Reviewing over the project.

To start with, I was very glad that I could extend onto the first project as I had originally planned out a lot more than what I could have done in the original time frame. I would have needed to cut back on the pages or simplified the artwork.

Coming up with the plot for the narrative came to me surprisingly quickly. I knew I wanted the artwork to be realistic, to an extent and the aim for it to be liek a thriller, horror. The desicions possibly took the longest, how I would fit in desicions for a horror type plot proved arkward at best. Originally I was going to have the choices be what path the protagonist wished to take, but this seemed to branch them off too far from one another; there was no easy way for the branching off to link back anytime soon.
After finding out about extending the first project I immediately started writing up an extention of the existing narrative, which ended up being far too long and never got used in the final piece; there were an additional 5 or so choices.

Character creation went smoothly, I had the characters pretty much set in mind as I planned out the plot. The only problem being, coming up with their profiles; of which only the protagonists was really necessary.

The colouring for the pages I wasn't pleased with, however I didn't have the time to really mess around with a page until satisfied; this was mainly becuase I underestimated how much time planning out the scripting, pannelling and then actually drawing would take. Without a doubt I now have a considerable amount more respect for comic book artists, the planning stages for comics require more planning than i thought. Planning out the panels to go along with the speech and what happens in each of those panels took up more time than I had thought, however I'm glad I went through it a couple of times to make sure it wasn't difficult to follow.
I did consider using sprites, when I was coming up with the narrative ideas; but it seemed like too much of an easy choice, and I really wanted to get out of a comfort zone and draw more dynamic poses that were semi realistic.

Putting the pieces into iWeb proved to be fairly easy, after getting my head around some of the features it had.


Overall, I really enjoyed this project; it has taught me a lot about comic artists workflow and how interactivity in narratives can be used to affect such a broad spectrum of the plot. One thing I wish I could have improved on was the colouring; I'm still working on finding an efficiant way of colouring on it as I rarely used photoshop for colouring back in college.

'Next' and 'home' icons

Just before finishing off placing all the images into iWeb, I had literally forgotten to place in icons for the next button. I looked at some of the generic arrow shapes that could possibly be used for my narrative and none of them really fitted in with it; so in the end I decided on making the next and home icons.

This took roughly 30 minutes to whip up, most of the time was actually spent on what colour scheme the next button should have. Originally I wanted the colour pallette to match the panels, but it blended in too well and didn't stick out at all; it needed to actually be easily findable for the reader. I ended up with red as it generally fitted in with the horror aspect to it and also contrasted the blue tones.

This was the original home icon, which was scrapped almost immediately after putting it into iWeb. People I asked to test and also myself just couldn't make out what it was meant to be, it was just a blue stain ruining the comic. If that wasn't reason enough, I didn't need the home button for all of the endings; one of the ends for the decision actually leads back to the options page, making a home icon all the more useless.

In the end I scrapped the idea of using a house for the home icon and stuck with a 'back' icon instead, also sticking the the same colours.



Old protagonist design

This was one of the first quick colour designs of the protagonist, also I was originally aiming for the style of the comic to be colourful; to an extent. I scrapped the idea of using bright colours as I felt it would just deter from the earie atmosphere I wanted for it.

Her original design, she did wear a small dress; however it just didn't seem to fit with what kind of character I had in mind for her. The setting was going to be in a releatively chilly time of the year, which further reasoned why I had to scrap the dress idea.

Colour swaps

Some of the colours I went throught when it came to picking out the second main character. In the end I picked the red shirt version (In a previous post.) Which earned him the name red man.



Testing the narrative.

Before I started drawing up the panels early on in the project I asked a few friends to go through the outline of the plot, picking what option they wanted, without any idea of what would happen next.
For this I asked around my friends that weren't on the course.

This was very early on in the project and originally had 4 options for the narrative. The fourth being the option to ask to call the protagonist's sister on one of the other characters phones; however some of the people who tested it found it to be pointless and also felt like the protagonist would have a lot less drive to carry on wandeing around if she could contact her sister. In the end I dropped the 4th option as I noticed this myself.


