and Target Market:My audience is 2-5 year olds so the book I make will be suited so that they can get the most out of it; however the market I should be selling to is parents, as they will be buying the book for there children and they have to think that there child will enjoy it.

Quality Factors:I need to make sure that my design is well shown and of as high standard, so I need to put my full effort into the generation and creation of the characters and scenarios. Another thing I need to be careful of is the copy of the physical book. The pages need to be large enough to be durable and readable and reduce chances of things like paper cuts.

Codes of Practice:The codes of practice are usually concerning the interaction of publishers with authors and legal and financial issues. Since I am both the publisher and the author, I have nothing to worry about in this matter. I just need to make sure that none of my book content does not breach any ethical codes of practice.

Regulation:An important regulation to all newly published books is ‘The obscene publication act 1959’ and ‘The equality act 2010’. I will make sure that the content and context of my book does not breach any of these regulations. This is important not just to the legality of my book but also for the appropriateness of it with children.

Copyright:All of the characters and locations in my book are original ideas, therefore I have no worries about any copyright laws, while the story I am using isn’t mine, no copyright laws apply to it so I have no liability to any copyright laws.

Ethical Issues:Again as my book is for children and so I have made sure that none of the content involves any ethical issues that put me at risk of any equality issues. This could be concerning the portrayal of either the child or parent, race or job, so all will have to be carefully considered, revised and executed.

Resources:A successful project relies on good planning. Considering all the resources you will need for a project and then assessing which you already have and which you need will help ensure you are ready to start your project.

If there is a resource you don’t currently have, then consider how you are going to get it before you go in to production.

Resource:Do you have it? What do you need to do to get it?

Computer  yes  Come into college

 Internet  yes  Log onto computer and go on Google

 dafont  yes  Get to the website and download the appropriate font

 Photoshop  yes  Log onto computer and open program

Production Schedule:Delivering your project on time is vital. In order to do this, you need a solid plan of action. This will help you divide up your work in to manageable chunks to be tackled one at a time. It will also allow you to plan which tasks need to be done in which order. It will also allow you to track your progress each day. If you are falling behind, you will need to modify the way you work. If you work faster than expected, you can clearly see what the next steps you need to take are.

Each session is a half day of college.

Session 1:

 Create all of the basic structures, things like the land and sky, perhaps some rudimentary base objects for a gauge of positioning.

 If I have time try to add more basic background objects like clouds, or maybe grass, things that will fill space but not attract the eye away from the main story pieces.

Session 2:

 Apply slightly more objects, things like trees, staffs and any other object that defines the background.

 And more important objects in, like houses, grass and interacting objects that could possibly be involved in the main storyline.

Session 3:

 Apply the basic shapes of the characters, so I can gauge where I want them and get there rudimentary stances.

Things like the boy, some of the villagers, possibly three, and sheep.

Session 4:

Correct all layers to have objects in required places, so the layout is where I want it and I can leave it for the time being.

  Start adding more detail in general, perhaps giving detail to thr sky, and ground so it isn’t just one tone or colour.

Session 5:

 More detail to characters, and side characters like the sheep

Applying proper shape to clothing, giving there stances a sense of realism, giving faces to all animals and humans.

Session 6:

 Add last touches to the characters, both human and animals alike to give them personality.

Give shading on places, ripples and textures to clothing, giving facial expressions to characters.

Session 7:

Put in all props and equipment that interact or are part of the characters

Objects such as staffs, swords, and pitchforks, make sure they go along with the people holding them.

Session 8:

Put in detail to the background and objects

Make bricks on homes, leafs on trees (possibly just use colour range here), shading and shine on different objects.

Session 9:

Put in all text on to pages, find a point of low object concentration, try to keep all words on same sort of place.

 Resize to give largest text to suit the audience without taking up to much space or overrunning the page.

 Put the writing in desired font (Grandcaster) and make sure it is easily readable.

Session 10:

 Extra

 Any work that has been missed due to illness or lack of time

 Further detail to everything.

Health and safety:Your health and safety and that of those around you is very important. Just like in industry, an accident could prevent you from working. Whilst we don’t work in a highly dangerous environment, there are still risks. Some are short term, such as trips and spillages whilst others, such as long term damage to eyesight or back problems, may affect you much later in life.

Consider the risks based on the activities you will be undertaking during the project. Explain how you could prevent them from happening.

Ensure you reference appropriate pieces of legislation, design to protect people at work.

Health and Safety Issue How can you prevent it?

 Electrical equipment and any liquids Make sure that any liquid is either in bag or not near to the computer or any other electrical.

 Display screen equipment regulations 1992

 I will make sure that I follow the regulations and guidelines to prevent any harm to myself and those around me.