2D Design: Narrative and Story Forms! ! ! ! ! Prof. Todd Lambrix

The Graphic NovelIn this section we will research, read and create a graphic novel. The form that this takes will have a fair amount of flexibility as we will be looking at many types and styles for inspiration. You will be reading a number of graphic novels, comics, and articles on the genre so that you can begin to develop a familiarity with the history and evolution of this form. During this section we will also explore bookmaking in the spirit of the independent publisher. We will look at various types of hand binding and stitching so that these works can be produced inexpensively whi le maintain ing a professional quality of craft.

Get this book! It is an essential resource and wonderfully written.

This project will begin with a research and presentation assignment. You have been given a reading list by Forbidden Planet. You are to choose two novels from the list to read. After reading both of them, prepare a 3 minute presentation on what you have read. Compare and contrast the two in terms of the narrative structure, how they were drawn, how they differed in character development, etc. Tell us about the history of the novels themselves. Who wrote them? Who drew them? Have they worked on anything else that may be of interest to your research. What was flawed about the work? How could you redesign the works to be better?

The Research Assignment

The Story Board:

Ian McCaughrean UK

A series of images in sequence for the purpose of visualizing a narrative or motion picture.

You will now make a story board to begin roughing out your ideas. This story board is more to work out the mechanics of the narrative and loosely arrange imagery rather than being a preliminary design of the layout itself.

Fuse Studio

Meghan Ballback

Justin Parks at Chipmunk Bay recommends using a non-photo blue lead in his mechanical pencil so that he does not have to erase lines before scanning. This is wise for several reasons. I will show you how to use the Threshold command in Photoshop to eliminate pencil lines from the scans, but I like this idea too as it saves tons of time and does not risk damaging the work. I have included a link to this website in the resources tab in Blackboard.

I recommend drawing the images by hand to start. By this time you are much faster with a pencil than you are with illustrator. Not to mention imbuing characters with a sense of life through digital means is tricky and you do not have time for tricks.

Drawing, Inking, Scanning, Color

Once you are set with your drawings, you can begin to ink them. A variety of fine tip markers in varying widths is helpful here. Begin with the line work before concentrating on some of the larger fill areas. One thing to consider before doing this is having full size color copies of your drawings made before this step. If you make an error, you may need them. It is possible to fix things in photoshop, I believe in getting it right before post production..... Also keep in mind that you are only dealing with the black here. We will add color later .

Inking

When choosing pens, keep some things in mind... I find the Micron pens to be great in terms of quality and value. The tips are hard felt and will break down quickly if you are using the super fine .005 size. At $2-$3 each, this can add up if you are not careful. Still, they are easily acquired from a variety of stores. The Rapidograph style pen by Rotring is also quite nice. The nib is actually a high precision cylinder that while fragile, maintains its integrity if you care for them. Cleaning is labor intensive and if you fail to do so, they will dry up forcing you to buy new nibs. These pens are expensive at $30-$40 each and they require you to fill them with ink ( sold separately ).

We have had a scanning demo in class so you are familiar with how this works by now. If you are not, open Photoshop on one of the computers that has a scanner attached. While you are waiting place the first drawing you wish to scan on the scanner bed. Go to File>Import> Choose the scanner name in the list.

Scanning

A scanner interface will open. The interface will depend on what scanner is installed. The software to drive the scanner operates with Photoshop, but it is not part of Photoshopʼs core. This is why what you see may be different. Do not worry, they are all trying to do the same thing and you will figure this out quickly.

Step 1: Set the resolution to 600 DPI

Step 2: Set the image type to greyscale

Step 3: Set the scale at 100%

Step 4: Preview the scan. Set the marquee to properly crop the preview

Step 5: Scan your image

Step 6: Save your image as a .TIFF file. These files do not compress like a .jpg file and they maintain more information.

Adding Color We will have an in class demo on this section. I will also be adding a video tutorial of the process for you to review with should you need it. Here are some pointers in the meantime.

With a properly inked drawing scanned at 600 DPI, it is easy to select within an area using the magic wand tool. This allows for easy fills using the brush tool and some color.

Here is a great example using the little girl from Miyazakiʼs Spirited Away. Make sure to check “contiguous” in the magic wand contextual menu so that only the area you wish to color gets selected. By shifting the opacity and flow commands, you can layer more color to achieve a more rendered or shaded look to the color as well.

The best way to do this (in this case) is to create each page layout in illustrator. This makes the addition of speech bubbles, panel borders and other compositional elements second nature for all of you with your recent experience using this program. We could argue that Adobe inDesign would be the better way to go and this is a good argument. I think that rather than diving into inDesign for a project of this magnitude, the results from illustrator can be speedy and of a good quality.

Preparing the document

When you open your document in illustrator, make sure that your Raster effect handling is set to 300ppi

Set your custom size according to the demo we had in class. Remember the dummy book we made and how that works in regards to the layout.

Conceivably, you could set the number of artboards to the number of page spreads you have so that all the work stays together.

While the pursuit of creating a comic or graphic novel is noble and reflective of a noteworthy passion, letʼs be honest here: we certainly donʼt want to lose money on the production and sales end. One of the things that we will look at during critique is the production cost and quality. This is where creativity and ingenuity will really come in handy.

Printing with a sense of economy

Considering a commercial printer?

It might be worth it to talk to a professional printer if they have the time to talk and give you advice. Odds are that they will not be able to work within a reasonable budget though. We should look at what is a reasonable budget.....

Sales vs. Production costs

While Forbidden Planet will help you in determining a good price for your book, keep in mind that you are selling to the store, not the reader. The store needs to make a profit on the book, which means you are receiving less than the cover price for what you are selling. The percentage that a store will pay will vary from store to store. Rest assured, you are not going to retire on this. A good rule of thumb is to keep your production cost to under $1 per issue. If you can find a commercial printer who will work for that price on a small print run, you are the first. If you are producing a novel with a fantastic narrative, beautiful drawing, amazing design, and perfectly crafted for $7 per copy your cost, you may be out of the running. It is just not feasible.

Jean Giraud