The second testing potion of the narrative was taken during the iwebbing process. I asked Kyle Bamford and Jade Phillips to go though the puplished version of the narrative to make sure they could read and understand everything, and also if all the links work. Thankfully there were no problems with it and no changes had to be made.

More colour concepts

One of the versions of the interiors that the character spend most of the narrative in.

Practicing with colouring and lighting. Took roughly 2 hours, I need to find a colouring method more efficiant for the final panels.



Final colour choice for the other main character.

Initial designs.

I realised going back through this blog that there is a severe lack of all the designing process I went through before starting the actual narrative.

The very first sketches of what I wanted the area to be like; my aim for the overall plot and setting was  focusing on interior areas. Also a small sketch of the main character, this was the point where I was still unsure whether or not the protagonist should be male or female; orginally I had her in mind to have shorter hair if I picked a female.

It was pretty much set that the narrative would have a male and female as the main focus of the plot.

Some of the initial character designs, at this point I was leaning more towards having a female for the protagonist and a male for the side character. Testing out different hair length and facial structure for potential female; as much as I liked her design , it felt more like she was a side character from it.

As well as that I ended up drawing her a bit too feminine, I wanted a more tomboy-ish character; still recogniseable as a woman, but not emphasising her features.

Desicion ideas and concept for a third character. An in situation sketch of the protagonist, still testing out hair styles; also practice with scared expressions.

Action poses study.

Hand studies.

 

Environment practice, also another redesign of the protagonist; jumping back to shorter hair, I liked the sketch, however I still felt like I should design her with slightly longer hair.

More finalised concept for the protagonist.

From the first design of the male character I wanted to keep the slightly scruffy appearance; but deceptively well learned, setting his occupation as a doctor bubbled up pretty quickly from this sketch.

Environment studies, possibly will be advanced with coloured versions for more practice.



Line art for the narrative

Posting up the line art of the narrative to show what it looks like before colour. I chose to draw it all out traditionally as I work fastest in this media and generally better; considering I dont have time to be wasting hours on one panel I felt it would be best to take the traditional method.
The colouring, however will be done in photoshop, in case anything goes wrong I wont have to go back and redraw anything.



Page 1

As a whole this took the most part of 3 weeks to draw out, possibly longer as I hadn't designed the other characters when I started; this was due to the main character is the only person that I had to draw for about 6 pages. There was a lot I wanted to improve on with the line work, however, since this took up the most part of a month, I moved on to the colouring.

Extended plot

After choosing to extend my project for the intereactive narritive, I wrote out the out the outline of the plot for the second chapter, incase I had enough time to work on more of the narrative.

However, considering how long the first chapter of the narrative is and how much time it is taking to draw out the panels, I may only be able to show at most some storyboard sketches of how it would pan out.The second chapter has more decisions to make; which was why I initially wanted to extend it, though I have 21 pages and a title page for the first chapter.

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4- Nightstick path

In the glittered debris, surrounded by the various tropical vegetation; the brunette starts coming to. With a groan she struggles to open her eyes; pulling her hand to her head, not taking notice of the shards of glass falling off of her with every slight movement. Managing to shake the dull ache from her head she begins to pull herself off the floor to a sitting position; she brushes the glass off of herself, trying to recall what happened. She looks up, noting that shattered glass roof and the window above; she was thrown out the window by something.

 The brunette groans, still achy from the fall; she rubs her shoulder, looking around the area; filled with plants and slightly lighter in the small area she was in, yet the muggy air made the atmosphere worse. She pulls at the neck line of her top, getting more uncomfortable with how stifling this green house was, makes it a personal goal to get out of this room as fast as possible.

Struggling to stand herself up she ponders over what the first course of action should be. Thinking she probably should check to see if she incurred any injuries from that fall, but her drive to get out of the miniature forest was seemingly outweighing it. Not to mention that she had just lost her only means of self defence. 

"What should I do?"

 CHECK SELF (go to 6)

Daniella pats herself down, brushing off the glass, not finding any injuries worth worrying about. As she reaches around the torso area the girl freezes briefly, then suddenly  her patting down becomes more frantic, realising that her pockets are empty.  The key she found wasn't in her pocket, she looks around her feet in hopes it possibly landed there; nothing seeming to be on the floor, save for glass. The item of concern, the old key, however was nowhere to be found. Daniella looks up from her crash landing position, seeing the item in particular. The key teetering precariously on the glass roof.

She throws her arms into the air in defeat, ready to  walk off down the pathway.  She bumps into a tall figure. 

DONT BOTHER (go to 7)

She stands up, letting the glass fall off her. Daniella looks around her for a way out of the suffocating room; she finds herself following a path, shrouded with overhanging plants. As she proceeds down the path she hears something  getting closer; quick to react she leaps off the path.  Yelping as she did so, the figure skids to a halt, shining a light in her eyes. Shielding herself from the light, it lowers enough for her to get a good look at the holder. Who turns out to be The Red man. 

Both surprised and relieved to see him, she starts to talk, however is cut off by the red man asking if she heard that noise too. She tilts her head in confusion, then registering what he meant; the noise from her falling out the window. She mentions that it was her, and proceeds to explain what happened to her.

FIND A WEAPON (go to 8)

She stands up, letting the glass fall off her. Daniella looks around her for a way out of the suffocating room; she finds herself following a path, shrouded with overhanging plants. Before going down the path, she looks around the shrubbery. Finding a protruding stick from the bushes, she attempts to pull at it; with no avail. She pulls on it so hard her grip slips, sending her back to the floor. Growing more angry with the situation, she approaches the stick again, then stopping to look at the sign, describing one of the plants in front of her. She cusses, pulling it from the dirt. Now armed once more, she walks down the path; with weapon readied in hand. She hears something rushing round the corner; before even thinking she thwacks them round the head; their torch landing on the floor, blinding her. Shielding herself from the light, it rolls around enough for her to get a good look at the holder. Who turns out to be The Red man. 

Both surprised and now massively guilty she goes over to help him; however is cut off by the red man barking at her for being so 'trigger happy'; he was only running to see what the noise was. She tilts her head in confusion, then registering what he meant; the noise from her falling out the window. She mentions that it was her, and proceeds to explain what happened to her; while attempting to aid the man.

5-Torch path

DECISION; just as she readies to open up the vent cover she looks over her shoulder, debating on whether to check if the thing is nearby in case it follows her.

CHECK AROUND THE CORNER (got to 9)

9: She jogs up to the end of the corridor, peeking her head around the corner. Immediately coming face to face with the stalking figure. (The reader will still not be able to see the assailant) The image fades to black

DON'T CHECK (go to 10)

10: She shrugs, wanting to leave as soon as possible; yanking off the vent with full force; without a second thought. Daniella crawls into the vent with the torch in hand, rushing round the first available corner. She slows down, knowing she's not in full view if anything looked into the vent; also trying to quiet down to avoid drawing any more attention than necessary.

She eventually reaches another vent cover along her travels in the maze. Pressing her hand against it, it looks to be as firmly in place. Daniella ponders whether or not to look around more; feeling particularly safe in the vent system, choosing otherwise; to find the other two people she needs to meet up with. She looks at the vent; wondering what would be the best course of action. The cover seemed to be very firmly in place; then again she didn't know what was in the room before her.

DESICION:

EXAMINE THE ROOM (go to 11)

Daniella switches the torch on, shining it through the vent cover; from what she can see the vent is a few feet off the floor. The room itself can easily be distinguished as a dinosaur exhibit.

TRY QUIELTY OPENING IT (go to 12)

12 :Deciding to open it, in case she grabs any unwanted attention, Daniella examines the edges of the cover, looking for possible screws or any give on it. Cussing, it doesn't look like opening it as quietly as possible wasn't an option.

RAM INTO IT (go to 13)

13: She assumes there would be no point in beating around the bush; backing up she readies herself to charge into the cover. As she does so, the cover flies off easily thanks to putting all her weight on it. however, unable to stop in time she flies with it; only then realising how high off the ground the vent is in the room she is now falling into.

She lands, with her shoulder taking most of the impact. She yelps in pain, covering her mouth as soon as she does.

 (If she examines the room prior to this, she will know and brace herself for the fall, incurring less injury and also making a quieter landing)

CONTINUE PATH>>

Regardless of how she lands, Daniella crawls over to hide by one of the dinosaur displays. Checks herself for injuries and also if the torch is still functioning. She flicks it on, shining at a nearby skeleton; nearly scaring her half to death. Assuming it's safe to walk around the room, she pulls the walkie talkie out from her jacket; bringing the communication device to her mouth; asking if anyone is ok, The red man replying almost immediately to her; asking where she is, they should be at the meeting point by now.

She tells him that she doesn't know where she is, starting to worry. The red man asks for to calm down and describe the area; as she does to he realises where she is and proceeds to give her directions back to the meeting place. Before deciding to leave she points out that the museum guard, hasn't said anything.

Also taking note of this, he gets worried and tells her to get back quickly.

Scene skips to her, finding her way back to the main entrance. She runs up to The red man, relieved to be back with someone. They try to contact the guard once more, as The red man works out where the guard would have gone, he pulls Daniella along with him. Just as they proceed down the assumed path, the guard finally contacts then; of a sorts, from the sounds of it he is on the balcony; with something else. They both here a door slamming, then the guard complaining that he's locked out.  

The two proceed to run to the door, hearing the mans screams from down the corridor. As the hurry closer to the door, it goes dead silent.

They stop immediately before the door; Daniella, notices the key stuck in the door; just as she reaches it creaks open. The two freeze, eyes wide.

END OF CHAPTER 2

Colour palette

This is the colour palette for two of the main characters, Daniella and The red man.

I do actually have more sketches of the characters production, however I wanted to post up this first to give the images of what they look like to go with the previous posts, go get a better visualisation.
Picking colours for Daniella proved the most difficult, as I want the characters clothes to really reflect who they are in this, since the reader wont learn much about them initally as none of the character talk about themselves.
I chose predominantly cool colours for her, complementing the overall colour cool colour scheme I was aiming for the narrative to have; she does slightly blend with the area, making her fit into it almost too well. However the browns and purples in her colour scheme distinguishes her from it.

Initially I wanted the protagoist to have warmer colours, but as I progressed with her design I felt it would have made her seem too childish or just unfitting for her personality.
She dislikes relying on others and is by no means willing to tell anyone anything about herself. I wanted her to be massively self reliant, to the point of possibly turning down help and somewhat distant.
On the other hand because of this I chose the other main character 'The red man' to have the warm colour.  ( Due to the third main character having uniform he almost dissapears into the environment)
His deep red shirt, is what warranted the name 'The red man' - Which is only because I've failed to  give him a name; this actually is working in my favour as I want the reader to know as much as Daniella, so she wont have too much knowlege on the whole situation that the reader is confused by the jargons and also the reader will be deprived of too much information that Daniella wouldnt know.

Chapter 1 plot

outline of the plot

In the middle of the night, a normal town suddenly goes to hell with no explanation as to why.  The civilians are alerted to this, all are told to seek refuge in the town's museum.

Supposedly 'monsters' are running amok; hunting the civilians down, mutilating them. However, no one has seen them; not well enough to distinguish what exactly is causing such a commotion.

The protagonist, Daniella is fleeing to the museum with her elder sister and sisters fiancée, along with some residents of the town. However, she slips and falls, she looks up after recovering from her fall to see not a soul around her; as if they had literally disappeared.

Quick to act she decides it be easier to head straight to the museum; thinking that they probably went on ahead. She rushes to the main entrance of the grand building, throwing herself against the door, which only results in her cracking her knee against it; and now baffled as to why the door would be locked. Throwing into a state of panic she hits the door more frantically in hopes to getting someone's attention from the inside.

She whips her head around, looking for another way in; not seeing any in the nearby area, Daniella runs around the side of the building in search of a side door. She thankfully strikes gold; a set of stairs leading up to a staff entrance. She makes a mad dash up the stairs, swinging the door open and slamming it as quickly as she opened it. The distressed girl leans back against the door and slides down it, holding her head in her hands; the shock of the whole situation finally setting in.

Harsh banging against the door, sends the girl crawling away from the door and without a moment's hesitation she runs down the stairs ahead of her. Daniella reaches the bottom of the stairs, finally noticing the room she is in. The tall windows barely letting in enough light to distinguish much, beams of light eerily reflected by large puddles of water on the marble floor along with a broken fountain fairly central in the room; it was most definitely huge, boasting high ceilings, the stairs she had just run down were a part of the same room. It was then she caught sight of the wide open doors right by the bottom of the stairs, leading out to an even darker corridor.

Warily she wanders down the hall way, a dull green glow emanating from above the door way one end of the corridor; an exit sign. As she nears the end of the corridor, she gets a better look of the sign by the door. "Main Entrance; Information desk."

She walks into the entrance hall, undoubtedly bigger than the first room and darker, filled with large display cases and surrounded by a large balcony. Progressing further into the room, she finds herself in front of the main doors; her hand reaches out towards the grand doors, feeling wide  protrusions on the relatively smooth door. The doors had been boarded up. The girl wonders if her sister got in safely at all, considering the door in is nigh on impenetrable. As these thoughts run through her head, her hand slides down the door; coming across something warm and wet. She draws her hand back, to closer examine what could possibly be on the door. 

Blood. Fresh blood.

She backs away from the door, once again tripping over, landing gracefully on her behind. She notices the culprit for tripping her  in question, a very appendage shaped silhouette.

Cringing, she reaches for the object, bringing it into view to see it only as a mannequin arm. Daniella throws the object across the room our of rage that it caused so much stress for her. She pulls herself off the ground, brushing herself off.

Voices faintly reach her ears, which seem to be coming towards the room she is in. She doesn't give it a second thought before she finds herself hiding behind one of the displays, the voices; two of them, now in the area; bringing in a light with them into the room with them.

She remains steady in her place, listening to the two voices continue to talk. Unknown to her a shadow looming over her shoulder. It reaches out to touch her shoulder.

Daniella shrieks and hits the assailant round the head in a knee jerk reaction.

The shadow cusses, bending over into a foetal position cradling their head. Daniella's eyes are then greeted to a warm light blinding her, as one of the voices arrives to the situation. Now able to get a better look she sees the faces to the two voices; almost. The one holding a lantern, a middle aged man, looked worn out; adorning what seemed to be museum guards uniform.  The one who was still nursing their wounds appeared to be quite a bit younger and taller; he had dark blonde, scruffy hair; a red button up shirt, grey trousers and something hanging from his neck.

The guard looked overjoyed to see another survivor, asking if there could possibly be anyone else. She solemnly replies that she was actually hoping the guard had seen any survivors; proceeding to ask if this is some kind of zombie invasion or a sick joke.

The man in the red shirt, still rubbing his head, interrupts midway, commenting on the zombie notion. They mention seeing too many bodies to be a prank, and how everyone else has disappeared off of the face of the earth.

Daniella speaks up that she was only recently with her sister and her fiancée, and asks for a phone to contact then; with no joy. The guard, offers her a walky talky however; which he took from the office, to keep in contact in case of an emergency. (He was already in the museum, ready for the refugees)

The red man offers that the three should split up, which is immediately turned down by Daniella; the museum guard also not too convinced. The red man elaborates on his plan that searching for survivors would prove to be quicker if they simply spilt up and searched the nearby areas, adding that they will meet back in the main entrance in 20 minutes.

The guard, no qualms about the idea agrees to the idea. However Daniella is still reluctant to split; the red man asks if she has a better idea, which she unfortunately doesn't.

She explains that she doesn't want to wander on her own in a dark empty museum. Her and the red man start quarrelling; intervened by the guard who tells them that the group needs to calm down if they want to get through this He reaches into his pocket and unhooks 2 items off of his belt and presents it to the other two.

The guard offers that they each take a item each to aid their search; unable to give them all however it would be unfair on the others. The Items in question are a: Torch; Nightstick and a Key

The guard states that the key is like a skeleton key, able to open most of the doors in the building; including the balconies; aside from the older doors and the ones that require a pass code.

"So...

What'll it be?"

KEY -(go to 1)

NIGHTSTICK - (go to 2)

TORCH - (go to 3)

1- Key choice,

Daniella chooses a key, wanting to take a look around the outside for people. the red man comments if she's looking for her sister, resulting in a blank stare from her.

The three split off, she heads down into a hallway, finding a balcony door fairly quickly that expecting. She unlocks the door, and noticies a figure standing in the courtyard; as she goes to call out to the figure something shoves her to the floor, the door slamming shut behind her; the key still in the door.

As she turns to see what is on the balcony with her the screen fades to black.

2- Nightstick choice,

She picks the nightstick, which results in a snarky comment from the man in red.

The three split off, she walks into a hallway and notes the only open door way aside from the one she just came from. As she walking into the huge room she needs to feel her way around, the room getting barely enough light from the windows.

She bumps into what appears to be a shuttle replica. She feels her way around the cylindrical tower, coming across a door, slightly ajar and letting out a dull glow from the gap. She gets a grip onto one side of the door and attempts to pull it open, but to no joy.

"Oh wait."

She looks down at her hand at the nightstick.

Skips to her jamming the nightstick between the doors and prying it open, she parts the doors; finding a bloody shape of a person in the middle of the room. she recoils; gagging on the permeating stench, she notices something of interest unsettlingly close to the corpse.

She whines about it, sucks it up and reaches for items.

As she grabs the items, a noise can be heard from outside; Daniella pockets the items, dashes to the door; flicking out the nightstick to its full length.  Deeming the coast clear she crawls her way across the room, behind the displays; she stops at the last case before the exit, the distance between her and the exit still a bit too far to just run for it

The thing in the room with her can be heard from the shuttle with corpse inside; gradually getting closer to her. She quickly throws the nightstick as a distraction, the being's footsteps start fading away to where the stick landed.

She makes a break for the exit, she reaches about halfway. Something makes a noise to her left. Her eyes dart to that direction; only for something to come crashing into her side,  sending her flying out of the window.

Shot of Daniella in a botany garden, surrounded by shards of glass. Her hand twitches. (Go to 4)

3- Torch choice

The three split off, she walks into a hallway and notes the only open door way aside from the one she just came from. As she walking into the huge room she can wander around fairly easily due to the torch, due to the room getting barely enough light from the windows.

She bumps into what appears to be a shuttle replica. She feels her way around the cylindrical tower, coming across a door, slightly ajar and letting out a dull glow from the gap. She gets a grip onto one side of the door and attempts to pull it open, but to no joy.

"Oh well."

She decides to proceed further into the room, thinking that just a bit further couldn't hurt. Daniella progresses down a few stairs, to what appears to be a wall presenting facts on the human brain. The light cast against the wall and beyond it, reveals a figure-like shadow; she notices and steps back, quickly breaking out into a run in the opposite direction down a small hallway. As she runs down it she catches sight of a corridor branching off from the one she is currently in. Taking her chances she takes the turning; which turns out to be nothing much a dead end; however, unwilling to turn back she jogs to the end of the corridor and crawls into a corner. 

Just as she gets comfortable and about to switch off her light, Daniella cracks her elbow on a hollow metal object. 'Hollow?'

She turns to examine the cause for such a noise, shining the torch through the gaps it becomes clear what it is. A ventilation shaft. (Go to 5)

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I have worked out the panels for this chapter and the total pages, including the choice screen is 21.

As I'm working on this project for the span of the two project briefs I wont need to cut out bits, as initially I was going to remove a most of the beginning sequence due to the amound of time and the degree of drawing that would have needed to be done. I'll work on the first chapter for the whole project, however I will work on chapter two in case I have enough time to add that to the finished piece; at the very least I'll storyboard how the panels could go.

As the plot progesses there will be more decisions to be made, It's just initally I wanted the first decision to play a pivoting role on how the main characters would've progressed throughout the story.